Because Carnaval, a huge national holiday that is essentially the same as Mardi Gras ("let's go crazy before we have to sacrifice stuff for Lent"), was this Monday and Tuesday, my group of volunteers travelled to Manta, a small city on the coast! There were 10 of us--our group has changed a bit since we started in January. A few of our friends from our original group couldn't come but some new volunteers have arrived since. So now we have volunteers from 7 countries: Germany (Lasse, Iris, Johanna, and Flo), USA (Olivia, me), Iceland (Eva, Oskar), New Zealand (Brendan), Sweden (Ida, Natalie), Switzerland (Mio, who's not actually with VASE or any organization at all actually--she looked up her project on the internet and went!), and Estonia (Olga).
The process of getting there with 10 people, though, was quite intense. Four hours of internet searching, myriad long-distance phone calls, and tons of frustration later, we finally ended up finding a hostel and a bus ride for 10 of us. We booked the hostel through a website that looked legit, and the bus ride was actually organized through the host family of Oskar, one of the volunteers in our group. The evening before we left (Thursday), I get a phone call from Oskar saying that the bus actually doesn't go through Manta at all; in fact, it goes the exact opposite direction. How that happened, I haven't a clue, but Oskar and his host family frantically looked for other options for the whole night and we ended up booking a private bus (a whole $25 per person--very very expensive for a bus ride).
Friday evening saw us all squashed around Oskar's host family's dinner table eating a full out meal that his family had made for us. It was quite a squeeze since Oskar's house is so tiny--he lives in Collaqui, a smaller more rural town than Tumbaco that is an hour from Quito, in a house not meant to have a 6 foot something guy living in it. The ceilings are extremely low so Oskar's going to have a permanently bent-over back by the end of his 6 months, I think.
Then we piled into our tiny, private bus and traveled 9 hours overnight to Manta. We stopped right outside of Collaqui to pick up the bus driver's family (they were going to vacation in Manta as well) so we ended up with 16 people and our piles of luggage crushed into this bus. Needless to say, no one slept much, what with the heat that just kept getting hotter as we traveled down from the mountains and the obnoxious Spanish music the bus driver was playing. At like 3am or so, we had to suffer through this playlist of the saddest and most ballad-like music ever: "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion from "Titanic," "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (oh MUUSA), etc. etc. It was awful.
We finally arrived in Manta at around 7:30/8am-ish but had the most impossible time finding our hostel. Not joking, every 20 feet or so, our driver, Roberto, would stop and ask where the street was, and every single person would reply, "Muy largos" which basically means "Very far." We were far out of Manta by this time and feeling a bit desperate. We had no idea where we were, where our hostel was, and it was pouring rain. Not ideal weather for the beach. It was looking grim.
Then, we saw this totally gorgeous beach out of our bus windows and our driver turned off the main road and headed toward this beach to a hostel right on the water. We were like, "Oh my god. This can't be our hostel," because it was stunning and RIGHT there on the sea. But actually, it wasn't our hostel. It was the hostel where we asked for directions. Sad sad.
But then! Not only did our initial bus ride turn out to be going the wrong direction, but then we found out the hostel we booked online didn't exist! It was a fake website that stole the $27 reservation fee we paid for our supposed hostel. Luckily, the splendid hostel at which we were currently had enough available rooms for us all--for $20 per person per night (again, very very expensive). We ate some breakfast there then spent the day at the beach, only a 2 minute walk from our front door. The rain had stopped, the sun was peaking shyly through the clouds, the waves were big, and the water warm. So great. And oh man, even when it's cloudy, the sun here in Ecuador is so strong. We put loads of sunscreen on and still managed a decent tan on the first day. And the coast is already loads hotter than in mountainous Quito. It was actually humid, something I haven't experienced here in Ecuador at all until now. So great, though. Until I lost my glasses in the Pacific. Whoops. I didn't realize I was wearing them and got knocked over by a huge wave and there went the glasses. So the entire weekend, I had to borrow my friend Olivia's glasses, but I still couldn't see well at all. Total bummer being blind the whole weekend but now I have my spare pair and all is well.
That night was surprisingly quiet. There was a decent amount of people hanging out on the beach during the day so we expected there to be a pretty big party on the beach that night, it being Carnaval weekend and all. But no, it totally emptied around 6pm or so. So we were all hanging out in one of our rooms at the hostel, sad that we were missing Carnaval fun, when we heard a knock at the door. It was our fantastic bus driver saying that he'd found us a way cheaper hostel in the actual city part of Manta! And for only $5 per person per night! He wanted us to actually leave right then so that we wouldn't have to pay for the night at this expensive hostel. We ended up staying at the nice hostel one night. (We felt bad--we couldn't just leave after the hostel people had helped us so much when we tried to figure out where we were staying that night.) Despite being so expensive, the hostel was really awesome--it had air conditioning, a pool, cheap foodÉ.
The next day, Sunday, was beautifully sunny and crazy hot. We spent the morning on the beach once again, then packed everything back into our bus to go to the new hostel. We were all paying our $20 per person to the hostel owner when some trouble arose. The hostel people were kinda angry with us since we had said we'd stay for all three nights and now were leaving after only one. So they wanted us to come with them to check our rooms to see if there was anything broken or whatnot. They walked straight into our bathroom and pulled the lock out of the doorknob and claimed that we broke it. We had obviously not, and the lock worked fine even though it could pop out of the doorknob. So they made us pay $40 extra for that, and even though we knew they were totally cheating us, we had to pay. After all that, we speedily drove away towards Manta.
