La Generosidad

(This is my entry into the WT journal contest...enjoy!)

Expecting the unexpected becomes second nature here in Ecuador. Volcanoes spurting ash, parades marching down the streets, eating guinea pig for lunch- these exemplify just a few of the many daily surprises that Ecuador gives her volunteers. Flexibility quickly becomes a desired trait. With many of these surprises, I usually just laugh to myself and move on with my day. Though with all the unbelievable moments that I have experienced already, the one thing that continually surprises me and touches me to the core is the generosity of my students.

Ecuadorians are such a generous people in general, but my students take it to a whole new level. Not only have they accepted me as a teacher, but they have become my cultural informants, my guardians, and most importantly, true friends. They give me so much during our classes together. With our final projects this semester they had to perform skits in front of the class. One group performed a scene from Shrek and came in costume, with Shrek and Donkey masks and all! Another group brought all the traditional Ecuadorian food dishes- fritada (fried pork), llapingachos (potato pancakes), moté (a cousin of corn), and other treats. Watching my students give their presentations with such pride and excitement made me so grateful to be a part of it all. Their own enthusiasm and desire to learn are gifts in themselves. And even on those days when the last thing I want to do is stand up in front of my classes for five hours, I usually leave happy at the end of the day because of my students.

In addition to the daily kindnesses my students give me in the classroom, they have many times surprised me with their generosity outside of the classroom as well. When I took an overnight bus to the coast during my first few weeks teaching, Henry called to make sure I got to my destination safely. When I mentioned to Rosa that I liked her pink nail polish, she brought me the bottle the next day and insisted that I keep it for myself. Jazmín and her father usually drive me home after class, and we often stop for ice cream or go to their home for more conversation around the dinner table. This past November, Rómulo hosted a field trip for our class at his uncle’s house. My students bought all the food and wouldn’t let me pay a cent, and we had a BBQ with the Tungurahua Volcano in the background. And when I mentioned to Zoila that I needed to buy Christmas presents for my family back in the States, she invited me to the festivals and markets in her small indigenous town. Not only did she meet me in town to help with my shopping, but she took me and two other volunteers to her friend’s home to participate in the celebrations. Though I know many of my students don’t have a lot, you certainly wouldn’t know that with all they give.

My favorite example of my students’ generosity came during our Thanksgiving Day class. Beforehand I had tried to explain Thanksgiving to them as best as I could, emphasizing the value of spending time with family and loved ones, and setting aside a day to be thankful for all one’s blessings. I had told my students about how much I love the holiday and how sad I was to be away from my family this year. When I arrived to class that day they all surprised me with turkey sandwiches for the entire class! My students told me they wanted to make sure I had my turkey on Thanksgiving Day. It was obvious that they grasped the meaning of Thanksgiving better than I had ever hoped for.

I came to Ecuador with the hopes that I might have something to give my students- maybe my knowledge of the English language and my desire to share my culture with them. And yet while I do try to give my students as much as I can, I am just so humbled by all they have given me. My students have welcomed me with open arms and have made me feel so loved and appreciated. These men and women, strangers only months ago, have now become the faces I look forward to seeing every day. They are the people I go to with questions or concerns, always ready to help me in any way they can. One might say that generosity, or generosidad, signifies the same thing in every language. But if I have learned anything in my time so far in Ecuador, I have learned that here generosity means something a little more.

Semester's End (CliffsNotes Version)

Hello all and a very Merry Christmas (or Felíz Navidad I guess I should say)!!

I have been horrible this month about posting, so I figure I will just list the highlights:

- We had some clear days in Ambato and I was thrilled that I could see three volcanoes from my classroom window. My usual Tungurahua, Chimborazo, and surprisingly the snow-capped Cotopaxi as well. Incredible!

-In my classes, we finished up the semester learning about professions, money, shopping, and a unit on Christmas vocab as well. They also did amazing class presentations, but I'll get to that later.

-Aubrey, Eden, and I went to the town of Salasaca with one of my students to buy some Christmas presents at a market. My student, Zoila, took us to a friend's house and we watched live musicians as we had some soup (which unfortunately gave me a stomach ache)...but it was quite the experience!

-I went to Quito to visit Andrea, and it was great to just catch up with her. We also went out to an amazing Mexican restaurant and I finished my Christmas shopping too.

-We had a Christmakkuh celebration at a Chinese restaurant in Ambato (definitely not the same as Chinese back home). All four of us Ambato vols were there, along with Dan's Ecuadorian girlfriend Carla, who could not be a sweeter person. We did Secret Santa and all exchanged gifts...I got a Santa snow globe!

-I went on a field trip with my afternoon class to Baños and it was such a blast! I actually went bungee jumping (!!!), we hiked to a waterfall, and we rode in the back of a truck the whole way home.

-Eden and I had our last day volunteering at the elementary school in Pillaro until January. The kids are just so adorable, and the administration gave us both backpacks with the school's name as a thank you.

-My classes learned Christmas Carols all week long...Rudolph, Let It Snow, Silent Night, Silver Bells, and Jingle Bells. They seemed to really enjoy it. Then they had their final presentations and I could not have more impressed with their effort. They had costumes, food, props...everything! One group did a scene from Shrek, another acted out an old Ambato legend, and another pretended to be Americans on their honeymoon in Ecuador, just to name a few. I could not stop laughing!

-My night class had a final Christmas dinner. They brought turkey, stuffing, rice, salad, eggnog, and dessert into the classroom. It was unbelievable. The most touching part of the evening was when they toasted me...they are all just so loving. Then we exchanged our Secret Santa presents, and my class all pitched in to get me a beautiful new leather tote bag to use next semester.

-Aubrey and I went out salsa dancing with our gym instructor and the rest of the gym crew, which was really fun. Though our instructor kept offering to buy us beer which seemed a bit counter-intuitive if you ask me.

-Eden left to go home to the States last Saturday, as Aubrey and I went on a field trip with my night class to the jungle. It was raining horribly when we got to Puyo, but we did still get to go on a neat jungle walk. Then the sun came out and we played basketball, soccer, and Aubrey and I learned how to play Ecua-volleyball, which they actually play with a soccer ball. Then we went to the most amazing tree house I have ever seen, which had an incredible view of where the jungle and the Andes meet. Then we went on a guided tour of a cave (scary) and I even got to see a monkey! Aubrey and I met up with Dan and Carla in Baños to go dancing that night, and Anita my Australian friend met up with us too.

-I had my last class on Monday and just handed back their final exams and taught them all some English slang (so funny!). Then on Tuesday I headed to Quito, spent the night at my old host mom's house, and flew back to the States on Wednesday afternoon. Dan, Eden, and I are all home for the holidays, and Aubrey is holding down the fort in Ecuador.

-I am currently home and it is so surreal! I really feel like I have never left...it just feels like I have had some strange Ecua-dream. But it has been so wonderful getting to see family and friends, and hopefully I will be ready to head back to Ecuador come January 3rd. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!!!

La Directora

December has arrived! Yesterday marked the three-month anniversary of my arrival to Ecuador, and only two more weeks until I head back to the States for the holidays. I couldn't be more excited to go home and to finally be able to eat Reese's Cups again. And of course to see friends and family as well!

I had a visitor of my own this past week in Ambato. Our field director, Therese, came to Ambato to spend a day each with Aubrey, Eden, and me. She ate lunch with our families, came to our classes, stayed overnight in our homes, and most importantly gave us feedback for our classes and asked us about our Ecuador experiences overall thus far. We all agree that it was such a treat to have Therese with us this past week- she was so refreshing, and just so much fun. Therese has a lot of teaching experience, and it was wonderful to get some concrete ideas from her about how to manage my class and to emphasize speaking in the classroom. I was also thankful that she had a lot of positive things to say as about my teaching, so at least I know I'm not a completely terrible teacher. But there is always room for improvement! And I feel re-energized and more excited about teaching after hearing her comments, now feeling more confident in my own strengths and having some great ideas of how to improve my classes for the future.

