Viva Quito!

Hello friends,

All kinds of news updates for you! After a few short nights, lots of hard work, and a little extra stress, I made it through a week of teaching alone, without a supervising teacher! It was a challenge, but it actually went pretty smoothly and I feel more accomplished and hopeful for the possibility of a future career in this. Entertaining classroom moments this week included: one day a girl asked me if I was a farmer and told me I could totally pull off "farmer girl" if I bought a pair of overalls. I took it as a compliment... who wouldn't? Another day, I was reading Is. 40:6-11 out loud, when I got to the word "bosom" at the end of the passage. If you know me well, you know that this word is my weakness. When I got to the word, I started laughing. Real mature teacher-lady, real mature. But I think half my students were in la-la land and the other have just laughed too. Woopsies.. hehe.

This weekend is a special annual celebration in Quito in commemoration of the city's founding in 1534. In honor of this celebration, Friday we only had classes until noon, and then in the afternoon we went on "Chiva rides" which is basically an open bus, with a DJ, disco ball, loud speaker, and dance floor instead of seats. It has some seats on top for musicians too. They drive around the city (mostly at night) and they are basically discotecas on wheels that serve "canelazos" - a typical Ecuadorian alcoholic drink made from cinnamon, naranjilla, and other things. Of course, when we did it for school, it was during the day, and there were no canelazos, but rest assured, there was plenty of dancing.

Today I spent the day working at an Extreme Response Christmas party in a dump by Zambiza. There were over 500 volunteers and over 3000 people that came to receive food gifts, play carnival games, listen to worship music, speak with our evangelist teams, get nails/face paintings, and take pictures with Santa. This is an annual event, and it was super cool to be a part of it.

This evening I participated in some of the Quito Days celebrations by going to a street party put on by a church that had lots of live music, dancing, and a sick street dancing/acrobatic routine by the "Casa G boys". Casa Gabriel is a Christian boys home for kids that come off the streets from addictions and rough street life. Many of the boys are very talented musicians and dancers, so they have this pretty sick routine that they do as part of their ministry. So Wes (a recent Houghton grad), Rachel (a fellow teacher), and I spent the night hanging out with the Casa G boys, enjoying the fiestas, and learning how to dance. The fiesta we were at had a lot of free give aways, and one of them was for the people who could come up with a short poem about Quito. Somehow I made it up on stage, shared a 4 line poem, and won a free plate of "Seco de pollo" (typical ecuadorian food). Here is my poem:

Quito, Quito
Mi amiguito (my little friend)
Me gusta estar aqui (I like to be here)
Comiendo el cuycito (eating guinea pig).

FOR THE RECORD I have not eaten Cuy, nor do I plan on it. I used to have a pet guinea pig, and could not bring myself to willingly consume that for her sake (RIP, Precious). But the poem was a hit. And I got free food and ten million cool points. It was a fun night. But now that it's almost 2... I'm going to cut it short. I'll keep you posted with more cultural tid-bits and exciting snip-its from my adventurous life here.

giggles and facts

My life in the past 2 weeks has been not stop action - part of the reason I have not blogged in so long (the other being laziness on my part). Now that I'm finally feeling settled, I only have 3 weeks left before I once again uproot myself and finish up my time at Houghton. But until then, I'm here in the present. So I will tell you a funny story.

I have been running up here, and yesterday I headed out for a pre-Thanksgiving run. The park I like to go running at is right by a super-market, so I figured that after I ran my loop at the park, I would pop in to the store and pick up the last part of my contribution to the Thanksgiving meal. I had put my money in my bra while I ran, to keep it safe and secure, not thinking that running=hot=sweat. So I get to the check out line, and whip out my dollar bill, and it is sopping wet with sweat. And the woman checking me out CLEARLY saw me pull it out of my bosom. She said "It's wet." And sometimes I lie compulsively. This was one of those times. "Um. It's water." She had a look of utter disgust on her face. She knew I was lying. I knew I was lying. Then I got the giggles, right there on the spot. And she stared. And I laughed, feeling like a jerk, but thoroughly enjoying the awkwardness of the moment. :)

I've been spending a lot of time socializing with friends - both American and Ecuadorian (maybe too much time). Last weekend I went to Ambato to my friend Carlos' house. We made a day trip to Banos (I don't know how to make an enyay). You can see pictures of this on facebook. This past week at school was a 3 day week, for Thanksgiving. Yesterday I spent the holiday with some wonderful people I work with at school, and today I am going to another Thanksgiving gathering hosted by the school director and his wife (the Wells).

