The last 3 weeks + Carnaval

All right, so I am still really bad at updating this blog. Maybe this is because I'm starting to have less big things to do. Instead I feel like I'm settling more of a normal routine. Cycle 1 is almost over (last day is my birthday), which I find really hard to believe. Last cycle seemed to last so long and this cycle seemed to fly by.

So let's see, big things...well, first I will be moving out of my host family's house. I love my host family, and they take really good care of me, but they have a hyperactive 6 year old. This means that usually when I'm trying to get work done, he's running around and yelling very loudly. However, I plan to visit with them after moving out because they are so kind to me. :-)

Lately, I've been hanging out with Ecuadorian friends and other teachers from CEC. It's having a bigger network of people that I had when I first came. Usually there's someone around to hang out with when I have free time.

So this weekend was Carnaval. This means no classes today (Monday) or tomorrow (Tuesday), although Carnaval technically ends today. For Carnaval I went to Mindo with Galo. If you remember, I went to Mindo a few weeks ago for mid-service. However, I didn't really have time to do tourist-y things. This time was nice, because it was chill yet a lot of fun. We went on Saturday morning, and just walked around Mindo for the rest of the day. On Sunday we went zip lining with Mindo Ropes & Canopy. It was not nearly as terrifying as I thought it would be. Yes, it's a little scary trusting your life to one thin cable, but the views are incredible. However, after walking up the hill/mountain/thing to the place and then walking up more stairs in between cables, I am sooo sore. Unfortunately, both of us forgot our cameras, so there are no pictures of this adventure. :-( We came back on a bus at 6:30 am this morning, so now I'm extremely tired. However, there are still no classes tomorrow, I can spend all day being lazy. Yay!

Now I just need to figure out what I will be doing with my next break. Between cycles 1 and 2, I have about a week and a half. I'm thinking about traveling to Cuenca then Loja. I don't want to travel myself, though, so we'll see. But whatever I do, I will definitely remember my camera.

So I'm sorry this post is so short for such a long amount of time between posts, I don't really have much else to talk about. Sadly, moving is going to take up a lot of my money. (My World Teach contract says I have to give my host family a month notice before I move, which basically means I need to pay for a month after the day I tell them. Then I need to pay rent for the new apartment.) So this probably means not a lot of traveling until after my birthday. Birthday money, woo! :-) Also, after this next paycheck, I hope to start the souvenir shopping for everyone. I know I should intelligently spread this out over a few paychecks, so it will be starting soon. Now I need to figure out what to get everyone - never an easy task. I foresee a few trips to Otavalo in my future.

Now, I leave you with a meme from the internet that has been cracking me up for days. This is because I feel bad for not having any exciting new pictures to show you. (Also, I'm sorry if the language from the owl picture bothers you. But it's been making me laugh at random times, so people think I'm crazy.)

Of course, I just realized I could add pictures of my presents from Valentine's day. So here they are: 

There was also a bar of Ecuadorian chocolate, but I ate that before I thought to take a picture. Oh yes, and here are my recent jewelry purchases from the artisan market on Jorge Washington:

And that's all folks! :-)

New Cycle & Mid-Service

I've gotten really bad about the whole "write once a week" thing...sorry about that. :-/ Either I've been really busy or not a lot has happened, so I haven't had much to write. I think it's a bit of both, so maybe more exciting things will happen for me to write about.

Anyway, 3 weeks ago, my second cycle at CEC started (Jan. 10). My schedule for this cycle is 9 am - 11 am as an on-call substitute (at the main building) and 2 pm - 4 pm teaching Intermediate 2 (at the new building, 3 blocks from my house). While there are drawbacks to this schedule, I've come to like it. Now I don't lay in bed all morning, and I'm done at a decent hour. I started with only 10 students in my class, and one switched this week due to scheduling conflicts, so I have only 9 students now. This makes grading extremely easy. It's also fun because the classroom atmosphere is a little bit more relaxed. I really like my students and enjoy being their teacher. :-) One of them drew this poster the other day for his song presentation, and then let me keep it afterward. Pretty awesome, no?

