This week in St. Andrews

Hi all,
Since we've last talked, nothing dramatic has happened. But there's been lots of reading and seminars and social things. So if you're interested in that sort of stuff, keep reading!
Last Sunday, I went to church at the Church of the Holy Trinity, the 'main' church downtown (on Church Street).

(exterior view of the Sanctuary of Holy Trinity)

(note the Saltire flying in the background)
It was Church of Scotland (i.e. Presbyterian) which was a bit of a change for me. And most of the people in the congregation were older, but there were some other 'young' people like me. It was a beautiful church, on the site from the 12th century, built in its current form in 1412 (?) and then refurbished in the early 20th century. Quite a historic church, and it was a very nice, small parish vibe. Interestingly, I saw lots of 'young people' coming in as I was leaving for their "Trinity" service, which I'm thinking is more of a contemporary-style service. It was harvest Sunday, so we did get to sing some of my favorite fall hymns. Strangely enough though, the hymnal was very different. There were the staves of music at the top of the page, but all of the words were beneath. Very hard to get used to.
Anyway, on Monday, Jessica (my friend whom I met at the bus station) and I went to Edinburgh to do some shopping. We went on the train, which was really fun. Some of the views out my window:



(crossing the Firth of Fourth into Edinburgh)
We stayed on Princes' Street and did a good bit of shopping.
We went to H&M (where I did a bunch of shopping) and Jenner's (a big department store where we had lunch and did some shopping) and a bunch of other stores. Most of the stores there were chains, but that's okay for the kind of shopping I wanted to do. I bought some sweaters and other necessities. I was looking for another pair of boots (in black) but I didn't have any luck. Not sure what I'm going to do about that, but I'll figure it out. We also went up "the mound" close to where Edinburgh Castle (seen below at night) to have dinner with one of Jessica's friends from London.

We had a great time, but we missed the second to last train. Uggh, we got to the train station at about 10:05pm, and the train left at 10:10pm. Unfortunately, the train was at one of the farther platforms, so we missed it. Had it been at a different platform, we would have been on it. As it was, we caught the 11:10 train, and I got back to my apartment in St. Andrews about 1:30. It was very late. Especially when I had class at 9. Uggh.
Speaking of which, I had my two classes on Tuesday morning. The first, Britain since 1707, was good fun. Even thought I didn't finish my reading, I still felt well informed and able to speak well in class. My second class, the Scottish History module, we spend most of the time discussing nation and statehood and whether or not those terms are relevant pre-19th century. It was a very interesting discussion. I'm very excited about the people in my group because they are very, very intelligent. And really nice. Claire, Jenny and I (and maybe Neil) are planning to go to Edinburgh the end of this month for a conference, so I hope we'll get to know each other better and have a good time then.
After class, Claire and I hung out, having lunch and then doing some studying. Not the most fun afternoon, but I have had many a boring afternoon in the library and will have many more.
Wednesday I went to a lecture about Transnational History and the interpretation of US history. Quite interesting, and I am intrigued by the whole metholodology of transnational history. It isn't really anything revolutionary, but it involves seeing connections between international events instead of simply looking at events with a 'staying within the nation' lines. It of course is more involved than that, so I'm planning to read Professor Tyrell's book and hopefully have a better idea of how it could apply to my research.
Thursday... I joined the St. Leonard's Chapel Choir, a small group of singers who sing a Compline service every Thursday night. It was really fun, but the transition to music in Britain will be different. The whole idea of 'quavers' and 'semi-quavers' and all of that... It was also fun to be in church with a bunch of Britons, because when saying the Lord's Prayer, etc., it sounds so cool! Anyway, most of the people in the group seem pretty cool. They're mostly undergrads, which is okay, but I'm not sure if we'll be great friends. But it is something to do and people to sing with.
Thursday I also had my first Gaelic class. I think it will be fun, but maybe not as academic as I'd like. It is an evening course, so about half of the people were from the town. The teacher is very talk-y and scatterbrained, but she is a native Gaelic speaker from the island of Harris. And since there aren't very many native Gaelic speakers left, it works. I'm going to have to miss several of the classes because they conflict with my Scottish History research seminars, which I ought to go to. Hopefully next semester, the courses will be on a different day of the week.
Friday I had coffee with Surabhi, who went to Oxford with me and is now in St. Andrews as a Bobby Jones fellow (lucky!). She's doing an International Relations program - peace and conflict studies. Good times.
Saturday I went with Beth to go see some of the golf on the Dunhill Golf Tournament. Most of the 'big names' played the Old Course on Friday, but that's okay. I still got to see a golf tournament at the Old Course. And I did see some awesome outfits, including someone in intensely argyle trousers and someone else in a bright red track suit. Hilarious.








(classic golf pose)
So that's the news from St. Andrews. Hope everything is well in your neck of the woods!

This is what I do of a Saturday night...

Hi everyone -
The past couple of days have been pretty reading intense, but I thought I'd give you an update anyway. I'll be telling you all about the stuff I've done. I guess I might sound really busy, but most of the time in between these fun things below, I was sitting in the library or my room reading. Yay.



Rainbow and fall trees while waiting for the bus...



Thursday I had lunch with Claire (the olderish one who is from Crail - say kray-eel) at a cute little French style place. I should have had a panini in memory of those from Paris a few summers ago... You can't go wrong with tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and prosciutto on a baguette, but the French have a special touch... Anyway, after more reading, Claire and I went to the Institute of Scottish Historical Research reception, where I met (for real instead of in class) the professor I think I may end up working with for my thesis, Dr. Bill Knox. We had an interesting conversation about contemporary politics (both American and British - yay for having the BBC as my homepage!). I ended up actually correcting him about something, which I probably should have just let it got. However, I was saying it before I realized it. We were talking about Bill Clinton, and Bill (since professors are called by their first names here - weird) said something about when he was the Governor of Alabama. I got kinda confused and said something along the lines of, "Oh, you mean Arkansas." Oops.
Anyway, I also met Roger (Mason, my supervisor)'s wife, Ellen (I think). She was wearing a pair of Stuart Nye dogwood earrings, so of course I had to comment. Bill had no idea what was so cool about it, but Ellen thought I was awesome for actually recognizing this random obscure Southern jewelry designer. She from the States, which makes it slightly less random, but it was really cool to find a fellow fan.
Anyway, after the reception, we all went out to dinner at Pizza Express (quite good food, actually), and I got to know Laura, a Scottish history PhD from the California, a bit more. She is quite a cool character whom I hope to hang out with some more.
I ended up taking a taxi home on Thursday night because it was really cold. I'm going to have to save that for special occasions because it was £4 pounds for a 5 minute taxi ride. Whoa!
St. Salvator's Quad:



Friday, after spending most of the day reading, I had dinner with Bailey and Matt, which was really nice. Matt cooked a really yummy chicken parmesan. They have a lovely apartment off of one of the major streets in town (I have to say I'm really jealous), but I think they're in one of the few University managed apartments in the center of town. I would love to have lived in the center, but it would have been really difficult to do on my own. Where I am isn't perfect, but it does the job. Maybe when people come to visit, we can rent a place in town for a week or something and I can have the town experience as well as the long walk experience!
So that brings me to today. This morning, I went to town to do some shopping. I bought a mattress pad (which makes a good bit of difference - still not as good as my mattress in the states tho) and some other household stuff. I also stocked up on groceries for the week and bought some postage stamps. Also, I realized that I never want to use the self-scan at Tesco again! That thing is so finnicky, and the people who are supposed to be attending it have 16 other things to do. Urrgh. Also, the bus almost tried to ignore me on the way back. Not happy about that. Tho when I stuck my arm and shopping out in front of the bus, I think the driver got nice and awake!
It turned out to be a beautiful day (in the morning/early afternoon), so I finally decided to check out the beach in the afternoon. It was lovely. I'm posting some pictures. It was still chilly and very windy, but a great place to be/live 3 minutes from. I'm probably going to try to start jogging over there on the 'coastal path.' I dunno how far it goes, but it should be pretty!
The beach:





