Cotopaxi/Travels

Greetings from the equator!

This first part is mostly targeted at my peeps in the States or those who do not really keep up with things going on around the world....or just not things in Ecuador. Ecuador is the land of volcanoes. It's a small country that houses 30 volcanoes on the mainland. When I first arrived here, all the newbies got a talk about safety in Ecuador and the volcano, Cotopaxi, was brought up. Little did I know before coming here that Cotopaxi was active and showing signs of an eruption. So we got a talk about it. Now don't worry, it's not close enough to Quito to damage the city with lava. However, apparently we will be receiving a lot of ash and I guess a shutdown of the city for a few days. I was told to buy a mask and goggles and keep it on me at all times. I was also told to stock up on food in my apartment for that unavoidable day. I think that it comes as no surprise to most of you that I have yet to buy myself goggles or a mask. I am kind of horrible at taking care of myself. And people think I should have kids... I have managed to actually put some food in my house though! When the volcano erupts, I will be dining on canned peaches, tuna with curry powder, and chocolate pudding. If I just stay inside, I won't need the goggles or mask, right? I hope Cotopaxi holds off long enough for me to stock up on some alcohol too... Anyway, so if you wake up one morning or hear on the news one night over dinner that a volcano has erupted in Ecuador, please don't freak out and start planning my funeral. As long as that is not the day I chose to hike to the top of Cotopaxi, I'll be fine.

This view can actually be seen from certain parts of the city on a clear day. Cool, huh?

Almost 3 months in and my Spanish is still pretty abysmal. This has not entirely been my fault. Anyone here that knows me can attest to my horrible Ecua-luck. Sometimes I don't even know why I love this country so much, because my run of luck hasn't been that great. My first two cell phones were stolen (I've been on #3 for about a week, keeping fingers crossed) and it was an obstacle to cash my first two paychecks. I think the bank had my picture hanging with a caption, Don't Cash This Girl's Check Under Any Circumstance, except in Spanish. So by the time I had money to pay for a tutor, I didn't have a phone to call. My friend finally helped me out and let me call the tutor from her phone. He would love to be my tutor, but that Sunday he was headed to the States for 3 weeks. So, I'm still waiting for those classes to happen. However, my neighbor above me has graciously offered to do a language exchange with me. She's from Poland but for some reason learned Spanish while she was still in Poland. She works in a college administration office here. She said she would help me with my Spanish if I helped her with her English. Too bad she doesn't know she has the raw end of the deal. My English sucks too. We've only met once, but we are set to meet again tomorrow and hopefully I can see the other tutor soon. I will become fluent! Eventually...

Let's see..what else to share? I've been on three other trips since the last time I blogged. Ecuador is a really beautiful country! For my 29th birthday, we traveled to an area called Banos. Yes....bathroom. It doesn't look like a bathroom though! It's a very outdoorsy area (well, I guess everywhere is outdoorsy here). Mountainy. A long river. Rafting. Canonying. Bicycles. Hiking. Everything! I'm sure you have all already seen the pictures. We took a long bicycle ride, went ziplining, and jumped from a bridge! Ziplining is a story better told in person, but I will concisely share the story. We stopped (our bicycle ride) and Stephen, my heart brother, said we should go first and do it in the Superman position together. Always liking an adventure, I enthusiastically agreed. We got the straps put on and then made our way to the top of the take-off area. My one big downfall is my fear of heights. As soon as I got up there and started looking around, I started having doubts. Stephen was very good, trying to pep me up and reassure me. However, as soon as the guy took one of my legs to put it up in the strap I started really freaking. You just feel so vulnerable just looking down into the valley that you are going to fall to your death in. Stephen reminded me that I lived a great 29 years so it would be okay if I died, but it wasn't quite convincing enough. I told him to go ahead, I just needed to watch someone and then I would come. So Stephen took off. I told the guys I would, but not in the Superman position. So they had to take me down, change all my straps, and put me back in. I finally went and I realized how ridiculous I had been. The view was INCREDIBLE and ziplining along was so much fun. When I got to the other side, I accidentally let my friends overhear me say, "Man, I should have done it in the Superman position." Well, it was my lucky day. Apparently you could zipline back across and not take the cable car and you HAD to do it in the Superman position. My friends easily backed me into a corner and I reluctantly agreed to zipline back across in the Superman position. Sometimes I should keep my thoughts to myself.... The guys warned us that going back across was harder because we are working against the wind. We were instructed to actually keep our arms tight against our bodies and not hold them out. With a deep breath, I went with my friend Linda. Once again, beautiful and sooo much fun! Linda was a bit ahead of me and when she got closer to the other side, they told her to put her arms out. I got confused and thought they wanted me to do so also. As soon as I stuck my arms out my body got slower and slower and slower. Then, stop. I started sliding backwards. My friends were laughing and yelling from the other side to stop myself, but I just couldn't reach up and grab the line (mostly from fear). I slid all the way back to halfway out on the line and just hung there. Over the valley. Pondering my death. Nah, I actually stayed remarkably calm. An employee quickly strapped up and had to come out and get me. The poor guy had to pull me all the way back and it was not easy work for him. Meanwhile, every person within a 25 mile radius showed up to the edge and had their cellphone out, filming and taking pictures of the poor girl stuck in the middle of the zipline. When I do something, I REALLY do it. No regrets.

