Anecdotes from the weekend...

What has come to pass... Since last time...
I guess I’ll start from last Friday. That was the next eventful thing. Friday night Slocomb and I went to a Deportiva Cuenca soccer game with our friend Jonatan from school. We sat in the Tribuna section (meaning better than general admission but not super expensive), which meant that we were under the roof. It turned out to be a semi-cold evening, so I was glad we were sheilded from the wind. Before the game, Jonatan introduced us to a yummy burger place across from the stadium, so it was a very productive trip out.
The game was played against a team called Olmedo. I think that they are from near Quito, but I’m not sure. Every year in Ecuador, they play a tournament called the Cuadrandulares (groups of four - there are two groups of four). This game was the final of DC’s quadrangle, so they are getting to play the winner of the other quadrangle for the championship (this Sunday, I think). Anyway, it was a pretty important game. DC scored early in the first half, but right before the half, Olmedo scored. DC was awarded a penalty shot (which they made) in about the 75th minute, and Olmedo wasn’t able to recover, so DC won 2-1. Part of the reason that Olmedo wasn’t able to recover was because they were given two red cards (meaning that by the end of the game, Olmedo was playing with 9 players instead of the usual 11) and about 9 yellow cards (warnings). DC got two yellow cards as well, but no reds. DC also just out-played Olmedo. DC kept possession for most of the game, meaning that the goalie was on the other side of the field by himself, doing calethenics to keep warm! It was pretty funny to see that and it was a fun game to watch.
After the game, we met up with some of our other friends from school to go out for a little while. We walked from the stadium to the place we were meeting them, meaning that we walked a long way down Calle Larga where all of the clubs are. It was interesting because there were tons of people just outside on the street socializing and whatnot. Nothing sketchy going on; just a very vibrant street.
We went out with the student teachers from the University of Whitewater as well as Pepé, the music teacher. Jenn and one of her friends met up with us later too. When we got to the first club, they wanted us to pay a $5 cover and buy two drinks in addition. So, essentially it was a $10 cover. Not a big deal in the States, but when you only make $16 a day, a $10 cover is a bit expensive. So we went to this other place that we like, Once. But when we got there, they said they were having a private party. Pepé and all of the girls gave the bouncer a sad face, so he let us in. So we spent a few hours at Once, relaxing and hanging out. And the best part was that for 9 people, the bill was only $37. Woot.
This weekend we just hung out and did almost nothing. Which was really nice. We did some laundry and I cooked some chili. We did go out Sunday afternoon for lunch and to find some information about the biennial exhibition that’s going on in Cuenca right now (its pretty much just a huge art show). We normally don’t go into town on Sundays, and apparently no one else does either! The downtown was practically deserted! And we had to really search for a place to eat lunch because almost everything was closed. We ended up eating at this touristy place on the main square. It was pretty nice because they served traditional-ish Ecuadorian food but in a way more palatable to tourists than going to the market to buy the stuff. If I were just traveling to Cuenca, I would probably feel comfortable eating Ecuadorian food there. But since I live here, I’ll just buy it at the market for a quarter as expensive!
Yesterday was a long day. One of the national teachers at the school is out sick with and infection of some kind, so I spent a good bit of the day in her classroom helping out the student teacher. And I was back in that classroom today because Tami is still sick. Even though it is hard to be in the class all day with almost no break, it was really good because I think the boys in the class got a lot more used to having me around. I may try to be around more often just because it makes the class more responsive to me when I’m trying to teach if I been around not trying to teach.
One of the other teachers asked me today why I was spending so much time in the preschool classroom. I told her that because the national teacher was gone, I felt like it was our job as international teachers (meaning not in a classroom all of the time anyway) to step up and help out. I look at is as a team effort and also a reciprocal one. I have vacation days that I plan to take full advantage of and (maybe) some sick days too. So I hope that the other teachers will be able to help me out. In return, I’ll help them out when they are gone for one reason or another. The teacher I was talking to didn’t understand why I was inconveniencing myself for something that wasn’t strickly my job. I guess we just have a different understanding of what’s part of our jobs. Which is really frustrating. True, no one asked me to spend extra time in that classroom. But since I’m expecting them (the national teachers) to help me, I am obliged to help them. Also, I feel like the national teachers work really hard to start with. They are in the classroom for the whole day, while the international team only has an average of two or three teaching hours a day. And we have built in vacation days (which the national teachers don’t). So I feel in all fairness, we should pick up the slack when necessary. Anyway, rant about work ethic over.
Yesterday afternoon we went to one of our favorite restaurants in town, Moliendo Cafe. Not only do they have really good food, but they have wonderful Columbian coffee. And in a country where Nescafe is pretty much what people drink, real brewed coffee is an amazing treat. My Spanish class yesterday didn’t go very well (because everyone was tired and it was all about irregular verbs - uuggghhh), but its all good. I have class again tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll all have more energy.
Today we went to a Cuban restaurant next to the building where Slocomb and I have class. Its mainly just a burger kind of place, but the burgers were really good. They also have batidos (essentially fruit milkshakes that are very common in the Carribbean), which Slocomb says taste like real Carribbean batidos. Not sure how Slocomb knows what they’re supposed to taste like (except that he has a Cuban friend or two)... but whatever. We got to talking with the owner (well, Slocomb got to talking to the owner because I couldn’t understand his Spanish at all), and his is one of those really sad immigration stories. I don’t how when he moved to Ecuador, but he owns a restaurant, so its obviously been a good bit of time. But his family (wife and children) are still in Cuba trying to emigrate. He told us that on Sundays, when everything is closed and people spend time with their families, he just sits at home buy himself. And the saddest part is that his wife just had a baby. Back in Cuba. Anyway, Slocomb and I plan to go back to the restaurant (especially for the batidos). I’m hoping that we can become friends with him and spend time with him on Sundays so that he’s not all alone thinking about his family far away.
Anyway, on a happier note, Slocomb and I are going to Las Playas (a beach town about 5 hours away) this weekend. We have Monday and Tuesday off of school for the celebration of Cuenca’s independence (in 1820), so we’re going on Sunday and coming back Tuesday in time for the huge fireworks display planned). Anyway, here’s hoping we don’t get too sunburned.