The rest of that day was spent on yet another beach, another totally gorgeous one that some Ecuadorian friends we'd met at the expensive hostel brought us to. Having Ecuadorian friends, I'm realizing, is a really great thing because they know what's up. Like, where to find the best beaches, for example. We lazed around at the beach some more--swimming, tanning, playing cards, and messing around with this stuff that has a name sounding like "karaoke." Basically, it's this stuff that comes in a can that is a mix between silly string and foamy soap and you spray it at each other only during Carnaval weekend. The first time I'd used it was the day we left for Manta. My school had its own Carnaval celebration, complete with a junk food feast, "karaoke" fun, costumes (they don't have Halloween here--they dress up for Carnaval!), and even a parade down the street with banners saying "Long live Carnaval but without water!" (My host mom is trying to make the point that throwing water--which happens excessively during Carnaval--is a waste of water and hence, throw "karaoke" instead.) But basically, this "karaoke" stuff is awesome. We had great fun at the beach totally covering each other with the stuff then dunking each other in the water.
That evening, despite being Valentine's Day, almost all of us crashed and went to bed early. Being in the sun all day and not getting enough sleep drains the energy out of you, so I ended up getting 10 hours of sleep that night. The most sleep I've had in Ecuador so far!
On Monday, Carnaval started. We all slept in so the day began at around noon when we tried to walk down the street to get breakfast. The second we stepped out of the hostel's front door, we were bombarded by water balloons. (It was the bus driver's kids actually--they were staying at the same hostel as us.) We picked up speed, turned the corner, and were drenched with now bucketsful of water. Luckily, we'd been smart enough to wear our bathing suits but man, we got so wet. But that's Carnaval for you! People walk around in the streets carrying water guns, kids get a hold of hoses and spray passing cars, water balloons and buckets are constantly held, ready for any passersby. It's impossible to stay dry on Carnaval.
After breakfast, we had an even longer walk down to the beach. We chose to go to the one that we could see out our hostel window, one that we hadn't been to yet. Turned out, the beach was really dirty, and it was clear that gringos were rare sights there. We got some of the weirdest looks. Later we realized that our hostel was in the sorta sketchy part of town, and hence the beach was sorta sketchy as well. So we cleared out of the beach pretty quickly and went shopping for snack food at the Supermaxi (our best friend now) instead. Then, feeling hungry, we ate at the only open restaurant in the entire town, KFC.
The evening was pretty lame--we never found where the actual Carnaval party was--and we ended up, disappointed, on the roof/balcony of our hostel eating our recently purchased junk food. Not our preferred way to celebrate Carnaval but whatever. And then, after spending most of the night on the roof, we had a few hours sleep then it was back on the bus to Quito. A good time overall.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
A day in the life of Leslie
To get some idea of what I do all day....
- Wake up at 6am.
- Don't get out of bed until 6:45am and end up being late. I thought this would change on coming to Ecuador, and I would magically turn into a morning person. Nope.
- Breakfast by myself at 7am because everyone else has been up since 4am. I now drink coffee because I'm realizing that although I could wake up at 6am and be ready for high school, being ready for teaching is a whole other story. I actually have to have energy. Hence, weird Ecuadorian coffee with lots of sugar.
- Run outside to help the other teachers clean the school and yard. This mostly involves either sweeping, picking up leaves, or watering the dirt. (When it's dry it gets really dusty if you don't water the ground.)
- The kids usually arrive between 7 and 7:30 so we're supposed to open the door for them and give them a kiss on the cheek.
- Basica starts at 7:30am with Profe. Raquel. I watch the rest of the kids play in the yard until 8am when their classes start. They always begin with "rompe de cabezas" (puzzles) and then lessons start.
- (I will use today, Monday, as an example of what a normal day is like because I think today has been the most normal day so far, what my day SHOULD be and not the messiness it has been. The mess is not completely sorted out--my fellow English teacher, Adriana, did indeed quit and we only found out yesterday, and there still is no main teacher for Pre Kinder--but today I tag-teamed with my host sister, Chabella, and it went super well. I would say stuff in English and some Spanish, and she would repeat stuff in Spanish when the kids couldn't understand the English.)
- At 8am, I start English with Pre Kinder. Today we had a great lesson about the family and made family trees. Normally, I'll be having 45 minute classes, but right now they only expect me to do 20-30 minutes. But! Chabella and I managed to have an entire 45 minute class anyway! Woot.
- At 9am, I start English with Primero de Basica. We talked about the neighborhood today and had an hour-long class! This class is so great to work with--they're easy to control, and I always have new ideas for things to do with them.
- Then, I helped outside with everyone's recess and snack. The kids all have to sit around a table, say "la oracion" or short prayer, and then when they're finished, put their own chairs away and put their trash in Senor Basurero (Mr. Trash--he's always hungry). All of this is a lesson in independence since we're not supposed to help them with any of it.
- At 11:15, it's time for English with Basica. We're working with fruits, so I read them "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle and talked about the fruits. Again, the class was a full 45 minutes! So I've realized that if I have a proper partner (Chabella was awesome), it can work out quite well. It's great to have help controlling the kids, keeping their attention, and repeating instructions in Spanish if the kids don't understand.
- At noon, I supervise dismissal. Pre Kinder and Primero de Basica begin to be picked up at noon. This is the time I get to just play with them. Our favorite games are "Comame" (meaning "Eat me" in which I'm a wolf and I run around saying I'm hungry and try to catch them) and the bus ride (where the kids each collect a handful of leaves, climb up the ladder to the slide, give me money and tell me where they want to go--"A Quito! A Puembo! A Guayaquil!" and then slide down the slide "Bien viaje!").
- Once all of the kids have gone (Basica leaves at 12:30), we clean the classrooms. I get to debrief and think about the day while I sweep, sweep, sweep the classes. It's a great part of my day.