This evening (after an inadvertent nap), I went back into town to meet Jessica and her flatmate Katy for coffee. It was quite cold, and the place I wanted to go to wouldn't let us get wine and dessert. Lame. So we had coffee (decaf - which here is spelled with two f's - weird). Katy is a semi-local, so it was fun to get to know her. She's in the Middleastern/Central Asian conflict studies program with Jessica.
So that's what's happening in my neck of the woods! Nothing super exciting, but still fun all the same.
St. Salvator's Chapel by night:

Pub adventures and meeting people

Hi again -
The last few days have been very busy, so I'll try to remember everything that has happened. It might or might not work...
Tuesday morning brought the first of my courses, a seminar-ish class about Britain since 1707. There are three different professors who each specialize in a different century (18th, 19th, and 20th), so just when we get used to one, we'll switch over to a different professor! Anyway, I showed up about 2 minutes to 10am when we were supposed to be meeting, and I was the last one to get there. So we're dealing with a bunch of fellow overachievers! I find it not a great idea to show up super early on the first day of class, because then your being early is expected and being on time after that is like being late. I dunno, maybe I'm over analyzing it. Anyway, I finally met Matt in person (we ended up sitting next to each other), and he is extremely nice. Very talkative too. Everyone I've met so far has been pretty talkative, but maybe that's just the week one talking.
Anyway, our fellow classmates are 2 other Americans and a Frenchman... so that'll be different. The professors are all British (English I think, but there's no better way to offend a Scot than by thinking he or she is English), so the dynamic could be a bit interesting. The first session was very introductory; there was no discussion of history at all, but then again, i'm sure we'll get at it quite enough next week.
After class, Matt and I went over to his wife Bailey's coffee shop to meet her and to get some coffee. She is also incredibly nice. She did her Masters in photography/art history last year at Edinburgh University, so now they're in St. Andrew's for Matt's Masters in history. She's working mostly this year at the coffee shop here, but she's also commuting to Edinburgh once a week to continue working at a gallery where she interned last year. Quite a commute!
My second class met at 11am (so I'll normally go straight on from 9am to 1pm on Tuesday, eek!) and it was the Scottish history core module. There are four of us, and that class will go all year. Two of the people are Scots, Claire, who grew up about 10 miles from St. Andrews. She's a returning student having finished her bachelors doing evening courses at St. Andrews, working two years in education, and then deciding to go back to school. She seems super nice; I hope that we can hang out a bit more. And she would say "wee bit more" which is awesome!! The other Scot is Neil, a Glaswegian (i.e. from Glasgow). He also took a year off last year and decided that pension administration was not for him. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone for whom pension administration was their passion. Jenny is a bit of a different story. She is from Germany and just finished her undergraduate there. Her undergraduate thesis (which apparently is pretty standard here for people wanting to go to graduate school) was about the Darien incident (the failed attempt for Scotland to control trade on the isthmus of Panama. Apparently it failed miserably and is now know at the Darien disaster). She wanted to have an opportunity to live abroad, but she says she is nervous about her English. She sounds very competent to me in English, but with the amount we have to read, it could be a problem.
After our course (which seems to be quite a bit about identity and nationalism), the four of us students we to the pub for lunch (my first visit to the pub). We hung out and conversed for an hour or so, which was really nice. I hope that we will be good friends; from everything I've heard, that's normally how it goes. We have another reception for just the Scottish history students this afternoon, so we'll see!
After lunch, Claire let me copy some of her articles so I wouldn't have to copy them out of the books again. Not that any of us would imagine copying out of books! Apparently the idea of buying books here is very odd. Almost everyone gets all of their books from the library. There are multiple copies of most books; one copy can be checked out for a while (and is usually the one to go first), but the others only for a week! I'm sure I'll learn the system soon enough, but that seems very strange to me.
Tuesday afternoon the history department had a big reception for all of its new students (and the older students came too), so I got to meet quite a few people. The Scottish history phd's seemed keen to bring me into their fold (and Professor Mason, my supervisor, seems to be already trying to convince me to stay for a phd). One of the phd students is also from Tennessee, Morristown actually. We're going to have a biscuits and gravy fest at some point - apparently his biscuits just haven't turned out right since coming to Scotland; I think its the baking powder. Anyway, I also met another Claire who did an MLitt last year and is now doing her PhD. She also did an undergrad at St. Andrews, so she's a fixure of the community, lol. Anyway, after the reception, Claire (phd), Matt, Laura (3rd year phd), Björn (2nd year phd?), Bailey, and a few others went to the Rule, another pub that doesn't pour ale very well apparently. And then we went to the Central pub, where they do know how to pour ale. I met a few other people throughout the course of the night: Beth, a MLitt turned PhD from Maryland, Adam, a 3rd year? PhD student in English history from Yorkshire, and Dan, a 4th year PhD student from somewhere in Britain who is trying to finish his conclusion by Friday. Anyway, it is an interesting cast of characters, about whom I'm sure you will hear a lot as time goes on.
Yesterday, I got up late and worked on my intense amounts of reading. If I read all I'm 'supposed to' it'll be 10 books and 5 articles before next Tuesday. I'm already about 2 books behind, lol. We'll see how it turns out.
Later, I met up with Jessica (the girl I randomly met Monday on the bus) for coffee and a chat. I think that we'll be good friends; we might do lunch today and go to Edinburgh on Monday for some shopping. I'll have to see how the homework goes. She's from the greater state of Los Angeles, but did about 2/3 of her undergraduate at King's college London. Apparently in late 2007 the exchange rate (like $2.50 almost to £1) got so bad that she had to go home and finish up at UC Irvine. She's back in the UK working on an MLitt in International Relations. I've heard that degree is a 'party' degree, but I can't imagine it being like that. I only have two course meetings each week (and tons of reading in between), whereas Jessica has two lectures each with a reading group and then a language course. A much busier schedule, but I guess for some that could mean less actual work. The only other person I know doing IR is Surabhi, one of the Bobby Jones Scholars, and she will definitely put any people trying to party their way through that degree to shame.
Rest of Wednesday afternoon - more reading.
Last night I met up with Andy (Tennessee), Claire (straight thru at St. Andrews), Adam (Yorkshire), and Dan (conclusion) for the pub quiz. Its a lot like trivia night in the states, but more competitive I think. I didn't contribute much, but I did know that the only national flag in world without 4 sides is Nepal (its like 2 triangles stacked). Yay for contribution! We were one point out of third place and winning a dvd of Tropic Thunder. But apparently we did much better than they did last week, being one point out of last. I might make a regular thing about it.
Today is going to be more reading and then the Scottish history reception at 5.15. Good times.
A random note: You know how in the states, you could (for example) buy a half pint or a pint of beer, but the pint would be a better value? Not so! My pint of Guinness from yesterday was £3.20, and the half pint was £1.60! How awesome is that!

First Day in Scotland

Hi all -
So as most of you know by now, I'm now studying at the University of St. Andrews. I'll be getting a Master (of Letters - a particularly British degree, but akin to a MA with a shorter thesis) degree in History, with an emphasis on modern British/Scottish history. My first class is tomorrow, and I have to be done with my thesis by 31 August of 2011. I had been planning all along to do a masters of some sort this year, but I didn't really plan on being in Scotland... But that's a different story for a different post.

At the airport, getting ready to leave.


