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!!
Monday, January 25, 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!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
I swam with sea lions today!!
(To have been posted Sunday night... oops!)
Today our morning started out, as I’ve already told you, waking up an hour early. We ate breakfast at our hotel, Hotel San Vicente, and then made sandwiches to take with us on our tour of the Vocán Sierra Negra. They were tuna and queso fresco sandwiches. Not normally one of my favorites, but once we got to lunch time, they were great!
We left the hotel with our guide, Javier, at about 8 am. Turns out our group included the people that we came over on the boat with, the Brits, Katy and Simon, and the ‘intellectuals,’ Maria and José who live in Canada but are from Venezuela originally. We also picked up four more people from other random groups: three more Brits, Tiffany, Nicola (lovely British name) and Claire, and one American, Jenna, from Los Angeles. Together the ten of us and our guide went into the ‘highlands’ of Isabela Island to see one of the volcanoes that created the island, Volcán Sierra Negra. It was a little bit cloudy on the coast, but it was almost completely covered in clouds and mist inland.
The first part of the trip up the volcano was on horseback. It was a few people in our group’s first time on horses (including Slocomb) but everyone did very well. It was raining on the way up, so the path was extremely muddy. I felt bad for the horses, but I was very glad not to be climbing up on foot. At the first part of the trip, my horse decided to chill out alone between the groups which was fine with me. When we got a little further up, the guides wanted us to all stay together, which my horse wasn’t so cool with. He was quite figety and kept trying to go around the other horses. He even bit one other horse’s tail and tried to bite another’s neck. He got the nickname “demon horse,” which I understand. He was a great horse to ride, but he just wanted to be alone!
When we got to the top, we weren’t able to really see anything because of all of the mist and fog. We went over to a ‘parasitic’ volcano, Volcán Chico. The last time that the larger volcano, Sierra Negra, erupted was October 2005, but the last time Volcán Chico saw any action was back in 1979. Before that, there hadn’t been anything for many hundreds of years, so we could see the difference in the ‘old’ lava and the ‘new’ lava because the iron in the old lava had oxidized and turned red. We also got to see into the crater of Volcán Chico and the lava tunnels all around. The colors were incredible! Bright reds and oranges and some blues all surrounded by lots of black. There were even ferns growing inside the crater of the volcano, suggesting that they were among the first plants to arrive in Galapagos after the islands were created by volcanoes. It was also interesting because Galapagos is known for being a place with such great ecological diversity, but it all started out as lava fields.
We all had brought sandwiches for lunch which we ate in the rain under a tree. We did get to see a few little birds while we were eating lunch, but they were mostly more interested in trying to eat our lunch than in being observed or photographed. We were hoping that the weather would clear during our hike to Volcán Chico or lunch, but it didn’t. So we didn’t get to see the crater of Volcán Sierra Negra (the second largest volcanic crater in the world), but we got some idea of the scope. On the way down, we walked a little bit (about 3 km in the mud, good times!) around the crater. Even though we were going circularly, the circle around the crater was so large that it seemed like we were walking straight!! It was still raining and very muddy on the way down, and our guide was very determined to get down the mountain as fast as possible. There wasn’t anything to see, but it was still too fast for me. I kept being afraid that I would fall in the hurry or lose the guide who was so far ahead. I suppose he wanted to get to the next thing (snorkeling), but I guess I’m just not as fast a walker as our guide is.
That afternoon we went out to Concha de Perla to snorkel, just the six of us in our group: Maria and José, Katy and Simon, and Slocomb and myself. On the walk on the pier to the snorkeling sight, we came across a sea lion just chilling out on the pier. He didn’t want to move for us, but since sea lions can be aggressive, we scared him off onto a rock. It was Slocomb’s, Maria’s and Katy’s first time snorkeling, but it still went okay. Katy didn’t really go for it at first, and José didn’t stay out very long. But Slocomb, Maria, Simon and I, along with our guide Javier (same one as the morning), went all around the bay. We got to swim with a couple of sea lions, which was incredible. The sea lion we saw on land was so ungainly and awkward, but the one in the ocean was incredibly graceful and agile. Javier told us that when you are in a group, the sea lions try to come play with you. Apparently when you’re by yourself, they’re not quite sure what you are. Anyway, we got to play a little with the sea lion and see tons of fish. We even saw a manta ray and a starfish that was black and bright orange. Everything under the water was so incredibly colorful! It was still cloudy and cold, but we still had a great opportunity to see lots.
We came back to the hotel for dinner and to hang out. There is a hot tub, and Slocomb and I tried to use it. Unfortunately, the water heater wasn’t working, so it was really just a cold tub. I decided to take a hot shower instead... The hotel here is nice and cute, but not something to write home about, just like the food. Its plentiful and good, but nothing super exciting. Except for the tres leches cake last night for dessert. Yummy!!
This morning we left the hotel at 8:30 to go to Tintoreras Islet, an island formed by lava pushed up above the surface of the water by tectonic movement. The islet is the major breeding ground in this area for the marine iguana, and right now is the mating season, so it was absolutely crawling with iguanas. One of the first iguanas we saw was perched up on a rock like it was doing a push-up. It was so still and almost posed for our cameras. I guess either the animals are just used to people or they just aren’t that worried about us. We also got to see a few Galapagos penguins (which are the second smallest species of penguin, by the way) and sea lions. There is also a canal on the islet that is a great resting area for white tipped sharks, so we saw several of them asleep in the bottom of this shallow canal.
After walking around on the island for a little while, the boat took us out a little bit to snorkel again. There were tons of fish again and a bright purple starfish. We even saw a sea turtle, which I swam with (or near, I suppose) for a good five minutes. It was so graceful, and all of its flippers were so effective. I mean, I’m a pretty good swimmer, but you could tell which one of us was adapted to living in the water.
We decided that we’d had enough of Tintoreras, so we went back to Concha de Perla again to see if we could see anything else there. It was mostly the same animals and fish as yesterday, lots of damsel fish with their yellow lipstick. Simon got to see another turtle and got some underwater photos of it (very cool). Snorkeling is becoming one of my favorite activities because it involves the chill-ness of swimming, meaning no noise or business, with a bit of social interaction. We were all swimming closely together and pointing out the cool things that we were seeing. But it was still so quiet and relaxed. That also might have something to do with our group. Even though we come from three different countries and cultures, we have become friends very quickly. Also, everyone is so very interested in seeing everything that we can in this wonderful place. Maria and José and Katy and Simon really have been wonderful to travel with and have made this experience all the more special.
Anyway, we returned back to the hotel about 12:30pm for lunch and a rest before going back out to see more of Isabela. I was thinking about taking a nap, but the six of us ended up hanging out at the lunch table talking about history and politics until it was almost time to go.
This afternoon, we went to the giant turtoise breeding center here on Isabela Island. Because of the introduction of cats, rats, and dogs, there are a lot more predators for baby turtles here than before. Primarily, the center focuses on breeding and protecting new turtles. Their lives are extremely dangerous until about age 5 when their shells are hard enough to protect them from some of the predators. There are also many adults in the center (for breeding, obviously), but the national park service is working on restoring the wild populations. After the breeding center, we went further into the national park and ended up seeing three wild giant tortousies near the road!
Part of Isabela Island was used as a penal colony from 1946 to 1959, and one of the projects of the prisoners was to build a giant wall from lava rocks around their encampment. Even after a year of work, the wall was only a quarter finished, but they stopped work. Our guide told us that some of the rocks weighed up to 100 kilos (220 pounds) and that the prisoners had to carry them on bare shoulders because they did not have any other means of carrying them. Also, at the beginning, they were able to find the rocks nearby, but as time went on, they had to go farther and farther to find the stones. Apparently it was a brutal project simply designed to work the prisoners to death. And now it is an important reminder of the not so glamorous history of the Galapagos.
On the way back to town, we decided to walk along the beach in the national park area because it was so beautiful and pristine. Along the walk, we came upon an injured shark that had washed up on the beach. Simon was brave enough to pick it up and take it back into the ocean. Unfortunately, it had been out of the water so long that it was very disoriented when it got back into the water. It eventually started swimming away in the right direction, but we can only hope that it makes it.
We finished our walk back to the hotel in time to relax a little before dinner. At dinner it was very interesting because Maria and José ended up talking a lot to the French couple sitting near us. Besides the fact that Maria and José know so many languages (and feel comfortable using them when they are needed), it is interesting how many people from random places are here. Besides the several Brits we have met, there have been several people from France and even people from the Czech Republic. I suppose that Galapagos has the same appeal the world over.
Tomorrow we have to wake up early to go back to Santa Cruz Island (another heinous boat ride), but we’ll get to spend another day with our group before they head back to mainland Ecuador. Slocomb and I will be going to Floreana Island that day to do some more snorkeling. Our trip is already half-way done. We have seen so much already, but the time has really flown!
Today our morning started out, as I’ve already told you, waking up an hour early. We ate breakfast at our hotel, Hotel San Vicente, and then made sandwiches to take with us on our tour of the Vocán Sierra Negra. They were tuna and queso fresco sandwiches. Not normally one of my favorites, but once we got to lunch time, they were great!
We left the hotel with our guide, Javier, at about 8 am. Turns out our group included the people that we came over on the boat with, the Brits, Katy and Simon, and the ‘intellectuals,’ Maria and José who live in Canada but are from Venezuela originally. We also picked up four more people from other random groups: three more Brits, Tiffany, Nicola (lovely British name) and Claire, and one American, Jenna, from Los Angeles. Together the ten of us and our guide went into the ‘highlands’ of Isabela Island to see one of the volcanoes that created the island, Volcán Sierra Negra. It was a little bit cloudy on the coast, but it was almost completely covered in clouds and mist inland.
