Finally Settled

With the arrival of a permanent internet source in our apartment, I have no other excuse to put off updating you all on the happenings here in Quito. Because this can help me avoid planning more for my lessons this week...

Where to begin? I have since started working as a 'real teacher' for a company called LenguaTec, which is a 'gringo' company owned by a young Canadian. Carla and I both work here. We are a company that is commissioned out to teach english at various corporations in Quito. I have all of my classes at one company though, while the rest of the teachers are at a couple different companies teaching mainly 1on1 or 1on2. I have 6 classes Mon-Thurs in blocks from 7am to 7pm. Most of my classes are small groups from 4-12 students, and I have one class that is 1on1, and a class that is 1on 2. I enjoy all my students, and we have great classes where we are all learning a lot. Since every class will surely have some spanish lesson for me that comes up inadvertently. Additional info: (All my students are older than me and work at QBE, an insurance agency. ha. )

Carla and I have found a fantastic apartment in the northern central metropolitan area of Quito with great views of the city and the mountains, and the park. We have a spectacular terrace which is now naturally decked out in christmas lights! We are close to work, and anything else we could possibly want! and now it is complete with internet! YAY

 view of our building from Parque Carolina

View of Pichincha and the mall! haha

We are feeling more and more settled and at home here every day. but also getting worse at english too. we often make fun of each other and the way we have started phrasing our sentences like our students.. oops!

We hope to start more exploring on the weekends and meeting more of Ecuador! will keep you posted! hopefully more often....

Chao chao!

El Oriente: The Ecudorian part of The Amazon

First off, I went to the jungle with a group of guys i didn't know...(sorry mom) I knew one for a week and they invited me to see the Jungle with them.. So I thought.. why not?? =]

Well nothing bad happened and I'm still alive and Malaria free! (yahoo!) Most people in this country are so nice!

Our journey began with our flight from Quito. Since all the airports in Ecuador are pretty small (ok.. REALLY small) the only planes they fly in-country are small propellor planes with two seats on either side of the aisle. (bigger than most of the planes between RDM and SEATAC/PDX) But this group had never been on a plane so small.. go figure. =] (there was a lot of pictures taken of them with the crazy plane..) And since we asked fro seat next to each other we got the first four seats on the plane.. two of which were facing backwards... this made taking off and landing really weird...  All 8 of us on the flight made it to Tena safely to their very new state-of-the-art Airport, which was EMPTY, and they only supply power to small parts of it at a time. (AKA only the computer at check in)

We had a cab come and get us and take us to our hostal in Tena which cost a whopping 4 dollars a night and we even had our own bathroom between the 5 of us. Breakfast was an extra two, and they had beer in the fridge that we paid for on the way out, aka $1.50 per 22oz of Pilsner. (Yes)

Our tour guide company came to check with us, and after some confusion over whether or not transportation was included or not, we landed on a change of plans that was 1/2 the price. (SCORE)

The next morning we went to the next town over: Misayualli, where we met our tour guide and we went on a hike to a waterfall, where we took a much needed swim.. (SO HOT SO HUMID)

After the hike we tried some fresh Guava, and Guayabas! Very tasty! And we returned to Misayualli for lunch, and a walk around the beach to see the monkeys... who let people feed them etc. naturally.

We then boarded a boat and went to a small wildlife museum on the river, and after went 'tubing' (we floated for a bit on inner tubes) and ended at the compound where we stayed that night. Which after the walk up to it, seemed like it was in the middle of the jungle, but in fact was a kilometer from the airport, and we were able to walk to the road and buy beer. (score!) haha

Also i almost slept with this GIANT grasshopper... literally 4 inches long.... no thanks.

The next morning we went on a long walk around the jungle here and saw a bunch of plants and more bugs etc. rested, ate lunch, and went down by the river and learned about the Kitchwa traps for fish and game in the jungle. We held a baby Caiman, and learned to shoot with this giant blow dart they use with poison tipped darts.

We then went down the river a bit with dugout canoes to a Kitchwa family's house where we learned of her ways of making bracelets and bags with the fibers of a palm leaf of some kind. She also made all natural ceramic, paint, glaze and all.

The next day we went on one last hike in the jungle to see a giant tree, and then returned to Misayualli, ate lunch and retuned to the airport.

Successful first trip to the Jungle.

Whoops its about time for a Blog update..

Well if you hadn't assumed, the wrapping up of our TESOL course occurred very rapidly and was a whirlwind of papers and documentation! We said goodbye to our students and had a little party in celebration!

The following weekend we celebrated as a group of teachers out in San Goulqui at our classmate Kate's house. We ate ALL day and talked and had a great time together!

This week has been busy in another sense, because we are trying to do as many things around quito as we can while we have time! We went to the Contemporary Art Museum and walked around a bit in the Centro Histórico and Carla made a wonderful home-made black bean burger dinner! YUM!