Cajas

This past weekend, Slocomb and I went with some of the CEDEI study abroad students as well as the student teachers from Wisconsin to camp in Cajas, the national park about 30km west of Cuenca.
We started out Saturday morning (with a frustrating attempt to get a taxi - Slocomb called for one and since they have our phone number, they sent it to our house instead of the place where we were meeting Kelli and Johanna, the student teachers) a little late. But we drove out of town (to the west) and into Cajas.
The first place we stopped was called Tres Cruces (three crosses), and it commemorates all of the people who died trying to get from Cuenca to Guayaquil and vice versa. The altitude in Cajas is a good bit higher than in Cuenca, so the temperature can be frigid. And before reliable transportation and good roads (the current one wasn't finished until 1985), it was a very dangerous trip. Tres Cruces is also the highest point in Cajas, and you could definitely tell by the alititude and temperature.
Next we embarked on our hike. We each were provided with rubber galoshes, which actually came in handy. Cajas was formed by glaciers in the last ice age, and there are still a lot of lakes in the park. Also, we're moving into the rainy season, so the ground was very moist.
We saw lots of different species of trees and plants (almost no animals, strangely enough. Slocomb thinks that our speaking English scared them away). Part of the hike was through a Quinua forest, which was very surreal. The trees, even along the trail were so close together. It reminded me a little of Roan Mountain when the rhodedenerons are blooming.
The hike lasted about 3 hours (plus a stop for lunch). Our stopping point was (theoretically) the camp site, which was a small field above a large lake. We didn't hike all of our stuff in; the bus met us about 10 minutes away from our campsite, but we still had to pack all of our food and tents, etc., in the last 10 minutes). The site had no running water, so we were all on our own for bathrooms. Slocomb and I brought a 5L jug of water, which was really handy. We were both really thirsty because of the hike and the altitude. Everyone was jealous of our ingeniousness.
We spent most of the afternoon setting up camp and hanging out. Slocomb's and my tent had some issues (one of the tent poles appeared broken), but we got it worked out. I stayed at the site to chat with some of the other people, and Slocomb went down to the lake to fish. He only ended up catching one fish, but I'm pretty sure he had an awesome time.
We had pasta and soup for dinner, some of which we had to cook over the fire because the stoves weren't strong enough to make the water boil. But after we put the pasta water over the stove, it boiled very quickly. Slocomb and Ryan (one of the study abroad boys) were the fire builders, and the did an excellent job.
Pretty soon after dinner and cleaning up, I went to bed. I had a headache (from the altitude), so I had no energy. I'm not sure what all happened after that, but you can ask Slocomb.
We woke up quasi-early the next morning (as one always does while camping), and spent most of the morning doing breakfast and breaking down camp.
I guess it wasn't a very eventful camping trip, but it was incredibly beautiful.
On the way back to Cuenca, we stopped at the sanctuary of the Virgin of Cajas. About 20 years ago, a young Cuencana had a vision of the Virgin Mary in that spot, so now there is a large outdoor sanctuary there. I'm not sure how I feel about these appearances of the Virgin Mary, but it was an interesting cultural experience.
After that, Slocomb and I came home to rest and get ready for the week. And then the week started, and now it is Tuesday. How the time flies!

