Last one to get caught up

Alright folks, I'm weary of blogging. But yesterday did hold a few interesting events. In the morning Years 7-12 had the Juramento a la Bandera (Oath to the Flag) in which the year 7s are initiated into responsibility and citizenship or something and year 13s are pledging their lives to the country, because they used to soon go off and join the army. It's all for show and not taken too seriously here, but all the adults and parents take it very very seriously as a tradition to be done well. The ceremony, marches, oaths, and anthems were done well enough, and then one kid passed out. It was only 9:30 am, but the sun was pretty strong. And then, another passed out! And then, one by one, EIGHT kids from year 6 (who weren't even in the ceremony, but just watching) proceeded to pass out. 4 were eventually taken to the hospital (though rumor has it at least 2 were faking) and 2 were given sueros (iv fluids). It's the treatment of choice here for anything, really. Vommiting? Suero. Neausea? Suero. Cold? Suero. You just don't feel well? We'll give you a suero and clear it right up. Seriously strange.

And after the morning's drama, in the afternoon none of the buses could arrive on time because the taxis had bloquaded the road one town over. They eventually arrived from long detours, but all extracurriculars were cancelled (as was our staff meeting-hooray!) and students were at school an extra half hour.

With my new found time, I first typed up half these recent blog postings, then went home and listened to music all night with Monica who gets this funny reminiscent look on her face as she sways and sings along with all her favorite romantic music singers. Blah, I can only handle so much crooning and wooing before I need some percussion!

And then there's today, which saw me finally do some teaching! I had Year 12 as usual, then I took over Year 11 because John had to take his daughter to the hospital for a suero (no joke this time--she's actually dehydrated from parasitic infections). And I finished the day with Year 10, for which I am now officially responsible. Hooray for responsibility! (wow, who ever thought I'd say that?!)

So now I will leave you all to get caught up on the reading and commenting of these many long posts!

The Day of Rest

Yes, Sunday held true to its purpose this week. After sleeping for 7 hours (not bad for a night out), I awoke and had breakfast with Vanessa, María Rosa, and her mom, stepdad, aunt, and sister. We chatted quite a long time and I was much encouraged to hear the perspectives of other gals who want to be perfectly independent, y a la misma vez siguen buscando el amor. Yeah, that sentiment crosses fronteras, solteras compañeras.

I arrived home around 2 p.m. just in time to each lunch with the fam and then take a much-needed siesta. After being awake for maybe 4 hours to journal and read (and NOT to watch t.v.!), I went to bed! Gotta love Sundays.

Saturday Fatigue

Come 6 a.m., the students who had wanted to go signal-hunting decided they wanted to sleep instead, so I wandered off alone in a relatively level direction and explored a riverbed/ditch until breakfast. Even though it was not steep, there was a serious wind, which slightly complicated the Recapture and Release phases of the morning’s work. The wind exacerbated the students’ fatigue, but they continued to work pretty hard on the studies of volcanic succession on rocks and on the quadrat throwing/abundance determination of two speices. They were thrilled to be done, though, and were rewarded with a wonderful lunch, complete with birthday cake! It was more of a birthday loaf, but I shouldn’t complain—it had frosting! The added beauty of this whole weekend is that I didn’t have to pay a penny (no, I take that back—I paid the 16 and the 39 cent tolls because I had it handy)! How great is it to be a teacher?!

So after a long drive back, I arrived at my home around 6 p.m. with the sole intention of sleeping. I wasn’t even going to shower nor eat, but then Vanessa called. She is the daughter of Monica’s friend (the pediatrician of Sofy and Jairito) and had told me long ago that she would invite me out sometime to go dancing. Well, though I do love my sleep, I knew I had to aprovechar this invitation. She said two of her friends had a friend who was having una reunión (she didn’t know if she could call it a farra (fiesta) or not because she wasn’t sure there’d be dancing!) and we could always go elsewhere if we didn’t like it. And because taxis are carísimo at night, and she, too, lived outside of Quito, she and I would spend the night at her friend María Rosa’s house. The only other option is really to rent a hotel for a night, which ends up being about half the price of a taxi, believe it or not! So I ate, showered, and caught what might have been the last bus to Quito for the night (8:30 p.m.). María Rosa picked us up, we went to her house where she showered and got ready, and then we picked up the 3rd friend Caty around 11 p.m. Now, a little about these girls: I think they’re all 26 or so, and they’re super chévere! Vanessa is so nice and welcoming, is looking for a job as a tourism/hotel administrator, is taking French classes, and is happily single. Caty is very de moda (fashionable) and flirty and amazingly gorgeous, though it was quite sickening to see how alllllll the guys just ogled at her. And then there’s Maria Rosa, who basically is Amy. She studies interior/industrial design, has decorated her house in this amazing way (and some of her art is even on the walls, too!), is super skinny, has short hair (pretty rare here among girls), and is really down-to-earth. I miss you Ames! [by the way, in the most exciting news ever, she bought her plane tickets and is FOR REAL coming to visit me! Ay, the adventures we’ll have!!!]