The first part of the trip up the volcano was on horseback. It was a few people in our group’s first time on horses (including Slocomb) but everyone did very well. It was raining on the way up, so the path was extremely muddy. I felt bad for the horses, but I was very glad not to be climbing up on foot. At the first part of the trip, my horse decided to chill out alone between the groups which was fine with me. When we got a little further up, the guides wanted us to all stay together, which my horse wasn’t so cool with. He was quite figety and kept trying to go around the other horses. He even bit one other horse’s tail and tried to bite another’s neck. He got the nickname “demon horse,” which I understand. He was a great horse to ride, but he just wanted to be alone!
When we got to the top, we weren’t able to really see anything because of all of the mist and fog. We went over to a ‘parasitic’ volcano, Volcán Chico. The last time that the larger volcano, Sierra Negra, erupted was October 2005, but the last time Volcán Chico saw any action was back in 1979. Before that, there hadn’t been anything for many hundreds of years, so we could see the difference in the ‘old’ lava and the ‘new’ lava because the iron in the old lava had oxidized and turned red. We also got to see into the crater of Volcán Chico and the lava tunnels all around. The colors were incredible! Bright reds and oranges and some blues all surrounded by lots of black. There were even ferns growing inside the crater of the volcano, suggesting that they were among the first plants to arrive in Galapagos after the islands were created by volcanoes. It was also interesting because Galapagos is known for being a place with such great ecological diversity, but it all started out as lava fields.
We all had brought sandwiches for lunch which we ate in the rain under a tree. We did get to see a few little birds while we were eating lunch, but they were mostly more interested in trying to eat our lunch than in being observed or photographed. We were hoping that the weather would clear during our hike to Volcán Chico or lunch, but it didn’t. So we didn’t get to see the crater of Volcán Sierra Negra (the second largest volcanic crater in the world), but we got some idea of the scope. On the way down, we walked a little bit (about 3 km in the mud, good times!) around the crater. Even though we were going circularly, the circle around the crater was so large that it seemed like we were walking straight!! It was still raining and very muddy on the way down, and our guide was very determined to get down the mountain as fast as possible. There wasn’t anything to see, but it was still too fast for me. I kept being afraid that I would fall in the hurry or lose the guide who was so far ahead. I suppose he wanted to get to the next thing (snorkeling), but I guess I’m just not as fast a walker as our guide is.
That afternoon we went out to Concha de Perla to snorkel, just the six of us in our group: Maria and José, Katy and Simon, and Slocomb and myself. On the walk on the pier to the snorkeling sight, we came across a sea lion just chilling out on the pier. He didn’t want to move for us, but since sea lions can be aggressive, we scared him off onto a rock. It was Slocomb’s, Maria’s and Katy’s first time snorkeling, but it still went okay. Katy didn’t really go for it at first, and José didn’t stay out very long. But Slocomb, Maria, Simon and I, along with our guide Javier (same one as the morning), went all around the bay. We got to swim with a couple of sea lions, which was incredible. The sea lion we saw on land was so ungainly and awkward, but the one in the ocean was incredibly graceful and agile. Javier told us that when you are in a group, the sea lions try to come play with you. Apparently when you’re by yourself, they’re not quite sure what you are. Anyway, we got to play a little with the sea lion and see tons of fish. We even saw a manta ray and a starfish that was black and bright orange. Everything under the water was so incredibly colorful! It was still cloudy and cold, but we still had a great opportunity to see lots.
We came back to the hotel for dinner and to hang out. There is a hot tub, and Slocomb and I tried to use it. Unfortunately, the water heater wasn’t working, so it was really just a cold tub. I decided to take a hot shower instead... The hotel here is nice and cute, but not something to write home about, just like the food. Its plentiful and good, but nothing super exciting. Except for the tres leches cake last night for dessert. Yummy!!
This morning we left the hotel at 8:30 to go to Tintoreras Islet, an island formed by lava pushed up above the surface of the water by tectonic movement. The islet is the major breeding ground in this area for the marine iguana, and right now is the mating season, so it was absolutely crawling with iguanas. One of the first iguanas we saw was perched up on a rock like it was doing a push-up. It was so still and almost posed for our cameras. I guess either the animals are just used to people or they just aren’t that worried about us. We also got to see a few Galapagos penguins (which are the second smallest species of penguin, by the way) and sea lions. There is also a canal on the islet that is a great resting area for white tipped sharks, so we saw several of them asleep in the bottom of this shallow canal.
After walking around on the island for a little while, the boat took us out a little bit to snorkel again. There were tons of fish again and a bright purple starfish. We even saw a sea turtle, which I swam with (or near, I suppose) for a good five minutes. It was so graceful, and all of its flippers were so effective. I mean, I’m a pretty good swimmer, but you could tell which one of us was adapted to living in the water.
We decided that we’d had enough of Tintoreras, so we went back to Concha de Perla again to see if we could see anything else there. It was mostly the same animals and fish as yesterday, lots of damsel fish with their yellow lipstick. Simon got to see another turtle and got some underwater photos of it (very cool). Snorkeling is becoming one of my favorite activities because it involves the chill-ness of swimming, meaning no noise or business, with a bit of social interaction. We were all swimming closely together and pointing out the cool things that we were seeing. But it was still so quiet and relaxed. That also might have something to do with our group. Even though we come from three different countries and cultures, we have become friends very quickly. Also, everyone is so very interested in seeing everything that we can in this wonderful place. Maria and José and Katy and Simon really have been wonderful to travel with and have made this experience all the more special.
Anyway, we returned back to the hotel about 12:30pm for lunch and a rest before going back out to see more of Isabela. I was thinking about taking a nap, but the six of us ended up hanging out at the lunch table talking about history and politics until it was almost time to go.
This afternoon, we went to the giant turtoise breeding center here on Isabela Island. Because of the introduction of cats, rats, and dogs, there are a lot more predators for baby turtles here than before. Primarily, the center focuses on breeding and protecting new turtles. Their lives are extremely dangerous until about age 5 when their shells are hard enough to protect them from some of the predators. There are also many adults in the center (for breeding, obviously), but the national park service is working on restoring the wild populations. After the breeding center, we went further into the national park and ended up seeing three wild giant tortousies near the road!
Part of Isabela Island was used as a penal colony from 1946 to 1959, and one of the projects of the prisoners was to build a giant wall from lava rocks around their encampment. Even after a year of work, the wall was only a quarter finished, but they stopped work. Our guide told us that some of the rocks weighed up to 100 kilos (220 pounds) and that the prisoners had to carry them on bare shoulders because they did not have any other means of carrying them. Also, at the beginning, they were able to find the rocks nearby, but as time went on, they had to go farther and farther to find the stones. Apparently it was a brutal project simply designed to work the prisoners to death. And now it is an important reminder of the not so glamorous history of the Galapagos.
On the way back to town, we decided to walk along the beach in the national park area because it was so beautiful and pristine. Along the walk, we came upon an injured shark that had washed up on the beach. Simon was brave enough to pick it up and take it back into the ocean. Unfortunately, it had been out of the water so long that it was very disoriented when it got back into the water. It eventually started swimming away in the right direction, but we can only hope that it makes it.
We finished our walk back to the hotel in time to relax a little before dinner. At dinner it was very interesting because Maria and José ended up talking a lot to the French couple sitting near us. Besides the fact that Maria and José know so many languages (and feel comfortable using them when they are needed), it is interesting how many people from random places are here. Besides the several Brits we have met, there have been several people from France and even people from the Czech Republic. I suppose that Galapagos has the same appeal the world over.
Tomorrow we have to wake up early to go back to Santa Cruz Island (another heinous boat ride), but we’ll get to spend another day with our group before they head back to mainland Ecuador. Slocomb and I will be going to Floreana Island that day to do some more snorkeling. Our trip is already half-way done. We have seen so much already, but the time has really flown!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
First day of Galapagos
Blog post - 12/12/09
I am writing right now from our plane to Galapagos. We got to sit to first/business class somehow; we are actually sitting in the bulkhead seats (row 1) in the front of the plane. Slocomb says its the first time he’s actually been comfortable on a plane.
We left Cuenca last night about 6pm in a full buseta, which meant that it was not nearly as comfortable as the previous two times we had gone to Guayaquil. Then, it was only us on the way to Guayaquil, and only two other people on the way back. Last night, there were five other people in the buseta. One of the guys on the buseta was from Chile, but spoke English very well. He used to work in port management, so that’s where he learned English. But after he found out that we spoke Spanish, we switched to Spanish (my preference because I need to practice!). Its not really offensive when people assume that we don’t speak Spanish; the reward is people’s faces when they realize we do speak Spanish.
Another person on the buseta was a woman from Cuenca who had known some of the CEDEI teachers from years past. She was very talkative (which was helpful for keeping the driver awake) and she did her nails while we were on the buseta. And when I say did her nails, I don’t just mean painted her nails. She glued on French tips, filed, buffed, and painted her nails on the buseta. Surprisingly, there weren’t any fumes (which was nice), and the filing/buffing wasn’t actually that annoying. I think it was because Slocomb and I knew we were on vacation, so the annoyances didn’t bother us. We entertained ourselves by making and eating sandwiches (which the nails woman commented on, saying, “Poor us, we don’t have any food!”) and by watching New Moon on my laptop. We found a bootleg copy (like every movie in Ecuador) that actually was in English. The audio wasn’t perfect, and there were a couple of times that I missed what they were saying, but it was good none the less. Also, hearing bachata and regeton on the radio the entire time might have messed with my listening skills. I still want to go back and see it in theatres again (because there were some moments that just didn’t look good on my little 13 inch screen) and because I kinda feel bad for buying a bootleg copy. Oh, well. When in Rome... one buys bootleg copies of movies...