Random loose ends..

Slocomb's birthday was on the 29th of September, so we went out to a tapas place with our co-workers, Livia and Jen. We ended up running into Gamal (a former teacher at CEDEI school) as well, so we had a fun, chill evening to celebrate Slocomb's 23rd year.
The big birthday celebration was the trip to Quito, which is in another post.
Later on that week (October 1st) we went out with the other teachers at CEDEI School, just for an evening of relaxing. We went to this bar/club called ONCE (eleven or once, we're not sure), where we just relaxed for a few hours. It was fun because we were able to interact all as friends instead of having to worry about school stuff the entire time. There was also an interesting mix of Spanish and English being spoken all of the time. I'm not sure if any of us improved our English or Spanish skills, but my Spanglish is certainly a lot better now.
The next week (October 8 - right before our long weekend in Quito), the school celebrated Día de la Raza (Race - as in Ethnicity Day). Apparently this is how Columbus Day is commemorated in Ecuador. We left the school about 10am (so we only had about 2 hours of school) to go downtown to Parque Calderon where all of the marches, etc., take place. Most of the children were dressed in traditional costumes from around Ecuador (so cute). We had a musical presentation from most of the classes (segundo thru sexto), and then had a march promoting tolerance and equality. I marched with the preschool class (because they needed the most convincing to walk around the square chanting stuff), which was so cute. I guess they teach them very young here to get out and manifest for one thing or another.
That's all of the loose ends for now. I'm going to work on a post about this past weekend when we went back to Cajas to camp and hike. More to come later...

Quito

The next weekend (October 9-11), Slocomb and I went to Quito for the Ecuador-Urugay soccer game. If Ecuador would have won the game, they likely would be going to the World Cup. Unfortunately, Ecuador lost (2-1 on a penalty shot in stoppage time), and they lost the next game too. So they are out of World Cup contention. I guess I just gave away the ending, but the trip is still pretty cool.
We had Friday the 9th off of school to celebrate the independence of Guayaquil (in 1820, I think), which was really nice. I had been coming down with a cold, and Friday I was pretty sick. Unfortunately, our bus left for Quito at 10pm on Friday, whether or not I was sick. I spent most of Friday in bed, but managed to rally about 7:30 to pack and then go.
Once we got to the bus, we met some of the other people in our group going to the game. Most of them were male, about our age, and spent most of the weekend drinking. I guess that's the advantage of being in a tour group with a bus; you don't have to drive, and you don't even really have to be coherent enough to talk to a taxi driver.

Anyway, after some introductions, I managed to conk out for most of the trip to Quito (all 8 1/2 hours of it). I woke up every once in a while when we hit huge bumps in the road or when we would stop (about every hour) at a gas station so the driver could smoke or get more soda or something. Slocomb unfortunately didn't sleep much on the trip up to Quito, but he also wasn't sick.

(This is how I felt a lot of the time)

We arrived in Quito about 7am. We thought that we were going to go straight to the stadium, but luckily we got to go to the hotel first. A lot of people took showers, but I just took a short nap. Slocomb made use of the included breakfast.

In any case, we arrived at the stadium about 10:30am. On the journey between the hotel and the stadium, a local news crew came aboard our bus because they were doing a special about fans who had traveled a long way for the game.