Therese came to the gym with us on Thursday and Friday, and we all hung out Friday night and Saturday morning. Therese came to our English Club gathering on Friday...which proved to be quite a hoot this past week. We went to a new karaoke place in town and encouraged the students to sing English songs. Eden, Aubrey, Therese, and I performed impressive versions of the Backstreet Boys, Ace of Base, and the Ecuador karaoke classic, the Grease Medley. Eden even finished the song by sliding on her knees in the true Grease fashion! Then the four of us went out to an incredible dinner and WT picked up the tab. We were all drooling with how tasty the food was...I had a steak and shrimp combo meal, and I can still taste it now. We certainly went all out! But then we burned all the calories off by dancing afterwards (or at least that is what I am telling myself).

On Saturday morning we headed to the leather town of Quishapincha which is in the mountains overlooking Ambato. I had been with my host family, but none of the others had been before. Sadly, no one had much luck. Therese wanted to find a new teaching bag and Eden wanted a leather jacket, but neither found exactly what they were looking for. Therese headed back to Quito that afternoon, and which meant we had to say goodbye to her until we all reunite again at the beach in January. Therese is finishing her term as field director then, so we will be heading to the beach for a weekend to celebrate with her. After Therese left, Eden, Aubrey, and I went to get manicures and haircuts (I just got the mani). Can you believe a French manicure only cost me $2.50?! It was definitely a nice treat after the stress of planning classes for our site visits! And then I went to buy my family roses to thank them for my 2nd month in their home, and a dozen roses only cost me $1.50! Men would almost do better coming to Ecuador to buy roses for their girlfriends instead of going to a florist in the States...well almost.

Quito is having its huge independence day festivals this week. Apparently there are bull fights, parades, concerts, and lots of dancing and drinking in the streets. We had planned on going this weekend, but were just too tired this past Saturday to muster up the energy to go. It's especially disappointing because the best days of the festivals are this coming Wednesday and Thursday, but because we have classes during the week, we won't be able to experience them. It's OK, though, because Ambato has its famous festivals in February, so I think I can wait until then to truly get into the festival spirit.

So instead of going to Quito, we decided to be tourists in Ambato for a change. Aubrey and I went to La Quinta de Juan Leon Mera on Saturday morning. Ambato is known as the home of "Los Tres Juanes," three famous Juans of Ecuador. One of them, Juan Leon Mera, wrote the words to the Ecuadorian national anthem. He has a beautiful quinta, a plantation of sorts, that has been maintained over the years and is now a historical site that tourists can visit (one of Ambato's few tourist attractions). I only wish I had visited sooner! Aubrey and I were almost giddy walking around the beautiful grounds. He has a gorgeous Colonial house with restored rooms, amazing and expansive gardens, and a river beach as well. We were also blessed with a delightfully sunny morning, so the whole experience couldn't have been better. I almost felt like I was back visiting Monticello or Mount Vernon...well, minus the palm trees, Ecuadorian flags, and of course the Spanish descriptions of everything. I will definitely be going back there soon again.

Yesterday Dan also returned from his week at the beach with his friend Ryan. It sounds like they had an amazing time, and they even had sun (those bums). But it's great to have Dan back, Ambato wasn't the same without him, especially because it was girl time 24/7 this past week. And I think I can safely announce this now, but Dan has officially accepted his invitation to extend his time in Ecuador. That means he'll be teaching at SECAP with me until June! So I'm glad I'll have my faithful co-worker with me for the rest of my stay in Ecuador. It's just amazing that I only have 9 more classes left in my semester. Starting in January, my students will graduate (hopefully) to Basic 2, and I'll move right on up there with them. I can't believe my first semester has almost come and gone.

So until next week, I am going to keep streaming online Christmas music and dreaming about snow. Have a great week! Stateside in T-minus 16 days (but who's counting?!). xoxo

Celebrations

Thanksgiving was a success! Though I couldn’t be with my family, I really did enjoy sharing the tradition with my Ecua family here. Aubrey and I spent the day in the kitchen, and I loved finally learning how to make my favorite holiday dishes. I made the apples pies, a broccoli casserole, and helped a bit with other things here and there. Aubrey was the real brains of the operation, with a strict schedule of what went in the oven when, and which ingredients went with which dish. Thanksgiving wouldn’t have happened without all her amazing organizational skills. We prepared most of the food at Aubrey’s house (with her host mom’s help), while the turkey cooked in Eden’s house under the strict supervision of Eden, David, and Eden’s host dad. One of the highlights of the day was transporting the uncooked turkey, with about 8 other dishes, in a taxi to Eden’s house. I had never before ridden in a car with a dead bird on my lap, but I assure you it was an interesting experience.

Finally around 7pm we showed up at Eden’s host sister’s restaurant, where all the food had been transported. Her host sister was kind enough to let us use the restaurant and kitchen all to ourselves for the night! They even had a long table put together for us, with candles and everything. Aubrey gave a really nice Thanksgiving toast before we dug in. We had brie and crackers, turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (imported care of David), sweet potato casserole, broccoli casserole, cooked carrots with honey sauce, green beans with almonds, and of course stuffing as well. We even had pecan, apple, and pumpkin pies with whipped cream and ice cream for dessert (we made everyone have a sliver of each). So we certainly ate a ton, and had enough left over to give each family a goodie bag. Though, we learned the hard way that sweet potatoes are different in Ecuador than they are in the States…they are bright PURPLE! I have been saying that it looked like some weird alien food, especially with the marshmallows on top. So sadly, that was not the biggest hit at the table, and we decided just to leave it out of the goodie bags as well. But besides the florescent sweet potato casserole, everything else tasted just like home, well almost. And it was wonderful to see the Ecuadorians get excited about the different foods, especially the tastes of which they were unaccustomed. They seemed to love the cranberry sauce (it doesn’t exist here), the broccoli casserole, and the pumpkin pie the most. They also had a fun time eating family style with all the plates on the table, because that is never done here in Ecuador. I got a bit teary-eyed as I watched everyone laughing and talking over the Thanksgiving food…talk about a cross-cultural experience! Then we ended up staying until midnight washing all the millions of plates and such from the feast, and we passed the time by singing Christmas carols in true post-Thanksgiving fashion. So as far as we know, this was probably the first Thanksgiving Ambato has ever seen, and at least from my perspective it seemed to be a really special and memorable night.

On Friday night I went with Aubrey to her student’s capoeira show. Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that is a mixture of break dancing and fighting. Once we arrived to the club, we realized that the show was a part of the Miss/Mr. University pageant of sorts of the university where Aubrey teaches. I felt like I was back at Homecoming in high school again! There were 4 girls and 4 guys competing for the title- and they came out in different outfits, had their bios read aloud to everyone, and even each had their own screaming fan base, with signs and all! So while the pageant itself was quite entertaining, it didn’t compare to the capoeira. The capoeira was amazing to watch- it was basically choreographed fighting, where no one ever touches, yet the movements are very fast. Much of it seemed very Matrix-like. They even had one “fight” with knives and fire!

Saturday morning I woke up early for some bonding time with the men in my life- my host dad and brother. Every Saturday my host dad plays basketball with some of his students. He teaches physics at an all-girls school, and he believes that sports are important to release stress and to help clear the mind for studies (quite progressive for an Ecuadorian man, and he gives his students bonus points for participating). This was the first Saturday morning since I’ve been in Ambato that I’ve been free, so I finally was able to go. Marcelo and I played on the same team and it was so cute to have our brother-sister duo…with high fives and all. I also have a new respect for my host dad. While he is usually a timid, rather reserved man, he turns into a monster on the court! So it was a great way to start the morning, and I really enjoyed being “one of the guys” for a change. Then the day just kept getting better!