Last week was a crazy week. It was our last week of school for the year, so we had lots to do. Jen (one of the other international teachers) wanted to help the kids make a nice present for their parents for Christmas, so we helped out with that because it was very labor intensive. We ended up making calendars decorated with the kids’ hand-print art work and also ornament balls with eight sides or so decorated by the kids. They turned out so well, but poor Jen was stressing the whole week trying to get everything done. As it turns out, we didn’t finish, but the national teachers are going to finish them with the kids and give them out next week.
I also had one of my graduate school applications due this week, which I finished and turned in on time, thank you very much. I’m a little worried because only two of the recommendation letters has been turned in, but hopefully my professor is working on it. UCLA (which is due the 15th) also recieved all of the stuff from me, but none of the stuff from my professors. I don’t want to hassle them about it because I know that its a crazy busy time of year. Luckily, the schools say that when the recommendation letters arrive doesn’t really impact whether or not the application is considered ‘on time,’ but I still want those letters to be there before they consider my application. I feel like I am a strong candidate based on my statement, transcript, and GRE scores (which I wish were better, but whatever), but the recommendation letters are a huge deal for applications. Oh, well. Its out of my hands now.
Also last week Slocomb and I found, leased, and moved into a new apartment. We had been thinking about moving for a while because we needed more space and our own space. Living with the Colomas worked out really well because they were able to show us a lot about Cuenca and living in Ecuador, but it was hard for Slocomb and I to go from living independently (with roommates, true) at Emory to being back in someone else’s house. It was a good experience, but four months was enough.
Our new apartment is gorgeous!! Slocomb doesn’t want us to put up pictures on the internet yet because he wants his family to see it first-hand when they come to Ecuador for Christmas. I will put up pictures in a couple weeks though. It is in the middle of town, which is really nice and convenient. It is very close to a lot of shopping, which is a lot easier that at the Colomas, which was at the top of a vicious hill. It was always a pain to walk up the hill with shopping or groceries, but since the new place is in the flat part of town, we don’t have to worry about that. It is on the fifth floor, but there is a new-ish elevator, which was incredible handy while we were moving all of our stuff. The huge advantage on the fifth floor is that we’re up away from a lot of the street noise, and we have an incredible view. From the living room and foyer, there are two walls of windows essentially, so we have an almost 180° view of the north and west sides of the city. To the north, we see the cathedral, which is half a block away. We can see all of the domes (there are three large ones, contrary to what a couple of guidebooks I’ve seen say), and the long wall. To the west, we see a good bit of the city and towards Cajas, the national park. We haven’t gotten to really experience the sunset because its been cloudy all of the evenings we were there, but I have a feeling its going to be a gorgeous one. On the tour that we took with CEDEI at the beginning of our time here, our tour guide took us to Plaza San Francisco and showed us the view of the cathedral of Cuenca (you know, the one you always see on postcards). Well, our view from the apartment is that view but better because we are above the buildings that block the view. It is incredible. The apartment building is just off of the Plaza San Francisco, one of the major open air markets in town. It is very convenient to be able to pop downstairs to buy things. It is very busy during the day, but everything closes up at sundown. There is plenty of light in the Plaza after sundown, but most of the ‘shops’ stay set up, so the view down to the Plaza isn’t really all that pretty. It is very Cuenca, in my opinion. All of the semi-permanent shops where you can (in the day time) find just about anything. It really is a wonderful location.
In our new apartment, we are about three blocks from the building where we take Spanish classes, so we can actually go home for lunch now before classes. We still have to take the bus to school, but I’m pretty sure we can get away with only taking one now instead of two (saving us about $20 a month). There’s a washer and dryer in the apartment, so that is really nice. And the owner of the hostal upstairs has offered to let us use the wi-fi for no charge!! We’ve had some problems with the hot water heater and dryer, but hopefully we can get those worked out soon. The hot water heater overflowed on Thursday when we turned it on for the first extended period of time. There was water all over the kitchen and into one of the bedrooms, which of course is carpeted. Our apartment kinda has that wet dog smell right now, but Slocomb is going to get some air fresheners and maybe a fan when he gets back from Galapagos on the 18th. Also, the dryer wasn’t blowing hot air the other day. We’re not sure if this is because the hot air runs on gas (because we turned the gas off after the hot water heater funness), or something else. Our landlord is going to bring in a technician to check it all out soon. And everything will be functional when Slocomb’s family arrives on the 26th. Or else...
We got the keys to the apartment on Tuesday, and moved all of our stuff on Thursday and Friday. Things are still very disorganized, but Slocomb is going to take care of a lot of the stuff when he goes back to Cuenca. And then when I get back after new year, we can finish putting everything together. Setting up an apartment takes a long time, especially when one of the inhabitants is going to be gone for almost three weeks. But it’s something very exciting to come back to.
At school this week, we spent a lot of time preparing for the special Christmas pageant that took place last night. Slocomb and I had to miss it because we had to leave for Guayaquil, but we did get to see the rehearsal yesterday. The whole school day yesterday was spent in the park (and I forgot my sunscreen, so I have intense sunglass lines right now) preparing. Unfortunately, we didn’t really plan ahead that well for the rehearsal. We all arrived in the park about 8:30, but the rehearsing didn’t start until almost 11. Bad idea when you have 110 kids. I brought books and coloring books (thank God!!), because I realized that if the kids were bored, it was going to be a lot harder to keep things in order. I learned that from my mom; bored kids are obnoxious/trying/bad kids. Another frustration was that two of the international teachers had to leave at 10:30, meaning that we were down two sets of hands. Also, two more international teachers decided they needed to leave at 12 - not really sure why. I think they felt that had too much to do before leaving Cuenca (today, I might add), so they decided to peace out early. Unfortunately, Slocomb and I were the ones who actually had to leave Cuenca yesterday and move the rest of our stuff from the Colomas to downtown. But we got roped into staying longer because the rest of the teachers didn’t want all of the international teachers leaving super early. What really made me mad was the unfairness of it all. I mean, I completely understand that the national teachers wanted us to stay, but it was obnoxious that it was okay for some of the international team to leave and others not too. I guess thats one lesson that I’m learning here in Ecuador: fairness rarely matters in real life. Which is a bummer, because I like fairness. But I’m on vacation now for another three weeks, so I’m not going to think about school.
One last thing about school, actually. We had our Christmas party on Thursday night at the director’s, Ximena’s, house. I think I’ve mentioned that we’ve been having power outages to try to conserve electricity in Cuenca (because all of the power is from hydroelectric sources and there’s not been enough rain to run them as much). Ximena’s power was supposed to be off from four until seven, but the power didn’t come back until almost 8:30!! That’s the first time I’ve heard about that happening; normally the power comes back right on time. Dinner, of course, got delayed as a result, but we just hung out and chatted for the first hour until the power came back. We also finished our secret santa exchange. I had Prisci’s (the first grade teacher) name, and I bought her a pair of silver heart earrings. They were really cute; I was tempted to keep them! Jen had my name, and she got me some earrings with real tiny flowers in them and a beautiful pink and purple scarf. She did a really good job throwing me off of who had my name; every day I got a little present with my name spelled “Lesli” on it (which is how they spell it in Ecuador usually so I assumed it was a national teacher). Very tricky, Jen! Slocomb got a new wallet from his secret santa, but I’ll set him tell you about that.
I guess this is the time for overall first semester impressions. Well, its different, especially the work culture. In the states, all of my work experiences were very supportive of their staff and very quick to solve any problems. In Ecuador, it seems much more like a solve your own problems at work kind of place. Which is fine, and works well for me, except when it comes to things like pay checks (we were almost a week late in getting our December paychecks - which was really hard because we needed to pay for our new apartment, etc). I have learned to be more independent and use the supplies I know I can get for myself fairly easily.
As for Ecuador in general, I have seen that people are very nice and very generous. People actually give money to people begging in the streets and people juggling at traffic lights. But people are also very self-interested. It seems very much like an every person (and family) for his/herself or themselves. In a place where there honestly isn’t enough to go around all of the time, this attitude makes sense. Even thought times are hard right now particularly, Ecuador is prospering. The attitudes just may not have kept up with the prosperity.
Thirdly, it makes a huge difference if you try to speak Spanish and are interested in the culture. When he’s feeling up to it, Slocomb almost always tries to talk to the cab drivers, usually about soccer. And it makes a big difference. If you get a cab driver talking, you usually have a much better cab experience - and sometimes pay less. People in Cuenca stereotype ‘gringos’ frequently, based on their previous experiences with them. And a lot of Americans - or estadounidenses I should say - come to Cuenca to see the sights of a UNESCO world heritage sights. Fewer are like us, who come to live in Cuenca, speak Spanish, and find out a little of what its like to be Cuencano. Yeah, we want to see the sights too, but for Slocomb and myself, the people are the interesting part. And when Cuencanos figure that out, it completely changes their relationship to us. We’re not going to stop being ‘gringos,’ but we have stopped being tourists.
I am writing right now from our plane to Galapagos. We got to sit to first/business class somehow; we are actually sitting in the bulkhead seats (row 1) in the front of the plane. Slocomb says its the first time he’s actually been comfortable on a plane.
We left Cuenca last night about 6pm in a full buseta, which meant that it was not nearly as comfortable as the previous two times we had gone to Guayaquil. Then, it was only us on the way to Guayaquil, and only two other people on the way back. Last night, there were five other people in the buseta. One of the guys on the buseta was from Chile, but spoke English very well. He used to work in port management, so that’s where he learned English. But after he found out that we spoke Spanish, we switched to Spanish (my preference because I need to practice!). Its not really offensive when people assume that we don’t speak Spanish; the reward is people’s faces when they realize we do speak Spanish.