(Our group being filmed by the TV network)

It ended up being a 3 or 4 minute spot on the Sunday night news, and Slocomb and I weren't in it. But we are in the archives of an Ecuadorian TV station somewhere. I also managed to learn one of the most important songs for the afternoon: "Vamos, Ecuadorianos. Esta tarde, tenemos que ganar!" (Or "Let's go, Ecuadorians. This afternoon, we must win). The other songs had a lot more words, so I didn't end up learning them.

(one of our new Cuencano friends, Nelson)

The gates to the stadium opened about 11:30, and we found seats with a bunch of the Cuencanos about noon. Then we only had to wait for five hours for the game to start. Yay!
I spent most of the afternoon in the tunnel between the gate/bathroom and the stadium because it was nice, cool, and quite there (and close to the bathroom). Slocomb spent his five hours making friends with the random people we were sitting next to (not the Cuencanos), sharing $2 liters of beer and playing drinking games. Interestingly, the stadium food (and beer) wasn't expensive (even on Ecuadorian standards). It was mostly traditional-ish food - salchipapas (hot dog and fries), other kinds of papas (potatoes) with random seasonings, and chifles (fried plantain chips). They also had hot dogs with tons of toppings that looked really good. I didn't end up trying anything because I was just too sick. I ended up eating a little of the trail mix that we brought and half a sandwich. And a lot of sprite.
The vendors at the game were also interesting to me. Many of them were dressed in indigenous dress. The beer vendors (almost all women) would go around with a basket full of beers (only Pilsener, the national brand), cups, and chunks of ice. When you bought a beer, they would cool down the cup with one chunk of ice (reusable, but not super sanitary) and then serve the beer with another chunk of ice. Also, the way that they poured the beers meant that a lot of the foam went up into the bottle (making the ice necessary to fill the cup). Not super efficient, but very interesting.

The game started about 5 (not sure what time it really was, but we'd been waiting long enough). When the Uruguay team came out, most of the fans yelled some less than polite things, but what do you expect? Also, there was much throwing of toilet paper in streamer fashion and also throwing things at the police. The vendors were very careful not to let the fans get a hold of the glass beer bottles, which was very lucky for the police. For more stories about the craziness of the fans, see Slocomb's blog.Ecuador scored a goal a few minutes into the second half. All was crazy. Everyone was yelling, many crying, hugging, and spraying stuff over the crowd (rain coat came in handy at this point). It was an incredible moment of joy for everyone in the stadium. But less than a minute later, Uruguay scored. And at the end of the game, Uruguay was awarded a penalty kick to end the game that they made. So the Ecuadorian goal was a brief moment of glory in an otherwise disappointing game. But it certainly was an experience.
After the game, we met up with my friend Robert from Emory who is studying abroad in Quito this semester. He wanted to take us to a place that had crepes and waffles, but it was already closed (probably because Ecuador lost). We ended up just getting pizza (because the stadium is in a part of town with a lot of American food - TGIFridays, Papa Johns, KFC, McDonalds - all with American prices), but it was really fun to get to see Robert.
We decided not to go out that night because I was still sick and Slocomb was dead tired. We essentially just went back to the hotel and slept until the next morning. We unfortunately left Quito about 9am, so we didn't get to see any of the city. I want to go back soon so we can spend time there.

The ride home was quite fun. We drove past Cotopaxi (the famous volcano) and got to see tons of the countryside.

(Cotopaxi with snow on top)

The whole trip we were on the Pan-American Highway (that goes all the way from Alaska to Chile). However, it wasn't like we were on the interstate. Its not a restricted access highway, so there were towns every few minutes and restaurants just along the roadway. We stopped in one town, Salcedo, because it is where everyone in Ecuador gets their ice cream. I'm pretty sure you can buy ice cream from Salcedo in Cuenca (at least 7 hours away). The turn off from the Pan-American highway into Salcedo has a statue of ice cream (sorry no pics). I got a mixed flavored ice cream that had vanilla, mora (mulberry) and naranjia (a very tart sort of orange thingie). Slocomb got avocado. They were both incredible.

We also stopped in another small town for lunch. I don't remember the name of the town, but it was memorable because of the huge statue of Jesus on the tallest point of the town.