- Then, if my host mom hasn't already started, thus begins the two-hour process of cooking lunch. I refuse to light the stove ever because the only way to do it is to stick your hand with the match into the burner (and the matches here are strange--they're made almost entirely of wax and are super bendy and super short), turn on the gas, and hope to god your hand doesn't go up in flames. You also have to wash EVERYTHING with soap and water, even the fruits. In the States, I've washed things with just water, but it's strange to wash with soap as well. You can't drink the water here, though, because you'll get sick. We have big jugs of water here that you use for drinking.
- After lunch is prepared, a grace is said (I'm waiting a bit longer before I break out the good 'ole Massicotte graces), and then we dig into a meal usually consisting of rice, meat, potatoes, and salad with a fruit salad slathered in honey and oatmeal for dessert. They really like sweet things here--juices, coffee, tea, and desserts are all incredibly sweet.
- You say "Gracias" when you're finished (and I'm always the last to finish eating; again, some things haven't changed) and then begin to do the dishes. No dishwasher of course.
- After that, we all sorta do our own things. Sometimes my host mom has classes or a meeting, my sister generally goes out with friends or her boyfriend, my brother has school until 4pm. I always shower at some point, which is always an experience. Actually, the entire bathroom situation is always an experience. To shower, I have to go to one bathroom, to pee I have to go to another, to use a mirror, I have to go another. So between the three bathrooms, I manage to get everything done, but it's a hike back and forth.
- Other times, I do some laundry. They only have a washer, no dryer, which means all my clothes are really stiff. And the washer doesn't really wash your clothes very well, just sorta twirls them around and takes forever doing so. When it finally stops, you have to hang your clothes on the fences and clothes lines to dry. Of course, my luck has been recently that the minute after I'm finished putting my clothes on the line, it starts to rain, and I have to run around crazy trying to gather them all up again. My host brother thinks this is the funniest thing in the world. He is wrong.
- Sometimes, I'll do more cleaning and sweep/dust my room. Or if I'm too lazy, I'll forget cleaning and take a nap. Or watch a movie, read, write blog entries, etc.
- Other times, I'll do some traveling. Maybe once or twice a week, I'll go to Quito to meet a friend and have dinner or something. Other days, I'll just walk down the street to the internet cafe.
- In the evening, I am generally making the lesson plans for the following day, eating a little something, and just hanging around with the family. Then it's bedtime at 9pm.
- Wake up at 6am.
- Don't get out of bed until 6:45am and end up being late. I thought this would change on coming to Ecuador, and I would magically turn into a morning person. Nope.
- Breakfast by myself at 7am because everyone else has been up since 4am. I now drink coffee because I'm realizing that although I could wake up at 6am and be ready for high school, being ready for teaching is a whole other story. I actually have to have energy. Hence, weird Ecuadorian coffee with lots of sugar.
- Run outside to help the other teachers clean the school and yard. This mostly involves either sweeping, picking up leaves, or watering the dirt. (When it's dry it gets really dusty if you don't water the ground.)
- The kids usually arrive between 7 and 7:30 so we're supposed to open the door for them and give them a kiss on the cheek.
- Basica starts at 7:30am with Profe. Raquel. I watch the rest of the kids play in the yard until 8am when their classes start. They always begin with "rompe de cabezas" (puzzles) and then lessons start.
- (I will use today, Monday, as an example of what a normal day is like because I think today has been the most normal day so far, what my day SHOULD be and not the messiness it has been. The mess is not completely sorted out--my fellow English teacher, Adriana, did indeed quit and we only found out yesterday, and there still is no main teacher for Pre Kinder--but today I tag-teamed with my host sister, Chabella, and it went super well. I would say stuff in English and some Spanish, and she would repeat stuff in Spanish when the kids couldn't understand the English.)
- At 8am, I start English with Pre Kinder. Today we had a great lesson about the family and made family trees. Normally, I'll be having 45 minute classes, but right now they only expect me to do 20-30 minutes. But! Chabella and I managed to have an entire 45 minute class anyway! Woot.
- At 9am, I start English with Primero de Basica. We talked about the neighborhood today and had an hour-long class! This class is so great to work with--they're easy to control, and I always have new ideas for things to do with them.
- Then, I helped outside with everyone's recess and snack. The kids all have to sit around a table, say "la oracion" or short prayer, and then when they're finished, put their own chairs away and put their trash in Senor Basurero (Mr. Trash--he's always hungry). All of this is a lesson in independence since we're not supposed to help them with any of it.
- At 11:15, it's time for English with Basica. We're working with fruits, so I read them "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle and talked about the fruits. Again, the class was a full 45 minutes! So I've realized that if I have a proper partner (Chabella was awesome), it can work out quite well. It's great to have help controlling the kids, keeping their attention, and repeating instructions in Spanish if the kids don't understand.
- At noon, I supervise dismissal. Pre Kinder and Primero de Basica begin to be picked up at noon. This is the time I get to just play with them. Our favorite games are "Comame" (meaning "Eat me" in which I'm a wolf and I run around saying I'm hungry and try to catch them) and the bus ride (where the kids each collect a handful of leaves, climb up the ladder to the slide, give me money and tell me where they want to go--"A Quito! A Puembo! A Guayaquil!" and then slide down the slide "Bien viaje!").
- Once all of the kids have gone (Basica leaves at 12:30), we clean the classrooms. I get to debrief and think about the day while I sweep, sweep, sweep the classes. It's a great part of my day.
