Quick update with photos to come

I'm helping make ceviche and I had a lovely birthday!

I have a cold.

i have a cold which is annoying but minor. I taught this morning and I think I did a good job of being energetic anyways so I am proud of myself for that. I think I get colds more easily here because I don't have antibodies built up against the buggies because I didn't grow up here. My plans for the rest of the day are rest, eat lunch, go to work, rest, eat dinner, sleep.

I'm a natural!

Well maybe not a natural, but my first week of teaching went surprisingly well. I have a class of adults in the morning who are really good and motivated so that is lovely. I think they mostly like me, though they seem a little skeptical about my teaching abilities. In the afternoon I am scheduled for a sub period and I have subbed every day so far. It's been mostly good and only a little not good, so I count that as a success. I'm glad that I'm getting started and getting more experience because that, in turn, makes me feel more confident and relaxed. There are a lot of things to learn about the bureaucracy and procedure, but luckily there are a lot of people to ask. I haven't made any best friends yet, but people are nice and I have chatted with some people in the teachers' lounge. I miss my friends though. I wish I could just bring all the people I love with me wherever I go. But overall, things are going well and I am mostly feeling pretty good about it.

Cuyes!

So this is the video you're all dying to see, I know. When we went to Otavalo and Atuntaqui last weekend, we visited Andres' father's cousins. They farm and raise animals and we were able to meet some of their delightful cuyes (guinea pigs). I thought maybe it would be said because I like guinea pigs and these ones are destined for lunch, but then I thought, they don't have such a bad life. They live in large pens with their twenty closest friends and family and munch on greens all day. They seemed happy.

 

These are some cuyes playing in their pen. And below is me playing with some baby cuyes! Hurray!

See the pregnant one??

I couldn't resist :)

Upcoming

Also, when I have more time and I'm not frantically trying to plan lessons, I will show you some awesome videos of me with guinea pigs. Get excited.

It starts tomorrow...

And that would be me teaching. A different level than they told me before. At 7 am. Monday through Friday.

But don't worry! I have it all under control! Mostly!

Speaking Spanish

So the whole speaking Spanish thing is going pretty well I think. But there are still quite a few basic words that I don't know. For example, I can't seem to learn the word for "bowl." It is "tazon" and I am writing it here on the off-chance that it helps me remember it (or, perhaps, one of you dear readers has had a similar problem with the word bowl). Another that I have managed to learn but not to pronounce is "sartén" which  sounds more like "saltine" to me, and means frying pan.

I try to get Andres to practice English with me sometimes. We came up with some times that generally work best, like when we are practicing dancing or singing (because then at least I can feel like I can speak properly, even if I am terrible at other things) and in the evenings at home. The rest of the time I try to speak all Spanish, though I have to admit that I slip up and say English words or phrases somewhat frequently.

Lost in Translation

I just stumbled upon this, and since I've also been thinking a lot about language-learning, it tickled me. Just click through the slideshow at the bottom for some funny lost-in-translation gags. Of course, it is also rife with inappropriate language, so be warned.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/10/lost-in-translation-brands_n_1765812.html#slide=1362544

Privilege

In American Studies, I spent a lot of time thinking about and analyzing white privilege, but these days I am thinking a lot more about American privilege. One obvious way that I have benefited from American privilege is the ease with which I got my visa to Ecuador (some of you know the actual process was quite complicated, but I was never very nervous that they wouldn't give it to me).

The last couple of weeks I have become aware of another American privilege: that is the privilege of rooting for my country's athletes in nearly every Olympic game I've watched. I feel a little silly for not noticing this earlier, but a lot of countries don't have the money to support their athletes in the games, and as a consequence have nearly no one to root for. Ecuador had five athletes, each of whom paid their own way to the Olympics. One woman was disqualified because she had very old equipment and her country couldn't buy her equipment up to current standards. Needless to say, I gained a much fuller understanding of the privilege permeating the Olympics.

That being said, I also witnessed a truly great Ecuadorian Olympic experience. I went to lunch with my host-sister Lucia (it was lovely to see her and catch up and we have plans to hang out again soon). We ate in a nice mall north of the Mariscal. There was a huge (we're talking giant, here) screen in the cafeteria area with the Olympics playing. At one point, we noticed that everyone in the cafeteria had turned their attention to the screen, and we stood up to see what was going on. An Ecuadorian runner, Quiñonez, from the coastal province Esmeraldas, was getting ready to race in a semi-final running heat. The gun went off and they were all running like crazy. The noise in the cafeteria started to grow; Quiñonez was gaining on the four runners ahead of him; he was passing the third runner; everyone was egging him on; he neared the finish line; the excitement in the cafeteria was tangible; and he crossed in third place! And the entire cafeteria exploded in whoops and cheers! Everyone was clapping and cheering on their feet, and continued to cheer during the replay and for the announcement of the times. It was truly an awesome feeling. I wished that he could have been in that cafeteria right then and know how much energy and faith he had behind him. It just shows how much people love to support their athletes and how much one runner can mean to a cafeteria full of strangers.