But anyway, we get to the party and I know the guy! He used to teach at el British and now teaches English at a local university! What are the odds of my new Ecuadorian friends taking me to a party at the house of one of the 5 young people I know in the whole country?! It wasn’t terribly happening at first and we were planning on leaving, but then we started dancing a bit and I got in one good meringue. Boo. I long to salsa dance so badly!!!!! So at about 1 a.m. we decided to leave for real this time and we drove around the main night-scene part of Quito searching for a club that wasn’t charging cover. I was really happy to not be with a group who didn’t mind dropping $15 for a few hours, and in the end we just stopped at a popular hot dog stand, dropped Caty off, and went back to go to bed! We were all too tired to make going out worth it, and I’m not actually bummed at all with how the night ended up! And, uy was her bed comfortable!

Field Trip Day 2--Friday

I awoke at 6 a.m. to hike to the telephone signal with two of the girls, and we were blown away by the view! The sunrise wasn’t the most impressive, due to the colors fading by the time the sun rose above the mountains, but the view of Cotopaxi was increíble and there was virtually no wind. We climbed the first cerro, then walked and walked along the top of the ridge until we finally reached the post! By this point we had lost one of the girls, but she happily went back to the lodge to get showered (building on right, on slope of mountain). Now’s a good time to joyously proclaim that the lodge had hot water! The first day mine was rather lukewarm due to being last in line, but the second day I actually had to add cold water to not burn myself! My first hot shower in over a month!

Breakfast was fantastic, lots of fruits and granola and café, and then we set off to enjoy a day of perfect weather. If we thought we were lucky the day before, we were mightily blessed this day and could see Cotopaxi almost all day! I didn’t need my coat after about 11 a.m. and I amazingly didn’t get sunburned either (though many did) In the morning we did the first two steps in the Capture-Mark-Release-Recapture technique for estimating population sizes. We used these wingless beetles that huddle under rocks, most of the time found in pairs, copulating, thus bearing the name culiaringo. Impressively, only a few students were afraid to touch them (lucky for me I could just direct and delegate) and they got to paint them rather than hold them. We then went to the laguna where I got to join a group due to uneven numbers and perform transects and data collections along the footpath to evaluate the erosion due to tourists. I had never done that before (never had geography), and I really enjoyed it! We did two before lunch, two after, and then the students collected soil samples from 4 different vegetation zones to be tested later for pH and nitrogen content. After a long, physically draining day, we returned for dinner and report write-ups. And, thankfully, a long night of deep sleep! We had lights at about 9, and the first thing I heard was my alarm that went off at 6 a.m.

Parque Nacional Cotopaxi

This past Thursday we set out on our Year 12 Biology/Geography field trip in the morning, arrived at the park, and were postponed from entering because the park worker demanded cédulas from each students, which they hadn’t brought! After much discussion it worked out fine, agreeing to only charge them the nacionales rate ($2) and making only me pay the $10 extranjera rate. The next alteration we encountered was the museum being closed due to rennovations. It wasn’t actually closed as much as it was empty/demolished inside. So John ad-libbed a bit and talked about ecology until time for lunch. We then drove to the lodge Tambopaxi where we’d be staying before heading to la Laguna Limpiopungo. There we learned from Peter (geography teacher) the techniques to perform transects. Along our walk we also found an impressive number of easily identifiable bones and dissected animal pellets! We returned to the lodge, split up and hiked around for an hour before dinner. Some of the students desperately wanted a cell phone signal, so I hiked up the mountain with them futilely. Peter went a different way and went further, eventually finding a post that gave service, but right as we were heading in it began to rain and then hail. I must say that we were exceptionally lucky with the weather this day. We were all prepped for rain and cold and wind, and it was just cold enough to need my coat (granted, many were just fine in sweatshirts). Plus, we could see about half the volcán Cotopaxi through the clouds, a rarity most days. Dinner was great, but way too much, and the head of the lodge shut off the generator at 8:15, so I went to bed and the students stayed up until their 10:00 curfew. Turns out I didn’t sleep at all, and I do mean none, due to my crazy fast heart palpitations and breathing rate that I couldn’t slow down for anything. I really felt every one of the 3750 meters of altitude in my chest, but luckily no one got more seriously sick from the altitude.

Short work week!