Last weekend was mid-service for WorldTeach. It's hard to believe I'm almost halfway through with my service here. (Technically, it was a little shy of midway for me, but this measure mid-service and end-of-service by the people who finish first.) Anyway, all 35 of us went to Mindo - about 2 hours from Quito, located in a cloud forest - for 48 hours to discuss our experiences so far and teaching techniques that we've used. It was nice to see everyone, but it was also overwhelming because there are so many. If you remember, we started with 41, but obviously some have now quit the program for various reasons. Mid-service definitely gave me some things to think about, though. Apparently there are quite a few people considering extending their service. I know it's too early to really think hard about it, but I'm certainly not closed off to the idea. We'll see how I feel around March/April. 

For example, I'm really happy here right now. Ecuador is really relaxed, I have a group of friends (and am making more) and a boyfriend, and I feel comfortable living here. But there are also downsides, I know. After Carnaval and my birthday, I know there will be a stretch of a few months where I'm simply living and working here. It's possible then that I'll start getting really homesick. Also, I've been living with a false sense of security lately. I have yet to be robbed (I know it'll happen sometime), so it's not something I've worried about. However, our director was just robbed outside the CEC building this week while walking with her husband. So things to think about.

Anyway, that's about it for the big things lately. Went to the movies today with Emily Mader because we were both bored out of our minds. We ended up seeing The Immortals (in English, with Spanish subtitles.) It was one of the most ridiculous movies I've ever seen. So much fake blood, and crazy mythological story lines...I wouldn't recommend it unless you wanna laugh. I'm excited for next weekend - I'll either be traveling or watching the Superbowl. There's a bar here where you can watch football games because the owner is an ex-pat. Then the weekend after that, a coworker is having a Mexican food party, so that'll be lots of fun too. (For those of you who don't know, Ecuadorian food is not the same as Mexican food.) Finally, the weekend after that is Carnaval. I still don't know where I'll be for that, but you can be sure it'll be fun. :-)

Enough chatter. Time for pictures from mid-service. 

Whole group photo

Iris was taking many pictures. lol

 Me and Iris. It looks it was snowing, but it was actually raining.

Cloud forest of Mindo

 My table at the group dinner. From left: Robert, Aly, Alan, Sarah L., and Iris

And for those of you who want to know what he looks like, this is Galo:

Christmas and NYE vacation

I'm sorry this took me so long to write about what I did for Christmas and NYE, but as some of you may know, I'm currently working on getting over being sick. I've had a cough since the beginning of December and since it has not gone away on it's own, I finally went to the doctor here. (Technically the ER since the English speaking doctor that WorldTeach recommends doesn't see a lot of patients anymore.) Anyway, they diagnosed me with laryngitis - awesome. So now I have lots of medicine to take, and I have to go back to the clinic for the next few days to get more nebulizer treatments. This wouldn't bother me, except it ruins my travel plans for this weekend. I was planning to visit Mindo - a small, but beautiful town in the mountains here that is really famous for birdwatching - with Galo. But I guess it'll be better to not be sick anymore, so oh well.

Anyway, on to my holiday trip. I left for Esmeraldas the afternoon of Dec. 23. Stupidly, however, I bought a bus ticket for Esmeraldas, not Atacames. (They're close together, but buses between the 2 don't run late at night when I got in.) Luckily, a security guard got me a taxi to Atacames where I met up with the other WorldTeach ladies I was spending the week with. By that point, it was 1 am, so I took a mototaxi (motorcycle taxi) to Sua (5 minutes away) where the hostel was. Here's a map, so you kind of get the idea of where all these places are in relation to each other.

Because I got in so late, I slept pretty late on the 24th and then spent the rest of the day lying around on the beach. On the 25th, the other WT ladies (Iris, Nina, Jessica, and Tara), Tara's friend from the PeaceCorps (Jen), and I cooked Christmas dinner. I can't remember everything we made, but it included chicken with Cajun spices, macaroni and cheese, green beans, potatoes - regular and sweet potatoes mixed together - pasta with shrimp, empanadas, carrot cake, and sweet potato pie. We used the kitchen of a family that Jen knows (she knows everyone in Sua, since it's so small) and then just hung around their house for the rest of the night.