My friend Hilary from Riobamba came to spend the weekend with us Ambato ladies. She was such a good sport because I dragged her to two different birthday parties (on what happened to be my half birthday too!). Our family’s maid Maria and her son Gabriel live in the house with the rest of my family. Maria is one of my favorite people in Ecuador- so generous and loving, and she is such a good listener. Unlike my host mom who is super chatty and always has an opinion on everything (in the best of ways), Maria is content listening to me ramble and she is always so excited for me. Anyway, her son Gabriel turned 15 on Saturday, and we had a little celebration in the house. It’s a custom in Ecuador to smear a part of the cake onto the birthday boy/girl’s (cumpleañero/a) face- think wedding reception. Not a bad tradition if you ask me! Then later that night we had a surprise gathering for Aubrey’s host mom’s birthday. Aubrey made a delicious carrot cake for her, and the whole family came to celebrate. Hilary also got to eat the leftover Thanksgiving plate that we had made for her, as she hadn’t celebrated it yet! After the party we three ladies headed to Baños for the night to meet up with Dan and his friend Ryan who is visiting from the States. We proceeded to salsa the night away!

On Sunday, Aubrey, Hilary, Dan, Ryan, and I embarked on quite a great journey. We rented bikes (from the store where my student works) and made the 2-hour ride from Baños to the town of Rio Verde, traveling closer toward the jungle every pedal along the way. Sadly, though, Dan’s pedal kept falling off so he had to go back to Baños and met up with us in Rio Verde later. So without our fearless leader, we still trekked on. The scenery was amazing- lush green mountains and low-laying clouds the entire way. We even got to ride under a waterfall! We passed four of five huge waterfalls along the way, and at one we stopped and rode a “tarabita” across the river to get a better look. The tarabita is essentially a ski lift type thing, but it goes pretty fast! When we got to Rio Verde we met up with Dan to all go to El Pailon del Diablo together- it’s the biggest waterfall in all of Ecuador. We had to hike down a ways to see it, but what a sight it is! The waterfall itself is incredible, but what really got me was the tiny, rickety wooden bridge you have to cross in order to see the falls. It reminded me of that bridge in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It even mandated that only 5 people were allowed on it at a time. But the view from the bridge was breathtaking and well worth a bit of height freight.

It was also so refreshing for me to spend time with Ryan and to hear his outsider’s perspective on the country. I think after 3 months here I have already become accustomed to so much, so it was enjoyable to hear his reactions and comments about certain aspects of Ecuadorian life and cultural- things that I hadn’t given thought about for awhile. For example, he pointed out how weird it was to see stray dogs everywhere or how odd it is that cars honk whenever they come to an intersection. Yet for me, I just consider those things routine now. He also went on about how generous and loving Ecuadorians are, and that is one thing that I haven’t yet lost appreciation for, though it’s always good to be reminded. So it was nice to have a new perspective to listen to, and to remind myself of my first reactions living here and learning about the culture. I will have to make sure in the coming months to stop every once in awhile and to think back on these little things that become commonplace so quickly.

Lastly, and this is a big one, the volcano is spurting LAVA!!! Last night my students and I watched it exploding from our classroom window. It looked like red fireworks shooting from its mouth. Apparently it started on Monday night and the scientists think the biggest explosion will be tomorrow. We aren’t in any danger in Ambato, but some of my students are from Baños, and the countryside near them is definitely at risk. Ambato might get some ash falling, though, which I sort of hope happens because it’s supposed to look like snow (and I am trying to get into the Christmas spirit after all). Tomorrow I think we are all going to watch the volcano together from Aubrey’s roof! The last time Tungurahua erupted was August 16, 2006, so it’s been over a year. I’m glad I at least have been able to see her in action in my time here, yet I hope she doesn’t cause any real damage. Last year some houses in the country were destroyed, along with livestock, so fingers crossed that we can enjoy the beauty this year without the payment.

Therese, our director, is visiting this week for our respective site visits. Then we are all going out to a big dinner, care of WT, on Friday night. This coming weekend begins the independence festivals in Quito, and I might head up there for a night or two to check it out. There will be bull fights, concerts, markets, and of course lots of food…so I at least want to get a taste of it. More to come next week. Miss you all…the Christmas countdown has begun!

To Market, To Market

I am sorry this is a week late! This week I'm posting 2 entries because I never got around to putting this one online last week. I wrote this all last week though, so bare with me if it is a bit confusing. On Saturday morning my host dad dropped me off at the bus station at 5:30am so that I could catch a bus to Quito. I wanted to meet up with my friend Mark from the coast because he and his housemate were only going to be in the area for the weekend. They planned on taking a day trip to the market down of Otavalo on Saturday, and they were kind enough to let me tag along. Mark's friend Peter is from England and is studying in Ecuador for 5 months for his major in Spanish...then he will be off to study in France to complete his French requirements. Peter and Mark happen to live in the same house in Santa Elena, and they were a ton of fun to hang out with over the weekend. I love Eden and Aubrey to death, but I was beginning to miss some quality time with guy friends! So, I met the boys in La Marsical, our old stomping grounds in Quito, for a big American breakfast on Saturday morning before we headed to Mark's old Quito host family's house. Now, I had heard about this family for weeks during orientation and about how wonderful they are, so it was great to actually get to meet them! We took a tour of the house and the roof had the most amazing panoramic view of the entire city.

The family is just so incredibly generous and welcoming. They told me that their house is my house and that I am welcome there whenever I would like. I know I'll definitely take them up on their offer in the future. The family includes the parents Marci and Miguel, their children Miguelito, Vivi, and Javier (ages range from early 20ish to early 30s), Vivi's husband, and their beautiful 3-month-old baby girl, Estefania. We all pitched in to make lunch, and I finally learned how to make one of my favorite Ecua dishes- bolas de verde. The steps include mashing up green bananas (cousins of yellow bananas), cupping the mush in your hands to make a bowl, inserting ground beef, corn, onions, and eggs, and then closing up the ball with some more mush. The ball is then placed into the broth while it cooks...sooo tasty! We had a traditional Ecuadorian feast for lunch, before Mark, Peter, and Miguel (Mark's host dad) took us to Otavalo.

Miguel grew up in Otavalo and his parents still live there, so he goes there almost every week. It's about a 2-hour bus ride north from Quito, so we arrived around 4:30pm. Otavalo is famous for having the largest market in South America- the vendors practically take over all the streets and squares in the town. Behind Quito and the Galapagos islands, it is the most frequented tourist site in the country. I went to the Otavalo market last year and bought a painting of an indigenous little girl that I had hanging in my bedroom all this past year. Little did I know when I bought it that I would be back to the market so soon! But since we arrived so late, the market was beginning to shut down and people were packing up their goods. We did have enough time, though, for Peter to buy an original Panama Hat (if you thought they were just from Panama...think again! Ecuador is famous for them as well) and Mark bought a bunch of Christmas presents. I somehow restrained myself from buying anything because I am going to go Christmas shopping in the market town of Salasaca outside of Ambato during their festivals in December. One of the highlights of Saturday, though, was meeting up with our friend Anita! Anita is the Australian who was with Mark and I during our mountain incident in September. Since we last saw her, she has spent 4 weeks in the Galapagos and now has been in Otavalo for 2 weeks taking Spanish classes and volunteering. It was so great to see her and to catch up. It's amazing how Ecuador really does feel so small sometimes...and I guess in reality it is!

Miguel took us to his parents' house for bread and tea, and they were the cutest little old people I have ever seen. They were so sweet and caring, and they each looked like they were about 110 years old. They have 10 children, though, so that no doubt that has given them some extra wrinkles. Then we turned on the soccer game and watched the first half of the Ecuador-Paraguay game, which did not get off to a good start (we ended up losing). We left around 8pm to catch the bus back to Quito so that we could meet up with the other WT vols in the city that night. Sure enough, though, after about an hour on the bus, the bus stopped and we sat there for about 30 minutes. Finally we found out that there was a roadblock because the following day happened to be the Festival of the Virgin of Quinche (another name for Blessed Mary). That meant that hundreds of devotees were walking in the streets throughout the night to make a pilgrimage to this holy site where apparently many Ecuadorians have been cured of various ailments. And of course it had to be the same night I was traveling south to Quito...I am cursed with weird bus luck apparently. So we ended up having to turn the bus around and return to Otavalo and we stayed at Miguel's parents' house for the night. Always an adventure!
I really wouldn't have minded this change of plans at all if I didn't already have plans early Sunday morning in Ambato. I had planned on taking an early bus back so that I could meet up with Dan to go to our director's house in the country for the day. Sadly, I never made it back in time to go. I was really bummed to miss going to his house, but I know we will reschedule for another time.