Yep, Wednesday, Feb 21st was the only day of the week I had to go to school! I couldn’t figure out if it felt more like a Monday or a Friday! And though I didn't go to an Ash Wednesday service, I decided I'd uncharacteristically give up something for Lent because it's definitely in order. That's right, T.V. Now, I'm probably not going to be terribly rigid on my rules, in that I'll probably watch CNN en espanol de vez en cuando, pero (whoops, I slipped into spanish there!) only deliberately and not mindlessly as I have grown accustomed to doing.

Which day is actually Carnaval?

Maybe Tuesday, not really sure. But I had off again, so I made pancakes in the morning. Now, the skillet was slanted and had not the nice non-stick coating I rely upon, so honestly, the pancakes sucked. I’m ashamed, Dad, but I was seriously limited. They said they enjoyed them, nonetheless, and I just hoped lunch would turn out better. I didn’t really expect it to, because pancakes are one of my specialties, but I relied on Eli’s Thai Peanut Sauce to save the day. And save the day it did! After chopping and mixing (using a wee bit too much pepper, but not painfully too much!) AND cleaning the chicken meat off the bone (quite a shock for those of us who grew up on skinless, boneless breasts!), I had everything ready. The boys showed up from the tienda and we all ate together a lovely lunch. And they all loved it! Not just required compliments, but disbelief at how good it was and persistence at getting the recipe. Crazy, I tell you. And Monica’s favourite thing was the rice noodles. She couldn’t believe that there were noodles that weren’t wheat! To each his own, I guess. And my favourite part were the peanut butter cookies with Hershey’s kisses on top that I made for dessert! Can you believe it, Mom, that I held off on opening those until today?! That’s over a month! And I didn’t actually have a recipe, so again I relied on Eli’s 1:1:1 recipe, only, I couldn’t really remember what three ingredients they were (pb, sugar, flour?) and ended up adding an egg and some milk, but the real miracle is that they didn’t burn! I think the heat was actually pretty low because they were in there for at least 20 minutes, but uy! were they good! After that spectacular accomplishment, I took a nap, read, and yep, watched more t.v. What a day.

A Few Things Forgotten

Monday was the first day of the Carnaval weekend thus far that wasn’t rainy and cloudy and cold. As such, it was a most opportune time to take some sun. I first thought of my walled-in yard, but then realized that all the bulla we heard was from every single person who remained in the Quito area coming to the pools that are right near our house. I had never even seen them because they’re always closed (and apparently really dirty), but today they were THE place to be! I decided to aprovechar the opportunity and so I suited up, sunscreened my arms and torso (because my legs never seem to get any color at all, yet alone burn) and walk down to the pools. It was madness! Sadly, I have no digital pics for fear of the water damage (in other countries, carnival means parades, foods, sins of the flesh; in Ecuador it means water throwing and lots of it). But it was packed. I mean every inch of the pools, the surrounding lawns and parking lots, too. No one actually went swimming, they all just bobbed up and down, packed like sardines, splashing and bobbing. One of the many food vendors kindly supplied me with some ice cream to squelch my calor, and after I walked around and saw the sights, I decided it best to not fight and elbow for a patch of grass just to be ogled at. So I returned to the privacy of my yard and rotisseried for an hour. Now, the noonday sun was not strong enough to penetrate my SPF 30 (chuta!), but it was more than enough to burn my vulnerable legs, poor things. My bad. But it was only later, of course, that I realized all this. Amazingly enough, though, my legs never peeled, though they did itch awhile this past week. And now they’re nicely bronzed while the rest of me is still white!

Anywho, I was soon bored again and had decided to make breakfast and lunch for the family the next day (prompted by a minor fight between Sofy and Jairito over who had to cook lunch/clean up because the maid had the day off and Mony and Jairo had to work), so I decided to walk to the Supermaxi grocery store about 45 minutes away. Stupid me forgot that it was Carnaval. And we all know what Carnaval means. So I was relatively lucky for about half of the journey, and my glares, smiles, and verbal pleas reduced the damage to only three water balloons and a guy chasing me with a relatively short hose. But then. Then, there were three guys with buckets of water and an older guy (papá?) who assured me it was safe to walk by. I doubted, but he insisted, so I trusted him…and then got doused by three full buckets of water. I couldn’t outrun them because they were young and agile and not attached to a spigot. Chuta. So I waddled and dripped my way to Supermaxi, where I bought the necessary food items, averted my eyes when passing people, and hastily made my exit. I walked home and only got the same hose guy and one more water balloon. Luckily, most of the pool traffic had passed so the fewer targets reduced the attackers’ patience. And as soaked as I was, it was really funny to see people in the back of pickups just bombed over and over from rooftops, to the extent that some would lie down under a tarp the whole way home! Motorcyclists were also popular targets, but harder to hit. After this nice exercise/cultural initiation, I passed the evening…yep, you guessed it—watching t.v.