Another person on the buseta was a woman from Cuenca who had known some of the CEDEI teachers from years past. She was very talkative (which was helpful for keeping the driver awake) and she did her nails while we were on the buseta. And when I say did her nails, I don’t just mean painted her nails. She glued on French tips, filed, buffed, and painted her nails on the buseta. Surprisingly, there weren’t any fumes (which was nice), and the filing/buffing wasn’t actually that annoying. I think it was because Slocomb and I knew we were on vacation, so the annoyances didn’t bother us. We entertained ourselves by making and eating sandwiches (which the nails woman commented on, saying, “Poor us, we don’t have any food!”) and by watching New Moon on my laptop. We found a bootleg copy (like every movie in Ecuador) that actually was in English. The audio wasn’t perfect, and there were a couple of times that I missed what they were saying, but it was good none the less. Also, hearing bachata and regeton on the radio the entire time might have messed with my listening skills. I still want to go back and see it in theatres again (because there were some moments that just didn’t look good on my little 13 inch screen) and because I kinda feel bad for buying a bootleg copy. Oh, well. When in Rome... one buys bootleg copies of movies...
Last week was a crazy week. It was our last week of school for the year, so we had lots to do. Jen (one of the other international teachers) wanted to help the kids make a nice present for their parents for Christmas, so we helped out with that because it was very labor intensive. We ended up making calendars decorated with the kids’ hand-print art work and also ornament balls with eight sides or so decorated by the kids. They turned out so well, but poor Jen was stressing the whole week trying to get everything done. As it turns out, we didn’t finish, but the national teachers are going to finish them with the kids and give them out next week.
I also had one of my graduate school applications due this week, which I finished and turned in on time, thank you very much. I’m a little worried because only two of the recommendation letters has been turned in, but hopefully my professor is working on it. UCLA (which is due the 15th) also recieved all of the stuff from me, but none of the stuff from my professors. I don’t want to hassle them about it because I know that its a crazy busy time of year. Luckily, the schools say that when the recommendation letters arrive doesn’t really impact whether or not the application is considered ‘on time,’ but I still want those letters to be there before they consider my application. I feel like I am a strong candidate based on my statement, transcript, and GRE scores (which I wish were better, but whatever), but the recommendation letters are a huge deal for applications. Oh, well. Its out of my hands now.
Also last week Slocomb and I found, leased, and moved into a new apartment. We had been thinking about moving for a while because we needed more space and our own space. Living with the Colomas worked out really well because they were able to show us a lot about Cuenca and living in Ecuador, but it was hard for Slocomb and I to go from living independently (with roommates, true) at Emory to being back in someone else’s house. It was a good experience, but four months was enough.
Our new apartment is gorgeous!! Slocomb doesn’t want us to put up pictures on the internet yet because he wants his family to see it first-hand when they come to Ecuador for Christmas. I will put up pictures in a couple weeks though. It is in the middle of town, which is really nice and convenient. It is very close to a lot of shopping, which is a lot easier that at the Colomas, which was at the top of a vicious hill. It was always a pain to walk up the hill with shopping or groceries, but since the new place is in the flat part of town, we don’t have to worry about that. It is on the fifth floor, but there is a new-ish elevator, which was incredible handy while we were moving all of our stuff. The huge advantage on the fifth floor is that we’re up away from a lot of the street noise, and we have an incredible view. From the living room and foyer, there are two walls of windows essentially, so we have an almost 180° view of the north and west sides of the city. To the north, we see the cathedral, which is half a block away. We can see all of the domes (there are three large ones, contrary to what a couple of guidebooks I’ve seen say), and the long wall. To the west, we see a good bit of the city and towards Cajas, the national park. We haven’t gotten to really experience the sunset because its been cloudy all of the evenings we were there, but I have a feeling its going to be a gorgeous one. On the tour that we took with CEDEI at the beginning of our time here, our tour guide took us to Plaza San Francisco and showed us the view of the cathedral of Cuenca (you know, the one you always see on postcards). Well, our view from the apartment is that view but better because we are above the buildings that block the view. It is incredible. The apartment building is just off of the Plaza San Francisco, one of the major open air markets in town. It is very convenient to be able to pop downstairs to buy things. It is very busy during the day, but everything closes up at sundown. There is plenty of light in the Plaza after sundown, but most of the ‘shops’ stay set up, so the view down to the Plaza isn’t really all that pretty. It is very Cuenca, in my opinion. All of the semi-permanent shops where you can (in the day time) find just about anything. It really is a wonderful location.
In our new apartment, we are about three blocks from the building where we take Spanish classes, so we can actually go home for lunch now before classes. We still have to take the bus to school, but I’m pretty sure we can get away with only taking one now instead of two (saving us about $20 a month). There’s a washer and dryer in the apartment, so that is really nice. And the owner of the hostal upstairs has offered to let us use the wi-fi for no charge!! We’ve had some problems with the hot water heater and dryer, but hopefully we can get those worked out soon. The hot water heater overflowed on Thursday when we turned it on for the first extended period of time. There was water all over the kitchen and into one of the bedrooms, which of course is carpeted. Our apartment kinda has that wet dog smell right now, but Slocomb is going to get some air fresheners and maybe a fan when he gets back from Galapagos on the 18th. Also, the dryer wasn’t blowing hot air the other day. We’re not sure if this is because the hot air runs on gas (because we turned the gas off after the hot water heater funness), or something else. Our landlord is going to bring in a technician to check it all out soon. And everything will be functional when Slocomb’s family arrives on the 26th. Or else...
We got the keys to the apartment on Tuesday, and moved all of our stuff on Thursday and Friday. Things are still very disorganized, but Slocomb is going to take care of a lot of the stuff when he goes back to Cuenca. And then when I get back after new year, we can finish putting everything together. Setting up an apartment takes a long time, especially when one of the inhabitants is going to be gone for almost three weeks. But it’s something very exciting to come back to.
At school this week, we spent a lot of time preparing for the special Christmas pageant that took place last night. Slocomb and I had to miss it because we had to leave for Guayaquil, but we did get to see the rehearsal yesterday. The whole school day yesterday was spent in the park (and I forgot my sunscreen, so I have intense sunglass lines right now) preparing. Unfortunately, we didn’t really plan ahead that well for the rehearsal. We all arrived in the park about 8:30, but the rehearsing didn’t start until almost 11. Bad idea when you have 110 kids. I brought books and coloring books (thank God!!), because I realized that if the kids were bored, it was going to be a lot harder to keep things in order. I learned that from my mom; bored kids are obnoxious/trying/bad kids. Another frustration was that two of the international teachers had to leave at 10:30, meaning that we were down two sets of hands. Also, two more international teachers decided they needed to leave at 12 - not really sure why. I think they felt that had too much to do before leaving Cuenca (today, I might add), so they decided to peace out early. Unfortunately, Slocomb and I were the ones who actually had to leave Cuenca yesterday and move the rest of our stuff from the Colomas to downtown. But we got roped into staying longer because the rest of the teachers didn’t want all of the international teachers leaving super early. What really made me mad was the unfairness of it all. I mean, I completely understand that the national teachers wanted us to stay, but it was obnoxious that it was okay for some of the international team to leave and others not too. I guess thats one lesson that I’m learning here in Ecuador: fairness rarely matters in real life. Which is a bummer, because I like fairness. But I’m on vacation now for another three weeks, so I’m not going to think about school.
One last thing about school, actually. We had our Christmas party on Thursday night at the director’s, Ximena’s, house. I think I’ve mentioned that we’ve been having power outages to try to conserve electricity in Cuenca (because all of the power is from hydroelectric sources and there’s not been enough rain to run them as much). Ximena’s power was supposed to be off from four until seven, but the power didn’t come back until almost 8:30!! That’s the first time I’ve heard about that happening; normally the power comes back right on time. Dinner, of course, got delayed as a result, but we just hung out and chatted for the first hour until the power came back. We also finished our secret santa exchange. I had Prisci’s (the first grade teacher) name, and I bought her a pair of silver heart earrings. They were really cute; I was tempted to keep them! Jen had my name, and she got me some earrings with real tiny flowers in them and a beautiful pink and purple scarf. She did a really good job throwing me off of who had my name; every day I got a little present with my name spelled “Lesli” on it (which is how they spell it in Ecuador usually so I assumed it was a national teacher). Very tricky, Jen! Slocomb got a new wallet from his secret santa, but I’ll set him tell you about that.
I guess this is the time for overall first semester impressions. Well, its different, especially the work culture. In the states, all of my work experiences were very supportive of their staff and very quick to solve any problems. In Ecuador, it seems much more like a solve your own problems at work kind of place. Which is fine, and works well for me, except when it comes to things like pay checks (we were almost a week late in getting our December paychecks - which was really hard because we needed to pay for our new apartment, etc). I have learned to be more independent and use the supplies I know I can get for myself fairly easily.
As for Ecuador in general, I have seen that people are very nice and very generous. People actually give money to people begging in the streets and people juggling at traffic lights. But people are also very self-interested. It seems very much like an every person (and family) for his/herself or themselves. In a place where there honestly isn’t enough to go around all of the time, this attitude makes sense. Even thought times are hard right now particularly, Ecuador is prospering. The attitudes just may not have kept up with the prosperity.