                                    This is not when I was stuck. It was the first time, when it was fun. ;)

                 Even after the adrenaline rush of ziplining, I was still convinced to jump off a bridge...
                                                      I like to kick my fears in the butt...

I also went on a challenging but enjoyable hike around a crater lake. It's called cuicocha. Cui is the word for guinea pig. In the middle of the lake there is an uninhabited island where the guinea pigs roam free. A very beautiful place!

Then this past weekend I went to the biggest city in Ecuador called Guayaquil. We only spent one day there so we didn't do a whole lot. We went to an iguana park and hiked up a hill to a lookout. Then we continued on to a beach town called Mantanita. Mantanita is basically the Panama City Beach of Ecuador. Huge beach town with Ecuadorians and foreigners alike. You lay on the beach, drink beer, take a nap, then go out at night. The city doesn't sleep. A Sunday night and music is still going at 4am. It was a great time, but I'm probably getting a little too old for spring breaks. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures right now. I didn't want to bring my iPod Touch on the vacation in fear of being robbed again. I will steal my friends' pictures soon and show them off.

I also had a friend visit me at the beginning of October. We met while we were both teaching in South Korea. We haven't seen each other in about 2 and a half years. It was definitely surreal having him here. It was a short visit, so we hung around Quito. We did try Cui though. Pop quiz! What is Cui? That's right, guinea pig!! Not the best thing I've ever tasted. Pretty fatty....

                                                                         It's smiling!

                                                     He's not sure what to do with it...

Anyway. That's about all I'm going to write for now. Sorry if it's too much of a repeat of what you've seen on Facebook. I can't think of any interesting anecdotes right now. Each day I'm just trying to take in a little more of the culture. We were on a bus ride coming back to Quito yesterday and I just stared out the window of the bus, transfixed by the beautiful coast line. Today is All Soul's Day in Ecuador, so every so often, on the drive, we passed a cemetry. They were covered with people and lit candles. It was actually a really cool sight from afar. It is a lot of fun being an observer of another culture. And a part-time participator. It's definitely a fulfilling experience. 

That's all for now. I mostly just wanted to keep in practice with this blog so I don't stop. I'm well and happy and wishing the same for you, wherever you are! 

One Month In

Three cheers for Karisa sitting down to write a new post! It's unbelievable to me that I'm 5 weeks in. It actually feels like it's been a lot longer. So, after 5 weeks, I have finally found myself with no plans on a Friday night. What better to do than to write a new post while drinking a Pilsener (the name of an Ecuadorian beer)?

I know I left you all anxiously awaiting news about my acquisition of an apartment. Well, I'm happy to say I finally picked one out. It's not in an apartment building. It's more of a renovated house behind someone else's house. My landlady lives in the main house and then you have to pass through three gates (gets kind of annoying) to get into my courtyard where my front door is. My apartment is on the bottom level and then a lady lives above me. I have a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom styled with some 70s looking furniture. It's cute and way too spacious for me. I have plenty of room for visitors, hint hint. It's not too bad and I've grown pretty fond of it. If you want to see it, come visit!

There's so much I could say about school, but I don't wanna. Haha. It's Friday and I don't really want to think about it. I will just say that it is a lot more work than I have ever done and the students sap more energy from me than any other students I've had before. I have two groups that have 25 students in each. I also have a student that I'm pretty positive has special needs but he's never been tested. He has been a real challenge. Thank god I have an amazing assistant (shout out to you Dani!! Much love!) who helps me a lot. My co-workers are still super awesome, so all in all, I'm surviving.