Domingo Spontaneity

After a family breakfast, I set out for the Mitad del Mundo, but then realized that I had enough time to make it to the 11:30 Lutheran church service in the middle of Quito (not quite on the way, but hey, who said adventures were convenient?). In fact, I was early and as I was walking up the big hill to the church, I heard worship coming from what is the Iglesia Cristiana Centro de Adoración. I was only about 15 minutes late, so I slipped in and joined in! Things were all going well, including the whole song they sing for visitors welcoming them to the church and inviting them to return! The sermon was fine, though the pastor had a pretty think Portuguese accent so my comprehension wasn’t quite 100%…and then the alter call came. Now, I’d normally be okay with that, but in this one nearly every single person went to the front where the pastor laid his hands on them, prayed, and then flung them backward onto the ground! I was a bit freaked out by this and decided to sneak out, conspicuously or not! At this point, I was only about 20 minutes late to the Lutheran service, and after all, I’m on Latin American time. Unfortunately my attempts at sneaking in the back were thwarted by a congregation size of about 20! And this pastor had a thick German accent, which is kinda funny, by the way! And it made more sense after I learned that they have an English service at 9 a.m., a German one at 10:15 and then the Spanish one at 11:30. And apparently the same pastor for all of them! Well, not anymore. You see, he’s been here 2 years but now has to go to Argentina or someplace. And lucky for me, this Sunday was his last day and they had a little farewell gathering for him…that included cake! I felt kinda weird staying, but this nice guy Mario explained to me all the places I must go in Ecuador and we enjoyed our cake and coffee! He then walked me to the bus stop ( a good 30 minutes away!) because it was all downhill (seriously, he said he wouldn’t have had it been uphill!).

From there I headed north out of Quito, switched buses, and 45 minutes later arrived at the equator, la Mitad del Mundo. They have a nice little touristy city there where you can buy all sorts of souvenirs, sweaters, and hammocks, but more importantly you can take a picture at the monument they’ve constructed. You can also pay to go up into it where they also have a great museum of every single province/tribal group explained. From there I walked/bused to the nearby crater Pululahua (and it took me about 50 tries to say it right!). It’s famous for it’s steeeeeeeep sides and incredibly fertile bottom. Apparently also well-known is that one must arrive before noon to see anything…at it was about 5 p.m. at this point. So I bought two post cards of what it looks like on a clear day and began the walk back. As I was about 200 meters from the nearest bus stop, two nice policemen stopped and told me I should not be walking alone. So they convinced me to let them drive me all the way back to the Mitad del Mundo, even thought it’s the same bus that passes where I was! Ah well, now they can feel like they did their job well and helped out a helpless foreigner.

I assumed my adventures were over, but the bus ride home proved to be quite exciting! First, the lady who collects the money (and yes, it is rare to be a woman and not a man) got into a fight with a woman who had gotten on to sell sugar cane. There was yelling, hair-pulling, and name-calling until the vendedora got off the bus! Then, the kid behind me threw up in his lap for no apparent reason—he didn’t look pale or sickly to me and the driver wasn’t driving that erratically. Ah well, we were close to the terminal…when a loud, boisterous group of drunk people got on and made lots and lots of bulla until they all decided to get off a few stops later, or, rather dangerously, before the stop had arrived! Wow. The walk to the next bus terminal was eerily void of people, due to the flight to the beaches of nearly every resident of the country’s capital, and because it was so empty (and getting dark), it was the only time I’ve felt at all endangered in Quito thus far. But I arrived safely and after the long rides home, the only newsworthy event was that the shoestore Monica and Jairo have has finally received those infamous crocs. And yes, Monica was already wearing her pair! So I smiled and told my little story of dear Barb Berkseth, who knows comfort when she finds it!

Last weekend’s Carnaval Activities…

were cancelled due to my fierce cold. Boo. I had planned on taking a 3-day tour of an organic farm near the beach. However, while I did get plenty of rest and watch a shameful amount of t.v., I did not just sit around for 4 days. Saturday I got to go with Monica and Jairito to visit her parents in south Quito. We went to a nearby mall to eat a food court lunch (I had an amazing fruit salad!), and after chatting at their home awhile, Monica, Jairito and I up to the highest point in the city, the Cima de la Libertad. It was at this point that freedom from Spain was won long ago, so there’s also a war museum el Templo de la Patria. But more than anything, the view is INCREÍBLE! You can see how long and densely populated Quito is, and it wasn’t too cloudy to see pretty far off in the distance. So that was the highlight of Saturday, and as mentioned earlier, I returned home to most likely watch more t.v. What has become of me here?!

Back in action

Sorry for the long absence of posting, everyone, but first the home computer got a virus (which it still has), then blogger site was down, and even now I can't get my photos off my camera! Hopefully I'll get them up one of these days, but for now it's just text. Enjoy!