On Monday morning I took my third visit to my student Marco's school to work on English with the children there. This time 4 of the English teachers observed my classes so that they could learn techniques on teaching English. All I could think the whole time was how I felt so unqualified for such a role, but they all seemed to really like many of the "total language" techniques that WT teaches its volunteers. I try to never use Spanish in my classroom and I use a lot of pictures on the board and acting out in class, which they seemed to find helpful! So it was nice to be able to share some of my teaching experiences with them, and hopefully they will feel more confident teaching English in their own classrooms now.

The rest of this week has been busy with classes and Thanksgiving preparations. In class we learned about house vocabulary and place prepositions such as behind, across, under, to the left, etc. Today, though, we had a Thanksgiving celebration because I canceled classes for tomorrow for Thanksgiving Day. I prepared a worksheet with the history of Thanksgiving, current Thanksgiving Day customs, and of course a menu for the feast! I even brought in photos of Thanksgiving food and from my own family Thanksgivings of the past to share with my class, and they really seemed to enjoy them (especially the photos of American football!). I was really touched because the students in my night class surprised me with turkey sandwiches for the whole class, because they knew how much I love the holiday. The generosity of people in this country never fails to amaze me. Finally, this morning Aubrey and I finished getting the ingredients for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night...and we will be in the kitchen pretty much all day getting everything ready. I can't wait to see what all the Ecuadorians think about Thanksgiving, and especially of all the food. Full report to come on that next week.

I will certainly be missing all my family and friends back home tomorrow! Just know that I am thinking about you all and that I hope you all have a fabulous holiday. Gobble Gobble!

A Bit of This and That

Photos are up! I finally sat down at a "speedy" internet cafe for 5 hours last Friday to upload them all.  Sorry it's been so long since I have posted. Busy week I guess! I was also thrown off because I had a four-day weekend last weekend, so I didn't sit down to write my blog as usual last Sunday. Things have been good in classes the last two weeks. Last week we went over daily routines, and for an assignment my students emailed some friends back home to practice their new English skills. Thanks so much for those of you who helped me out with the project! I think my students really enjoyed it. And yes, they are STILL in the process of sending them...being timely isn't always one of their strong points. This past week we learned about emotions, personality adjectives, and physical descriptions. Yesterday in class they described the man or woman of their dreams, which was quite funny to hear. I am really excited about sharing Thanksgiving customs with them all next week. It's really touching how curious they are about the holiday, especially because I rave about it so much. I think I'm going to make them all apple pie too...mmmm.

So last weekend was really enjoyable, especially since it was so long. I met up with Eden, Aubrey, and some of their students for our second English Club gathering on Friday evening. I think it was a success yet again. Then Aubrey's students invited us to an invitation-only club opening just a block or two from my neighborhood. The club is called "Milk," in English, and all the staff members were wearing "got milk?" t-shirts. Talk about copyright violations (and that definitely wasn't the first I've seen around town...)! So we went there for a little bit, but I was pretty tired and headed home early.

Then on Saturday I took a "paseo" with Eden, Aubrey, and six of my students to a student's uncle's house outside of the town of Patate. His uncle has a farm house with a gorgeous view of the mountains, the river, and Volcán Tungurahua. We had such a great Saturday afternoon! My students brought TONS of food and they spent the morning in the kitchen preparing it all. Then we had a huge BBQ with steaks and sausages...it was incredible. So we just spent the day chit-chatting and listening to music, and of course indulging in the delicious food as well. The crazy weather added even more charm to the afternoon. It was very sunny when we arrived, but a huge rain storm moved in (thankfully right after we finished BBQing), and we were all trapped indoors while the rain was pouring outside. And then the rain let up right when it was time to return to Ambato! So it was definitely a fun afternoon, and I loved getting to know my students better in such a relaxed, informal setting. Saturday evening the ladies and I headed to Supermaxi to research Thanksgiving ingredients and to buy food for my American meal that I had planned for my host family on Sunday. After an entirely too-long stay in the store (we seem to always get sucked in there), the gals came back and we had a relaxing girls' night in my house just watching TV and hanging out.

I work up early on Sunday and starting preparing my American meal for my family right away. My host mom was so excited about the idea of me cooking for everyone. She and Maria helped me in the kitchen all morning, cutting fruits and vegetables and getting everything ready. I definitely am not much of a cook, but I must say I was pretty impressed with everything when lunch was ready! We had fruit salad, a veggie salad, French bread, chicken pot pie, and peanut butter cookies for dessert. It was so interesting being watched as I was preparing everything. First of all, baking barely exists here in Ecuador. It's impossible to find cookies or brownies in any bakeries in town, they only have tons of bread selections and cakes. So because of this, not only did I have to buy a cookie tray, but no one in my family really knew how to use the oven. They had also never before seen peanut butter (!!!!!) or croutons. Everyone was so fascinated with both at the table, I couldn't help but to chuckle to myself. They had also never before had raw broccoli! I chopped some up and put it in the salad, and they really liked it. I was very proud of them because they didn't think they could survive a meal without rice, and sure enough they did. I think they all really enjoyed the meal, and the cultural experience that accompanied it. And it was so fun for me to bring a little bit of the States to our dining room table. Wait till they see our Thanksgiving feast next week though...they don't know the amazing American food they have to look forward to!

On Monday I didn't have classes because of Ambato's Independence Day. Every city in Ecuador seems to have its own independence celebration, and Ecuadorians sure do know how to party. Ambato's independence festivities, though, aren't all that big though (they save their energy for the HUGE Ambato festival in February for Mardi Gras). So this past Monday they had a parade in the morning down one of the main streets downtown, and it's a big honor for high school kids to march in the parade. People stake out seats early in the morning, but in my opinion there really isn't that much to see. After watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV as a kid, watching high school kids marching in band uniforms isn't all that exhilarating. But it is nice that the entire city comes out to support the students, and it is so apparent that Ambateños really have such deep-seated pride in their city. I actually only saw the end of the parade and the students getting back on their school buses, but I must say I did enjoy the extra day off from class!

In other news this past week, Eden has fleas. Yes, fleas. I would have tried to spare her some pride by not publishing this fact, but she has such a good sense of humor that she encouraged me to note it in my blog. Poor thing, she has all these funny little red bumps all over her and it was our mission this past week to accurately diagnose her. Eden is now an expert on fleas after all her research. We thought it might have been scabies or some allergic reaction, but after intense studying, discussion, and analysis, we all agree that she does in fact have fleas. This could be a result of a few factors- we slept on the floor in Cuenca, the dog in her house just had puppies, or fleas possibly could have jumped onto her as she was walking past some of the many stray farel dogs who roam throughout Ambato. I guess we'll never know. But man, if I were a flea, I would not want to go up against Eden- she is one tough cookie. She immediately took on military-like defense tactics to protect herself. She washed all her clothes and sheets, bug sprayed everything in her room millions of times, and best yet, she sleeps in her "bug suit," complete with socks pulled over her pants, hood over her head, and her shirt tucked into her pants with a belt so that it doesn't come un-tucked over night. All her valiant efforts have seemed to pay off though, and she has been flea-free for a few days now. Congrats Eden!

