Feast of fruits and the weekend

Thursday was the last day of Spanish classes. Everyone was so glad because the classes had started getting into really detailed stuff that we won't understand until we have a firm grip on the language. But to celebrate, our teachers took us once again to the fruit market, Santa Clara, and each person used $1 to buy some fruit. We returned to our school and had a feast of fruits! There were some really exotic fruits: for example, the pitahaya, which is sorta spiky on the outside and has a clear, sweet gel with tiny black seeds on the inside; the granadilla, which looks like an orange on the outside but has a long stem and an inside filled with gooey stuff that looks like snot with crunchy seeds. And then we also had papaya, bananas, mango (the BEST mango I've ever had), coconut, watermelon, and tree tomato juice. We decided it was the best meal we've had yet.

After, we gorged ourselves yet again but this time on huge slices of pizza. For some reason, we all thought that once we got to Ecuador, there'd only be Ecuadorian food. So we always get real excited when we see a place selling pizza or noodles or ice cream. We've also had some really great Indian food when we went to a goodbye party for one of the VASE staff members.

After lunch, we got our "censos" which are our residency cards for Ecuador. Because we'll be living here so long, we need the cards to say that we do indeed live here. (I've also heard that sometimes you pay less for things like national parks, etc.) But getting these cards was quite a task. Not only did we show up 30 minutes late because we couldn't find the place, but then it turned out we didn't have some of the paperwork we needed. So we were there for around 2 hours trying to sort this thing out. While we were waiting, we met this very nice woman from California who was there to get her passport re-stamped with the "I'm legally allowed to be Ecuador" stamp. Turns out, while she was on her 7 week vacation here in Ecuador (yay for retirement), a gang of people attacked her taxi and stole her things. The taxi driver was apparently in cohorts with these robbers, and this woman's life was threatened and her things stolen. We were all like, "Oh my god. That is the scariest thing ever." But this woman seemed pretty calm about it, only upset about how much of a pain it was to get another passport and visa. In this same office, we met some fellow American youth who were there for a study abroad program. They were there getting their "censos" as well and were preparing to study at a school on the Galapagos Islands for 3 months. Which is super cool because unless you've got $1000 to spare, there's no way you can get to the Galapagos, unless you're a student like these guys were. Super chevere.

This past week I've also met twice with Adriana, the other English teacher, and we already have our lesson plans ready for next week. It's actually quite difficult because between us not knowing each others' languages very well and our different styles of working with kids, it's sometimes hard to come to a compromise. I prefer to do some improvising, to see how things go, how the kids react, and then go from there. Adriana, however, wants to plan out every little detail before we get to class. I can already tell that our first week of teaching is going to be VERY interesting. But despite the challenge of teaching, I can't wait to start working with the kids. Ever since I met them last week, every morning on my way to catch the bus for Spanish classes they follow me asking "But teacher, why are you leaving? When are you going to teach us English?" It's the cutest thing.

Also, because we've been eating so much ice cream and chocolate and this stuff called caña (which is a plant stalk that when you chew it, it releases a really sweet juice that is so delicious), I've been trying to think of ways to get some exercise here. I've decided that running around Tumbaco would be a very bad idea. Not only do I stick out because I'm a white female but there are TONS of dogs here. I think it would attract the entire street's attention to see a white girl running up the hill amidst a pack of yapping dogs. Not exactly what I'm looking for. So figuring that out might take some time.

On Friday, we volunteers took a trip to Otavalo, a city about two hours to the north of Quito. First we did some shopping at a famous market in Otavalo which is full of indigenous arts and crafts. Then we drove a ways to a gorgeous waterfall which we were told had freezing cold water. But we all jumped in with our swimsuits anyways and ran around crazy in the water for a bit. It wasn't all that cold and felt SO good after hiking in the heat! So that was great fun. We had lunch and then tried to drive to this famous, gigantic tree in Otavalo but turns out the road to the tree didn't exist anymore! Oops. On the way back to Quito, we stopped at a cafe for hot chocolate and Ecuadorian biscotti. The biscotti was much different than the kind in the States--they were more like salty, dry biscuits and I didn't like them much. Then, for those of us who lived outside of Quito, we stayed in a hostal for the night rather than pay for a taxi to get home. Hostals are all new to me but the ones here in Quito are actually really nice. Usually they're about $10 per person and you get a room and a private bathroom and free breakfast if you're lucky. At some hostals you have to share with other people but we found one with our own room.

On Monday I start teaching!