¡Feliz Día del Amor y la Amistad!

First, how much do we love that friendship love is celebrated just as passionately as romantic love here? [A lot.] Because that means that I got a box of chocolates from Monica! We'll share, don't worry.

Second, how amazing is Christie?! [Super amazing!] Not only is she the first person to send me real mail, but it included chocolate (and a most hilarious card) AND it arrived on the exact date its contents are meant to celebrate! I can't even make that happen in the states and she shipped internationally to a country that apparently has been having postal strikes recently!! Increíble, pana!

Third, how horrible is it that I can't enjoy any of the chocolates because I can't taste nor smell anything and I've been getting waves of nausea sporadically thoughout the day? [Pretty horrible.] There were also a few moments where I really thought I was going to pass out, too, one of which was during the meeting I had with my U of M supervisor! I don't like this south american version of a cold, not one bit! I went to bed last night at 8:30 because that's about when the power went out from the awesome storm we had pass over. (By the way, the headlamp makes everyting significantly easier than a flashlight, though washing my face with it on was a bit tricky!) I doped myself up, slept sporadically and restlessly, and awoke loopy (not quite as severe as the nyquil incident of '06) at 7 a.m. Lucky for me there were no classes today because of parent-teacher conferences, but I had a 10:30 appointment at a nearby school that follows the U.S. and A.P. curricula. I thought it would be a tour and info session, but it was pretty much an interview! I made it clear that I wouldn't be interested for the next year, but the H.R. guy said that was fine because they won't have any science openings until '08-'09, but that I should send him my resumé anyway. How crazy is that?! Either way, it was an interesting morning, but I was wiped out by the walk to and from the school and still had to go to BSQ for conferences. I didn't actually sit in on any because they're having some serious drama with student suspensions and angry/concerned parents, so I just stayed clear until my meeting with Jim, my GST supervisor.

In other bad news, the two bug bites I got yesterday from foolishly wearing a skirt (though I was told the nylons would prevent bites, someone else told me today she thinks they actually attract bugs!) have swollen up to frighteningly ridiculous mountains on my legs. No joke. The one is a typical quarter-sized welt, but the other one on the top of my shin seriously looks like there's a golf ball under my skin! It's nasty.

All that considered, I think it's for the best that I have no valentine with whom to celebrate today, because I'm all scratchy and coughy and sniffly! So I'll try out my new Sinutab nighttime cold pills and look forward to tomorrow. As Lazar put into perspective: tomorrow is the real day to celebrate--all the chocolate goes on sale!

transit time

Last week, as I returned from the post office in Tumbaco, I met Walter and Gladis Cruz and their adorable 3 year old son Matías. They are opening a house/resort in Loja, in the southern part of Ecuador, and were wondering if I would like to stay there a weekend or some other time. There would be a discount, of course, because it's not completely done yet, but they've already had quite a few people stay there. At first I thought it odd that they would just assume I'd want to, but they're right in that Ecuadorians don't ever go on vacation to the rural areas of Ecuador, so they're wise business people in their approaching strategy. I got together with Walter in Quito on Thursday and he detailled all the things I could do in and around Loja. Unless there are objections, this is now the game plan for when Amy (and Eli?) come to visit. In the hotel/resort, there's a pool, hiking, and horseback riding (an no television! Yay!); we'll see the processes and machines for making coffee, breads, and cornmeal foods from scratch; there's a petrified forest about an hour away, the Peruvian border about an hour in the other direction, and beaches another hour after that. And on the way there are plenty of towns, hot springs, and volcanoes to check out. I'm pretty excited, needless to say!

Anyway, more than the business aspect, they just like making friends with foreigners (and even have some from Minneota), so they invited me to their home in Quito to prepare for me some typical Lojan foods. I left my house at 7 a.m. this morning and arrived at their home in the southern-most part of Quito at 9 a.m. after catching 2 buses, walking 30 minutes, taking a trolley, and walking 20 minutes more. I could have substituted the last part for a second trolley, but it's a good thing I didn't because I ate a ton! Theirs is the typical country hospitality that's often talked about. Breakfast was coffee, a scrambled egg, and bread with piña jam (que rico!). After 1.5 hours of chatting and playing around with Matías, they started lunch. Gladis made empanadas de queso, using fresh, natural (and really good tasting) Lojan cheese. There was also rice, meat, salad, french fries, and a pineapple drink that had chunks of pineapple in it, rather than blending it all up. I'm not gonna lie and say it wasn't a weird textural moment for me, but at least the flavor was good! It was so much food, though, AND she sent me home with two empanadas, which I definitely ate on one of the buses on my way home! We chatted until about 3:30 when I decided to let them have some alone time before Walter goes back to Loja tonight for 3 weeks. But it was a fantastic day with a fantastically hospitable family and we spoke spanish the whole day, so I'm lovin' that, too!