Some of my luggage (including the now lost silver bag - hopefully they find it soon)

View of Edinburgh from the plane

Anyway, I arrived in St. Andrews yesterday at about 2pm. It was a beautiful (though a bit cold) sunny day, so I spent much of the afternoon walking around town and running errands. I had a bit of lunch at a coffee shop called Costa. The sandwich was pretty good and so was the cappuccino, but the thing that I liked best was that the barisa/coffee making person remembered two of the people in line in front of me and anticipated their orders. It is fun being in a small town.
Yesterday I also attended the "Freshers Fayre" i.e. student activities fair and signed up for the Hispanic club. They had me sold at 'Sangria Night,' which is tomorrow. I'm also planning to sign up for the Fine Food and Dining Club (which is cooking classes, dining out, and discounts! pretty much).
I also got moved in (ish) to my room yesterday. I'm sharing a flat with 3 other international students, one from California, Deanna, and two from China, Lilian and Bella (not their real names, but they are the ones they offered to me b/c their real names are quite difficult to say). I've hung out with Lilian and Bella a good bit, but Deanna has been out most of the time. Its all good. I don't really anticipate being close friends with any of my flatmates, but they seem to keep pretty clean.
This morning I woke up fairly early on my own at about 7:30. I had an alarm set for 8, and I was thinking I would probably sleep through it. But I guess not. Its probably better that way. I made some breakfast, got ready, and then headed into town. I had to have my visa checked out and registered (which I did) and then met my advisor. The history building, St. Katherine's Lodge, is on a street called The Scores, and backs up to the library. I went to the library to get my ID and then went to look for the history building. I didn't know which way to turn on the Scores, so I turned right. When I didn't find the building, I turned around. When I walked past the building "St. Katherine's West" going west, I figured I had missed it again. I stopped in St. Katherine's West and asked for directions, and the people were super nice. I eventually found the building and realized that, had I turned left instead of right, it would have literally been two doors down. It drives me nuts that nothing is numbered here!! The address is literally St. Katherine's Lodge, the Scores, St. Andrews, Fife. Uggh. Very frustrating for a pedestrian.
Anyway, Professor Mason was very personable and nice. We talked a bit about my visa troubles, and he mentioned that his wife (who is American) still struggles to sort through the immigration bureaucracy. I have class with him tomorrow at 11am. I have another class on Tuesdays that will normally meet at 9, but, thanks to Professor Mason, I now know that it doesn't meet tomorrow until 10. I would have gone to the wrong place at the wrong time! But now I know. Professor Mason also introduced me to Elsie Johnstone, the history postgrad secretary. She was very nice and sounds very Scottish. She reminds me of the department secretary at Emory, who ended up being a good friend. So maybe I'll make another history secretary friend.

Back way out of St. Katherine's looking at the library and to the main parish church

After that, I went back to the library, where I ran into Surabhi Agrawal, a former Oxford kid who was a year behind me. I was her SI (Supplemental Instructor) for Poli Sci 101, and now she's doing an MLitt in International Conflict Resolution. I like to think I played a part in her pursuing political studies... yeah, right. Well, a girl can dream... Anyway, Surabhi is here on the Bobby Jones Scholarship, which is an exchange of Emory and St. Andrews immediate graduates. Had I thought last year that I wanted to study at St. Andrews, I definitely would have applied, but it was the wrong timing for me. Anyway, I was walking into the library, and I heard someone say, "Leslie??" which was quite funny. I guess I hadn't mentioned to her that I'd be in St. Andrews too. Oops. I forget whom I've told and whom I haven't sometimes. Oh well. Hopefully she and I will get together soon for coffee/tea/de-stressing/Oxford reminiscing.
After that, I had a quick lunch at this salad/smoothie place, so I definitely got a good serving or two of veggies. I'll probably go back. It was fairly expensive, but I hate making salads (mostly it is the lettuce tearing). We'll see.
I also popped into the Student Store this afternoon and got some notebooks for class tomorrow. It was really busy, and there were lots of undergrads there. They are so young!! I didn't think I'd look any different that they do, but I definitely think I do.
Anyway, after the student union, I decided to head over to the big supermarket, Morrison's. It is a good jaunt, so I decided to try to take the bus. As I was standing at the bus station, trying to figure the bus route, someone asked me about the bus to take to the David Russell Apartments (the big Clairmont-esque complex on the other side of town). I guess I gave off the appearance of knowing what was going on. But then I had to tell her that I honestly had no idea. But anyway, we got to talking and ended up on the same bus and exchanging phone numbers, so I'm hoping we'll hang out soon. Her name is Jessica, and she's from California. She's doing an International Relations degree too, I think, so maybe she and Surabhi are in some of the same courses.
Oh yeah, I have a new phone number, as the above paragraph implied. Send me an email if you want it. I don't really want to post it all over the public internet... I'm weird I know.
So, I spent about £80 at Morrison's and had a ton of stuff to carry. I should have planned ahead and gotten the phone number for a taxi, but I didn't. So I went to wait for the bus, thinking that I could figure it out. The woman who was waiting at the stop asked me where I was headed, and then helped me figure out how to get there. I ended up getting on the perfect bus, and only had to walk about 100 yards with my boat-loads of stuff. I had quite a few run-ins with very nice people today. It definitely made me realize that I'm in a close-nit small town that has made its peace with the university students. I guess having the university there for about 600 years probably helps with the adjustment.
I got a locker in the library today, so I had to leave my apartment again to go get my stuff out of it. I think it'll be a convenient thing to have. I might even leave a pair of shoes there so I can wear my walking shoes to town and then change for class or meetings or whatnot. My apartment is about a 10 minute walk or so from the town center. Yesterday it was beautiful and so a very pleasant walk. Today was cold and rainy (and much more typical, I'm afraid), so not as much fun. I think I have the buses figured out a bit, so I might take them if the weather is really cold.
Anyway, this evening I have to put away the stuff I got a Morrison's (don't worry, I put all of the food away already) and then do some reading for class tomorrow. Its not required, but I'm going to have to do it anyway, so I may as well get a head start.
Oh, also, one of my bags didn't arrive, so I'm trying to figure out the deal. It was supposed to have been delivered yesterday. Its not a huge deal, but all of my other pairs of jeans and my towels were in it. So I'm hoping it gets here soon before I get too stinky! Just kidding, I bought a towel today, so I'm going to take a shower. But I would rather have my nice US ones instead.
That's it for now. I'll hopefully be somewhat consistent with writing, but we'll have to see.
Thanks for reading!
p.s. My feet and shoulders really hurt from all of the walking and carrying stuff. Hopefully I'll get used to that. And not make any more £80 Morrison's runs.