(statue of Jesus near where we ate lunch)

The highway runs above the town, so we got to look down into the valley and see this huge statue.
Besides that, the trip was mostly just long. Very long. But it was worth it to get to see Ecuador play (and experience everything that went along with it) and to be able to see almost the whole sierra of Ecuador.

Trout.

There are some loose ends that I need to clear up, like the couple of weekend trips that I haven't written about yet. So here goes:
A few Sundays ago (Sunday, the 4th), we were having a leisurely morning around the house when Angel came upstairs to ask us if we wanted to go to Cajas for trout. I thought, "Wow, that's super random," but Slocomb thought it would be cool so we went. We drove south from our house and then west on Ordoñez Lasso until we got to Cajas. Apparently this is also one of the roads to Guayaquil, so it can be a little bit busy. Also, it was plenty curvy enough, so I'm not sure I'd like to take it in a big bus like those to Guayaquil.When I say we went to Cajas, I'm referring to one of Ecuador's National Parks that for some reason is known for having yummy trout. We didn't actually go into the park (it costs $10 per person) but we were about as close as possible without having to pay. We parked on the road outside this restaurant about 15-20 feet from the entrance to the park.
The restaurant that we went to was very busy and had lots of long tables (seating 10 people or more). It seemed as if it was one of those places where several groups would end up at the same table. Angel, Slocomb and I sat at one of the tables for six, but we didn't end up with anyone else with us.Angel ordered lunch for us: a block of queso fresco to share, a bowl of choclo (big, white, Ecuadorian corn), a trout and a side of rice and corn for each of us. A whole trout. With the head and the skin still on. It was a little intimidating to start with, but once I actually tasted the trout, I realized why Cajas was so well known for its trout. It was incredible, and I don't even like fish that much.

Since I've been gone...

Well, once again its been a while since I've written. A lot has happened in the last week and a half - including an impromptu trip to Cajas, the nearby national park, and a planned trip to Quito to see Ecuador play Uruguay. I'll update more about those two side trips later, but right now I'm just going to talk about the last couple of days.
Its has been an eventful two days in Cuenca. Yesterday, we woke up and went to school. I wasn't feeling very well, so once I found out that sick days were not the same as vacation days, I decided to go home and sleep for the rest of the morning (okay, so that wasn't very eventful). After I finally woke up (about 1:30pm), Slocomb got home from school. After a quick lunch, we had to head into town for my first Spanish class!
My classes are Monday and Wednesday afternoons, 3 to 5 pm, so we're probably just going to go straight from school to downtown and have lunch at one of the hundreds of restaurants there. Slocomb is planning to go with me a lot of the time because they have internet access and other nice things at the center downtown, so he'll be able to entertain himself while I'm in class.
Anyway, I'm in class with Livia, one of the other professoras at CEDEI school. She took Spanish in college, so she's more advanced than I am. However, its been seven years since her last Spanish class, so she says she needs to review a lot. She'll be reviewing and I'll be learning for the first time, so it could be interesting. I ended up getting placed into the second level (intermediate). I hope that's a good fit for me; I think that it is because of how similar Spanish grammar is to French grammar. So I know what structures to use; I just don't know how those structures are done in Spanish! We'll see how it goes. I understood everything in the first class, so I'm hoping that will continue.
My teacher's name is Eugenio, which seems easy enough until you try to say it in Spanish. So I guess one of the first things I'll have to work on for this class is how to say my teacher's name. Anyway, he is a professional teacher - he works in a secondary school in the mornings I think. He seems like a really good teacher.
We spent a lot of the class talking about saying hello and goodbye. Its actually kinda complicated in Spanish because they use like three different greetings all the time!! "¡Hola! ¡Buenos dias! ¿Como estás? ¿Que tal?" would all be an acceptable greeting from one person to the other. And then the other person would have to respond. Its complicated, like I said. Most people (me included) know that you just say, "Bien, bien, gracias. Y tú/usted?" to respond, but it was good to learn what people are actually saying.
Anyway, after talking a little bit about the differences between the two "to be" verbs in Spanish, that was pretty much my class.
Yesterday afternoon, a bunch of student teachers from the US arrived in Cuenca. They'll be working at the school for 6 weeks as part of their student teaching requirements. So I met them yesterday afternoon and then again this morning at the school. They all seem really cool and excited to work with us.
So a lot of this morning was spent getting them oriented to the school, meeting the national teachers, etc. I did have a really fun lesson with the kindergarteners about rain, but besides that it was mostly student teacher related stuff.
This afternoon I went and hung out at the CEDEI international programs office while Slocomb was having his class. I'm hoping to spend some of his afternoons in class at museums and other things he's not super jazzed about. We'll see. I just hung out on the computer today and did a little drawing. I'm hoping to get back in to practice drawing because there are so many great buildings and stuff to draw here.
Anyway, we went home after class just to turn around and meet up with two of the student teachers from the States who live close-by, Kelly and Johanna. We took them to the Super-Maxi to get shampoo and stuff and then we went out to dinner. It was really nice to have new people to hang out with. Not that the international team folks aren't awesome, but we see each other all the time. New people are nice. Another cool thing was being able to compare our Spanish levels. Most of them don't speak Spanish, so its really cool to be able to say to them, I didn't speak any Spanish 6 weeks ago, and now look at me! They all seemed really impressed. I was impressed too in doing my own comparison. I guess I shouldn't brag, but hanging out with non-Spanish speakers made me realize how far I've come in the past 6 weeks.
Anyway, that's the low down of the past two days. I'll post (hopefully tomorrow) about some of the other stuff that's gone on in the past weeks!