The first trolley back ended at the Mercado Artesanal where I bought a nice zippered purse (a recommended security measure), a t-shirt, and the perfect gift for Amy! Too bad for you that I'm not mailing it! I also bought a book from a sidewalk vendor and some mints from a young indigenous girl, not that those details are terribly important. Just thought you'd like to know the whole day. I then took two buses home, one of which was allowed to go on the newly finished road that had been detoured since November, so I got home at least 15 minutes faster than I normally do! And I'm pretty pleased with my 11.5 hour day in/on the way to or from Quito!

Los Monólogos de la Vagina

That's right--I did, in fact, go and see the Vagina Monologues with my host parents last night!!! They had tickets and mentioned something about it, at which my face lit up because I never could go see the play in the states. Turns out there was still an extra seat next to them IN THE FRONT ROW! Not only was this arrangement great for the view, but because the venue was a small café I could still hear perfectly well. See, when trying to fully understand spanish, it's easiest when it's as loud as possible. So, I don't know what the play is like in the states, but it was hilarious at times, tragic at others, and hilarious again pretty soon. One monologue got the audience participating as we learned/performed a rally cry for the Movimiento Pro-Chucha (slang for vagina). Ah, it was all really great, and I even understood almost all of the monologues that were performed with thick French and Germent accents (which were really funny to hear!), though I had a little more trouble with the Quichwa accent. The problem is that so many words slip into the daily vocabulary here, but I have no idea what they are. [My favorite newly learned words are guagua for baby/kid and ñaña/ñaño for sister/brother] Oh, and let me backtrack a bit. Upon arrival, I paid my $20 (how much did you pay, Eli and XT?) and as we walked in, we were offered a little cup of canelazo. Canelazo is cinnamon, jugo de naranjilla (an orange-esque fruit juice), and some type of liquor. Not bad, amazingly enough, in that you couldn't really taste the alcohol, but only smell it. Then, after the play, we all went to the outdoor patio where we had appetizers and waited for the tables to be rearranged for dinner. The dinner was rice, beef, chicken, potatoes, and salad, and chocolate mousse for dessert! All of these foods were included in the price of the ticket! Oddly enough, we had to buy our own non-alcoholic drinks, i.e. water. Go figure. And, as we were eating, Monica went and had the three actresses sign my placemat! It was a wonderfully pleasant evening, and you would have absolutely loved the café, Mom and Miss Bonnie. It's called Café de la Vaca, or Cow Café, and everything was decorated accordingly. It turns out that Monica also has a thing for cows, as I had suspected based on the kitched décor, but she also has lots of other farm animal decorations, so I wasn't sure of her true love. Cows it is.

This morning I returned to the centro commercial (where the café is located) with Monica and Sofy (my host ñaña) to check out the 30-70% off Valentines Day sales. You'll be pleased to know that I am just as bad a shopper in spanish-speaking countires as I am in the U.S. I was done browsing in approximately 1/10th of the time it took Sofy to shop, and I worked really hard not to acknowledge my impatience! In one store, however, there was another person named Karla, so every single time her friend called her name, I turned and said, "Sí?" She never was calling me, but at least it spiced things up a little. Shopping, ugh. Part of the problem is that all the clothes are expensive and U.S. styles. If I don't buy them in the U.S., why would I buy them in Ecuador?

Anyway, we drove there and back on the Vía Intervalles (because the mall is one valley over) on which there is a toll. A 16 cent toll, to be exact! How crazy is that to have to have pennies all the time! I guess they didn't want to lose any money when the country dollarized, nor would travellers agree to pay more than necessary. So 16 cents it is.

One last update: I returned to Quito on Thursday to retrieve my passport, and though the opened 25 minutes late, I made it back to school on time this week! And hopefully, I will never have to deal with the Ecuadorian government again!

Oh, and another new development is that there are no extracurriculars on Friday afternoons, so lots of the teachers play tennis, fútbol, etc, and I went swimming! Now, it's been at least 9 months since I've gone lap swimming, and I still haven't adjusted fully to the lack of oxygen up here, AND the pool is a curved, bean-like shape so I kept running into walls I shouldn't have and the flip-turns were hard from an angled, slippery surface. Yea, I didn't do so well! But it still felt great (partly because it is really warm water) to exercise, and I plan on making it a regular occurance!