- Then, if my host mom hasn't already started, thus begins the two-hour process of cooking lunch. I refuse to light the stove ever because the only way to do it is to stick your hand with the match into the burner (and the matches here are strange--they're made almost entirely of wax and are super bendy and super short), turn on the gas, and hope to god your hand doesn't go up in flames. You also have to wash EVERYTHING with soap and water, even the fruits. In the States, I've washed things with just water, but it's strange to wash with soap as well. You can't drink the water here, though, because you'll get sick. We have big jugs of water here that you use for drinking.
- After lunch is prepared, a grace is said (I'm waiting a bit longer before I break out the good 'ole Massicotte graces), and then we dig into a meal usually consisting of rice, meat, potatoes, and salad with a fruit salad slathered in honey and oatmeal for dessert. They really like sweet things here--juices, coffee, tea, and desserts are all incredibly sweet.
- You say "Gracias" when you're finished (and I'm always the last to finish eating; again, some things haven't changed) and then begin to do the dishes. No dishwasher of course.
- After that, we all sorta do our own things. Sometimes my host mom has classes or a meeting, my sister generally goes out with friends or her boyfriend, my brother has school until 4pm. I always shower at some point, which is always an experience. Actually, the entire bathroom situation is always an experience. To shower, I have to go to one bathroom, to pee I have to go to another, to use a mirror, I have to go another. So between the three bathrooms, I manage to get everything done, but it's a hike back and forth.
- Other times, I do some laundry. They only have a washer, no dryer, which means all my clothes are really stiff. And the washer doesn't really wash your clothes very well, just sorta twirls them around and takes forever doing so. When it finally stops, you have to hang your clothes on the fences and clothes lines to dry. Of course, my luck has been recently that the minute after I'm finished putting my clothes on the line, it starts to rain, and I have to run around crazy trying to gather them all up again. My host brother thinks this is the funniest thing in the world. He is wrong.
- Sometimes, I'll do more cleaning and sweep/dust my room. Or if I'm too lazy, I'll forget cleaning and take a nap. Or watch a movie, read, write blog entries, etc.
- Other times, I'll do some traveling. Maybe once or twice a week, I'll go to Quito to meet a friend and have dinner or something. Other days, I'll just walk down the street to the internet cafe.
- In the evening, I am generally making the lesson plans for the following day, eating a little something, and just hanging around with the family. Then it's bedtime at 9pm.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Some observations about Ecuador
Sorry... there are two posts this time too!
- There are actually quite a lot of black people here. I get a little surprise every time they open their mouths and start speaking rapid Spanish. In Indianapolis, the black people and the Hispanic population don't generally get along so well so hearing a black person speak Spanish, I'm just like "This is great!"
- There are also lots of white people. Lots of volunteers, lots of travelers, but many more than I thought I would see. Especially in "Gringolandia" or La Mariscal where we hang out most weekends, there are just mobs of white people.
- The men here have a weird way of showing their respect for ladies. It's part of their lifestyle to whistle at a girl passing by and say things like "Que linda, Que bonita" ("Hey beautiful" basically). At first I was like, okay wait a minute. Not cool. But that's actually how they show their respect; it's like a compliment. They don't mean anything disrespectful. So besides getting used to that, being a girl here is quite great. Men always give ladies their seats on the bus, and we girls can often get into places for free while men have to pay.
- They were totally right when they said that Ecuadorians are in general very nice people. The second I pull out my map of Quito to find something, I have someone asking me if I need help getting someplace. Or if someone sees us struggling to understand something in Spanish when we're trying to get a hostal or a meal or something, almost always someone is there offering to help translate or negotiate.
- Before I came here, I was warned that wearing revealing clothing (tank tops, shorts, short skirts, etc.) was not common for Ecuadorians and if I didn't want to stick out I shouldn't wear them. However, let me tell you, many Ecuadorians wear quite revealing clothing, but the one thing they absolutely do not wear outside of the house is flip flops (or "jandals" as they call them in New Zealand). I've discovered the reason is that you get stepped on quite a bit on the buses so now my bruised feet are safely covered in sneakers or closed-toe sandals. But despite not wearing flip flops, the women here are huge fans of high heels. With all the walking they do, I can't believe how they manage.
- It is extremely difficult to get change here. It's frustrating because the ATMs give mostly $20 bills (and some of the volunteers came from their home countries with $50's) and since most everyday things (like the bus, a bottle of water, lunch) cost so little that most places can't give you change for a $20.
- Everyone loves music here. If a song they know comes on the radio, they are singing out loud despite being on a bus full of crowded people. Or they'll sit in front of their stores and just sing along to the radio, not shy at all. We even ran into a guy on the bus who was lying in the middle of the floor just singing. And not only do they like to sing, but they like to dance. Salsa, hip hop, pop, more salsa. Nobody's ashamed to totally put themselves out there and feel the music. So great!
- Ecuadorians love to add "ito" to every single word they can. Ahorita ("ahora", means "now"), poquito (poco-a little bit), jabonito (jabon-soap), Ernestito (my host brother, Ernesto)É.
- Milk comes in bags. It's so weird.
- Amidst all the normally dressed people walking around in Ecuador, there are lots of folks still dressing in the indigenous style. They are mostly women wearing these long skirts and lots of colorful scarves and a traditional hat. Many of them come into the city to beg. Others to sell things. It's just strange seeing such traditional clothing in a modern city like Quito.
- Clothing is surprisingly expensive here. I haven't been able to find a shirt under $20Éand jeans cost $50. I can't believe how people can afford clothes!
- You would think that everything in Ecuador is really cheap. A lot of it is (for example, 24 roses for $1, a three course meal for $2, a bus ride across the city for $.25) but other things are super super expensive. I already mentioned the clothes, but during our many trips to the supermarket to stock up on junk food, we found that lots of the foods are not cheap. It's because it's imported food, but it makes us want to cry that a small bottle of Nutella costs $10 here in Ecuador.