Thirdly, it makes a huge difference if you try to speak Spanish and are interested in the culture. When he’s feeling up to it, Slocomb almost always tries to talk to the cab drivers, usually about soccer. And it makes a big difference. If you get a cab driver talking, you usually have a much better cab experience - and sometimes pay less. People in Cuenca stereotype ‘gringos’ frequently, based on their previous experiences with them. And a lot of Americans - or estadounidenses I should say - come to Cuenca to see the sights of a UNESCO world heritage sights. Fewer are like us, who come to live in Cuenca, speak Spanish, and find out a little of what its like to be Cuencano. Yeah, we want to see the sights too, but for Slocomb and myself, the people are the interesting part. And when Cuencanos figure that out, it completely changes their relationship to us. We’re not going to stop being ‘gringos,’ but we have stopped being tourists.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
What's up with us...
I am writing right now from our plane to Galapagos. We got to sit to first/business class somehow; we are actually sitting in the bulkhead seats (row 1) in the front of the plane. Slocomb says its the first time he’s actually been comfortable on a plane.
We left Cuenca last night about 6pm in a full buseta, which meant that it was not nearly as comfortable as the previous two times we had gone to Guayaquil. Then, it was only us on the way to Guayaquil, and only two other people on the way back. Last night, there were five other people in the buseta. One of the guys on the buseta was from Chile, but spoke English very well. He used to work in port management, so that’s where he learned English. But after he found out that we spoke Spanish, we switched to Spanish (my preference because I need to practice!). Its not really offensive when people assume that we don’t speak Spanish; the reward is people’s faces when they realize we do speak Spanish.
Another person on the buseta was a woman from Cuenca who had known some of the CEDEI teachers from years past. She was very talkative (which was helpful for keeping the driver awake) and she did her nails while we were on the buseta. And when I say did her nails, I don’t just mean painted her nails. She glued on French tips, filed, buffed, and painted her nails on the buseta. Surprisingly, there weren’t any fumes (which was nice), and the filing/buffing wasn’t actually that annoying. I think it was because Slocomb and I knew we were on vacation, so the annoyances didn’t bother us. We entertained ourselves by making and eating sandwiches (which the nails woman commented on, saying, “Poor us, we don’t have any food!”) and by watching New Moon on my laptop. We found a bootleg copy (like every movie in Ecuador) that actually was in English. The audio wasn’t perfect, and there were a couple of times that I missed what they were saying, but it was good none the less. Also, hearing bachata and regeton on the radio the entire time might have messed with my listening skills. I still want to go back and see it in theatres again (because there were some moments that just didn’t look good on my little 13 inch screen) and because I kinda feel bad for buying a bootleg copy. Oh, well. When in Rome... one buys bootleg copies of movies...
Last week was a crazy week. It was our last week of school for the year, so we had lots to do. Jen (one of the other international teachers) wanted to help the kids make a nice present for their parents for Christmas, so we helped out with that because it was very labor intensive. We ended up making calendars decorated with the kids’ hand-print art work and also ornament balls with eight sides or so decorated by the kids. They turned out so well, but poor Jen was stressing the whole week trying to get everything done. As it turns out, we didn’t finish, but the national teachers are going to finish them with the kids and give them out next week.
I also had one of my graduate school applications due this week, which I finished and turned in on time, thank you very much. I’m a little worried because only two of the recommendation letters has been turned in, but hopefully my professor is working on it. UCLA (which is due the 15th) also recieved all of the stuff from me, but none of the stuff from my professors. I don’t want to hassle them about it because I know that its a crazy busy time of year. Luckily, the schools say that when the recommendation letters arrive doesn’t really impact whether or not the application is considered ‘on time,’ but I still want those letters to be there before they consider my application. I feel like I am a strong candidate based on my statement, transcript, and GRE scores (which I wish were better, but whatever), but the recommendation letters are a huge deal for applications. Oh, well. Its out of my hands now.
Also last week Slocomb and I found, leased, and moved into a new apartment. We had been thinking about moving for a while because we needed more space and our own space. Living with the Colomas worked out really well because they were able to show us a lot about Cuenca and living in Ecuador, but it was hard for Slocomb and I to go from living independently (with roommates, true) at Emory to being back in someone else’s house. It was a good experience, but four months was enough.
Our new apartment is gorgeous!! Slocomb doesn’t want us to put up pictures on the internet yet because he wants his family to see it first-hand when they come to Ecuador for Christmas. I will put up pictures in a couple weeks though. It is in the middle of town, which is really nice and convenient. It is very close to a lot of shopping, which is a lot easier that at the Colomas, which was at the top of a vicious hill. It was always a pain to walk up the hill with shopping or groceries, but since the new place is in the flat part of town, we don’t have to worry about that. It is on the fifth floor, but there is a new-ish elevator, which was incredible handy while we were moving all of our stuff. The huge advantage on the fifth floor is that we’re up away from a lot of the street noise, and we have an incredible view. From the living room and foyer, there are two walls of windows essentially, so we have an almost 180° view of the north and west sides of the city. To the north, we see the cathedral, which is half a block away. We can see all of the domes (there are three large ones, contrary to what a couple of guidebooks I’ve seen say), and the long wall. To the west, we see a good bit of the city and towards Cajas, the national park. We haven’t gotten to really experience the sunset because its been cloudy all of the evenings we were there, but I have a feeling its going to be a gorgeous one. On the tour that we took with CEDEI at the beginning of our time here, our tour guide took us to Plaza San Francisco and showed us the view of the cathedral of Cuenca (you know, the one you always see on postcards). Well, our view from the apartment is that view but better because we are above the buildings that block the view. It is incredible. The apartment building is just off of the Plaza San Francisco, one of the major open air markets in town. It is very convenient to be able to pop downstairs to buy things. It is very busy during the day, but everything closes up at sundown. There is plenty of light in the Plaza after sundown, but most of the ‘shops’ stay set up, so the view down to the Plaza isn’t really all that pretty. It is very Cuenca, in my opinion. All of the semi-permanent shops where you can (in the day time) find just about anything. It really is a wonderful location.
In our new apartment, we are about three blocks from the building where we take Spanish classes, so we can actually go home for lunch now before classes. We still have to take the bus to school, but I’m pretty sure we can get away with only taking one now instead of two (saving us about $20 a month). There’s a washer and dryer in the apartment, so that is really nice. And the owner of the hostal upstairs has offered to let us use the wi-fi for no charge!! We’ve had some problems with the hot water heater and dryer, but hopefully we can get those worked out soon. The hot water heater overflowed on Thursday when we turned it on for the first extended period of time. There was water all over the kitchen and into one of the bedrooms, which of course is carpeted. Our apartment kinda has that wet dog smell right now, but Slocomb is going to get some air fresheners and maybe a fan when he gets back from Galapagos on the 18th. Also, the dryer wasn’t blowing hot air the other day. We’re not sure if this is because the hot air runs on gas (because we turned the gas off after the hot water heater funness), or something else. Our landlord is going to bring in a technician to check it all out soon. And everything will be functional when Slocomb’s family arrives on the 26th. Or else...
We got the keys to the apartment on Tuesday, and moved all of our stuff on Thursday and Friday. Things are still very disorganized, but Slocomb is going to take care of a lot of the stuff when he goes back to Cuenca. And then when I get back after new year, we can finish putting everything together. Setting up an apartment takes a long time, especially when one of the inhabitants is going to be gone for almost three weeks. But it’s something very exciting to come back to.
At school this week, we spent a lot of time preparing for the special Christmas pageant that took place last night. Slocomb and I had to miss it because we had to leave for Guayaquil, but we did get to see the rehearsal yesterday. The whole school day yesterday was spent in the park (and I forgot my sunscreen, so I have intense sunglass lines right now) preparing. Unfortunately, we didn’t really plan ahead that well for the rehearsal. We all arrived in the park about 8:30, but the rehearsing didn’t start until almost 11. Bad idea when you have 110 kids. I brought books and coloring books (thank God!!), because I realized that if the kids were bored, it was going to be a lot harder to keep things in order. I learned that from my mom; bored kids are obnoxious/trying/bad kids. Another frustration was that two of the international teachers had to leave at 10:30, meaning that we were down two sets of hands. Also, two more international teachers decided they needed to leave at 12 - not really sure why. I think they felt that had too much to do before leaving Cuenca (today, I might add), so they decided to peace out early. Unfortunately, Slocomb and I were the ones who actually had to leave Cuenca yesterday and move the rest of our stuff from the Colomas to downtown. But we got roped into staying longer because the rest of the teachers didn’t want all of the international teachers leaving super early. What really made me mad was the unfairness of it all. I mean, I completely understand that the national teachers wanted us to stay, but it was obnoxious that it was okay for some of the international team to leave and others not too. I guess thats one lesson that I’m learning here in Ecuador: fairness rarely matters in real life. Which is a bummer, because I like fairness. But I’m on vacation now for another three weeks, so I’m not going to think about school.
One last thing about school, actually. We had our Christmas party on Thursday night at the director’s, Ximena’s, house. I think I’ve mentioned that we’ve been having power outages to try to conserve electricity in Cuenca (because all of the power is from hydroelectric sources and there’s not been enough rain to run them as much). Ximena’s power was supposed to be off from four until seven, but the power didn’t come back until almost 8:30!! That’s the first time I’ve heard about that happening; normally the power comes back right on time. Dinner, of course, got delayed as a result, but we just hung out and chatted for the first hour until the power came back. We also finished our secret santa exchange. I had Prisci’s (the first grade teacher) name, and I bought her a pair of silver heart earrings. They were really cute; I was tempted to keep them! Jen had my name, and she got me some earrings with real tiny flowers in them and a beautiful pink and purple scarf. She did a really good job throwing me off of who had my name; every day I got a little present with my name spelled “Lesli” on it (which is how they spell it in Ecuador usually so I assumed it was a national teacher). Very tricky, Jen! Slocomb got a new wallet from his secret santa, but I’ll set him tell you about that.