Finally, last night had some excitement of its own. My host brother Marcelo joined me for my evening class because he had off a few days this week from his university. It was so fun having him as a student for a few hours. He seemed to really enjoy the class, and though he has taken many English classes, he said he learned some new words and expressions. Then, later when we were home, we had a tremor! I was going to use the word "earthquake," but I know Eden, the quasi-geologist of the group, would greatly disapprove:) It had a magnitude of 6.7 and it was about 75 miles below the earth near the border of Ecuador and Peru. It lasted about 35 seconds. The whole house was shaking and the lamps were swinging, but it really wasn't all that strong. It just felt like I was sitting in one of those Brookstone vibrating chairs at the mall. But after the earthquake in Chile a few days ago, I was definitely a bit frightened. As far as the news goes, it doesn't seem like it caused much damage throughout the country and no injuries to be heard of thus far. But last night proved yet again that here in Ecuador you have to always be ready for the unexpected!

That's about all I have to report for now. I am off to meet my friend Mark from Santa Elena in Quito tomorrow, and we're going to take a trip with his old host family to Otavalo. I was in Otavalo and the indigenous villages surrounding it with my ASB trip last year, so I'm excited to go back! Eden's boyfriend David arrives tomorrow for his second visit, so it will be fun to have him here for Thanksgiving next week (he's also bringing us some American ingredients that don't exist here). Aubrey is heading up the Thanksgiving festivities here in Ambato, and by all her planning so far, I think we are in for a real treat. Lastly, this Sunday Dan and I might go to our director's house in the country, so we shall see! Have a great weekend everyone and and very happy Thanksgiving next week. Enjoy the time with your families and watch some football for me! xoxo

Days of the Dead

It's November! Boy do I miss the falling leaves, the smell of fires in fireplaces, pumpkins on doorsteps, and the beautiful autumn weather. Even though autumn doesn't exist here in any shape or form, a few times this week I did get the feeling that a little bit of the fall might have just found its way down here to Ecuador.

 

Last Monday I finally made myself go to one of Ambato's famous Monday markets. I don't know what took me so long to go! It was amazing to see all of the indigenous men and women in their beautiful clothing buying all their food for the week. It was really an incredible sight- people, fruits, vegetables, meats, rice, bread, and clothing in every direction in an amazing assortment of colors. Since I only went to the market in the center of town, I will have to work my way up to the HUGE market that's right across the street from my school. From what I've heard, this other market will put the one I visited to shame. We shall see!

On Halloween I convinced Eden, Dan, and Aubrey to go with me to one of my favorite Ambato spots that I've been to so far. We four now have a standing gringo lunch date on Wednesdays, so I took them to a place my host parents took me to in the barrio of Atoche. This little restaurant is outdoors with vines hanging above, and it's known for its empanadas cooked in a huge outdoor oven and the traditional drink of colada morada. This past week was the week of coloada morada in all of Ecuador because it's a custom to drink it on el Día de los Difuntos, or All Soul's Day, on November 2nd. I absolutely love colada morada- it's like a thick juice that is made with all sorts of berries and is served warm. So delicious! So I was happy that the other three seemed to enjoy the colada morada too...and little did we know how much we would have over the next few days!

In class on Wednesday I went all-out with Halloween. I dressed up as a bruja (a witch) all in black and I bought some black lipstick and a witch hat to go with it. My students chipped in some money so that I could get them all candy, and I must admit I went a bit overboard. I taught them all about trick-or-treating (and made them do it to get their candy) and we did Halloween puzzles and learned Halloween vocab, listened to the Monster Mash and a scary sounds CD, and even made mummies out of eachother with rolls of toilet paper! Many of my students wore orange and black to class, and some even had costumes. My night class had both a gypsy and a guy in a George Bush mask (see photo). Teacher Dan dressed up too, as a creepy old man no less, and came to join in on the fun as well. I really enjoyed sharing all the Halloween customs with my students, especially seeing them have so much fun with it. Though I really did miss seeing tons of little kids walking around in costumes all throughout the day. I saw one little kid downtown in a Batman costume in the morning, and it put a huge smile on my face!

So Ecuadorians don't really celebrate Halloween, but they sure go all-out for el Día de los Difuntos on November 2nd. Since I don't have classes on Friday, my students decided to celebrate it in class on the 1st. They brought colada morada and guaguas de pan for everyone in the class. Now, guagua (pronounced wawa) is the Quichua word for baby...so we eat baby-shaped pieces of bread. The tradition started a few hundred years ago when a town to the South had a terrible epidemic that killed off hundreds of babies in the town. The town made bread in the shape the babies to honor them on All Soul's Day, and the tradition has continued ever since. So not only did I have bread babies in class, but a student gave me some to take home, and I had them in my own home on Friday! Needless to say, it was a carb-heavy few days. On Friday morning my family took Eden and I to a graveyard in Pelileo to visit my "great-grandmother," as is the tradition on el Día de los Difuntos. Pretty much everyone in Ecuador goes to the cemetery to visit deceased loved ones and they leave flowers and food at their graves. The indigenous men and women actually have a picnic at the grave site, with tons of food and liquor, to honor and remember their loved ones. I was expecting to walk into the cemetery into a very solumn atmosphere, and it was quite the opposite! There were tons of vendors outside of the cemetery selling food, flowers, kids' toys, you name it. As you can see below, not only were there tons of people inside, but they had people playing music, kids were running around- it was really quite a fun affair. Eden pointed out how comforting it must be for Ecuadorians to know that every year their friends and family will come visit them at their graves and have such a celebration. It's definitely a different perspective on death than many of us have in the States, and I was so thankful to be able to witness it all first-hand.

After some more colada morada at home that morning (every family makes a pot of their own), Aubrey, Eden, and I headed 7 hours south to Cuenca! Our friends Annie and Javier from Quito picked us up in Javier's Land Rover and we had quite the road trip together. Not only did we have the amazing scenery of the Andes Mountains for the entire trip, but we also saw the most gorgeous sunset. We even got a a point where we were so far above the clouds and they looked like the ocean below us. And Cuenca is such a breath-taking city. It definitely has a European feel with its cobblestone streets and old, Colonial buildings. The whole city, actually, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (shout out to the Rotunda at UVa!). We met up with about 25-30 of our fellow volunteers in Cuenca for it's independence day festivities, and I think everyone just fell in love with the city. I will definitely be going back a few times! It is just so clean and picturesque, with a beautiful river running through the city as well. We went to some artisan markets, watched a military parade, went to a concert on Saturday night, and just spent a lot of time walking around and taking in the city. It was especially great to spend time with the other volunteers and to share our experiences of teaching and and living in Ecuador thus far. On Sunday morning we all had a HUGE homemade American breakfast together...and I had forgotten how great breakfast can be! My time with the other volunteers in gorgeous Cuenca definitely recharged my batteries for the week ahead.

Now, probably the most entertaining part of the week (actually it wins hands down) was our trip back from Cuenca to Ambato. The five of us were supposed to leave around 11am so that we would get back to Ambato early in the evening. Well, the woman who owns the garage that Javier parked his car in decided to up and leave on Sunday morning with no warning. Apparently no one in Cuenca, including the hotel that uses the garage, has a copy of the garage key!! Oh Ecuador, you and your many surprises. Besides being really frustrated, we all couldn't help but laugh when considering our crazy luck. While the others decided to wait for the woman to return (6pm was their earliest guess), we Ambato ladies rushed to the bus terminal and caught a bus that was pulling out of the station as we arrived. Since the bus was full, though, we had to ride up front in a separate compartment with the driver and his attendant, and various other passengers along the way. I can't even begin to describe what a funny experience it was! We were playing salsa music and everyone was sharing food- it was like one great big bus party traveling through the Andes. We even had our own little jobs- I pressed some buttons on the dashboard, Aubrey got stuck with door duty a couple times, and Eden even got behind the wheel at one point (when the bus was stopped) and the driver let her honk the horn while we were driving. We even got a discount because the attendant said we were buena gente, or good people. So besides the terribly uncomfortable seating arrangments (my rear is still a bit soar), it was definitely a fun trip and an experience I won't soon forget.