February and March

So… it’s been a long time since I’ve written. And not much is different. Slocomb and I are enjoying our apartment and living by ourselves. We’re still working at CEDEI school and fighting all the time with the administration about basic things (like why we have meetings all the time instead of having classes, our workload, supplies, etc). Cuenca is still Cuenca.
We finished another round of Spanish classes. My class, especially toward the end, became pretty much a conversation class, which was really fun. It’s nice to be advanced enough grammatically to be able to have significant and meaningful conversations with people in Spanish. I still make tons of mistakes (simple stupid ones too… ones that I would avoid if I studied more… but unfortunately, school sucks up most of my energy, so I don’t really feel like studying once I get home.
We did have internet at the apartment for a while, but unfortunately we don’t anymore. We were getting it from the hostal upstairs in exchange for helping the owner with his real estate business (translations, contacts, etc). However, about two weeks ago, the network no longer showed up on our computers all of a sudden, so Slocomb went to go talk to the hostal owner. He said that he didn’t feel like he was getting anything out of the exchange, so he changed the network and the password. And wasn’t planning on telling us. Very passive aggressive… very typical.
Anyway, in better news, I have a new English student, one of the parents of the students at the school. She’s already taken English classes, so mainly she just wants to practice speaking and listening (which is something I can do very easily!). We’ve only had a week of classes so far, but I think its working out well. Slocomb also has a potential new student, a niece (or something) of the owner of our new favorite ice cream place, Helados de la Tienda (which, no joke, means ‘ice creams from the store). They’re planning to start next week, so we’ll see how it goes.
Since losing internet, I’ve started drawing and painting again. The other teachers at CEDEI from the states (Jen and Liv, but Jen especially) are very artsy people, so hanging out with them has inspired me I guess. It’s something fun and time consuming without taking too much energy. I’ve also been cooking a lot, especially now that Slocomb and I bought an Ecuadorian cookbook (that has lots of pictures so I don’t have to worry so much about translating the words). So far, I’ve made tortillas (not the Mexican style ones, the ones with egg and rice and herbs. Very yummy), bolónes (balls of grated plantain with cheese or meat sometimes), and Ecuadorian style lasagna (with a white sauce instead of ricotta cheese). I’m planning to make Easter dinner out of the cookbook, including locro de choclo (a soup with corn, potatoes, avocados and onions in a creamy base), pork chops with a tomato sauce, and oritos (baby bananas) wrapped in pastry with maracuyá sauce. And salad, because I guess we should eat veggies. I found out the secret to salad here (which is really yummy when it doesn’t get you sick – normally in Cuenca its okay because the water is drinkable): lime juice. They don’t use salad dressing, they just drench lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions in lime juice. Very healthy and yummy.
Right now, Slocomb and I are on the way to Guayaquil (meaning that we’ll be in Guayaquil when I finally post) to go to the beach and to pick up my parents!!!! They’re going to be with us for two weeks, one of which we’ll spend in Cuenca, the other in Peru. It’s been nuts planning the trip (flights, hotels, tours, etc), but I think its pretty much all planned, which of course is good because it’s upon us. Anyway, Mom and Dad arrive in Guayaquil Friday night, and we’re planning to spend Saturday in Guayaquil going to the Malecón and the Iguana park, etc. Saturday night we’re flying from Guayaquil to Cuenca (because I’ve heard that flying can make the altitude adjustment easier). Sunday is Easter so we’re going to go to the cathedral for mass in the morning (Slocomb was there for Christmas – he says it’s an experience) and then have lunch at home because most things will be closed. Monday Slocomb and I have to work, but I’m hoping to start the museum runs that afternoon. Cuenca has a lot of great museums, most of which I haven’t been to yet, so hopefully having Mom and Dad here will get me to go. Tuesday we’re going to Ingapirca, the largest archaeological site in Ecuador, about two hours south of Cuenca. Wednesday I’m going back to work and taking my parents with me. Luckily Slocomb doesn’t have any classes on Wednesday, so hopefully he can entertain them a little when I’m in my classes (though I’m sure Mom at least is gonna want to play with the little ones – I should warn her that behind the cute exterior they can be vicious). Wednesday afternoon we’re going to Cajas, the big national park just to the west of Cuenca to hike a little and see how beautiful it is. I’m also planning to subject my parents to the whole-trout-for-lunch thing that Slocomb and I did with Angel back in October. Thursday we’re going to museum it up again and go to a Deportivo Cuenca game. The last game we went to, Cuenca lost 4-1, so hopefully they’ll make a better showing this time. Friday is another museum day before we go back to Guayaquil on Saturday to catch a plane to Lima. Sunday morning we fly to Cuzco and hang out there for two days. Tuesday morning we are going to Machu Picchu!!! We’re going to spend the night in the close-by town and come back to Cuzco on Wednesday. We’re going to spend two more nights in Cuzco (one day really) going to the other Inca sites in the Sacred Valley and then back to Lima on Friday morning. We’ll spend all day Friday in Lima (probably not enough time, but the point of the trip was Cuzco and Machu Picchu anyway) before flying back to Guayaquil on Saturday morning. And then Mom and Dad will leave for the states again on Saturday night. Its going to be a great trip, but very busy. I’m hoping it won’t go by too fast!
On a somewhat random note, Slocomb and I finally bought the Monopoly Ecuador Edition. The pieces are the same and so are the rules, but the spaces on the board are important places in Ecuador. I’m hoping to play with Mom and Dad so they can dilute Slocomb’s ruthlessness a little bit. Or maybe we shouldn’t play because Dad, Slocomb and I are all so competitive. We’ll see.
Okay, now I’m going to back-track and tell some of the stories that I’ve missed since… January. The most memorable one for me was our last trip to Guayaquil and Playas. We stayed at a new place in Playas that was only $10 a person a night. But it didn’t have air conditioning, which meant that Slocomb didn’t really sleep and by proxy I didn’t sleep (because he was mad and frustrated and not very quiet). There was also a violin festival going on at the hostal the same weekend which was cool but kinda random. Most of the violinists were kids, so that was very cute. We found out that we really do have to have air conditioning when at sea level in Ecuador. Sleeping is just way too important. Anyway, the memorable part of the trip for me was getting sick on the way home. On the bus from Playas to Guayaquil, I hadn’t been feeling that good, but on the bus from Guayaquil to Cuenca, it got a whole lot worse. Luckily, we got stopped about two hours into the trip for road construction, so I was able to get off the bus and hurl. People were very nice, trying to help, etc, but there’s not a lot that can be done in that situation. Unfortunately, I was still getting sick when the bus started up again, but me and my plastic bag made it work. But also unfortunately, I was in such a hurry to get off the bus and go home that I left my good sunglasses on the bus. Sad day. It turned out to just be a food bug, but it was very unpleasant being sick. But I got two days off of work for it!
Backtracking some more, we went to the beach for Carnival (which is apparently what everyone in Cuenca does). We found a trip that was only $100 or so for each person and went to Manta and the beaches around Manta. Everyone else on the trip was Cuencano, which was kinda fun. Or so we thought… The first night was the over-night bus ride (everyone’s favorite!) and when we arrived in Manta, it was pouring down rain (and I of course forgot my raincoat). We checked into the hotel, watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics and promptly fell asleep. When we woke up, everyone was gone. Luckily we’d gotten the phone number of one of the trip organizers, so we called and found out that everyone was at the beach close by in Manta. So we went to the beach (half of which was flooded because of the rain) and hung out with about ten thousand of our closest friends. We came back to the hotel, had dinner, and went for a swim. We decided to turn in early because we were still tired from the bus-ride-night, and were happily sleeping when…. A mariachi band starts playing at 3 in the morning. Complete seriousness. And they weren’t a nice quiet mariachi band. They were a very loud mariachi band serenading someone’s wife/girlfriend for about an hour. I was livid. But I went back to sleep. The next day we went to Canoa, one of the most famous beaches in Ecuador. To get there from Manta, we had to take a bus for about 2 hours, a ferry across to the actual island of Canoa, and then another bus for about 20 minutes before actually getting to Canoa, which despite its remoteness was crawling with people (not as bad as the beach in Manta, but still pretty busy). And that night was supposed to be the big Carnival party. It was supposed to start at 9 and go until 12 or so, but it started about 11 and went on until 4. With very loud speakers right outside our hotel room. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I was very very tired of people playing loud music outside my hotel room at all hours of the night. The next day everyone (escept us) got up early to go to a different beach (no idea how they did after having been up until at least 4 the previous night). Slocomb and I decided to sleep in and go back to the first beach, which turned out to be quite nice. Still really crowded, but we got to take a nice walk on the beach. The final day was the trip back. We stopped in Guayaquil to go the Parque Historico (combo zoo and mini-colonial Williamsburg), which I thought was pretty cool. Not as informative as I would have liked, but they had moved a block of buildings that were built about 1900 from the Malecon and restored them there. The architecture was very similar to a lot that you see in Cuenca today, but Guayquil is a much more modern city (complete with concrete jungle). The zoological part at the front had some really cool animals, but it was in an area with the original costal vegetation. Meaning mangroves and mosquitoes. Lots of mosquitoes. And we ddn’t bring bug spray. When we got done at the Parque Historico, the tour organizers told us that we were going to head across the street to the mall to get some dinner. We had already eaten at the Parque, so we didn’t really care. Apparently most people (but not all) had already eaten, so there was a huge whiny outcry of “let’s just go back to Cuenca.” They were using the argument that the majority had already eaten and wanted to go ahead to Cuenca (to get home an hour earlier). Very inconsiderate. And very whiny. So all in all, our Carnival trip was quite uncomfortable and not very pleasant. We were very tired of Cuencanos by the time we got done with the trip.
I’m trying to think about other interesting things that have happened… I think that’s all of the trips, but I did do a lot of thinking about graduate school. Back in the fall, I applied to Latin American Studies programs at UCLA, UC San Diego, Berkeley, and University of Chicago. I got into all of them except Berkeley, and I even got offered a 1/3 tuition scholarship at Chicago. However, the more I thought about it, the less I wanted to do Latin American studies. I kept thinking about coming back to Latin America and trying to research, etc, and I just couldn’t get excited about it. I knew that I definitely wanted to go back to school, but I realized that I just couldn’t see myself in Latin American Studies. So I started thinking some more, and, as I wrote in my new personal statement, I realized that the answer had been in front of me for a long time. I’ve known that I want to study history, but I’d had a tough time deciding what world area. And I remembered that my first introduction to history and museums and all of that fun-ness was when Mom and Dad would drag me to tons of museums and historical homes when we lived in England. So I’ve decided that I want to pursue British Studies. The great thing about that is that I can study a lot more than just Britain. If I do imperial studies or something like that, I can also study Africa and India and the south Pacific and even a bit in Latin America. Anyway, I applied to a program at St. Andrew’s in Scotland – a one-year masters in “Scottish Historical Studies,” but I’ll also be taking classes in general British history, and got in. I’m working on funding applications right now, but even with living expenses included, I’d probably spend a lot less at St. Andrews than at UChicago. And considering how much it costs to Live in San Diego or Los Angeles, I might save money over them as well.
Another lovely part about the St. Andrews thing is that Slocomb found a theology program that he’s really interested in. For seminary (i.e. post-St. Andrews), he wants a more ‘practical’ training at seminary as opposed to divinity school which has theological and practical components. So before seminary, Slocomb has thought about doing a divinity degree or study for a while. Anyway, he applied about two weeks after I did, so he should be hearing back in about a week or so. If (and if you ask me, when) he gets in, we are going to start looking into housing options and plane tickets and visas and going to live in another foreign country for a year. Slocomb doesn’t want to loose his Spanish, so he’s going to try to get a TA job or something with the Spanish department. And I’m hoping to work on campus (in the library or something) or find a nanny-type job. With the student visas in Britain, we’d only be able to work 10 hours a week, but if we live on campus (i.e. can use US Federal loans for living), then hopefully we can afford it. We’d be looking at a significant amount of debt for the degrees (£11400 each, but I’m hoping we can get scholarship) and then maybe £8000 for living on campus, but even with all of that, it would be cheaper for both of us to get degrees at St. Andrews than just my tuition at UChicago even after the scholarship. And with the new federal law about student loans, we would never be required to pay more that 10% of our income to student loans. Anyway, this would all work if I get the scholarships I’m looking at and can get a job back in the states afterwards and then get a PhD program paid for after that. That’s a lot of things that have to go right, but I’m hopeful. Slocomb is trying to be realistic about St. Andrews and is worried about getting in. I on the other hand have decided that he will get in and am counting on the power of positive thinking/making one’s own destiny to make this all work out.
So beside some sub-par trips and a mini-mid life crisis, things are pretty normal here. I’m really excited to have my parents here and take our trip to Peru. And to show off my Spanish, which isn’t great, but its definitely passable. And considering that I started working on Spanish 7 months ago and studying it 5 months ago, I’m feeling pretty happy.
I’ll hopefully get back into blogging mode and keep better updated. I’ll certainly let ‘everyone’ know about St. Andrews and our plans for next year!