The rest of the days were spent lying around on various beaches. Twice I went to Same (it's on the map above). We also went to Atacames - either to lay on the beach during the day or to go out to the tiki bars at night. It did rain quite a bit for being on the beach. On Wednesday, Iris, Nina, and Jessica went to Mompiche (pretty sure I spelled that wrong, but since I didn't go, I don't know how to spell it) and I stayed in Sua to wait for Sarah to arrive from Quito. On Thursday, the others came back, Nina returned to Machala, and we continued lying on the beach all day. 

On Dec. 31, the Machala girls' (that would be Iris, Nina, and Jessica) boyfriends and other assorted friends came up for NYE. Later that night, my friend Israel also came up from Quito with his brother and mom. We went out to Atacames that night to celebrate. It was a lot of fun; lots of music, fireworks, and burning of effigies on the beach. 

Finally, on Sunday night, all the Machala people left to go back. (Sarah and I would've gone back on Sunday, but the bus tickets were sold out when we went to look.) Sarah and I took a bus back on Monday morning. The ride was a lot longer than it should have been - about 9 hours when it should've been about 7. As soon as I got back, I threw all my clothes into the laundry since 11 day vacations tend to deplete a really small wardrobe. 

Overall, it was a lot of fun. Now I am really tan, even if my Ecuadorian friends don't believe me. (Considering their skin is darker than mine naturally, I guess it makes sense.) The rest of this week I have just been lying around, recuperating. Funny how that happens after long vacations; you're not nearly as relaxed or well-rested as you should be. But classes start again next Tuesday, so soon I will have more things to do. And our Mid-Service conference is at the end of January. And then many more things up until my birthday, so I guess the next couple of months will be busy. 

Anyway, here are the pictures I know you've been waiting for of the vacation. Again, thank you to everyone who gave me travel money for Christmas. I still have a lot of it left, so plan to see more pictures of trips around Ecuador. My next big vacation is in March. The upcoming cycle ends on my birthday, and I think Kristen will be coming down from the States to visit me, so hopefully a fun will adventure will be worked out for that 1.5-2 week time span. :-) I hope all of you had a merry Christmas and an awesome NYE. Hopefully it the world won't end and make it the last one ever. :-P

View from the door of our room in the hostel.

Our room. Really didn't need anything more than the one sheet each night.

 View of the ocean from the second floor of one of the tiki bars in Sua.

 Cooking on Christmas day

The guy with the dreads is one of the owners of the place where we were cooking.

 The beach in Same

 A tree decorated for Christmas (Same)

 Effigies to be burned on NYE

 Coming back from the beach one day; at one of the tiki bars in Sua

 More Same

 Some cute little boys from the beach. They loved playing with our sunscreen.

On the beach on NYE

 I think this one is actually from Christmas dinner, judging by the shirt.

Crazy December

All right, so I've been really bad about writing on my blog for the past couple weeks. I've been really busy lately with the fiestas de Quito and the end of classes.

Fiestas de Quito were a lot of fun. We had no classes on December 5 or 6, so I had a 4 day weekend of craziness. I spent most of my time with my Ecuadorian friends/students. (They were students. Now they're friends.) Some other WorldTeach volunteers came up for Saturday and Sunday, but I did not spend a ton of time with them. (I'm not a fan of large groups, and there were usually 8 to 10 people.) However, I had a lot of fun. I don't think the fiestas were nearly as crazy as everyone told me they would be.

Last week was the final week of classes at CEC. (Those who teach at SECAP have class until this Friday.) This means I had a ton of stuff to get done. I had a lot of stuff to grade and a lot of justifications to enter (for absences). Luckily, I got all of it done and all my grades turned in Friday after class so I didn't have to go up to CEC on Saturday morning.

Anyway, that's about all I have to blog about right now. For Christmas, I plan to go to Esmeraldas with some of my friends. Details are still being worked out, so for all I know, this could still change. But, I will spend Christmas out of Quito with some of my WorldTeach friends. This means I probably will not write on this blog again until early January some time. Hopefully I will lots of pictures to show.

