Monday, October 29, 2007

First photos!

These are the first pictures on the blog, but certainly not the only I´ve taken so far. I need to get with it and post some more! Especially the videos that prove I have learned a little bit about dancing!

The picture below is with Melany, Eric, and Walter. The picture to the right is with Miguel. They are all students in the Carmen Bajo school where I am volunteering about once a week as an English teacher.

Monday, October 22, 2007

it´s getting better all the time...

Things are much improved at work! Friday was excellent and today went pretty well. This weekend was also lovely.

Friday a couple of the teachers threw a house-warming party which I made for just a few minutes before Luis took me to a peña, which is a large party organized to raise money for a particular cause. Normally they are to benefit a sick family member but in this case they were raising money for another party! It was in a huge banquet type room with tons of people. We talked with his friends and danced quite a bit. Yes, I was dancing, in public, in front of latinos. And it´s not as if I blend in here. It took quite some courage and, to be honest, Luis had to drag me to the dance floor for the first dance. As the night wore on however I started asking him to dance, especially the cumbia.

Saturday afternoon however Luis invited me to a baptism.
Baptisms here are not the same as in the U.S. Although everyone does attend the church service to observe the baptism, in Ecuador there´s an after-party - with lots of music and dancing. I as dancing salsa (poorly), merengue and cumbia (surprisingly well), reggaeton, and música nacional - traditional Ecuadorian music. Everyone got a big kick out of the white girl dancing the nacionales, even me.
It was also quite fun when I was offered an alcoholic drink. The host offered me a glass with just a very little bit of alcohol in it, so I accepted and said thank you (gracias actually). He said, no, salud, so I said, oh, salud! He said, No, por favor, at which point I finally realized you´re supposed to drink it all down and pass it on!
Oh, toda a la vez?
(all at once?) I asked, and everyone laughed. Pobrecita (poor thing) they said. Hah.

Then today I went to Carmen Bajo! For those who don´t know that´s the school I worked in briefly where the kids I just adore attend. Yes Whitney, I saw Angelica and Margarita! and everyone asked about you. To Brooke, I met Miguel and he is just precious.
It was amazing to see the kids again.

So all in all a really fabulous weekend and a wonderful Monday!

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Good news, bad news

I have a place to live with a good friend, Sonia!
She´s from Ecuador so I get to speak plenty of Spanish. We´re also talking about cooking quite a bit... hope we don´t get fat! The house is a good hour from school, from doorstep to doorstep, but the neighborhood´s a bit safer and I´m also closer to my other good friend, Luis, who´s giving me Tango lessons.

My first day did not go as well as I would have liked. My expectations and the reality just didn´t quite match up... at all... trying to keep positive so I´m not going to dwell here.

I´m thinking of traveling this weekend to give myself a little vacation (a whole five days of work is just too much! haha). I´ll probably be in Banos (jungle town with natural hot springs) or in Tena (jungle town with awesome kayaking).

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Tango

I´m now learning tango! and I´m not quite as terrible as you might imagine! It´s a lot of fun actually and maybe one day I´ll find the rhythym.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

I´m here!

I made it to Quito about 11:00 last night safely, soundly, all that. My friend Luis picked me up from the airport - aren´t friends wonderful? I´m staying with his family until tomorrow when I´m moving to a hostal closer to school.

Otherwise I´m just hoping to find an apartment soon with a nice roommate and being reminded how amazing the food is!

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Leaving Monday...

and I'm not ready!! But there's still time - - four whole days.

Anyway, this will be my blog on mi vida ecuatoriana, my Ecuadorian life.

The basics:
Monday I fly out for Quito, Ecuador, South America. I'll have a couple of days to see friends and see the city before the teachers' meetings begin Thursday. Over the weekend I'll hopefully get settled into an apartment somewhere and Monday the teaching begins!

I'll be teaching at the Escuela Politecnia Nacional in the center of Quito until December 14 when I fly home for my graduation ceremonies. Then I return to Quito to teach January through August, 2008.

After that? Who knows.