It's time for me to head to class now, but I hope you all have a wonderful week! And a very very happy birthday to Kara on Wednesday...congrats on the big 23!! I'll hunt down a piece of cake

to have in your honor tomorrow. I hope it's a great birthday for you! Love you all and I'll be in touch soon again. xoxo

Hanging with the Locals

I've been here now for 2 months! Time is so strange here- the days are so long but the weeks just fly by. This past week was one in which I really seemed to find myself in interesting Ecua-situations with the locals. And after it all, I must say I feel a bit more Ecua myself:)

My students had a unit on food this past week, so I figured we should celebrate by having food in class on Thursday. Little did I know how seriously Ecuadorians take the word "party!" My initial idea was that each student would bring something from home, so that we could eat and practice vocab at the same time. Well, they decided that they would rather order food from a restaurant and bring it to class. Both classes had oral quizzes for the first hour of class, in which they had to have a mock restaurant conversation between a waiter and the people ordering. They did such a great job. I loved to see their creativity- especially when one student asked for the "waitress's" number during the conversation! My first class had a pizza party, catered by the uncle of the 10-year old student in my class. They were so serious about it that they had him come on Wednesday with a sample pizza so that the whole class could decide if they liked it. Then my night class came with 30 Styrofoam platters of chicken, fries, and salad! I have never seen so much chicken in my life. They broke out the CD player and salsa music, and my classroom turned into a dance club for the last 30 minutes of class. So much for practicing vocabulary! But they definitely deserved the fun.

Then on Friday I went to my Madre's school for a festival. She is the Sub-Inspector General at a pretty prestigious all-girls school in town. (I'm still not quite clear on what she really does as the SIG). The school is celebrating its anniversary, though I'm not sure which one, so they are having many celebrations over the next few weeks. She told me that Friday would be a fun day to visit because all the girls would be dressing up in costumes and presenting various dances. I was expecting to show up and see choreographed dances, maybe with a sampling of some traditional or indigenous dances. That's not at all what I got though! Basically I was at a middle school dance. We were all in the gymnasium at 4pm with the lights on, all the teachers were standing around, and most of the girls seemed to be wearing costumes with either high heels or their tummies showing! Boys from other schools showed up too, some in costumes, and everyone was dancing to the DJ's current hit music. Talk about feeling like I went back in time about 8 years. I had this sudden itch to go hide in the girls’ bathroom with friends;) But it was definitely a fun experience to see what a middle school dance is like here in Ecuador- and besides the music and the time of day, it really wasn't all that different from back home. The best part, though, was that one of my students was there and he came up and asked me to dance! After I got over the awkwardness of the situation, it was really fun dancing with him and his friends- I kinda felt like the cool girl in school. And my Madre could not have been more thrilled about the fact that I got up and danced- she wanted to go find me more guys to dance with, but I told her that wasn't really necessary.

Friday night I met up with Eden and Aubrey and some of their students for the first meeting of our English Club. Eden had the idea of giving our students the opportunity of getting together in a more casual setting to practice their English, so we all met at the well-known pizza place in town. Only one of my students showed up (again the 10-year old) because I think they were intimidated that Eden and Aubrey's students are all in the advanced level. Hopefully I can get more to come out next time! It was fun getting to talk to the girls' students, though, and the pizza certainly lived up to its reputation. I also got two scoops of their famous ice cream for 50 cents! Incredible. After dinner we all went dancing at a Halloween-themed party, which was quite interesting. Salsa dancing next to Dracula is a strange experience I assure you. Eden and I called it a night a bit early, and left Aubrey to entertain her students on the dance floor.

On Saturday morning we three ladies met up with 6 of Aubrey's students in a park downtown. We hopped in a student's pickup and headed about 15 miles outside of town to a place called Aguaján, which is this gorgeous park set in a valley in the mountains. We went scaling up this crazy-steep mountain, grabbing onto plants and rocks or anything  else that would prevent us from sliding down. The view was fabulous when we got to the top, though. And getting down was no small task either. Eden had the best policy and just slid down on her rear the whole way! Once we had all rested a bit, we played our very first fútbol game in Ecuador. It was amazing to be playing soccer with such a breathtaking backdrop. I even scored a goal! The students had brought tons of food for a picnic, and they were so sweet to treat the three teachers to everything. The entrance to the park only cost $2, but there were pools, saunas, basketball and volleyball courts, and playground, and BBQ area, a creek with llamas hanging out by it, and more! Some of the students went swimming a bit while we just relaxed with our feet in the water.

Then, right before we left, we all took a turn on a zipline that started from this amazingly cool treehouse. I had to laugh to myself that of course there were no warning signs, liability waivers, or even a seatbelt on the zipline chair! Some things here are just so different from back home in the States. But as I was telling Aubrey, I really admire something about the fact that everything here in Ecuador isn't about rules and liabilities. Life is just more laid back here and people are held responsible for their own actions. I wish the States could adapt a bit more of that mentality- maybe we wouldn't have such high stress levels if people just learned to relax a bit, go with the flow, and take things as they come. We sure got another taste of that on the ride home too...I think it was my favorite part of the day! We rode home in the back of the pickup truck in the true Ecua-fashion, about 6 of us piled back there (I know what you're thinking Mom and Dad, but just remember George Allen said it should be legal in Virginia too! haha). But we had the most amazing views on the drive home and the weather was just perfect. When in Ecuador, do as the Ecuadorians, right?

I did get my fair share of gringo time this week as well. Last night Eden, Dan, and I went to Becca's (the Peace Corps volunteer) apartment for dinner. Becca had made spaghetti with an incredible sauce of garlic, eggplant, tomatoes, and squash all from scratch. It was fantastic! Dan had never seen the movie Mean Girls, so we all watched that- and I mean, how much more American can you get?! And though he was a bit skeptical at first, he loved the movie in the end. Speaking of Peace Corps, today is Daniel Cullop's birthday and I actually got a call through to him in Africa! It was so great to finally talk to him after 5 weeks and to hear about how happy he is with his Peace Corps experience there so far. We were joking saying it was probably the very first call ever made from Ecuador to Togo, and that might not actually be that far from the truth. It's amazing to think of that call leaving South America, traveling across the Atlantic, and reaching him in his hut in an African village- well, in theory at least. Technology is working to my favor again right now because I am watching the World Series on TV...but in Spanish of course. And though I have no idea what the announcers are saying (I'm obviously not up to par on my Spanish baseball terminology), they certainly do sound cool with their deep voices and all their rolling Rs. This is game four and Boston is up 3-0 in the series, so hopefully they can pull through tonight and sweep the Rockies! I have to cheer for the American league team of course (though it is fun thinking that I was at a Rockies game this past August). I really think I might be the only person in Ambato watching the game right now because literally no once plays baseball here. But if I can play fútbol and not make a complete fool of myself, maybe there is some hope for baseball one day in Ecuador as well.

This week I have Halloween and Día de los Difuntos (Nov.2) festivities to look forward to with my students, so I am excited to see how that turns out. Then on Friday the Ambato gals are heading to Cuenca to reunite with all our other WT volunteers for the Cuenca Independence Day festivities! So I should have much to report next week. Until then, just know that I am thinking of you all often! I can't tell you the number of times I pull out my photo album when I miss my family and friends. I wish you could all be here with me! You are certainly all in my thoughts, and please keep those emails coming so that I know what you all are up to. Have a frightfully fantastic (sorry couldn't help myself) Halloween and please please eat some Reese's for me because they don't exist here! xoxo

Beach Bum

Sitting down to write an entry is always such a task because so much happens here in a week (and a half this time)! But I do love an excuse to think back upon it all. My second week of teaching went pretty well, though every day is a mixture of trials and errors, successes and failures. But I really do enjoy myself during class, and I love getting to know my students. Last week we learned about time, weather, the verb "to have"...so not the most exciting material in the world, but it went OK overall. The class didn't do all that great on their first exam, so that was a bit discouraging, but I just have to remember starting a new language is very hard, especially in those first few weeks. So hopefully they'll just get better!