Sábado en Cuenca

Today we spent the day chilling in Cuenca. We woke up late, and I cooked breakfast while Slocomb did some of our laundry.
We met up with one of our co-workers from the school, Pepe Luna. I always say his first and last name because it sounds cool. Anyway, he's a professional concert violinist, but since the market for violinists isn't huge in a town of half a million people, he also teaches private lessons and works as the music teacher at CEDEI school. He's really good with the kids, but he happens to be a night person (like many musicians), meaning that the waking up at 6am isn't super fun. One night last week, he had stayed up all night composing and spent the whole next day at school wearing his sunglasses. Jen (one of the other international teachers) is already taking violin lessons from him, and I'm hoping to do so as well.
We went to his office (on Juan Montalvo, on the west side of the historic center) and met a couple of his friends who were hanging around. His office is decorated with tons of posters of Cuenca and its film and music festivals. It seems like the annual film festival is in December, so I'd like to have enough Spanish by then to enjoy it.
From Pepe's office we walked to Parque Calderón (or the Central Park) to meet up with another of Pepe's friends, Juan, who is a tour guide in Cuenca. He also happens to speak English (which Pepe is trying to learn). We all went to this vegetarian restaurant on the east side of downtown. We found out that Pepe thought that I was a vegetarian, not Jen, but we cleared that up. The restaurant was still really good, and I really want to go back to try some of their fruit and yogurt desserts.
After a leisurely lunch talking about troubles speaking Spanish and English as well as American politics, Juan wanted to take us to Turi, the "balcony of the city." When he first said it, Slocomb and I didn't know where he was talking about, but once he described it some more, we realized that we had been there the first night we were in Cuenca. We still decided to go because the view during the day and the company of two Cuencanos would be very different that our first trip there. The bus tour we took the first day in Cuenca was mostly tourists, and it was completely dark by the time we got there. The view was still beautiful, and I could point out a lot more of the city this time. Juan quizzed us a little, asking us, "Where is the airport? Where are the Inca ruins? etc." It was cool to be familiar with the city this time.The company was also very cool this time. We talked about Spanish and English swear words as well as other idiosyncrasies of the languages we speak. One of the most interesting things that we talked about was how much Juan and Pepe want to go to the US. Unfortunately (and we've heard this a couple of times), it is almost impossible for Ecuadorians to get even a tourist visa. One explanation I've heard is that lots of Ecuadorians want to come to the US to work, so they've taken advantage of tourists visas and just stayed. I think about how easy it was for Slocomb and I to get our visas to come here to work (after we got the paperwork from CEDEI); it seems a bit unfair that the visas shouldn't be reciprocated.
Anyway, having been able to see the some of beauty of Pepe and Juan's country, I hope to be able some day to show them the beauty of the US. But for now, I'm just enjoying getting to know some Cuencanos and hanging out in their city.