A couple of weekends ago I had one of the best nights ever at a festival called Fiesta de Guapalo. Guapalo is an area in Quito that has more old style buildings and homes and an amazing view. But it goes down a steep hill and if you go down, you have to climb back up. Most taxis won't bother even going down there at all. And, of course, the festival was located at the very bottom of the hill where an old church is located. A band plays, people drink, and they dance A LOT. During the night, they have these huge wooden structures that have sparklers and fireworks attached. At different points, they light these on fire and people dance in circles around it while it is burning. Also, people in the crowd carry structures that are on fire and follow along with the people in the crowd. So you have to be careful not to get trampled to death and to not allow your hair to get set on fire. After the big wooden structure burns to the top, it sets off fireworks. Completely amazing experience. I loved every minute of it. However, there was one downfall. When we first got here, everyone warned us that petty theft is huge here and to just accept the fact that our cell phones would be stolen at least once, so be very careful. Well of course after a few drinks, I decided I had been careful and would periodically pull out my phone and use it. I guess someone was watching me because at some point, someone reached down into the INSIDE pocket of my coat and snatched the phone out. :( Oh well. Still a great night in my book!

Last weekend was my first trip to an Ecuadorian  beach for my friend's birthday. It's in an area called Esmereldas and the beach and a small town there are called Tonsupa. There was a big group of us, I guess about 8. We took a bus there right after school on Friday and arrived around midnight. The weekend basically consisted of drinking, laughing, inappropriate jokes, sunbathing, eating, parasailing, whale watching (I didn't partake), eating, drinking, laughing, and eating. Oh yeah, we went out and shook our booties one night at a bar on the beach. Super fantastic time. We also had off the Monday and Tuesday so that was great. Some of our friends headed back on Monday. My friend Ruby and I decided to head to the beach that day while our other friends Martha and Stephen went to the bus station to buy our tickets to leave the next day. The beach was empty since everyone was back at school or work. I had been given a cell phone by a friend after my first one was stolen. I brought it along to take a few photos because it was Ruby's birthday. Out of nowhere, two Ecuadorian guys plop down beside us. I sigh expecting to have these two guys hit on us and I was just wondering how long it was going to take before they left us alone when all of the sudden one of the guys pulls out a knife and sets it down next to my friend. The whole convo was taking place in Spanish (Ruby knows it quite well) but I was definitely getting the gist. They took our bags. Luckily they only took out my phone and $20 and set the bags back down, but still....My second phone in two weeks! I was feeling pretty stupid. However, now that I've spent 4 days bitching about it to everyone who would listen, and some who wouldn't, I've decided to look at the positive side that nothing worse happened to us (which it easily could have) and that I didn't have anything more valuable on me.

I didn't tell this story to discourage anyone from visiting Ecuador. This is an amazing place and it's not really dangerous. Cell phones just get taken a lot. So don't worry about me and don't put Ecuador down on your black list. I'm just trying to give you the facts of my life. If you can't handle them, let me know and I'll stop telling you. ;)

Okay, I'm going to end here. I'm sending lots of love to you, where ever you may be. I hope you are all enjoying life as much as I am at this moment. Peace out!

Ready to dance!

My adopted brother, Stephen!

Yummy yummy ceviche!!

Parasailing

New City, New Blog

So, here we go again. I move to a new country, people ask me to blog, I say I'll try. Here is my first attempt. I have many new goals for my new life in Quito and actually keeping up with a blog for more than 3 months is one of those goals. Maybe I'll write "Blog Today!" on the wall of my new apartment (if I ever find one). I am not promising you anything, but I do hope to be a better blogger this year. The trouble is finding enough things in my life that seem exciting enough to write about.

I have officially been in Quito 11 days. The time has completely flown by. It's been a great experience thus far. I arrived in Quito at 12:45am on Thursday August 13th. The passport control was WAY too long and then you had to put your luggage through a security scan after you picked it up. So it took about an hour and a half to get all the way through. As I exited, I immediately spotted a woman with an "Einstein Teachers" sign. In case I haven't told you, my new school is called Colegio de Alberto Einstein. I walked over and said, "Hey! I'm one of them." There were a few adults slouched in chairs sleeping and a couple of them standing up. Sandy, the woman who was holding the sign and who I had been in contact with before I came, introduced me to them all. I didn't retain a single name and they were too tired to remember mine. We waited for one more new teacher to get out who had actually been on the same flight as me. Sandy led us all to two taxi vans. All of our luggage went in one and we went in the other. It was a pretty long ride to the hotel, about 45 minutes or so. For awhile, the van was full of the chatter of small talk amongst my new co-workers and I. I was very happy to hear I was on the same page as most of them. They didn't have experience with PYP (the curriculum used at the school) and some of them didn't have any Spanish at all. I wasn't as behind as I thought I might be! We arrived at the hotel and were each assigned a separate room. Inside each room was a welcome basket of fruit, chips, beer, water, and cookies. This is where I would like to stop and compare my experience in Turkey and my experience in Ecuador:

Turkey:
Arrive 12:30 am. One piece of luggage lost. Call company that is supposed to pick me up and that supposedly speaks English. They hang up on me because they are only speaking Turkish. Finally get it straightened out and am told a driver is waiting outside. No driver is outside. Long conversation using my hands with a man that doesn't speak English. Finally he calls the company and the driver shows up. Driver gets lost. Am finally dropped off at another teacher's apartment who had to stay up until 3am for me to arrive. She was told the day before I had to stay with her.

Ecuador:
Arrive 12:30 am. No luggage lost. Someone waiting for me right outside the door. Other teachers there to get to know. Taxi doesn't get lost. We are dropped off at a very nice hotel that is paid for by the school. Snacks are in the room from the school saying, 'Welcome to Quito'.

Sometimes you have to go through the hard stuff to get to the good stuff.

There are 7 other new teachers besides myself. We became like a family those first four days. We walked around and got a lay of the land, shared all our meals together, swapped life stories, and bonded. Monday morning we started our first official week of school. However, we didn't actually have to see students. It was full of touring the school, meetings, and putting together classrooms. I have never had so much time to adjust to a new city and new school before having to see students. I don't actually even see any students until Thursday. I feel very spoiled. So we spent a busy week of taking in WAY too much info and going around looking for apartments. Originally a girl asked me to share an apartment with her, so we spent a good amount of time looking at apartments together. But after about a week she decided to live by herself so I was stuck at square one. Therefore, today, I am the only one left at the hotel. :( Everyone else slowly moved out over the course of the week. I did look at an apartment today that I think I'm going to take though. It's a little more than what I wanted to spend but it's nice, I'll be by myself, and it won't break the bank. I will give pictures as soon as I have some.

One other super awesome thing the school did was take all of the new teachers on a city tour yesterday. It was 9 1/2 hours! It was exhausting, but so much fun! We toured two different churches first and got to go up on top of the church. No one else is allowed to do it, but our tour guide had a good relationship with both churches so they let us. Quito is an absolutely beautiful city! Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes and colorful houses. It was amazing to get up and see the city from the church tops. We were also taken to a really nice restaurant for lunch where our bowls of soup came out over salt that was on fire. It was really cool. We also got to see how chocolate is made in Ecuador and taken to a unique ice cream shop. They had flavors of quesadilla, avocado, quinoa, and even caca de perro (dog poop). It was all super delicious. In the afternoon we got to go to a church that was decorated with gold on the inside. Absolutely the most beautiful cathedral I've ever been in, and that's saying A LOT! You guys have to come visit me and go see this cathedral! Towards the end of the tour, our tour guide said she had a special treat for us. We were all exhausted and just wanted to go home, but we couldn't be unappreciative, now could we? So we followed her to the top of a government building, all wondering what in the world we were doing. She pulls out a colorful paper lamp and she said we were going to fill the lamp with our hopes and dreams, light the bottom, and send it off into the air. Ok, cool, right? Maybe not... She asked for a couple of the guys to help her and after they lit the bottom, they all just kind of let go, expecting it to fill with air and go. It didn't. It stayed close to the ground and flew towards some of the teachers. They all scattered and it flew up onto the roof top of the next building, caught on fire, and burned up. Thank goodness the building was made from bricks! We all looked with wide eyes at the burning lamp and kind of busted out laughing. "Well, there goes our hopes and dreams," someone said. Then the lady pulled out another one! We tried to convince her we shouldn't do it again, but she insisted. This time they tried to hold on to the lamp for a bit before letting go. But the flame got too big and started burning people's hands and then the side caught on fire. They dropped it on the ground and had to stamp out the fire with their feet. Apparently the tour guide has ZERO experience with lighting these kinds of lamps. Our first week in Ecuador and we almost became accomplices to burning down part of Quito. Thank god nothing caught on fire.

Now I've once again rambled on for too long. I'll give you an extra big hug next time I see you if you actually made it this far. Hopefully next time I can update you about a new apartment! Love and miss you all!!

Cheers from Quito!