I'm sure there will be more observations, but this is it for now. Ciao ciao!
- There are actually quite a lot of black people here. I get a little surprise every time they open their mouths and start speaking rapid Spanish. In Indianapolis, the black people and the Hispanic population don't generally get along so well so hearing a black person speak Spanish, I'm just like "This is great!"
- There are also lots of white people. Lots of volunteers, lots of travelers, but many more than I thought I would see. Especially in "Gringolandia" or La Mariscal where we hang out most weekends, there are just mobs of white people.
- The men here have a weird way of showing their respect for ladies. It's part of their lifestyle to whistle at a girl passing by and say things like "Que linda, Que bonita" ("Hey beautiful" basically). At first I was like, okay wait a minute. Not cool. But that's actually how they show their respect; it's like a compliment. They don't mean anything disrespectful. So besides getting used to that, being a girl here is quite great. Men always give ladies their seats on the bus, and we girls can often get into places for free while men have to pay.
- They were totally right when they said that Ecuadorians are in general very nice people. The second I pull out my map of Quito to find something, I have someone asking me if I need help getting someplace. Or if someone sees us struggling to understand something in Spanish when we're trying to get a hostal or a meal or something, almost always someone is there offering to help translate or negotiate.
- Before I came here, I was warned that wearing revealing clothing (tank tops, shorts, short skirts, etc.) was not common for Ecuadorians and if I didn't want to stick out I shouldn't wear them. However, let me tell you, many Ecuadorians wear quite revealing clothing, but the one thing they absolutely do not wear outside of the house is flip flops (or "jandals" as they call them in New Zealand). I've discovered the reason is that you get stepped on quite a bit on the buses so now my bruised feet are safely covered in sneakers or closed-toe sandals. But despite not wearing flip flops, the women here are huge fans of high heels. With all the walking they do, I can't believe how they manage.
- It is extremely difficult to get change here. It's frustrating because the ATMs give mostly $20 bills (and some of the volunteers came from their home countries with $50's) and since most everyday things (like the bus, a bottle of water, lunch) cost so little that most places can't give you change for a $20.
- Everyone loves music here. If a song they know comes on the radio, they are singing out loud despite being on a bus full of crowded people. Or they'll sit in front of their stores and just sing along to the radio, not shy at all. We even ran into a guy on the bus who was lying in the middle of the floor just singing. And not only do they like to sing, but they like to dance. Salsa, hip hop, pop, more salsa. Nobody's ashamed to totally put themselves out there and feel the music. So great!
- Ecuadorians love to add "ito" to every single word they can. Ahorita ("ahora", means "now"), poquito (poco-a little bit), jabonito (jabon-soap), Ernestito (my host brother, Ernesto)É.
- Milk comes in bags. It's so weird.
- Amidst all the normally dressed people walking around in Ecuador, there are lots of folks still dressing in the indigenous style. They are mostly women wearing these long skirts and lots of colorful scarves and a traditional hat. Many of them come into the city to beg. Others to sell things. It's just strange seeing such traditional clothing in a modern city like Quito.
- Clothing is surprisingly expensive here. I haven't been able to find a shirt under $20Éand jeans cost $50. I can't believe how people can afford clothes!
- You would think that everything in Ecuador is really cheap. A lot of it is (for example, 24 roses for $1, a three course meal for $2, a bus ride across the city for $.25) but other things are super super expensive. I already mentioned the clothes, but during our many trips to the supermarket to stock up on junk food, we found that lots of the foods are not cheap. It's because it's imported food, but it makes us want to cry that a small bottle of Nutella costs $10 here in Ecuador.
I'm sure there will be more observations, but this is it for now. Ciao ciao!
First week of teaching
Oh wow. I've survived my first week of teaching. It has certainly been a struggle but I think the worst is over. Now that the kids are used to seeing my around, I think they'll learn to respect my authority and will quiet down. That was really the main problem this first week--the kids just didn't know me, didn't know my limits, wanted to test me, didn't respect me. It was frustrating since, after watching the other teachers at the school, I was actually doing the exact same things as they were but my kids would always misbehave to the max. It'll get a bit more calm after that respect is gained, I'm thinking.
And actually, I've been put in charge of my own classes much more than I had expected. As it turned out, on Tuesday, instead of me just helping the other teachers, I was put in charge of my host mom's class, Primero de Basica, because she had to go to a meeting. The beginning was rough--I just sorta sat there since another teacher would come in to tell the kids what to do. But by the end of the day, I actually managed to do a lesson by myself with them. I was told they needed to learn the vowel "u" and was given some sheets of paper with the letter "u" drawn on them that the kids were supposed to paint. The last project they'd done was to paint so we just colored the block letter "u" instead. And then, because that took like 5 minutes, I played teacher for a bit and started asking them words that started with "u." (I had to fetch my dictionary, though. I've discovered there aren't many Spanish words starting with "u" besides unicornio, uñas, uvas, and uno.) So I drew pictures of these things on the board and they copied them onto their papers. I was so proud. They managed to fill their entire paper with "u" things and even practiced writing the letter "u" several times.
The next day we had English classes, which went a bit better than on Monday. We managed to stay on schedule and had a lesson for every class. Pre Kinder was better but still not great, Primero de Basica was overall really good, and then Basica was fine until the end when four boys ended up playing a game in the bathroom rather than participate in our beautiful rendition of the song "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes."