I went to an aerobics class twice last week and it was incredible! I have never stood out so much in my life, though, because not only do I look totally different than everyone else in the class, but I'm also a half second behind in every move because I have no idea what the instructor is saying. But I've really enjoyed it and it's a great way to start the day. It was really funny- on my first day the woman at the front desk said that she had seen my friends there the day before, assuming that the only other "gringas," or non-Ecuadorian-looking people, obviously had to be my friends (which of course they had been!). And the gym employees are really intense- they always pushing us to work harder, run longer, use more weights, etc. I think pobrecita Aubrey is still sore from her abs workout last week (any non-Hulk Hogan would be!).

But now to cut to the chase- THE BEACH! So there's a WT volunteer who lives in the tiny coastal town of Montañita who has been lucky enough to house-sit for an American couple's hostel while they are out of town for 3 weeks. Lisa totally deserves it though, she usually lives in a one room apartment with no kitchen or anything (affectionately called the "hot box"). So all the Ambato volunteers headed to the beach- Dan and I after our classes on Thursday and the girls came to meet us when they finished classes Friday. The weekend was just a blast. The hostel we were in was huge- so we each got our own bed with beds to spare. On Friday I swam in the Pacific (not too cold), ate the traditional coastal food of ceviche (mix of fish, shrimp, and some veggies in like a vinegary broth), and then we had a huge BBQ/dance party on the patio while looking out at the ocean. Needless to say, it was well-worth the 12 hour trip to get there. Then on Saturday we went surfing! Lisa is friends with some surfers on the Ecuadorian national team that were kind enough to give us some lessons. Montañita has a prominent surfer community because it is known to have the best waves in Ecuador. Surfing was a lot of fun, and I actually pseudo-stood up on the board! Then again, I was in pretty shallow water and I looked ridiculous trying, but it was fun just to feel like a surfer chick for an hour or so. Then Saturday just kept getting better. Lisa's friend who owns a surf shop took us to this restaurant on the beach about 30 minutes north in the town of Las Tunas. We were the only ones in the outdoor restaurant and it had the most incredible view! The photo above is of me sitting in the hammock right outside the restaurant's entrance. Mark from Santa Elena came to meet us there as well, and it was so great to see him again! Then we all piled back in the van and drove north on the coast to the well-known town of Puerto Lopez. Along the way we stopped at a gorgeous overlook, and you can see the whole WT gang there in the photo- BobbiLe, Aubrey, Mark, Eden, Dan, Lisa, and me. This picture cracks me up! We finally got back to Montañita and got ready for a night on the town. The highlight of the night was definitely the wedding that we crashed (!!!). Since the town is so small, and since Lisa is a celebrity (I'll get to that in a minute), we all got to go to the wedding, and what an experience that was! We salsa danced, toasted the bride and groom, and hung in there with the best of them until the wee hours of the morning.

Montañita itself is an incredible place to visit- it embodies such extremes. On the bus ride there I could not get over the vast poverty- dirt roads, cinder block homes, barefooted children. Though I know there is a lot of poverty in Ambato, it certainly doesn't manifest itself like it does in a small coastal town. Lisa's living conditions are SO different than mine, and I almost envy how she can live with so little. But what a silly thing to envy when so many people in her town would do anything to sleep in my house in Ambato for a night. There are a few streets in the center of Montañita that cater to the tourists, and the joke of the whole weekend was that we felt like we were on a movie set. Thatched roofs, surf boards, fruit and jewelry vendors, palm trees...I felt like I walked into another world. And it's so fun walking around with Lisa as well, because literally EVERYONE knows her. It's impossible to walk with her for more than 10 steps without the old men on the bench, or children running down the street, or surfers walking by with their boards, or someone (anyone!), saying "Hi Teacher!" And that is what she is known by in the town- "La Teacher." She teaches 8 different English classes in the town, so she has a ton of students. And those who aren't her students know her just because she has such an well-known role in the town. I felt pretty cool just being associated with her for the weekend:)

So eventually the Ambato crew headed back onto a bus together at 2pm Sunday and made it back home around 2am. What a crazy trip it was! Our bus had some sort of engine trouble at one point- all we saw was one worker opening a huge trap door in the floor of the bus to look down onto the street while the bus was still driving. Then we watched this movie on the bus called Los Colombianos, which had a scene where everyone was on a bus and guerilla soldiers came on the bus and forced them off. Sure enough, after the movie was over, the police came on OUR bus, told us all to get off, and the bus was then searched for any illegal substances (apparently this is a common practice, especially on buses from Guayaquil to the Sierra). And then to cap it off, for the last few hours of our bus drive, while we were trying to sleep, two guys were standing next to us (they still sell tickets when they run out of seats) singing duets together. What could we do but just laugh at how riduculous the night had become? But that is what Ecuador is all about- never knowing what to expect, being up for anything, and in the end being very pleasantly surprised at fun new adventures and shared experiences.

And though I had a fabulous weekend at the beach, I should also say that living here isn't always easy- far from it! I do really miss family and friends sometimes, and it hits me at weird moments. Yesterday morning, for example, I was a pretty miserable person. The city had turned the water in my house off so I couldn't shower (after travelling from the beach for 12 hours), a woman at the bank was incredibly rude because I am an "extrañjera," and all I wanted to do was call family or friends back home who would just listen. But of course I couldn't get any calls to go through. Oh the fun of living in a developing country. But in those tough moments here, away from home, I know I have the other volunteers, my host family, and my students to cheer me up. Which they all did!

And today was such an incredible morning that it 150% made up for yesterday. I went with one of my students, Marco, to the town of Pillaro about 30 minutes away from Ambato. He is a director at a private bilingual school for kids from the town and from the campo nearby. It costs $24 for a student to go to school there each month, which many cannot afford, so obviously they are really hurting for money and resources. I agreed to go to the school and practice English with the children, since they so rarely come face-to-face with a native English speaker. Little did I know what I was getting myself into! I had a "Lisa-like" experience, and felt like I was back in Montañita, because by the end of the afternoon all the kids said "Hi Teacher!" or "Good morning Katie!" everywhere I went. I went into every classroom, all 13, and met with children from pre-school (sooo cute) up until the 8th grade. I went over colors, numbers, body parts, and such with the youngest kids, and the older kids played "hot-seat" with me. They got to ask me any questions in English and I then answered them back. My favorites were "Are you single?" and "Are you in love?" from children who could not have been more than 10 years old!! And yet again, everyone could not have been more generous. The teachers gave me roses and treated me to a lunch of soup at the school and then fritada in town. I'm going to try to rope Eden, Dan, and Aubrey into coming back to the school with me at some point, because they asked me to come back regularly if I can. And after such a splendid morning, how can I say no?

We are doing a lesson on food this week, so both of my classes are having pizza parties this week to celebrate, well...food! They have both also planned paseos, or field trips, for us all to take together in the coming weeks, so it's nice to have those trips to look forward to. But now it's time for me to lesson plan and head to bed. And I know I have been promising photos for I think over a month now, but in all honesty I have planned time into my schedule tomorrow to go to a fast internet cafe where I can apparently upload them (all the ones I have tried so far haven't worked!). So hopefully they will be up by tomorrow. And speaking of tomorrow, I wish you the HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS MOM!!! I love you and I wish I could be there to celebrate with you!! And I love the rest of you too...please send emails my way when you get a chance, letting me know what you've been up to...and all the nitty-gritty gossip as well.

Lastly, if you would like to send anything my way, I finally know my address. I can assure you anything would be much appreciated (and of course you'll get something in return). You can send things to:

Katie Appel
Casilla 18-01-1164
Ambato, ECUADOR

xoxo

¡Soy Profesora!