This reminds me, I plan to send e-mails as well to thank people, but for those of you who have sent me traveling money for Christmas: thank you so much! Assuming I can take buses everywhere, this money should last for quite a few trips. Some of the places I want to visit in Ecuador while I'm here (in no particular order): Ambato, Riobamba, Loja, Cuenca, Guayaquil (I only went for one night), the Galapagos (I have no hopes of this; it costs a ridiculous amount of money), the rainforst (the actual forest; I didn't see much when I went to Tena), and more that I can't think of. I promise I shall take pictures of these trips so you can see where I've been. :-)

Now for some pictures. This past Tuesday was Nathaly's birthday (former student, now friend), but we could not go out to celebrate on Tuesday. So on Wednesday, we went out to celebrate her birthday.

Drinking from a fishbowl. I have no idea what it was. Nathaly ordered it. (She's the one right next to me.)

Everyone by Galo, who was taking the picture.

Thanksgiving Dinner

 So this week was Thanksgiving week, and instead of being at home with my family, I'm here in Ecuador with an entirely different kind of family. However, this does not mean that I did not have an excellent Thanksgiving.

Because Thanksgiving is solely an American holiday, I had to work on Thursday. But, I got lucky, because I had a movie day scheduled for Thursday. (Yay!) By my second, 6 pm, class, the DVD player decided to not function at all. So after an hour of attempting to ignore it skipping every 5 seconds, I gave up and told my class they could go. Luckily, 6 pm is when I have my university students. Instead of simply leaving, they took me out and bought me "Thanksgiving dinner". Of course, turkeys here cost about $40, so dinner was actually chicken strips and fries from Tropi Burger. I really didn't care, though, because I got to hang out with some people for an hour and eat free chicken strips. :-)

On Saturday, the Quito volunteers had our own Thanksgiving dinner. Robert's host family graciously let us (or rather, Robert) terrorize their kitchen to make food. It should be noted that Robert made a ton of the food, and it was all delicious. (See list below) We had almost all the traditional Thanksgiving foods aside from cranberry sauce (difficult find cranberries, and if you do, they're expensive), sweet potatoes/yams, and pie. It really was a lot of fun spending time with (almost) all of us in the same place, plus some host family members. Of course, the 5 bottles of wine also made everyone pretty happy.

As promised, the food list:
- turkey (robert)
- blackberry sauce (robert, actually very delicious)
- mashed potatoes (megan)
- green bean casserole (robin)
- asparagus wrapped in bacon (elizabeth)
- gravy (robert)
- baked macaroni and cheese (robert)
- salad (combination of people)
- peanut butter brownies (robert)
- M&M cookies (me)
- wine (greg, chia-hsin, and I don't remember who else)

I have to admit, not being home for Thanksgiving did not make me particularly sad. I think this may be because I wasn't with family last year either; I stayed in Austin and ate Thanksgiving dinner at Jackie's house with her family while my family went to Wisconsin. So it may be because I've already missed Thanksgiving with family or because I was able - through the wonders of technology - to talk to my family on Facetime on Thanksgiving day. And, of course, any other day that they're available and my internet is working (which about 90% of the time).

Who knows what Christmas will be like; I hope to be somewhere with people I know for that holiday. I haven't decided, but I would like to travel down to Loja (very Southern tip of Ecuador) during my Christmas break. Loja is about 13 hours away, so it's definitely a trip I want to make during a long break. There is one volunteer placed there, and he has told me he'll be in town during December, so maybe I'll be there for Christmas. Or maybe I'll wait to travel until January and be at home with my host family for Christmas. I guess I should probably start looking at that so I can make sure I have all my travel plans solidified, but it still feels too early. We shall see.

And now, pictures:

Peanut butter brownies

Cookies

Chilling on the couches

Cutting the turkey

Waiting for food

This little girl looooved Greg. So much cute!

Baked mac & cheese

Megan with the 5 bottles of wine

Mora (blackberry) sauce and gravy

 Emily, Robert, and Robert's host family

Robert cooking

 Salad

Stuffing (made outside the turkey)

Turkey

5 bottles of wine

Also, if anyone remembers, I shut my finger in a car door 2 months ago. It's still bruised and the nail refuses to fall off and heal. :-(