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