Then today everyone had music class, which normally wouldn't mean anything different but the usual music teacher was home sick and her husband was there to take her place. The other teachers had me help him out the whole day, following him from class to class. So we sang lots and lots of songs and even went on a little walk up the hill from the school ("to listen to the sounds in nature." We ended up coming back with arms full of wildflowers because the kids just couldn't resist picking them.) It felt like what my job SHOULD be like--helping out the main teacher with his lesson plan. I'm finding with Adriana that I'm actually the main teacher. Claro, she knows more Spanish than I do, but she's too quiet and calm for the kids and is totally not used to working with this age group. (She's been teaching teens and adults for 15 years.) She told me on Wednesday that she wasn't going to come back--she couldn't stand the kids and couldn't teach them. I really do hope she comes back or, at least, that my host mom finds another English teacher.
I absolutely love these kids, though. I've been spending lots of time with Primero de Basica (ages 5-6) so I'm getting to know them pretty well. There's Fernando who is a very fast learner and the best student in the class (but not in behaviorÉ.) Anabel and Camila are best buds and a wild pair, especially Anabel who today colored her paper entirely black because she was in a bad mood. She also likes to call me "Lellie" which is super cute. Chubby Alex always brings a little white stuffed dog to school and is just such a sweet kid. I saw him and Camila getting their flirt on during recess the other dayÉgotta watch out for those two =) Then there's Jonathon who's also a good student, very loud, and has a mouth full of rotting teeth. Very cute. Lastly, we have Talia and Josue. Josue takes about 5 years to eat his lunch because he eats so freaking much for such a tiny kid. Most of the kids have leftovers from their lunches, give them to Josue, who then totally devours all of it, but very slowly. And Talia is actually 8 years old, I think, but she's one of our special kids. You have to help her out with her schoolwork every step of the way, but she's got a super grin and the cutest way of running up to you to give you a big hug.
This weekend was also pretty interesting. On Friday, we had a going away party for Sigrun. She only has about 2 weeks left in Ecuador before it's back to chilly Iceland for her. Now, I had thought that this going away party was going to be a calm shindig with invitees like our host family's family (grandparents, cousins, etc.) and some of Sigrun's friends. It turned out being a grand party--lots of Sigrun's volunteer friends came, I invited a few of mine as well, and my host bro and sis invited some cousins. It was quite eventful--loud music, lots of dancing, even a power outage (which of course meant continuing by candlelight). Definitely not what I had expected but great fun all the same!
Then, because a few friends from the night before had spent the night (they live 3.5 hours away), we all went into Quito the next day just to hang out, do some laundry, eat food, etc. Which would've been a grand plan if it hadn't poured all day long. So we ended up walking around in the rain for hours and now I've got the inevitable walk-around-all-day-in-the-rain sickness and have lost my voice. I'm a little worried how I'm going to control my wild kids tomorrow at school with just a whisper for a voiceÉ. It's always an adventure here in Ecuador!
After this coming week of more intense volunteer work, it's Carnival! It's a national holiday, I believe, in all Latin American countries, so everyone gets off work and school. So we volunteers are going to the coast for the weekend! Parties, dancing, tanning, swimming--we all can't wait!
And actually, I've been put in charge of my own classes much more than I had expected. As it turned out, on Tuesday, instead of me just helping the other teachers, I was put in charge of my host mom's class, Primero de Basica, because she had to go to a meeting. The beginning was rough--I just sorta sat there since another teacher would come in to tell the kids what to do. But by the end of the day, I actually managed to do a lesson by myself with them. I was told they needed to learn the vowel "u" and was given some sheets of paper with the letter "u" drawn on them that the kids were supposed to paint. The last project they'd done was to paint so we just colored the block letter "u" instead. And then, because that took like 5 minutes, I played teacher for a bit and started asking them words that started with "u." (I had to fetch my dictionary, though. I've discovered there aren't many Spanish words starting with "u" besides unicornio, uñas, uvas, and uno.) So I drew pictures of these things on the board and they copied them onto their papers. I was so proud. They managed to fill their entire paper with "u" things and even practiced writing the letter "u" several times.
The next day we had English classes, which went a bit better than on Monday. We managed to stay on schedule and had a lesson for every class. Pre Kinder was better but still not great, Primero de Basica was overall really good, and then Basica was fine until the end when four boys ended up playing a game in the bathroom rather than participate in our beautiful rendition of the song "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes."
Then today everyone had music class, which normally wouldn't mean anything different but the usual music teacher was home sick and her husband was there to take her place. The other teachers had me help him out the whole day, following him from class to class. So we sang lots and lots of songs and even went on a little walk up the hill from the school ("to listen to the sounds in nature." We ended up coming back with arms full of wildflowers because the kids just couldn't resist picking them.) It felt like what my job SHOULD be like--helping out the main teacher with his lesson plan. I'm finding with Adriana that I'm actually the main teacher. Claro, she knows more Spanish than I do, but she's too quiet and calm for the kids and is totally not used to working with this age group. (She's been teaching teens and adults for 15 years.) She told me on Wednesday that she wasn't going to come back--she couldn't stand the kids and couldn't teach them. I really do hope she comes back or, at least, that my host mom finds another English teacher.
I absolutely love these kids, though. I've been spending lots of time with Primero de Basica (ages 5-6) so I'm getting to know them pretty well. There's Fernando who is a very fast learner and the best student in the class (but not in behaviorÉ.) Anabel and Camila are best buds and a wild pair, especially Anabel who today colored her paper entirely black because she was in a bad mood. She also likes to call me "Lellie" which is super cute. Chubby Alex always brings a little white stuffed dog to school and is just such a sweet kid. I saw him and Camila getting their flirt on during recess the other dayÉgotta watch out for those two =) Then there's Jonathon who's also a good student, very loud, and has a mouth full of rotting teeth. Very cute. Lastly, we have Talia and Josue. Josue takes about 5 years to eat his lunch because he eats so freaking much for such a tiny kid. Most of the kids have leftovers from their lunches, give them to Josue, who then totally devours all of it, but very slowly. And Talia is actually 8 years old, I think, but she's one of our special kids. You have to help her out with her schoolwork every step of the way, but she's got a super grin and the cutest way of running up to you to give you a big hug.