Yesterday we went on a long 4-hour cramped car ride to Quevedo to look at the University there where there are 2 job openings. The town is small, but still about 200k people, so a much safer location, and the job had many perks. We would be working with University Students and on the Military base as well, where we have full access to their pool/workout facilities. and apparently anything else they decide to let us try... We will just say its a little more lax than the US military... HA. The job also comes with free housing and a food stipend on top of our monetary compensation, and plenty of exploring opportunities that are also free.. (sign me up!) Even though it is 4 hours from Quito, it is also 4 hours from Guayaquil and the Coast. But it is HOT and HUMID. So I did apply here even though I am still stinking of staying in Quito, or relocating to a mid sized city somewhere else.. There are just too many decisions!

I'll be doing more exploring this weekend and searching hard for more jobs/ thinking about the ones already on the table as well.

Staying in touch!

  (SMILE! despite everything in life, its BEAUTIFUL)

Lo Siento

I am already failing at this blog eh?
Anyhow, a small update: I am still super busy.
Weeks are long and fast at the same time, Its already been a month since I got here!?? I have done so little and also done SO MUCH.  I have seen nothing of this beautiful country except the inside of the EIL institute where my classes are. However, since we are in a constant state of being behind in our lesson planning and writing of assignments the 10 hour work/school days plus the additional 3-5 work hours at home I have found myself in awe of how much we have done. I have already taught 7 classes for the learners at the institute and have one more next week. As well as critiqued, observed, and brainstormed strategies and lessons with, the others in my teaching group. weekends consist of attempts at going out on fridays, writing papers and stocking up on sleep for the week on saturdays, and planing lessons on sunday. When I'm feeling really motivated (obligated? =]) which is apparently now, while sitting in my bed, post paper writing session with my morning Nescafe (...) I will write a blog post. (You may have gathered through various other means that this isn't very often.. whoops!)
Today I think I'm going to some unknown location with my host sister, but not sure when.. ahh in 30 minutes! haha
My Spanish is getting better. Slowly, it hard though when most of my day is in English, and for some reason the people I have the hardest time understanding on a regular basis are my family.. go figure. However I am getting better at speaking and understanding people in general. On the other side, my English just seems to be getting worse... I talk slow and simply, and mess up sentence structure, and slip in and out of this weird accent... (WTF?) But I am learning a lot about grammar that i never knew before! So thats a plus.
Well I'm off to finish getting ready to leave!
Hasta luego

Some thoughts on Ecuadorian 'drivers'

Every time I get in a car in Ecuador I take a huge deep breath and brace myself for an experience unlike any other. I am hesitant to say the word "drive" to ever describe what people do with cars here. I've yet to discover the verb one might use to describe this action, perhaps I will need to make one up. When I do I will inform you.

The common position on a steering wheel in the states is 10 and 2. Or some variation involving both hands somewhere on the outer rim of the wheel. Perhaps you prefer one hand but usually when turning both hands become available and grip the outer rim to successfully turn the vehicle into the closest lane going our same direction. The emphasis is that we make it into the lane closest to us.

In ecuador the first thing you should know about (insert new verb+ing here) a car is that one should always have one hand on the horn. This means the standard grip of choice is '10 and gripping the horn/hub of the steering wheel.' This position ensures that they can operate the horn every few minutes/seconds with ease. A honk can means many things: move faster, hey! you cut me off, I'm cutting you off!, I'm not stopping for you pedestrian, I'm passing you, I'm switching into your lane, and any other thought that pops into your head while (verb+ing).

Another important aspect of the road here in Ecuador is that lanes are just suggestions. There may be two lanes painted on the street, but there is definitely room for me to just (verb) down the middle occasionally since its easy to just drift side to side randomly.

You should also be aware that no Ecuadorian (verb+er) is aware of the actual size of their car. The car often changes sizes depending on what task it is performing. When stopping on a hill it in not necessary to leave more than 2 feet between you and the other cars (even though they are all manuals, and the hills are steeper than San Fran) because bumpers are meant to help each other keep from sliding back down the hill right? The car is much smaller when weaving in and out of the rest of the traffic in traffic circles and when you should definitely be the first one to go through the light, but had to stop 3 cars back. However every car has the turning radius of a semi-truck when trying take a right turn or when parking.

Finally, parking should always take at least 7 tries no matter how large or small the parking spot is. In addition, if a store is in the middle of a block on a busy street, the sidewalk provides a super convenient parking space. Just be sure to turn on your hazards. And no, it is not necessary to pull completely onto the sidewalk. Everyone can just go around. Besides, your hazards are on!

Ok so i realize it has been over w week since the last update, but 10 hour school days, coupled with nightly readings and planning lessons, have left little time for extraneous activities. I'll do my best to catch you up.