Marching Band Season in Cuenca

Well, folks, it seems like marching band season is off to a great start here in Cuenca. I watched a parade out of the apartment window this morning (my favorite way to watch a parade because its not overwhelming), and it was a bunch of schools with their drum and bell corps marching down the street. I think that its probably a Carnival thing (because Carnival ends in two weeks, so everyone is trying to get their fun in now), but who knows.
About a week ago, we took a field trip to the river near the school for a picnic, and we saw a group of kids from the school across the street practicing for a parade of some sort. In these parades, its just drums and bells and flags, so its not a full marching band but still the closest I’ve seen. Parades are a huge thing here (there’s been one to watch every Saturday out our window since we moved in here, I think), so it seems reasonable that there are marching bands. Anyway, as you probably can tell, I’m enjoying living in the center of town now and being able to be an observer out of my sixth floor window.
The elevator in our building still isn’t fixed, so coming home can be kind of an up hill battle (especially after having gone to the grocery store). To me it seems easier that our treck up the hill to the Colomas' house, but Slocomb disagrees. We’re probably talking the same amount of rise but very different slopes. I’d rather just get it over with in one fell swoop, but apparently Slocomb likes his hill climbs long and drawn out. Oh well. Despite the problems we’ve had (plumbing and elevator mostly), we’re still enjoying our new apartment in the center of town (literally half a block from the cathedral).
Another great thing that we can see out the window is the flower market. Every day, and especially on weekends, there are about 10-15 vendors in this square selling flowers. A dozen roses is about 2 dollars, and you can come home with a huge bouquet for less than 5. One of my favorite flowers that they sell are calla lilies, which you also find randomly growing in people’s yards. Interestingly, these lilies are cheaper than roses here, but once they get imported to the US (likely both from Ecuador), the price changes drastically. I think in the States, calla lillies are a dollar or two a piece, but here you can get 5 for a dollar. A florists dream, Ecuador. Growing season all year long, and a perfect climate for roses and orchids and lillies. Love it! I thought that I would spend a good bit of money in the flower market, living so close to it, but I actually haven’t bought anything since we moved in. I still don’t have a vase, but I know a great place to get ones just on the other side of the main market, which I can also see from my window. Maybe I’ll work on that today.
Last weekend, Slocomb and I went to the beach as a little mini-vacation. We left Cuenca on Friday afternoon and spent the night in Guayaquil at our favorite little quiet, up away from town hotel. Great place to stay in Guayaquil - Iguanazu - but about a $5 cab ride from downtown or the airport, which is expensive here, btw.
On Saturday morning, we got up and went to the bus terminal to catch the bus to Salinas, one of the many beach towns about two or three hours from Guayaquil. I had already made a reservation at a hostal there (in Spanish - my first Spanish phone call all on my own!!!), so we were ready to go. However, when we get to the bus station, there are huge lines to buy tickets! We didn’t know for where yet, but Slocomb turned to look and me and said, “If those are the lines to buy tickets to Salinas, then let’s go someplace else!” I completely agreed, and those lines did turn out to be the lines to buy tickets to Salinas and Montanita (another beach town we’ve been wanting to go to). So we ended up going back to Playas, the beach we went to in November. We got on the very next bus leaving for Playas instead of spending 2 hours waiting in line just to buy a bus ticket, so I think we made the right decision.
To some people (and for the first time), bus rides in Ecuador can be scary because the bus stops about every 5 or 10 minutes to pick up passengers from the road who usually end up standing in the aisles. Also, a few times along the journey to Playas, vendors with fruit and food and soda get on the bus and try to sell to you. We haven’t ventured into fruit or drinks (besides bottled water) yet, but this time we did buy several maduros fritos (fried sweet plantains) and papas fritas (fried mashed potatoes with hard boiled egg or fish or chicken inside). Talk about serious yumminess. They always tell you not to eat street food, but these are totally worth taking the chance. And we haven’t gotten sick... yet.
We didn’t have a reservation in Playas, so the first thing we did was look for a place to stay. There are plenty of hotels and hostals along the beach, so we just walked until we found a place we liked. We also knew that there was always the place we’d stayed last time, which was fine but not fancy at all.
The first place we went into was a hostal with a double room for $20 a night. We asked to look at a room, and all they had were two twin beds and a bathroom without a toilet seat. So we decided to keep looking. We went to another couple of inexpensive places before realizing that this was really a place where you get what you pay for. We found a place that we liked fairly well, but they didn’t have any rooms with a view, so we finally tried this place that I thought was going to be too expensive for us, the Hotel Dorado. Normally you can know if it says “hotel” that means you’ll end up paying more than you should, but they had a really nice king-size room with a tv, dvd player, a/c and an ocean view for $40. Which is on the expensive side of hotels in Playas, but I think it was worth it. The place still didn’t have hot water, but its hot and humid enough in Playas that you don’t want hot water anyway.
The rest of the weekend we spent lying around on the beach (renting two chairs and an umbrella for $5 all day), eating too much fried food from the vendors on the beach, and eating incredible seafood and empanadas. People in the Sierra hate to admit it, but the food on the coast in Ecuador is just better. Hands down. But I know how to make a mean shrimp ceviche and some good empanadas, so I’m on my way to bringing the yummy coastal foods with us to the Sierra and back to the States.
I don’t remember if I said this last time, but there are always vendors walking back and forth across the beach, selling jewelery, souvenirs, hair braiding, food, and beer. Awesome! In some places, vendors can be annoying, but here you can just smile, and shake your head and they keep walking. Its really convenient to not have get up to get a beer or food. When my family goes to the beach, Dad acts as the food/drink vendor because he can’t spend too much time on the beach. But if Dad’s not around, having constant vendors is pretty cool too. And the things the vendors sell are not expensive; its the same price as you’d find anywhere else in Playas or in Ecuador. A liter of Pilsener (the beer to drink when you’re not drinking - has a flavor surprisingly reminiscent of Bud light or Coors light, ugh) is $1.25, a fried plantain is $.50, ice creams range from $.25 to $1.00. Unfortunately, I’ve found that when I ask the price, I get a higher quote that even Slocomb. And its not because of the Spanish, because I can totally ask for stuff with a completely non-US accent. I’ve been told its the blue eyes. Bummer.
The other places to get food on the beach are the about 50 or so ‘comedores’ or ‘food-makers’. There are so many of them (and they’re pretty much all the same) that they each have their own person standing outside saying, “We have the best fish, the best ceviche, the best whatever” to try to get people to come to their place and not another one. We have this one place that we like for breakfast - Comedor Freddy’s - because we can get coffee, a bolon (a lightly fried ball of plantain and cheese - yumminess!!), and a scrambled egg for $1.50. Yum!
The only downside to Playas is that there’s not a lot of nightlife, which isn’t really a problem for me. Slocomb wants to go out and do stuff at night, but there are only a few places in Playas to do that (and he always falls asleep before anyway). Salinas and Montanita are the party beaches, but I don’t really go to the beach to party. I go to the beach to go to the beach and eat really good food. I don’t think its fun to come back from the beach more tired that when you left because you were out until 4am every night, so I think Playas is the place for me. We’re still gonna try to go to Salinas and/or Montanita, but two trips to Playas are certainly not enough for me.
This week at school was kinda crappy. We had too many special events going on as well as meetings every day during recess about curriculum. I mean, its good to have curricular meetings, but they were not well planned. We met for each grade level - meaning that the national teachers only had to be in one meeting and I had to be in five. Not good planning, especially because we teach more hours than they do and there have less time to plan more. I dunno, there’s just not a lot of respect for us from the administration or from the students even. And its starting to get to me. Also this week, we had the tri-monthly birthday celebrations, which are fun, but a lot of prep work - mostly done by the national teachers, thank goodness. For us, it mainly just means a lot of meet and greet and being really ‘on our game’ for a while. We also had another special event for the preschoolers on Thursday (birthdays and special event in one day - not good for little kids in my opinion), so we’d spent the last two weeks teaching the kids songs and stuff to show off to their parents. Cute and fun, but not very relaxing and has the unpleasant tendency to throw off my schedule. I think that I’ve realized that my schedule (when everything goes according to plan) is at the top of my stress-handling level in the first place that when there are other things that come up, I just get overwhelmed. But the rest of the international team is great about taking up slack and helping each other out, but I don’t really think that the national team or the administration realize what its like to be us. Okay, rant over.
Last night Slocomb and I went to Pepe Luna’s (the music teacher/resident diva at school) birthday party. It was at this cool little cafe beside the river where a lot of the long-term gringos hang out. We got there about 9:30 (though the party was supposed to start at 8), but things didn’t really get started until 10:30 or 11. We ended up leaving about 11:30 because it got really hot and really smoky inside. Going out to clubs and stuff is a huge thing in Cuenca (that i’m not very good at), but I think Slocomb and I are going to try to start going out more. There are a ton of cool places to hang out and lots of people to meet, but we seem like old geezers sometimes. Oh well.
Alright, well, that’s what’s going on here. Oh, we also got internet back in our apartment!! So hopefully I’ll be able to blog more and more promptly!