Perhaps the biggest piece of news is that my cooperative teacher's father passed away this past Wednesday. So he has gone to the states for the funeral and such, and I will be left with the classes to teach alone for the coming week. This will be great practice and experience for me - a challenge, but a good one.

That's all I've got. I will try to do better with this. Love.

I'm sort of the cat's Meow.

Hola amigos mios! Much has happened since my last entry - both good things and bad. I'll start with the bad, because then you will leave thinking I am a Hannah Happy rather than a Debby Downer. Last week, I got sick. I'd like to call it traveler's sickness, because that is what it felt like, but really I don't think it qualifies because it was my own fault for eating jam that had been open and not stored in the refrigerator. So turns out if the label says refrigerate after opening, you should probably do that. Or vomit all night. Either way. But within 48 hours and a weekend diet of rice and Gatorade, I was better :)

This week I started teaching 3 of my 4 classes: History and Literature of Theatre, AP English Literature, and AP English Language. I'm really enjoying teaching these students. I think that students at this school are more motivated, more polite, nicer, and maybe even more mature than students I might encounter at a public school in the USA. Maybe not, but they are quality kids, regardless. Plus, I have decided that I much prefer high school to junior high, because they are more responsive, more thoughtful, and I don't have to be their organization. They can do that themselves. (Although I am not opposed to junior high, I just think that so far I like this better.) I am currently teaching "Oedipus the King", Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country, and a series of hand-picked essays for AP Lang. Next week I will take on the fourth class - Reading the Bible as Literature - and I will begin teaching Ruth and Esther.

Now I will tell you why (besides the obvious reasons) I am the cat's meow. I have been meaning to go the super market for over a week now. But I had a predicament because I did not know where it was. I thought that perhaps it would be good to ask someone to go with me, but who? One of the students that lives in the dorm with me - one of my own students?... potentially awkward. Or my teacher?... but he's already so busy with the school play and his home life. So I'd sort of been putting it off, but today I was feeling adventurous. So I asked for directions to the SuperMaxi (this is the name of the grocery store, not a new kind of maxi-pad...tehe). But I'm not very good at directions, so I looked at Google maps and made myself a map. And then I started walking, and arrived there with no problems at all. It was so exhilarating. I felt like a bird being let out of a cage, because really after a while being stuck on campus all day every day when there is a whole big city/different culture/country to be explored right outside the walls, makes me feel like a prisoner, even though I like it here. So basically I went hog wild. I walked into the centro comercial (a shopping mall) and I felt like I was riding a two-wheeler for the first time ever. Or like I was cruising down main street in my mini-van for the first time as a licensed driver. haha... Oh man, I guess I need to get out more. This was also a very special outing for me because I had inexpensive, delicious coffee(70 cents for an americano) for the first time since October 21. That is a very long time to go without my favorite beverage. So now that I have had my adventure for the day and bought tea, coffee, nutella, and bread, I am quite the happy camper.

Que Vacan!

I just returned from my most epic Ecuadorian adventure yet (I realize I've only been here 2 weeks, but it was just so much awesome packed into one 5 day weekend). My friends Francesca and Maite from Yellowstone invited me to their home in Santo Domingo for the weekend, and I jumped at the chance to explore and see things with nice friends. They live on their uncle's farm (chickens and produce) outside of Santo Domingo, so it was very peaceful and beautiful. Their family welcomed me with warm hospitality, and I am very blessed to have been able to spend time with and learn from such a beautiful family. I felt like I was a part of their family, even though I barely knew them. Remember that special drink "colada morada" that I blogged about last time? Well they taught me how to make it AND I helped decorate for Christmas.