I'll try again next week somewhere else

Sunday morning I headed off for la Iglesia Cristiana, Sendero de la Luz, which I hoped would be a nice protestant church. Turns out it's a pentecostal church (not bad in and of itself, because the one I loved in Venezuela was also Pentecostal), with the craziest pastor's wife you'll ever meet. All the Ecuadorians were nice and normal enough, but there was something about this woman that seemed to me arrogant/hypocritical/scary/cultish. And just my luck, not only did she lead part of worship (I did actually really like learning spanish worship songs), but she gave the sermon, too! I ended up not even staying through the whole service because I had an 11 a.m. meeting with my supervising teacher, John. I thought I'd have enough time to stay for the whole 9 a.m. service, but she was only on her 3rd of 5 points when I left and they were going to have communion, too!


Anyway, John picked me up with his wife Nancy and two kids, Robby and Maya, in the back, and we drove to his house in Tumbaco. It's huge and has the most amazing views of the surrounding mountains! We then went to a pizzeria with outdoor seating and a playground for the kids. It even had a pen with rabbits and ducks! We chatted about travels, teaching opportunities (I've officially entered the international circuit), and his many life experiences, and I'm more and more impressed. He successfully competed and then coached high level rowing in England, has been cycling competitively for decades, used to do mountain marathons, has spent most of his life in Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Colombia, and now Ecuador. Some things are strange/not impressive, such as his perpetual tardiness (though he demands punctuality from everyone else) and his forgetfulness (though I suppose he does cover it up pretty rapidly). Nonetheless, it was a great afternoon.

By 3:30 I was doing what the whole point of the afternoon was: looking through all the textbooks, past exams and papers, and other resources John has at home that are too numerous to bring into school. I found some good stuff, but because I still don't know exactly which topics I'll teach some of the classes (it depends on where he leaves off), I lacked direction in my searches and will most likely have to return.

I returned home just in time to see that the Bears were winning, but after watching Bailando por un Sueño with Monica (dancing couples are eliminated each round and the winner gets money to fulfill his/her dream), they had lost to the Colts. Sorry, Dad. Maybe next year.

Fear Factor, Ecuador

Today was a HUGE day for me for overcoming fears! Last night as we discussed my possbile plans for a lovely Saturday, Monica decided to call up her nephew Santi who is an entomologist at the Museo de Ciencas Naturales in Quito. It just so happened that he had to go into the field to sample terrestrial insects of the Orchid Reserve up in the cloud forest of a nearby mountain! So I arrived in Quito at 7 a.m. (which had me waking up at 5:15, mind you) and we left for the field site. When we arrived, the other team members of the project were arriving/waking up and we had coffee, arepa-like tortillas, and half-hardboiled eggs that you scrape out of the shell and stir up and eat. Not half bad, amazingly enough (fear #1--non-scrambled eggs--conquered). Although I really didn't want to interrupt Santi's work, he played tour guide much of the time and so we first walked to the waterfall.

We then set off on the trail where he performed a 625m transect. You take a 1 meter squared canvas and shake a tree rapidly (but not enough to damage it) to collect the insects that fall into it. Today he was just collecting insects (no spiders), but earlier he had done aquatic insects and sometimes he does butterflies and flying insects, too. You put the bugs in ethyl alcohol and walk 25 paces to another tree. After 25 trees 25 paces apart, you've sampled 625 meters. After he spends time in the lab identifying the family (and maybe later the genus and species), he'll calculate the abundance and the diversity of the region to determine, in conjunction with the taxodermists and ornothologists and plant biologists and lots of other ists, whether or not the reserve needs a management plan for conservation efforts, and what that plan should entail. Our abundance was really low, but the diversity was incredible--I think he only got two or three of the same kind! Although I've never really been big into ecology, I am teaching the whole Y12 ecology lesson starting Monday and this was an amazing experience to be able to share with the students and to enhance my own appreciation of science.