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Holidays in Cuenca

Also written Jan 10. Sorry for the delay!

After Galapagos, Slocomb and I went back to Guayaquil for a day. He went back to Cuenca at 6pm, and my flight for the States left at midnight, so we had essentially a whole day in Guayaquil. We ended up going to the Malecon (the board walk essentially) and hiking up the Cerro Santa Ana (a big hill at the east end of the Malecon where you can get a beautiful view of the city). The hill was 500 steps. I was glad that I had been living in the Andes because the abundance of oxygen (at least to me) made it a lot easier!
We went back to our hotel (after having a cab driver who may have been illiterate and wouldn’t read the map showing him where our hotel was. We ended up getting out of the taxi a few blocks from the hotel and walking the rest of the way...). We hung out at the pool for a little while and ended up meeting an Ecuadorian couple who were just hanging out for the day. They were very interesting; clearly people with money. It was interesting for me because they were the first people I had met who hated president Correa. Since Correa is a socialist who has implemented policies to bring up the working and middle class, it is clear why rich people don’t like him. But even so, he is extremely popular, which goes to show how few rich people Ecuador has. The electricity problems have lessened his popularity, but they are supposed to be solved soon. The black outs were supposed to stop on December 15, then December 20, but we are still having short (two hour daily during the work week) blackouts. I don’t mind because we’ve gotten used to it, but I also am not a small business or restaurant owner. My income doesn’t depend on having electricity, so to me its just a minor inconvenience. I guess we’ll have to see in 2012 (the next presidential election, I believe).
Speaking of blackouts, when Slocomb and I were about to leave to go to the airport/get on the bus to Cuenca, the taxi companies were all saying 20 to 30 minutes for a taxi because of the no-stop-light traffic! Unfortunately, we didn’t have 20 to 30 minutes... so the owner of the hotel offered to take us in her personal car. Talk about service!! The name of the hotel is Iguanazú, btw. I highly recommend it. The rooms are nice and quite comfy (the bathrooms leave a little to be desired, but they are clean). The grounds are very nice, and clearly, the service is superb. Anyway, random side note...
We got to the airport/but station on time thanks to the kindness of the hotel owner, and everything went fairly smoothly after that. I had decided to show up to the airport very early because I didn’t really want to be by myself in Guayaquil after dark. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to check in until 9pm, so I had about 3 hours to wait in the entrance of the airport.
In that time, I did see lots of funny things. Part of the time, I sat near the shrink-wrapper which people could pay to have saran wrap put on their luggage. Supposedly, this is to protect it from water or other damage (very understandable) but I am beginning to think it is really to discourage customs officials from opening the bags. A few people I saw having their bags wrapped had to open them and take out things because they were too heavy. One of the bags was completely full of bootleg DVDs, and the other was full of mangos. Two things very against US customs regulations. Another group of people was having practically life-sized Spiderman and Chucky (like the horror movie doll) dolls shrink-wrapped. I had no idea about this at the time, but I have since figured out that it is traditional here to have dolls or effigies, etc, to burn on New Year’s Eve. And not just dolls, but many people write things about the old year that have passed, things they liked and didn’t like, and they have a big party to “burn the old year away.” The city of Guayaquil had some big ones out in the street to be burned at midnight, including Michael Jackson. Have I mentioned that everyone in Ecuador is obsessed with Michael Jackson? Well, maybe not everyone, but tons of people. Kinda strange, but to each his own I suppose.
Anyway, my time at the airport was long and pretty much boring, but I did see some interesting things. On a side note, could I get in trouble for knowing that people were bringing DVDs and mangos thru customs illegally? They weren’t on my plane anyhow, so it would have been too late to inform customs officially... right? Anyway, I hope so...
I did meet up with Juana, the fifth grade teacher, and Lucas, her son, who were on the same flight to the States as I was. They were going to Texas to visit Juana’s sister, and so I helped Juana navigate the craziness that is the Atlanta airport. It was also an excellent opportunity to practice my Spanish. And as I was dropping Juana and Lucas off at their gate (which they would have found completely fine on their own, but Atlanta is nuts), Juana said that she really wanted to practice her English with me when we got back to Cuenca. I’m sure they would have been fine without me, but I do understand how nerve-wracking it can be to be in a new country where you don’t speak the language. And I known how much easier it is to have someone with you who does speak the language.
Randomly, I ran into Miriam Pomerantz (now something else, but I don’t remember her new last name) in the airport. She was heading from where she is stationed in Georgia back home to New Jersey. I hope she made it, but one of the big winter storms in the north-east was moving in that day. Anyway, you never know how you’re going to run into in airports!
Luckily, I also ran into Dad, who was there to pick me up. I meant to send him a text message telling him not to pick me up until 7:30 because my plane was delayed, but he was still there really early. Poor Dad. And the other red eye flight from Ecuador (from Quito) was delayed like 3 hours, and he wasn’t sure which flight I was on. So Dad had planned to be hanging out at the Atlanta airport all day. Glad he didn’t have to.
My first impression on coming back to the States was how cold it was and how excited I was for that. It hadn’t felt like Christmastime or my Birthday in Ecuador because the weather was all wrong. While I’ve always appreciated the seasons because of living in Tennessee where one gets three months of all four seasons every year, having lived in Ecuador where there aren’t seasons really at all, I can’t wait to be back in the States and have my four seasons!!
Dad let me drive as we left Atlanta, which I was so excited about!! Having not driven for four months, I wasn’t as rusty as I thought I would be, and it felt so nice to be driving again. We met up with Grandma and Grandpa in Calhoun for breakfast, and then we made our way back home. I got to spend a week and a half at home (which is more than most working people can get) for Christmas, but it still felt really short. Mammaw and Pappaw decided last minute to come up from Florida, so we had a big to-do for Christmas. We also got to visit Dad’s parents and family the weekend after Christmas (like we usually do). It was a regular Christmas for me, which was really nice. Having been out of my element for so long, it was nice to go back and have some ‘normal’ time.
I also got to see Sarah in Atlanta. We had sushi and went to Chocolate Bar, fell asleep watching a movie, and went to flying biscuit in the morning. Also very normal things to me. All of the fun stuff at home made it really hard for me to come back to Ecuador, but I did. Because I had to. And as long as I don’t think about home, its all good. So anyway, I should stop thinking about it!