I guess this is the time for overall first semester impressions. Well, its different, especially the work culture. In the states, all of my work experiences were very supportive of their staff and very quick to solve any problems. In Ecuador, it seems much more like a solve your own problems at work kind of place. Which is fine, and works well for me, except when it comes to things like pay checks (we were almost a week late in getting our December paychecks - which was really hard because we needed to pay for our new apartment, etc). I have learned to be more independent and use the supplies I know I can get for myself fairly easily.
As for Ecuador in general, I have seen that people are very nice and very generous. People actually give money to people begging in the streets and people juggling at traffic lights. But people are also very self-interested. It seems very much like an every person (and family) for his/herself or themselves. In a place where there honestly isn’t enough to go around all of the time, this attitude makes sense. Even thought times are hard right now particularly, Ecuador is prospering. The attitudes just may not have kept up with the prosperity.
Thirdly, it makes a huge difference if you try to speak Spanish and are interested in the culture. When he’s feeling up to it, Slocomb almost always tries to talk to the cab drivers, usually about soccer. And it makes a big difference. If you get a cab driver talking, you usually have a much better cab experience - and sometimes pay less. People in Cuenca stereotype ‘gringos’ frequently, based on their previous experiences with them. And a lot of Americans - or estadounidenses I should say - come to Cuenca to see the sights of a UNESCO world heritage sights. Fewer are like us, who come to live in Cuenca, speak Spanish, and find out a little of what its like to be Cuencano. Yeah, we want to see the sights too, but for Slocomb and myself, the people are the interesting part. And when Cuencanos figure that out, it completely changes their relationship to us. We’re not going to stop being ‘gringos,’ but we have stopped being tourists.
We left Cuenca last night about 6pm in a full buseta, which meant that it was not nearly as comfortable as the previous two times we had gone to Guayaquil. Then, it was only us on the way to Guayaquil, and only two other people on the way back. Last night, there were five other people in the buseta. One of the guys on the buseta was from Chile, but spoke English very well. He used to work in port management, so that’s where he learned English. But after he found out that we spoke Spanish, we switched to Spanish (my preference because I need to practice!). Its not really offensive when people assume that we don’t speak Spanish; the reward is people’s faces when they realize we do speak Spanish.
Another person on the buseta was a woman from Cuenca who had known some of the CEDEI teachers from years past. She was very talkative (which was helpful for keeping the driver awake) and she did her nails while we were on the buseta. And when I say did her nails, I don’t just mean painted her nails. She glued on French tips, filed, buffed, and painted her nails on the buseta. Surprisingly, there weren’t any fumes (which was nice), and the filing/buffing wasn’t actually that annoying. I think it was because Slocomb and I knew we were on vacation, so the annoyances didn’t bother us. We entertained ourselves by making and eating sandwiches (which the nails woman commented on, saying, “Poor us, we don’t have any food!”) and by watching New Moon on my laptop. We found a bootleg copy (like every movie in Ecuador) that actually was in English. The audio wasn’t perfect, and there were a couple of times that I missed what they were saying, but it was good none the less. Also, hearing bachata and regeton on the radio the entire time might have messed with my listening skills. I still want to go back and see it in theatres again (because there were some moments that just didn’t look good on my little 13 inch screen) and because I kinda feel bad for buying a bootleg copy. Oh, well. When in Rome... one buys bootleg copies of movies...
Last week was a crazy week. It was our last week of school for the year, so we had lots to do. Jen (one of the other international teachers) wanted to help the kids make a nice present for their parents for Christmas, so we helped out with that because it was very labor intensive. We ended up making calendars decorated with the kids’ hand-print art work and also ornament balls with eight sides or so decorated by the kids. They turned out so well, but poor Jen was stressing the whole week trying to get everything done. As it turns out, we didn’t finish, but the national teachers are going to finish them with the kids and give them out next week.
I also had one of my graduate school applications due this week, which I finished and turned in on time, thank you very much. I’m a little worried because only two of the recommendation letters has been turned in, but hopefully my professor is working on it. UCLA (which is due the 15th) also recieved all of the stuff from me, but none of the stuff from my professors. I don’t want to hassle them about it because I know that its a crazy busy time of year. Luckily, the schools say that when the recommendation letters arrive doesn’t really impact whether or not the application is considered ‘on time,’ but I still want those letters to be there before they consider my application. I feel like I am a strong candidate based on my statement, transcript, and GRE scores (which I wish were better, but whatever), but the recommendation letters are a huge deal for applications. Oh, well. Its out of my hands now.
Also last week Slocomb and I found, leased, and moved into a new apartment. We had been thinking about moving for a while because we needed more space and our own space. Living with the Colomas worked out really well because they were able to show us a lot about Cuenca and living in Ecuador, but it was hard for Slocomb and I to go from living independently (with roommates, true) at Emory to being back in someone else’s house. It was a good experience, but four months was enough.
Our new apartment is gorgeous!! Slocomb doesn’t want us to put up pictures on the internet yet because he wants his family to see it first-hand when they come to Ecuador for Christmas. I will put up pictures in a couple weeks though. It is in the middle of town, which is really nice and convenient. It is very close to a lot of shopping, which is a lot easier that at the Colomas, which was at the top of a vicious hill. It was always a pain to walk up the hill with shopping or groceries, but since the new place is in the flat part of town, we don’t have to worry about that. It is on the fifth floor, but there is a new-ish elevator, which was incredible handy while we were moving all of our stuff. The huge advantage on the fifth floor is that we’re up away from a lot of the street noise, and we have an incredible view. From the living room and foyer, there are two walls of windows essentially, so we have an almost 180° view of the north and west sides of the city. To the north, we see the cathedral, which is half a block away. We can see all of the domes (there are three large ones, contrary to what a couple of guidebooks I’ve seen say), and the long wall. To the west, we see a good bit of the city and towards Cajas, the national park. We haven’t gotten to really experience the sunset because its been cloudy all of the evenings we were there, but I have a feeling its going to be a gorgeous one. On the tour that we took with CEDEI at the beginning of our time here, our tour guide took us to Plaza San Francisco and showed us the view of the cathedral of Cuenca (you know, the one you always see on postcards). Well, our view from the apartment is that view but better because we are above the buildings that block the view. It is incredible. The apartment building is just off of the Plaza San Francisco, one of the major open air markets in town. It is very convenient to be able to pop downstairs to buy things. It is very busy during the day, but everything closes up at sundown. There is plenty of light in the Plaza after sundown, but most of the ‘shops’ stay set up, so the view down to the Plaza isn’t really all that pretty. It is very Cuenca, in my opinion. All of the semi-permanent shops where you can (in the day time) find just about anything. It really is a wonderful location.
In our new apartment, we are about three blocks from the building where we take Spanish classes, so we can actually go home for lunch now before classes. We still have to take the bus to school, but I’m pretty sure we can get away with only taking one now instead of two (saving us about $20 a month). There’s a washer and dryer in the apartment, so that is really nice. And the owner of the hostal upstairs has offered to let us use the wi-fi for no charge!! We’ve had some problems with the hot water heater and dryer, but hopefully we can get those worked out soon. The hot water heater overflowed on Thursday when we turned it on for the first extended period of time. There was water all over the kitchen and into one of the bedrooms, which of course is carpeted. Our apartment kinda has that wet dog smell right now, but Slocomb is going to get some air fresheners and maybe a fan when he gets back from Galapagos on the 18th. Also, the dryer wasn’t blowing hot air the other day. We’re not sure if this is because the hot air runs on gas (because we turned the gas off after the hot water heater funness), or something else. Our landlord is going to bring in a technician to check it all out soon. And everything will be functional when Slocomb’s family arrives on the 26th. Or else...
We got the keys to the apartment on Tuesday, and moved all of our stuff on Thursday and Friday. Things are still very disorganized, but Slocomb is going to take care of a lot of the stuff when he goes back to Cuenca. And then when I get back after new year, we can finish putting everything together. Setting up an apartment takes a long time, especially when one of the inhabitants is going to be gone for almost three weeks. But it’s something very exciting to come back to.
At school this week, we spent a lot of time preparing for the special Christmas pageant that took place last night. Slocomb and I had to miss it because we had to leave for Guayaquil, but we did get to see the rehearsal yesterday. The whole school day yesterday was spent in the park (and I forgot my sunscreen, so I have intense sunglass lines right now) preparing. Unfortunately, we didn’t really plan ahead that well for the rehearsal. We all arrived in the park about 8:30, but the rehearsing didn’t start until almost 11. Bad idea when you have 110 kids. I brought books and coloring books (thank God!!), because I realized that if the kids were bored, it was going to be a lot harder to keep things in order. I learned that from my mom; bored kids are obnoxious/trying/bad kids. Another frustration was that two of the international teachers had to leave at 10:30, meaning that we were down two sets of hands. Also, two more international teachers decided they needed to leave at 12 - not really sure why. I think they felt that had too much to do before leaving Cuenca (today, I might add), so they decided to peace out early. Unfortunately, Slocomb and I were the ones who actually had to leave Cuenca yesterday and move the rest of our stuff from the Colomas to downtown. But we got roped into staying longer because the rest of the teachers didn’t want all of the international teachers leaving super early. What really made me mad was the unfairness of it all. I mean, I completely understand that the national teachers wanted us to stay, but it was obnoxious that it was okay for some of the international team to leave and others not too. I guess thats one lesson that I’m learning here in Ecuador: fairness rarely matters in real life. Which is a bummer, because I like fairness. But I’m on vacation now for another three weeks, so I’m not going to think about school.
