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!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
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Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading!
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!!
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!
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!
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