I came back to Ecuador on the 30th of December to spend a few days with Slocomb’s family while they were in Ecuador. We did a lot of hanging out and playing cards as well as some touring of Guayaquil. We went back to the Malecon and Cerro Santa Ana, but I still haven’t made it to the Guayaquil history museum there. Mom and Dad? We’ll have to hit that up while we’re in Guayaquil. We also watched the Rose Bowl game on New Year’s Day at the hotel, which was a wonderfully ‘home’ thing to do. The commentary was in Spanish, but I’ve known for a long time that sport commentary makes very little difference. Don, Charlotte, and Caldwell went back to the States late on New Year’s Day, and Slocomb and I came back to Cuenca the next day.
Since then, we’ve been doing a lot of apartment setting up, etc. We’ve made two weeks of grocery runs and found the supermarket closest to us. We buy most of our fresh vegetables and fruits at the 10 de Agosto market which is only two blocks from our new apartment. But milk and cheese and dry goods we have to buy at the supermarket, which is about a 10 block walk or a $1.50 taxi ride. Slocomb and I walked to the closer location yesterday, and its a nice walk partly through a big park in town (good for running/exercising) and by the stadium where lots of yummy/inexpensive restaurants are. Our favorite burger place is there, so now we know how to get there from our apartment. The way that Cuenca is set up is that the old part of town is all to the north side of the river Tomebamba, and this is the part where most of the tourists stay. We end up staying up here most of the time too because that’s where our apartment is and also where are Spanish classes are. South of the river is the new side of town (there is one street that’s older but thats to the west side). In the new part, you find the movie theatres, shopping malls, the stadium, and much more modern buildings and architecture. The walk down Ave. Solano (the major thoroughfare in the south part of town) is very nice, but that’s where you see the modern side of Cuenca. I don’t think that either part is better or worse, but the old center is the best place for us, I think. Since we don’t have a car and we love the old architecture, I am very glad that we live in the old center. The other parts of town are a lot easier if you have a car, which I wouldn’t want to have even if it were an option!
This week at school was fine. Slocomb, Erin and I (along with Erin’s sister and brother) were the only international teachers at school because the rest hadn’t gotten back from the States yet. Erin’s family was definitely a sensation among the other teachers. Several of the teachers wanted to know all about her brother. I know several people who would be extremely glad if he came back as an international teacher when he graduates from college! Maria got back on Tuesday, and Liv and Jenn got back on Thursday, so by the end of the week, the team was all assembled again. We did some schedule switching, so I don’t have any tutorials anymore, which is just as well because I don’t feel very effective with those anyway. I am now teaching six hours of kindergarten, six hours of preschool, six hours of first grade, and two hours of each third and fourth grade. These are class period hours, so usually just half hours. I teach language, math, science, and library, so I’m kinda all over the place. It takes a lot of planning, but I still have plenty of time to plan at school. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to get anything printed or copied at school, so I do a lot of that outside of school. It is possible for me to go to the English division of CEDEI and print and copy there, but I haven’t done that yet. I am hoping Erin will go with me one day and introduce me to the proper people. I don’t know if this is just me, but at times I feel like the school is the red-headed step-child of CEDEI. I guess its not a big money-maker, so it might get the short end of the deal, but whatever. Also, we were supposed to get paid on Friday, but its not going to be until Tuesday. Another big annoyance of the school, but that happens for all CEDEI employees, including the English and Spanish teachers. Urrgh.
This week was also Día de los Innocentes, which is January 6. Its a kind of April Fool’s Day, and the kids went crazy with the jokes. The only one that actually had me going was Josue in third grade. He came up to me and told me that their teacher had quit and left the school. I doubted that their teacher would do that, but another one of the Ecuadorian teachers put in her notice just before Christmas. But then Josue told me, “Día de los Innocentes!” like we say “April Fool!” It was a fairly silly day, but it was an interesting thing for me to see. That evening, there were lots of parades and people dressed up, so I guess Día de los Innocentes is a combination of Epiphany, April Fool’s Day, and Halloween. It was a fun day to be a cultural observer.
Also this week have been many “Passe del Niño” parades. The big one in Cuenca is on Christmas Eve, but I think each parish has their own parade. The major focus of the parade is a little statue of Jesus that is driven by to bless all of the people. And then lots of other people dress up and dance or walk or ride horses in the parade. This morning, I even saw several Santa Clauses and a Roman Centurion pushing a stroller. One of the parades passed under our apartment building yesterday, so I got to take some pictures that I will post. I’m not a huge fan of parades (tons of people, lots of noise), so watching from my window five stories up was a great way for me to watch the parade. Many of the people in the parade and lots of people in town have their own “Jesuscito” that they use for Christmas celebrations. Slocomb pointed out to me, however, that all of these Jesus dolls are blonde-haired and blue-eyed, even here where there are no people with blonde hair and blue eyes. Apparently this tradition started when the Spaniards brought Catholicism over to Latin America. In some ways, it was probably a deliberate attempt to show the people that Jesus looked more like the Spaniards than the indigenous people, when in fact the opposite is true. But I wonder how many people here in Ecuador think about their Jesuscitos that way. To them they are probably just a cherished tradition when originally they were a deliberate form of social control.
Aside from school and observing the continuing Christmas season, this week has also been about graduate school applications. I turned one in on Monday and have another one to turn in by Tuesday the 12th. I was planning to finish them last week, but I ended up finding another fellowship application that I ought to apply for. I’m not sure that I’m really the intended recipient, but I figure I can write 2 pages in order to be in the running for $15000 and tuition. So I have to finish that up and turn it in. Also, Slocomb pointed out to me as I was revising my personal statement that I had made a huge typo (on the personal statement that I’ve turned in to two or maybe three other schools. I can’t remember). I was talking about some of the activists I studied as an undergrad, and Slocomb told me, “You know that its Emiliano Zapata, right?” I thought that’s what I had, but when I looked more closely, I realized it said Zapato instead of Zapata. Ugghh!! And in the first paragraph too!!! All I can hope is that the admission committee will see it as the innocent mistake it was and not decide to discount my whole application because I misspelled the name of one of the most famous activists in Latin American history! Either that or they’ll look at my other stuff and decided they want me in their program anyway. It just makes me feel really dumb, and I feel like that’s the kind of stuff that decided admissions at competitive schools. I guess at this point, I’m setting myself up to not be disappointed for not getting into the programs. I just hope that I’ll have fixed all of the dumb mistakes for the last application and I’ll definitely get in there. San Diego is a great town, right? Unfortunately, its the only city were I’ve applied that Slocomb doesn’t have some sort of connection already that could probably get him a job. At this point, once I finish the last fellowship essay, its all just hurry up and wait.
That’s all on this front so far. I hope that everyone had a great holiday and is getting off to a great 2010!!