This weekend was also pretty interesting. On Friday, we had a going away party for Sigrun. She only has about 2 weeks left in Ecuador before it's back to chilly Iceland for her. Now, I had thought that this going away party was going to be a calm shindig with invitees like our host family's family (grandparents, cousins, etc.) and some of Sigrun's friends. It turned out being a grand party--lots of Sigrun's volunteer friends came, I invited a few of mine as well, and my host bro and sis invited some cousins. It was quite eventful--loud music, lots of dancing, even a power outage (which of course meant continuing by candlelight). Definitely not what I had expected but great fun all the same!
Then, because a few friends from the night before had spent the night (they live 3.5 hours away), we all went into Quito the next day just to hang out, do some laundry, eat food, etc. Which would've been a grand plan if it hadn't poured all day long. So we ended up walking around in the rain for hours and now I've got the inevitable walk-around-all-day-in-the-rain sickness and have lost my voice. I'm a little worried how I'm going to control my wild kids tomorrow at school with just a whisper for a voiceÉ. It's always an adventure here in Ecuador!
After this coming week of more intense volunteer work, it's Carnival! It's a national holiday, I believe, in all Latin American countries, so everyone gets off work and school. So we volunteers are going to the coast for the weekend! Parties, dancing, tanning, swimming--we all can't wait!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Teaching, Day 1
Sorry--I'm putting two entries up at once since it's been awhile since my last blog....
On Sunday, Chabella and Ernesto (host sister and brother) invited me to visit their grandparents' house with them. It was the first time they'd taken me anywhere so it was really great just to chat and walk around with them. On the way down the hill to the bus, we were bombarded by a ton of water balloons by these neighbor kids. After we dashed out of the way, managing to stay mostly dry, Chabella explained that February was Carnival month, and to celebrate, Ecuadorians throw lots and lots of water. So February can be really fun--unless you need to go to a business meeting or to work or something. Showing up to work soaking wet is not very classy.
Their grandparents' house is about 10 minutes by bus. We walked in through a blue gate into a cute little garden and then through the open front door. I met both their grandparents and also Ernesto and Chabella's dad. It was a little intense though because all of them were having a pretty heated discussion about (from what I could catch--old people Spanish is very difficult to understand) the upcoming divorce between Ernesto and Chabella's mom and dad and then something about buying a house. Not sure what the house part was about. But I managed to stay pretty occupied by looking at the tons and tons of art on the walls and reading the Quito newspaper. I was so proud of myself because I read an entire article in Spanish about the terremoto (earthquake) in Haiti. Which I actually didn't know had happened until like a week ago. The school here is collecting bars of soap to send over to Haiti which is really great seeing how these kids and the school itself don't have much money.
After the awkward, family drama conversation, Chabella and Ernesto took me around Tumbaco a bit. I saw the tiny Tumbaco park, which is really just a fountain with some grass around it, and we browsed through a couple music/movie stores. I already know I'm going to be coming home with lots of both music and movies--music because my brother is totally obsessed with reggae and always has it turned up really loud in the house so that I'm also becoming obsessed and movies because they're soooo cheap. Cheap mostly because they're illegally video taped in the movie theaters but whatever.
That night was also really great because we had a family movie night of sorts. Chabella, Ernesto, our mom, and I all squished onto the couch and gorged ourselves on animal crackers, candy, and popcorn while we first watched this really dumb Ecuadorian movie with a name something like "Rodents" and then a really bad copy of "Avatar." "Rodents" was absolutely ridiculous. If I hadn't been so exhausted and afraid of offending my family, I would've been laughing my head off the ENTIRE time. One bad thing after another kept happening. An example scene would be: these two "tough guys" rob a house, one gets shot in the shoulder by the house owner, then the house owner gets shot and killed, then the tough guys smoke some coke and drink some drank, and then they find out that their cousin's dad (so their uncle) died during surgery, their cousin had a seizure, their other cousin is pregnant, etc. etc. etc. It was so bad is was hilarious. The only cool thing about it was that it was filmed in Ecuador and it showed some very typical Ecuadorian things. (For example, they showed this shower that was the EXACT same type of shower in my house here. Kinda neat.)
Today (Monday) was the first day of teaching. Of course, it was just my luck that I woke up horribly sick and couldn't get out of bed until 9am rather than at 7:30am when school starts. My mom/boss told me off for that laterÉ whoops. Adriana, the other English teacher, can't come to the school until 10:15am because she has an English class every morning until then. So when she arrived, we started with the Pre Kinder class. Oh my god. They had just come in from their recess and would NOT pay attention or sit still or do anything but roll on the ground and hit each other. We had to have the other teachers help us just to get these kids to stop running around, and we hardly got anything done besides a half-hearted name game and this thing called a "bolsa magic." (A "magic bag" is a bag that each student reaches into and pulls something out of--could be a colored object, an animal, a picture of a fruit, etc.--and then they're asked "What color is this?" or "What animal is this?" etc.) Finally, our 45 minutes were up, and we moved onto Primero de Bascia, but somehow we ended up only having 15 minutes with them. We'll learn the schedule eventually I suppose. This is the easiest class--there are less kids and they're much more chill. We actually got to do our lesson plan with them (learning the names of the family in English and teaching them a song). And we never even got to the oldest class because school was over.