One last thing about school, actually. We had our Christmas party on Thursday night at the director’s, Ximena’s, house. I think I’ve mentioned that we’ve been having power outages to try to conserve electricity in Cuenca (because all of the power is from hydroelectric sources and there’s not been enough rain to run them as much). Ximena’s power was supposed to be off from four until seven, but the power didn’t come back until almost 8:30!! That’s the first time I’ve heard about that happening; normally the power comes back right on time. Dinner, of course, got delayed as a result, but we just hung out and chatted for the first hour until the power came back. We also finished our secret santa exchange. I had Prisci’s (the first grade teacher) name, and I bought her a pair of silver heart earrings. They were really cute; I was tempted to keep them! Jen had my name, and she got me some earrings with real tiny flowers in them and a beautiful pink and purple scarf. She did a really good job throwing me off of who had my name; every day I got a little present with my name spelled “Lesli” on it (which is how they spell it in Ecuador usually so I assumed it was a national teacher). Very tricky, Jen! Slocomb got a new wallet from his secret santa, but I’ll set him tell you about that.
I guess this is the time for overall first semester impressions. Well, its different, especially the work culture. In the states, all of my work experiences were very supportive of their staff and very quick to solve any problems. In Ecuador, it seems much more like a solve your own problems at work kind of place. Which is fine, and works well for me, except when it comes to things like pay checks (we were almost a week late in getting our December paychecks - which was really hard because we needed to pay for our new apartment, etc). I have learned to be more independent and use the supplies I know I can get for myself fairly easily.
As for Ecuador in general, I have seen that people are very nice and very generous. People actually give money to people begging in the streets and people juggling at traffic lights. But people are also very self-interested. It seems very much like an every person (and family) for his/herself or themselves. In a place where there honestly isn’t enough to go around all of the time, this attitude makes sense. Even thought times are hard right now particularly, Ecuador is prospering. The attitudes just may not have kept up with the prosperity.
Thirdly, it makes a huge difference if you try to speak Spanish and are interested in the culture. When he’s feeling up to it, Slocomb almost always tries to talk to the cab drivers, usually about soccer. And it makes a big difference. If you get a cab driver talking, you usually have a much better cab experience - and sometimes pay less. People in Cuenca stereotype ‘gringos’ frequently, based on their previous experiences with them. And a lot of Americans - or estadounidenses I should say - come to Cuenca to see the sights of a UNESCO world heritage sights. Fewer are like us, who come to live in Cuenca, speak Spanish, and find out a little of what its like to be Cuencano. Yeah, we want to see the sights too, but for Slocomb and myself, the people are the interesting part. And when Cuencanos figure that out, it completely changes their relationship to us. We’re not going to stop being ‘gringos,’ but we have stopped being tourists.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Slacking...
Obviously, I have been slacking on blogging, but here's a link to my photos from Otavalo.
Otavalo photos
We went there last weekend to celebrate my birthday and to shop for Christmas presents at the famous market.
More details to come later... When I finish my grad school applications...
Otavalo photos
We went there last weekend to celebrate my birthday and to shop for Christmas presents at the famous market.
More details to come later... When I finish my grad school applications...
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Catching up...
(FYI, This was supposed to be posted on the 12th, but the internet has been really sketchy the past few weeks)
Okay, so I’ve been slacking on the blogging recently, and I’m sorry. We’ve had a lot of things going on these past few weeks (including me starting grad school applications), so I haven’t had much time to write. But here goes my attempt to make up for it.
Another note, we went to the beach two weekends ago, but I’ll write about that trip in a separate post.
Things in Cuenca
Ecuadorians have a special food tradition for All Saint's Day, which of course was November 1. All over the country people make and eat "Guaguas de Pan" (bread babies in a mixure of Spanish and Quichua) and Colada Morada (or Purple colada).
The babies kinda reminded me of king cake at Epiphany/Mardi Gras, and the Colada was amazing! It was made from all different kind of fruits and is really complicated apparently. I'll have to try to find a recipe and make it, but a lot of the fruits can't be found outside Ecuador. Bummer...
November 3 is the celebration of the Independence of Cuenca, so there was a lot going on that weekend. We went out of town (to the beach... see other post to come) for most of the weekend, but we did get to see President Correa speak and some of the festivities on Tuesday night, including dancing and singing and lots of traditional Ecuadorian celebrations. It was the most tame celebration, because everyone had to go to work the next day. Apparently Thursday through Monday nights were pretty crazy in Cuenca, but we were out of town, so we had no idea.
Last weekend we mainly hung around town, washing clothes and doing other chores. Sunday for lunch we to Paute (a town about an hour and a half by bus from Cuenca) because they supposedly have the best hornado in the area. Hornado is essentially just pulled pork - and they pull it off the pig right in front of you. It was really good, but I think mainly because of the sauce - tomatoes, onions, and cilantro in vinegar. Hornado is also traditionally served with llapingachos, which are pretty much just fried mashed potato cakes. So good...
The bus ride to Paute was one of the more interesting aspects of the trip. In Cuenca, people are generally used to Americas (or white people) being around, so they might stare at you a little but not too much. However, I guess the people on the bus to Paute had never seen a white person before, ever. They stared at Slocomb and me like we had lobsters crawling out of our ears (to quote one of my favorite movies - A Christmas Story). It was quite uncomfortable. Also, the bus stopped about every 10 minutes or so to pick people up or drop people off on the way to Paute. It was weird because most of the people that got on after we left Cuenca stood in the aisle. Slocomb and I have learned to prefer the back of the buses because people are less likely to stand back there.
We finally got our uniforms for school on Friday, so I’m very excited about that. I don’t have any pictures yet, but it is essentially a black track suit with aqua sleeves and accents. We also have a grey t-shirt (i bought two) and polo shirt. I’m excited because it means I don’t have to wear my own clothes to school every day. At least two days a week, I have something else to wear!
Friday night we had dance class where Slocomb and I worked some more on dancing together. We essentially have a private class because none of the other international teachers want to take dance classes. We’re working on the meringue right now before moving on to salsa. Slocomb and I still need to work a lot more on our dancing because we have very different styles of dancing. Mine is mostly influenced by the ballet classes I took when I was young, meaning that I take small steps and try to be very light on my feet. Slocomb on the other hand played basketball when he was young, so he’s good with the footwork, but not so good with the artistry of dance. And then there’s the problem that I don’t exactly like to follow... but we’re working through that. Hopefully this week we’ll get some time to practice...
Party bus/tour (and aborted trip Thursday)
Saturday morning I went to a birthday party for one of my students. Apparently, he specifically asked that I and the national kindergarten teacher, Vero, come to the party. I was actually very honored, so I decided to go. Turns out that it was a good thing because there were about 40 kids there and only the birthday boy’s parent and grandparents in addition to a couple of teachers. Also, there is a new student in the kindergarten class who only speaks English, so I spent most of the time with him (since I was the only adult who spoke English). We all went to a movie - The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - and then to KFC for a small snack and cake. The movie was in Spanish, but either my Spanish has gotten really good (unlikely) or TMNT is the same in any language (more likely). It ended up being sort of like another day at school in that I was supervising lots of kids, but it was a lot better because I didn’t have to try to teach anything or be in charge. It was also fun to see my students in their ‘natural environment’ - meaning not in a classroom.
Today we went to the international food fair at the Mall del Río. They had food from all over, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Spain, Taiwan, Japan, and a bunch of other places. Interestingly, the United States table was all desserts. A lot of people think that there’s no such thing as traditional American food, but they could have had hamburgers or hotdogs or (even better) turkey and dressing and other sorts of Thanksgiving foods. Either than or the American-Eucadorians have figured out why Americans have such weight problems - the really traditional American foods are all cakes and pies!
We ended up spending a good bit (on Ecuadorian standards - $16) on food there, and everything was good except the paella. I didn’t think that it was that bad, but Slocomb (having lived in Spain and having eaten lots of real paella) thought it was gross. But it was a fundraiser for the cancer society, so it was worth it.
We walked around the mall a little bit afterwards, and it was all very similar to American malls (including the prices...). There weren’t any stores specifically that I recognized, but it was mostly clothes and toys and other quasi-luxury items. I don’t really plan on shopping there, but it was interesting to see.
After the mall, we went up to the University of Cuenca to meet up with some of our co-workers to play racquetball. Slocomb played with Pepe and Jonathan (who apparently used to play competitively)... Pepe is sick, so he was dragging a little bit, and it was only Slocomb’s second time playing racquetball ever, so Jonathan pretty much cleaned the floor with them. But its really good exercise and its always nice to hang out with our Cuencano friends.
I went swimming while the guys were playing racquetball. I only swam about 1200m - not a whole lot for me, but considering that I haven’t worked out really at all since we got to Ecuador, it was pretty good. Towards the end of my workout, there were these guys, probably about 20-ish who got in the pool and were horseplaying like crazy. The first indication of trouble was that they all dove into the 4-foot pool. Not smart. And then they were just swimming across the pool the short way (so opposite the lap swimmers) and getting in people’s way. One actually ran straight into me while I was swimming a lap. So I decided to intimidate them a little and swim a few lengths of butterfly (the international don’t mess with me stroke). They left me alone after that, and one of the other patrons told me that I was a very good swimmer. I haven’t really thought of myself as a good swimmer since I got to college because I’ve always been surrounded by friends who are better than I am (and working out with some of the swim team was bound to give me a complex), but I was definitely the best swimmer in the pool today. While it seems like a good few people swim for exercise, it was clear that no one had ever swam competitively. I guess when there are only one or two lap-sized pools in the city, swim team becomes somewhat impossible. Just an interesting cultural thing - in a town where people could definitely afford to participate in competitive swimming, they all pretty much prefer to play soccer. I wonder if I could make some money on the side teaching swimming... Not that I have the time...