My first week of teaching has come and gone. Overall, I really enjoyed the week! I took it a bit easy and haven’t started going to the gym or anything yet- I wanted to get planning and teaching down first. So, this past week I usually woke up around 8am, had breakfast, and then did most of my lesson planning in my room. After a large Ecuadorian lunch with my family around 12:15, I would then go downtown to make photo copies. The first few days I went to Aubrey’s family’s tienda to make copies, and I loved seeing Aubrey’s little niece Emily who always yells “Kati, Kati!” when I come in the store. Aubrey’s family is really sweet and I like talking with them as they make copies for me. (There are no Kinko’s-like stores where you can make your own copies.) After making sure I have all my supplies ready for class, I usually catch my bus to SECAP and arrive there around 2:30pm. I have to get my classroom key from the security guards, and then I head up the 5 flights of stairs to my classroom. I have the entire 5th floor to myself! And by far the greatest aspect of my classroom is the amazing view I have of the smoking Volcano Tungurahua outside my window (check out the photo above…and no, that isn’t fire, it’s just the sun’s reflection in the smoke).

So, my first class begins at 3:45pm. There are about 25 people in the class, the youngest being a 10-year old girl and the oldest probably in her 50s. I have an indigenous woman in this class too, and she comes to class in her full traditional dress. I usually have a break for them around 4:45 and then we get out of class at 6:15pm. Then I usually take a break with Dan and go down to the “cantina” in the basement to get my 20-cent Coke Zero in a bottle (can you believe it?!), before heading up for my next class at 6:30pm. This class is a lot larger and the first day I had 40 students! Thankfully, it has settled a bit since then and I think now I have about 33 students in the class. This class has a bit of a different dynamic, with most of the students arriving after their daytime jobs, so they have a bit more of a professional vibe to them. We usually take a break around 7:30, and then the class gets out at 8:45 so everyone has time to make the 9pm bus. So I gather my things, lock up the classroom, return the key, and then jump on the bus myself to return home. I walk in my door usually around 9:20pm, have some tea with my host mom, and then head upstairs to relax and get to bed.

Since my classes are both Basic 1, we’ve had to start at square one. Because I never allow Spanish in my classroom, it can often be quite a challenge to get my point across. And throughout class I am continually surprised by the intricacies of the English language that jump out and surprise me. For example, together we call a mother and a father “parents,” but why don’t we have a plural term for an aunt an uncle together? My students wanted to know and I certainly didn’t know the reasoning behind it. That’s when I just smile and say, “that’s just how English is” and leave it at that. I do have this fear, though, that I am going to forget to teach them something vital, and their foundation of the English language will forever be unstable. But as Dan told me, you can always go back to teach something because language isn't linear. In orientation we learned the conceptualization of teaching language as a spiral instead of as a ladder- language constantly builds on itself and repeats itself, though getting a deeper and complex as the study progresses. So hopefully I won’t leave any permanent damage on my students’ understanding of English, and we can all just go through the learning process together. This week we covered such topics such as introductions, greetings, classroom vocabulary, the present of “to be”, the family, and basic plural and possession constructions. In four days they seemed to have learned a lot! And I must admit that my heart still warms every time I hear “teacher, teacher” from across the room when a student tries to get my attention.

I can already tell that the most rewarding aspect of teaching will be the connections I make with my students- they have me laughing through much of the class! I definitely do have some funny anecdotes from the first week of classes. First of all, I have a woman in my night class that brings her baby to class. Since the class is long and the baby apparently gets hungry, she has been known to breastfeed her son during the class. Now, seeing someone breastfeed can be awkward on its own, but it becomes even more awkward when one has to decide whether or not to call on a student while she is breastfeeding. Do I just ignore her? Do I pretend like nothing is different and treat her just like the other students? Oh the decisions a teacher has to make! We also had class elections in both of my classes on Thursday to elect a president and a treasurer. The president is in charge of planning class parties and class trips, and the treasurer manages the funds for such activities. The newly elected president in my night class, though, totally took over my class for a good 20 minutes to already start planning the November 2nd festivities for El Dia de los Difuntos, or the Day of the Dead. I guess it’s good the president is taking his job seriously! Lastly, I made a new best friend on my bus ride home. A woman who takes a computer class at SECAP is the last person on the bus with me when the driver drops me at home…and she has sort of taken me under her wing. On Wednesday she saved a piece of cake for me because she wanted to make sure I felt “home in Ambato.” I guess it’s nice to be spoiled sometimes. I am looking forward to more funny experiences with students and others in the many days to come!

So with my first week under my belt, I was definitely ready for the weekend. To celebrate the end of the week, Dan introduced me to a great shwarma place on Thursday night. A shwarma just says celebration, doesn’t it? And on that note, food always seems to be on my mind here…and not because I am hungry. Quite the opposite actually. Probably my main frustration with my host family is that they try to feed me way too much! For example, today I had soup, lasagna, salad, juice, and half a peach for lunch, and my host mom kept saying that I eat like a bird because I didn’t have second helpings or the huge mountain of rice that everyone else had! Every lunch is like a battle in the kitchen- I try to stay strong and stop eating when I am stuffed, and my family tries to convince me to keep eating. I think they are starting to get the picture, though. I was so proud of myself yesterday because I left a good half of the meal on my plate and I didn’t feel too guilty (which I usually do). But then the whole family took me on an outing to the nearby town of Pelileo and I didn’t realize until we arrived that the whole point of going was to introduce me to fritada, a “plato tipical” of Ecuador. So I got this huge heaping bowl of moté (a cousin of corn), fritada, which is fried pork cooked in a huge pot, and a fried plantain as well. So much for not eating a lot for lunch! But I actually LOVED the fritada, and it is definitely one of my favorite Ecuadorian dishes (though I don’t like to think about the fact that fritada is known for containing ALL parts of the pig…eek!). And I should say that the reason lunch so big here is that it is essentially the only meal of the day. In the morning I just have a piece of bread with coffee, and then tea when I get home at night from class. So lunch has to last all day long!

The gorge-fest had also been alive and well on Friday night, when Aubrey, Eden, and I treated ourselves to a girls’ night. I don't know what I would do without those girls- we seem to be each other's constant sounding boards and our own little Ambato support network. We went to Supermaxi and got some fabulous junk food to enjoy with the chick flick we watched at Aubrey’s house. It was definitely a much-needed night off. To justify it a bit, though, the three of us had a pretty intense private salsa lesson that afternoon, so we didn’t feel too bad. The salsa lesson was so much fun that we are trying to organize a private lesson maybe 3 or 4 times a month so we can maintain some pride when dancing out on the town. And since we are volunteers the owner of the studio is giving us lessons at half price, only $5 an hour!

I was a bit nostalgic and down in the dumps yesterday thinking of all my Wahoos together in Cville for UVa’s Homecomings festivities. The rest of Ecuador, though, was preoccupied by a huge World Cup-qualifying soccer game between Venezuela and Ecuador that took place in Quito (and I used to pass the stadium every day on the bus during training). It was “super chevere,” or super cool, walking through Ambato yesterday because literally every other person was proudly wearing Ecuador’s jersey. Tragically, though, Ecuador lost the game. So, I think I was the only happy sports fan in Ecuador last night because my Wahoos pulled through and won our football game. Go Hoos!

Also, last night all four of the Ambato WT volunteers went to a Peace Corp get-together at a PC volunteer’s apartment in town. It was so great meeting other volunteers and hearing all their stories. To be honest, I was a bit overwhelmed by all the “gringos” at first, because I hadn’t been with so many non-Ecuadorians in a few weeks! But they were all really friendly and provided great insight into life in Ecuador and the many challenges it can present. And if I thought I had it rough sometimes, it really compares nothing to what some of them have experienced. So I definitely know that I’ll stay in touch with a few of them during my stay here.

And now I just have a bit more planning to do before getting to bed and waking up early for my first aerobics class in the morning. I’m going to post pictures tomorrow morning, so make sure to check those out. Have a great week everyone…te extraño mucho!