Beginning of the new year

Blog post - written Jan 10 - but not posted until now because I keep forgetting!

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my life! I figure that since I’m back in Cuenca and back to work, I should get back to blogging too.
What has come to pass... When I last wrote, we were in the Galapagos, which was an incredible week. We had some ‘adventure’ at the end, however. The last full day we were in Galapagos, we went to Isla Fernandina, the southern most of the islands. We left out about 8am, taking a speed boat from Isla Santa Cruz, the main hub of the islands. However, about an hour into what was supposed to be a two hour journey, we ended up having to turn around because one of the boat engines went out. Whoops!! So the told us another boat was coming to get us and would be there in 15 minutes. However, we ended up going all the way back to Santa Cruz (another hour), picking up another boat at the port, and then finally making our way to Fernandina.
We did get there and in one piece about noon, and we got to see the rock formation known as the Devil’s Crown. I believe that it was just another lava rock that was pushed up above the surface of the water in some techtonic event (not sure, our guide that day wasn’t very good - his name was Johnny and had braces, so avoid this guy when you’re in Galapagos). After that we went to snorkel, which turned out to be really cool - after I got past some unfortunate luck. First of all, I realized when we got to the snorkeling point that I had only been given one flipper (partly my fault because I didn’t check my equipment). So I got one of the extra pairs of fins and started on my way. Then, when I got in the water, my snorkel tube didn’t work, meaning I was trying to breathe in sea water. Uggh. So I went back to the boat, got a new tube and went on my way. But then (of course) the strap on my mask came out. Not really a big deal, but I was really pissed at this point already, and I didn’t feel like fixing it in the middle of the ocean. So finally (after some pretty good - and mean - Spanish on my part), I got all of my equipment fixed and working. Whew!! Finally, I could enjoy the multitude of colorful fish and star fish! A group of three sea lions even came over to play with us. One time I had my head out of the water, and Slocomb looked at me and pointed next to me. I had no idea what about, but I put my head underwater and there - less than two feet from me - was a sea lion. Scared the crap out of me, but it was amazing. So the snorkeling really was worthwhile, but I would have been happier with fewer ‘adventures’ at the beginning.
After that we docked on Fernandina and had some lunch. There are only about 100 people who live on the island, so I’m assuming we went to the only restaurant in town. We had the typical almuerzo: fish, rice, salad stuff, with a bonus dessert. Not anything to write home about, but it hit the spot.
After lunch in Fernandina, we went up to the highlands to see more Galapagos turtles and some caves where pirates hid out in the eighteenth century. We ended up riding on the top of the bus, with the other ‘young people’ who were backpacking across South America. Very chic. Anyway, the ride on top of the bus was very senic, but I don’t think that my tail bone appreciated the bumps. We rode in the bus on the way back...
Once you leave the beach in Galapagos, it looks like any other farming area. Lots of grass and trees, nothing really that exciting, except for the volcanic cones that pop up randomly. In the highlands, we saw a turtle protection area which was absolutely crawling with Galapagos turtles! Each island has a slightly different species, but I don’t have a discerning enough eye to tell the difference. I can tell the difference between sea turtles and land turtles, but that’s about as advanced as I get.
Next we went up to the pirate caves. The path up there was extremely muddy and slick, and we hadn’t been told we would be hiking in the highlands. I was wearing my chacos, but poor Slocomb was wearing flip flops. We both fell, so I guess it didn’t really make a huge difference. The caves were very cool (wish we knew a little more about them), but the hiking was kinda miserable.
The last part of the day made it all worth it though. We caught a boat back to Santa Cruz from the dock in Fernandina (that was covered by sea lions and crabs!). Slocomb managed to talk our way into sitting on top of the boat with the pilot, so we had a very relaxing drive back to Santa Cruz. On the way, some dolphins came up near our boat, so we stopped to dolphin watch. They are such beautiful creatures!! They are so quick and agile!! Its almost impossible to describe, but watching the dolphins was definitely one of the highlights of an incredible week in Galapagos.
The next morning, we and our guide/friend (who is hopefully going to come visit us in Cuenca in February), Juan, went to “los Gemelos” or the twins on the way to the airport. They are two huge lava caverns that collapsed several thousand years ago. They are connected and are very similar in formation, so geologists believe that they collapsed at the same time. We made Juan practice his English (an extremely necessary skill for Galapagos guides), and we had a good time just hanging out and talking about Galapagos, Ecuador, and the United States. Juan really wants to visit the States (like many Ecuadorians), so we told him a little about how it is for Hispanic people in the States. One thing we said was that people would automatically assume that he was Mexican. He said, “But I don’t sound anything like a Mexican. We speak completely differently!” We had to tell him that most people in the US don’t realize how different the accents among Spanish speakers are. I mean, I had no idea how different it was until I began to befriend Spanish speakers from different places and watch Spanish television. Completely different... Anyway, an interesting realization for me: the accents among Spanish speakers are as, if not more, distinct than among English speakers.
In order to get to the airport, we took a truck-taxi across Santa Cruz Island to a boat that took us across the canal to Baltra where the airport is. From there, we took a bus to the airport. Talk about needing plenty of time to get to the airport!
On one of our papers, it said that our flight left at 12:40. However, when we got to the airport at about 10:45, they said there was no 12:40; we were on the 11:15 flight!! So instead of having plenty of time, we had less than 30 minutes to get checked in, past security, and on the plane. There was another group of people who arrived as we did who were on the same flight, so it wasn’t just us. I still felt bad that we didn’t really have a chance to say bye to Juan, but we did manage to tell him what had happened. He understood, and hopefully we’ll see him in Cuenca in a few weeks.
We didn’t get upgraded to first class on the way back from Galapagos, but we did get to sit in the first row of coach, giving us plenty of leg room. It is interesting, the days when the big cruise ships leave and arrive, the planes are absolutely full. But on the days that aren’t cruise ship days (like the day we left) the planes are about half empty. Because we didn’t take a cruise ship, we had a different experience of Galapagos as many people do. It wasn’t as smooth or as well organized, but we got to do so much and also meet several very cool people. Slocomb has decided, and I agree, that on the ships, you get to see more wildlife and plants, etc., but if you stay on the islands, you get to do more. I think that we definitely made the right choice for our Galapagos vacation. However, depending on where I am in my life when I go back (which I hope I will), I might decide to go on a boat. It would be more relaxing and easier with kids, but it is a completely different experience than on land. But our trip was incredible and totally worth the expense and hassle!