Now, many of you are probably thinking that I must have used an awfully powerful zoom on my camera to get pictures that close to bugs, but I was oddly confident with Santi's continual reassurances that they're not going to bite (fear #2--proximity to bugs--gone). He did tell me which ones would bite, and most often elaborated upon how he once got bitten by them! By the end of the afternoon I was picking the caterpillars off the canvas to put back on leaves (collecting them would be like killing babies!)!!!! Fear #3--touching bugs--overcome (see picture on left--MY hand!). However, before that proud moment first ocurred, I lived through a not so proud moment. I was walking along in front and all of a sudden something stung me. Santi shouted, "wasps!" but before he could get out the "don't move!", I was off and running! Amazingly, I only got stung once more and he then picked one off my shirt, but wow, did they hurt! And I blame the altitude, but I got super light-headed and worried I'd pass out. Hating to appear feable, I just sat down and made him continue going until I felt well enough to stand up. I soon caught up with him and we continued a lovely afternoon, but my arm and back had nickel-sized swelling for a while! After we finished out transect, we headed back down and he drove me to the Hummingbird Reserve (colibrí en español, quinde en quechua). We didn't actually see any orchids at the Orchid Reserve (but we did see some hummingbirds), nor did we see hummingbirds at the Hummingbird Reserve! But we didn't actually get out of the car this time. We drove along the long, winding mountain road, stopping to take pictures of the trees, mountains, trout farm, random signs and big rocks, etc. We finally made it back to Quito, and as we were going to a restaurant we heard this loud bang from the car. At first we thought it was a flat tire, or than maybe some other serious damage, but then we saw water trickling down the windshield. Bomba de agua. Water balloon. Carnaval has begun, my friends, even though it is not officially until February 20th! Apparently everyone throws water at everyone else and it's great fun...unless you panic as you think your 1985 jeep is finally falling to pieces! We eventually ended up at the main shopping mall where we avoided all the chain restaurants and headed for the Ecuadorian food. Santi got a massive platter of grilled meat, including sausage and blood sausage (fear left for another day), and I got the typical dish ceviche. It's a seafood soup with onions, cilantro, and citrus, topped with popcorn. Go figure. Anyway, I got the ceviche marinera that comes with each type of seafood. AND, I actually tried each kind! (conquering fear #4--eating squishy, nasty-looking things--check!) Here's the verdict: crab-great; fish-good; shrimp-not bad; shellfish (clam?)-horrible, never to be eaten again; and kalamari-so bad I had to spit it out in my napkin! Nonetheless, I must say it was quite a day! Upon finally arriving at home and cleaning up, Monica's sister arrived and we all sat around and chatted. I finally showed my pictures from home (fam, friends, 8-layer cake--represent, yo!) and after this long update, I am now excitedly headed for bed. It's hard work being a field scientist!

Science!

Yes, here is some news about what my actual purpose is here in Ecuador. Friday morning the Year 9 students performed the investigations they had each prepared in high-quality inquiry style (totally students' ideas). They were trying to figure out ways to test fitness, so some measured lung capacity by blowing air into an inverted water-filled jar or by measuring the diameter of balloons; they measured strength by making classmates do push ups, sit ups, arm curls, etc; they measured tolerance for carbon dioxide by seeing how long classmates could hold their breath with their heads dunked underwater. Yeah, you can see that some of the investigations were driven by less that scientific accuracy, but it was great to see them all working on projects that they were seriously curious about!

Year 12 later finished their DNA models: many students made theirs out of paper, but two ambitious students made wire models that, after much effort, look pretty accurate! Ah, I do love science!

Of Mice and Men, Visas and Jazz

Going back to Wednesday, when all my correspondence ended...

The school day went well and I finally sat at the spanish-speaking table! I passed the 40 minutes super chévere with the ecuadorian teachers and staff and I haven't gone back to the British table since!

The night was interesting, in that I was dutifully writing in my journal and watching CNN en español before going to bed, when all of a sudden I see a little ratoncito scurry across my floor. While in theory I'm not afraid of them, in practice I screamed, watched it run to the corner of my room and then stayed paralyzed until Monica and Jairo came down to investigate. Then, while Mony and I sat on the couch with our feet up, the valient Jairo and Jairito attempted to find/catch/kill the little mouse. Upon seeing it a few times, but not catching it, they set up three traps and I slept on a matress on the floor upstairs. I awoke to the news that the little guy was dead and the traps were removed to provide a perfectly new, mouse-free room!

Thursday, instead of going to school, I went into Quito to register my visa with the Dirección General de Extranjería del Ministerio de Gobierno. What I thought would be a simple process ended up being quite the opposite. I got there bright and early to find a long line, all of whom were directed to the local papelería to make photocopies and buy a folder, prongs, and an envelope. After waiting in the long line to be told such, I waited in the long line to buy said products, afterwhich I waited in a long line to get to the one single worker who handled such matters. At that stage I had to pay more money to this oh-so-welcoming country, upon which the man took my passport and told me to come back on Monday to get it. What?! That's right--I start teaching this Monday. Not quite convenient. I may wait 'till Thursday. Stupid embassies. However, upon chatting tonight with Mony, her sister, and Jairo, I learned that the only reason it's so hard and complicated to register is because the U.S. makes it exceedingly hard for Ecuadorians to obtain a visa and they're just returning the favor! Thanks, good ol' USofA.

Anyway, after school I walked to the nearby shopping mall and discovered it only takes 40 minutes, not the 1.5 hours I had budgeted. So I walked some more and then did the only logical, though dreadful, thing--I shopped! I ended up with 3 books, two of which I want to start right away (in addition to that other one I bought and haven't had time to start), and all of which made me realize that I must quit buying books it will take me years to read! Ah well, the whole point of going to the mall was to hear the Big Band Jazz presentation. It was fabulous! Some songs were more modern, with a female singer, but they ended with a medley of In the Mood and Chatanooga Choo-Choo, so it couldn't have been better!