Now, I did a lot of awesome things this weekend, and so let me get to the juicy stuf (in order of occurrence, not in order of awesomeness). Interesting and fun things I did include: going out with more Yellowstone friends for emapanadas in Santo Domingo, Colada Morada making/learning, lots of sleeping (10 hours a night on average) and waking up to birds singing outside my window, swimming in an outdoor pool (I love the weather here!), eating lots of delicious home-made food, going out to my friend Felipe's family's discoteca - "clubbling", if you will. tehe. I was kind of nervous to go out, because, quite frankly, I have no rhythm and I cannot dance. BUT I explained this to my friends ahead of time, and they were super nice about it. They taught me a few things and encouraged me and it was actually really fun. We also went to a farm one day where we saw cute little piggies, ugly ducks, rode a horse, and ate sugar cane. I could feel my teeth rotting with every bite, but it was just so nommy. Yesterday I went with Maite, Felipe, and his family to a magical place called Mindo. We rode in a cable cart across a canyon forest thingy to arrive at some trail-heads that lead to waterfalls galore. We hiked and swam, and played in the waterfalls. And for those of you who know me well, and/or read my Yelllowstone blog - rest assured that I kept the tradition alive - I did in fact pee in these water falls. The one in particular was called "Cascada Madre" hehe... how fiitting. I also met some Argentinian gypsy people at Mindo that are driving in a van from Argentina to Alaska, which was pretty cool. At Mindo we also rode on Zip lines and I met a precious 9 year-old who spotted me as a foreigner and was quick to befriend me - a little burst of sunshine. And today, before we left to return to Quito, Wandember (another Yellowstone friend) took Francesca, Maite, and me to see some indigenous people "Tsachila Tolon Pele" that wear colorful skirts and paint their skins. It was pretty sick.

The whole trip was just loaded with awesome, and I learned a lot and rested a lot. Tomorrow classes start up again, and I will begin teaching! forward ho, I spose :)

Night Out

Hi friends! Well into my first week here, I am getting settled and starting to get into the flow of things. However, Quito is not a very safe city, so I have spent pretty much all of time so far this trip on the school campus where I live and work. It's a nice campus right in the city - there is a soccer field I can run around (makes for a boring run, but better than nothing), school facility, and dorm that I live in with a few students. I was starting to feel a little bit like a prisoner at the school, not being able to experience the culture outside the school's fences and security guards until last night.

Last night I went out with a bunch of Ecuadorian friends that I met at my summer job in Yellowstone. They took me to a touristy place called "La Zona" where there are a lot of discotecas, restaurants, bars, and tourist shops. Then we went to the Historical district downtown. The street are narrow and stone and the buildings are really tall, beige, and deocrated with overhanging porches and flowers. There are South American hippie types with gnarled hair and bohemian clothes wandering the streets, playing musical instruments and selling little trinkets. We stopped into a restaurant and ate Empanadas Vientos (it has cheese itside... it tasted just like the white Nasonville Dairy cheese curds we buy at home) and drank Coladas - a typical drink in Ecuador that is made of fruit chunks, corn flower, and sugar. The kind I had tasted like "horchata" (mexican rice water) and the other kind (colada morada) was purple and tasted like gelled fruit cocktail. The food was good, the sights were cool, the fellowship was good - it was a fun night.

Two of the friends that took me out, Francesca and Wandember, invited me to go to their home town, Santo Domingo, this weekend, because it is a 5 day weekend for a national holiday. This afternoon I will leave school a little early to head south for the weekend where I will see a new city, see more Yellowstone friends, and get deeper into the culture. Adventure time!

I'm in South America. Woot!

Remember that time I said I would make a blog for my trip? Well. I wasn't lying. So here it is! I arrived last night around 6 pm, central time (that's the time zone I'm in) to the airport in Quito. My travel here went very smoothly. My co-operative teacher, Mr. Quiring, (the teacher with whom I will student teach) and another man met me at the airport and took me back to the house for delicious home-cooked food. Then we came to the school and I got unpacked and went to sleep. I haven't had much time to explore yet, but everyone seems nice, there are mountains close by, I can take hot showers, and the sun is shining. So the stage is set, and I'm ready for action. After I sleep a little more.

This afternoon I might be going to the center of the world, just for an after-church day trip. Are you jealous? bahaha. you probably should be. I will keep you posted with things that I do and learn that are for more interesting than this, I'm sure. Love love,
Katie