I'm realizing teaching is quite difficult. You always have to be on your feet, must be able to improvise if something doesn't go right (and it never does), and be really creative every day in coming up with interesting ways to get these kids to learn. I'm really glad I love kids, though, because otherwise the difficulty would not be worth it. Already, when the kids were leaving today, they would come up and ask me questions or give me a hug or give me a goodbye kiss. They make me want to get better.
Thankfully, instead of me teaching my own class tomorrow since Adriana only comes Mondays and Wednesdays, there will be no English class. I'll just be helping out in the other classes, and we'll resume our English class on Wednesday. The kids in the Basica class, who didn't have English today, kept asking me when they were going to have English and were very sad to learn that it would be two days from now. After a few weeks, though, I'm sure we'll fall into a schedule, and the kids will actually learn things in English rather than us just trying to get them to sit down and listen. But oh boy, what a crazy day!
On Sunday, Chabella and Ernesto (host sister and brother) invited me to visit their grandparents' house with them. It was the first time they'd taken me anywhere so it was really great just to chat and walk around with them. On the way down the hill to the bus, we were bombarded by a ton of water balloons by these neighbor kids. After we dashed out of the way, managing to stay mostly dry, Chabella explained that February was Carnival month, and to celebrate, Ecuadorians throw lots and lots of water. So February can be really fun--unless you need to go to a business meeting or to work or something. Showing up to work soaking wet is not very classy.
Their grandparents' house is about 10 minutes by bus. We walked in through a blue gate into a cute little garden and then through the open front door. I met both their grandparents and also Ernesto and Chabella's dad. It was a little intense though because all of them were having a pretty heated discussion about (from what I could catch--old people Spanish is very difficult to understand) the upcoming divorce between Ernesto and Chabella's mom and dad and then something about buying a house. Not sure what the house part was about. But I managed to stay pretty occupied by looking at the tons and tons of art on the walls and reading the Quito newspaper. I was so proud of myself because I read an entire article in Spanish about the terremoto (earthquake) in Haiti. Which I actually didn't know had happened until like a week ago. The school here is collecting bars of soap to send over to Haiti which is really great seeing how these kids and the school itself don't have much money.
After the awkward, family drama conversation, Chabella and Ernesto took me around Tumbaco a bit. I saw the tiny Tumbaco park, which is really just a fountain with some grass around it, and we browsed through a couple music/movie stores. I already know I'm going to be coming home with lots of both music and movies--music because my brother is totally obsessed with reggae and always has it turned up really loud in the house so that I'm also becoming obsessed and movies because they're soooo cheap. Cheap mostly because they're illegally video taped in the movie theaters but whatever.
That night was also really great because we had a family movie night of sorts. Chabella, Ernesto, our mom, and I all squished onto the couch and gorged ourselves on animal crackers, candy, and popcorn while we first watched this really dumb Ecuadorian movie with a name something like "Rodents" and then a really bad copy of "Avatar." "Rodents" was absolutely ridiculous. If I hadn't been so exhausted and afraid of offending my family, I would've been laughing my head off the ENTIRE time. One bad thing after another kept happening. An example scene would be: these two "tough guys" rob a house, one gets shot in the shoulder by the house owner, then the house owner gets shot and killed, then the tough guys smoke some coke and drink some drank, and then they find out that their cousin's dad (so their uncle) died during surgery, their cousin had a seizure, their other cousin is pregnant, etc. etc. etc. It was so bad is was hilarious. The only cool thing about it was that it was filmed in Ecuador and it showed some very typical Ecuadorian things. (For example, they showed this shower that was the EXACT same type of shower in my house here. Kinda neat.)
Today (Monday) was the first day of teaching. Of course, it was just my luck that I woke up horribly sick and couldn't get out of bed until 9am rather than at 7:30am when school starts. My mom/boss told me off for that laterÉ whoops. Adriana, the other English teacher, can't come to the school until 10:15am because she has an English class every morning until then. So when she arrived, we started with the Pre Kinder class. Oh my god. They had just come in from their recess and would NOT pay attention or sit still or do anything but roll on the ground and hit each other. We had to have the other teachers help us just to get these kids to stop running around, and we hardly got anything done besides a half-hearted name game and this thing called a "bolsa magic." (A "magic bag" is a bag that each student reaches into and pulls something out of--could be a colored object, an animal, a picture of a fruit, etc.--and then they're asked "What color is this?" or "What animal is this?" etc.) Finally, our 45 minutes were up, and we moved onto Primero de Bascia, but somehow we ended up only having 15 minutes with them. We'll learn the schedule eventually I suppose. This is the easiest class--there are less kids and they're much more chill. We actually got to do our lesson plan with them (learning the names of the family in English and teaching them a song). And we never even got to the oldest class because school was over.
I'm realizing teaching is quite difficult. You always have to be on your feet, must be able to improvise if something doesn't go right (and it never does), and be really creative every day in coming up with interesting ways to get these kids to learn. I'm really glad I love kids, though, because otherwise the difficulty would not be worth it. Already, when the kids were leaving today, they would come up and ask me questions or give me a hug or give me a goodbye kiss. They make me want to get better.
Thankfully, instead of me teaching my own class tomorrow since Adriana only comes Mondays and Wednesdays, there will be no English class. I'll just be helping out in the other classes, and we'll resume our English class on Wednesday. The kids in the Basica class, who didn't have English today, kept asking me when they were going to have English and were very sad to learn that it would be two days from now. After a few weeks, though, I'm sure we'll fall into a schedule, and the kids will actually learn things in English rather than us just trying to get them to sit down and listen. But oh boy, what a crazy day!
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!
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!
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