We started our first week of TESOL training already behind. Due to landslides/ road closures our instructors had to travel for many hours at a snails pace, with all the traffic coming from and going to Colombia, to get into Quito, we had no morning classes on Monday. So to take advantage of a free time slot I met up with a couple classmates to explore the Centro Histórico of Quito a bit more. We took a taxi down there and wandered all around the narrow, often steep, and European feeling streets of the historical center of the city. All traffic, including busses, still drive (if you can call what they do with cars here driving..) these streets. So when the sidewalks are barely 2.5 feet wide, and sometimes abruptly non existent, this made for an interesting morning stroll indeed. We trekked our way up an extremely steep hill to the Basílica and explored the beautiful and enormous structure.

 It was steeper in person.. and at 9500ft elevation...

The Small Chapel 

The main aisle and altar

Outside in the square

 Carla and Tito look like ants..

The rest of the week was spent with loads of information and workshops from 8:30am to 6:30pm. On Wednesday we met our students, who are volunteers from the community that are wanting to learn more english and are willing to be taught by people that may or may not have any clue as to how to teach English. The Learners we have are much more advanced at speaking than we had anticipated which resulted in our first lessons having to be tweaked to accommodate a larger vocabulary. We have split into two teaching groups and two groups of students (one higher level and one lower level.) Each group has roughly 10-12 learners, depending on who shows up on any given day. I am in the group teaching the higher level learners first. We will eventually switch. Our age range is from two high school brothers, to three older men who are commercial pilots, studying to take their english proficiency exam to make sure they have correct and effective pronunciation. Teaching has been a fun challenge so far, but we have only taught two 30 min lessons. I start my hour-long sessions on monday. I have enjoyed the teaching because our learners are so easy to work with. These mixed groups all work well together and are enthusiastic and motivated to learn and practice with us which makes the learning process on the teaching end much easier and comfortable. I look forward to working with them more.

Last night we went out for a few much deserved and anticipated drinks in the Plaza Foch with my oldest host sister Mary, where most of the young nightlife is in Quito, it is full of bars, dance clubs, and tons of people.

Until next time,

Chao

Hola!

We are approaching the first weekend here in Quito and I am excited at the possibility that these two free days might present, since starting on Monday the actual intense TESOL course starts, along with the loads of work that accompany it.
This past week has consisted of spanish class from 8:30-12:30ish 'solo en español' This has been fun/exciting/frustrating/overwhelming/tiring all at once. There are 4 of us in this course. Myself, Tito, Carla, are all recent grads and roughly the same age. David is slightly older and was previously a high school teacher, and knows quite a bit more spanish than me. But we are all learning together trying to make sense of all the material being thrown at us. There is also another woman (Kate) here from Canada starting her spanish from scratch (talk about overwhelming). Her and her husband have a house outside of Quito that they plan to retire in one day.
The EIL building where our classes are, is as I said a short walk from my family's house. The four of us (Maritza, Paola, and Mary, and myself) all leave here at the same time in the morning and either drive or take a cab. I walk home in the afternoon. The EIL building has a spectacular view of all the surrounding mountains, but tho only snowcap we have seen is Cotopaxi. The clouds cover the rest which is very unusual for this time of year, usually all of August there is never a cloud ever. I will get around to taking pictures of the view. But we are on Ecuador time, which is unpredictable so bear with me. (some things are prompt while others are not)
I went to the Centro Histórico last night and we walked around and observed the manifestación de Yasuní that was going on with music and speeches in support of the conservation of Parque Nacional de Yasuní, because they are going to start tapping into the massive amounts of oil there. Yasuní has one of the worlds most bio-diverse landscapes in the world.
Read about it for yourself here:http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parque_nacional_Yasun%C3%AD (that might be in spanish..?everything i search is in spanish first because I am on the Ecuador servers)
If I was going to write more I have forgotten, it has been lost in the spanglish jumble in my head..

Until next time,
Chao!

 

The Beginning

I don't have much to say.. but I figured I better start this sooner rather than later, if for no other reason than to make myself feel obligated to keep updating it this year. :)
After a great Northwest summer in Bend, full of fun memories and amazing people, I started my journey South to Quito, Ecuador. After a 13+ hour travel day, a busted up suitcase (thanks Delta!!) a very quiet cab ride (#languagebarrier) I made it to my wonderful Home-stay famila's house. We are practicing our communication skills and translating abilities right now which is going.. OK (whoops) My home-stay mother Maritza is going to be learning English while i am learning Spanish, so we have been relying on my sister Paola to fill in the gaps and help us learn/translate. It has been quite the comical scene this morning. Its only the first day so it can only get better from here! I am thankful that I am starting Spanish Class tomorrow to help speed up the process, and we have decided breakfast is going to be the perfect mini lessons for both Maritza and myself. My other home-stay sister Mary will be arriving tonight, and I look forward to meeting her! Maritza is a great cook, and judging by the amount of food we have already eaten today I will definitely be taking advantage of the gym in our building! (hopefully the altitude wont bee too much of an issue!)
Well, seeing as i have been here for barely a day, I will not make things up to say more, so hasta luego! We will be in touch!