That’s pretty much all that’s been going on recently in Cuenca. We also went to Playas during the long Fiestas de Cuenca weekend, but I’ll write about that in a separate post. We are also planning a trip to Otavalo (north of Quito - actually in the northern hemisphere) for my birthday in a couple of weeks. And we’re planning to have a big Thanksgiving party for our co-workers, mainly because I want to have Thanksgiving food and the only way I’m going to get it is to fix it! So lots of fun things coming up.
Funny kid story to make you laugh: There is this one preschooler who loves drinking water. Like loves it. If there’s not a cup handy, he will put his mouth straight onto the spigot out of the big 5 gallon jug and drink it that way (gross - and I’m trying to work on this habit with him). The consequence of him drinking all of this water is that he has to pee all of the time. So one time last week, he had a cup in his hand (probably because he had just had a bunch of water) and was literally 3 feet from the bathroom when he realized he had to go. I guess he didn’t think he could make it (or wasn’t aware how close he was to the bathroom), so I ended up catching him peeing into the drinking cup. I helped him to the bathroom and made him pour out the contents of his cup, but while I was flushing, he was already back at the water jug filling the cup up again!!! So I took the cup away and tried to explain to him that he couldn’t drink out of the cup that he had just peed into. He was quite skeptical of my hygienic suggestions, but he was okay once I got him a new cup. Lord only knows what he did with the new cup. Sometimes these kids crack me up...
Okay, so I’ve been slacking on the blogging recently, and I’m sorry. We’ve had a lot of things going on these past few weeks (including me starting grad school applications), so I haven’t had much time to write. But here goes my attempt to make up for it.
Another note, we went to the beach two weekends ago, but I’ll write about that trip in a separate post.
Things in Cuenca
Ecuadorians have a special food tradition for All Saint's Day, which of course was November 1. All over the country people make and eat "Guaguas de Pan" (bread babies in a mixure of Spanish and Quichua) and Colada Morada (or Purple colada).
The babies kinda reminded me of king cake at Epiphany/Mardi Gras, and the Colada was amazing! It was made from all different kind of fruits and is really complicated apparently. I'll have to try to find a recipe and make it, but a lot of the fruits can't be found outside Ecuador. Bummer...November 3 is the celebration of the Independence of Cuenca, so there was a lot going on that weekend. We went out of town (to the beach... see other post to come) for most of the weekend, but we did get to see President Correa speak and some of the festivities on Tuesday night, including dancing and singing and lots of traditional Ecuadorian celebrations. It was the most tame celebration, because everyone had to go to work the next day. Apparently Thursday through Monday nights were pretty crazy in Cuenca, but we were out of town, so we had no idea.
Last weekend we mainly hung around town, washing clothes and doing other chores. Sunday for lunch we to Paute (a town about an hour and a half by bus from Cuenca) because they supposedly have the best hornado in the area. Hornado is essentially just pulled pork - and they pull it off the pig right in front of you. It was really good, but I think mainly because of the sauce - tomatoes, onions, and cilantro in vinegar. Hornado is also traditionally served with llapingachos, which are pretty much just fried mashed potato cakes. So good...
The bus ride to Paute was one of the more interesting aspects of the trip. In Cuenca, people are generally used to Americas (or white people) being around, so they might stare at you a little but not too much. However, I guess the people on the bus to Paute had never seen a white person before, ever. They stared at Slocomb and me like we had lobsters crawling out of our ears (to quote one of my favorite movies - A Christmas Story). It was quite uncomfortable. Also, the bus stopped about every 10 minutes or so to pick people up or drop people off on the way to Paute. It was weird because most of the people that got on after we left Cuenca stood in the aisle. Slocomb and I have learned to prefer the back of the buses because people are less likely to stand back there.
We finally got our uniforms for school on Friday, so I’m very excited about that. I don’t have any pictures yet, but it is essentially a black track suit with aqua sleeves and accents. We also have a grey t-shirt (i bought two) and polo shirt. I’m excited because it means I don’t have to wear my own clothes to school every day. At least two days a week, I have something else to wear!
Friday night we had dance class where Slocomb and I worked some more on dancing together. We essentially have a private class because none of the other international teachers want to take dance classes. We’re working on the meringue right now before moving on to salsa. Slocomb and I still need to work a lot more on our dancing because we have very different styles of dancing. Mine is mostly influenced by the ballet classes I took when I was young, meaning that I take small steps and try to be very light on my feet. Slocomb on the other hand played basketball when he was young, so he’s good with the footwork, but not so good with the artistry of dance. And then there’s the problem that I don’t exactly like to follow... but we’re working through that. Hopefully this week we’ll get some time to practice...
Party bus/tour (and aborted trip Thursday)
Saturday morning I went to a birthday party for one of my students. Apparently, he specifically asked that I and the national kindergarten teacher, Vero, come to the party. I was actually very honored, so I decided to go. Turns out that it was a good thing because there were about 40 kids there and only the birthday boy’s parent and grandparents in addition to a couple of teachers. Also, there is a new student in the kindergarten class who only speaks English, so I spent most of the time with him (since I was the only adult who spoke English). We all went to a movie - The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - and then to KFC for a small snack and cake. The movie was in Spanish, but either my Spanish has gotten really good (unlikely) or TMNT is the same in any language (more likely). It ended up being sort of like another day at school in that I was supervising lots of kids, but it was a lot better because I didn’t have to try to teach anything or be in charge. It was also fun to see my students in their ‘natural environment’ - meaning not in a classroom.
Today we went to the international food fair at the Mall del Río. They had food from all over, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Spain, Taiwan, Japan, and a bunch of other places. Interestingly, the United States table was all desserts. A lot of people think that there’s no such thing as traditional American food, but they could have had hamburgers or hotdogs or (even better) turkey and dressing and other sorts of Thanksgiving foods. Either than or the American-Eucadorians have figured out why Americans have such weight problems - the really traditional American foods are all cakes and pies!
We ended up spending a good bit (on Ecuadorian standards - $16) on food there, and everything was good except the paella. I didn’t think that it was that bad, but Slocomb (having lived in Spain and having eaten lots of real paella) thought it was gross. But it was a fundraiser for the cancer society, so it was worth it.
We walked around the mall a little bit afterwards, and it was all very similar to American malls (including the prices...). There weren’t any stores specifically that I recognized, but it was mostly clothes and toys and other quasi-luxury items. I don’t really plan on shopping there, but it was interesting to see.
After the mall, we went up to the University of Cuenca to meet up with some of our co-workers to play racquetball. Slocomb played with Pepe and Jonathan (who apparently used to play competitively)... Pepe is sick, so he was dragging a little bit, and it was only Slocomb’s second time playing racquetball ever, so Jonathan pretty much cleaned the floor with them. But its really good exercise and its always nice to hang out with our Cuencano friends.
I went swimming while the guys were playing racquetball. I only swam about 1200m - not a whole lot for me, but considering that I haven’t worked out really at all since we got to Ecuador, it was pretty good. Towards the end of my workout, there were these guys, probably about 20-ish who got in the pool and were horseplaying like crazy. The first indication of trouble was that they all dove into the 4-foot pool. Not smart. And then they were just swimming across the pool the short way (so opposite the lap swimmers) and getting in people’s way. One actually ran straight into me while I was swimming a lap. So I decided to intimidate them a little and swim a few lengths of butterfly (the international don’t mess with me stroke). They left me alone after that, and one of the other patrons told me that I was a very good swimmer. I haven’t really thought of myself as a good swimmer since I got to college because I’ve always been surrounded by friends who are better than I am (and working out with some of the swim team was bound to give me a complex), but I was definitely the best swimmer in the pool today. While it seems like a good few people swim for exercise, it was clear that no one had ever swam competitively. I guess when there are only one or two lap-sized pools in the city, swim team becomes somewhat impossible. Just an interesting cultural thing - in a town where people could definitely afford to participate in competitive swimming, they all pretty much prefer to play soccer. I wonder if I could make some money on the side teaching swimming... Not that I have the time...
That’s pretty much all that’s been going on recently in Cuenca. We also went to Playas during the long Fiestas de Cuenca weekend, but I’ll write about that in a separate post. We are also planning a trip to Otavalo (north of Quito - actually in the northern hemisphere) for my birthday in a couple of weeks. And we’re planning to have a big Thanksgiving party for our co-workers, mainly because I want to have Thanksgiving food and the only way I’m going to get it is to fix it! So lots of fun things coming up.
Funny kid story to make you laugh: There is this one preschooler who loves drinking water. Like loves it. If there’s not a cup handy, he will put his mouth straight onto the spigot out of the big 5 gallon jug and drink it that way (gross - and I’m trying to work on this habit with him). The consequence of him drinking all of this water is that he has to pee all of the time. So one time last week, he had a cup in his hand (probably because he had just had a bunch of water) and was literally 3 feet from the bathroom when he realized he had to go. I guess he didn’t think he could make it (or wasn’t aware how close he was to the bathroom), so I ended up catching him peeing into the drinking cup. I helped him to the bathroom and made him pour out the contents of his cup, but while I was flushing, he was already back at the water jug filling the cup up again!!! So I took the cup away and tried to explain to him that he couldn’t drink out of the cup that he had just peed into. He was quite skeptical of my hygienic suggestions, but he was okay once I got him a new cup. Lord only knows what he did with the new cup. Sometimes these kids crack me up...
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