Centro Historico

Yesterday Andres and I went to the Centro Historico because the was putting on concerts in the various different plazas. We set out walking from the house but it turned out to be a much longer walk than we anticipated, so we caught a bus about half-way there so that we wouldn't arrive totally beat. When we got there, we walked around for a while and I took some photos of the buildings, because I realized that I've been remiss in taking photos of the city.

We saw this really fancy hotel on the corner of one of the plazas, and we walked in to take a look. After about 2 minutes, one of the door guards came over to inform us that they didn't allow visitors and could we please leave, but at least we got a glimpse of how the other half (more like 1%) lives. Then we went and got a coffee at this charming little restaurant that's been around for 150 years or something because I was yawning like a fool.

Then we went and listened to come high school bands playing in one of the plazas. It was really neat because the city had set up these big fancy stages with good sounds and everything for the high schoolers to show their talents. Some of them were really good too, including this one girl who had a great voice and was singing Ecuadorian songs.

And then it started raining so we went home. We had a really nice time though, and we were exhausted that evening

Happy afternoon!

Teaching!

Today I finished registering for TEFL, which starts on September 10 (about a month after I start teaching, for those of you who are keeping track). I also picked up my teacher's book, which has made me feel much better about my impending doom. It's full of activities and definitions of what a phrase is and that sort of thing. So all in all, I'm trying to relax and prepare as much as possible, but not worry about being a perfect teaching right out of the gate.

teaching!

Omg I am going to teach Academic 1, which is the first level above advanced! Crimaninny, I don't know English that well!

Mona Uses a Pressure Cooker even though no one reads her blog

This evening I had to make an important decision: keep cooking the most stubborn beans in the world or give up and throw them out. It was a tense moment until we discovered a pressure cooker! ta-da! Don't worry, Dad, I read on the internetz how to use it... And now the beans are merrily cooking away (15 min in the pressure cooker) and nearly done! Happy days!

Beans....

So when I set out to cook dry beans, I forgot a crucial new factor in my bean cooking adventures: I am now living at more than 9,000 feet and stuff takes FOREVER to cook up here.

We're now going on hour 7...

News of the Day

In today's news from Quito, I still don't know what level I will be teaching, I've decided to start recording some of the new Spanish words I'm learning, and I am making a huge pot of black beans as we speak (type).

New words (!)
Cachete -- cheek
cachorro -- puppy or baby animal
sarten -- frying pan

more to come I'm sure.

Reading List!

Today is an interactive post! Woohoo! But this means that the tech savvy among you need to participate (I'm looking at you, people in your 20s). I am looking for book recommendations. I want to try reading something in Spanish, but I haven't had much luck finding the books I've been looking for. Therefore, I think it's time to broaden my search (also, at this point I would even like to find one in English to enjoy). Does anyone have recommendations for nice summer reading? I'm open to any suggestions!

Fieldtrip to Cayambe

I have so many new things to tell! First and foremost, I made Mexican pulled chicken this evening and it was delicious and everyone liked it! I am so thrilled and surprised!

In lesser news, we went on a little day trip outside of the city on Sunday and it was super fun. Andres' brother, Roberto, and his wife, Sylvana, and their daughter, Camila (Cami) age 3, took Andres and I to Cayambe. We ate really delicious food at this fancy cafe and Cami got to jump around in a giant balloon thing on a pond (see video below). For now, I am quite tired and I have to go pick up something to register my visa early in the morning, but take care! I miss you all!

Call for recipes!

So, who wants to help me learn to cook?? There are some restrictions though. First and foremost, the oven is broken and not likely to be fixed. I have a lot of beef, chicken, rice, and potatoes to work with.

Catherine, bless her, has already given me a few ideas. Broccoli beef, stir fry, quinoa...

And I am looking for more help! Some simple sauces and simple combination ideas would be awesome! Let me know what you think :). I have the comments set so that people with gmail accounts can post and you can post "anonymously" without an account.

Visiting the Mariscal

The Mariscal is the downtown party district of Quito and the best place to go dancing. Andres and I like to walk around there and people watch/eat ice cream. Today we went out to lunch at "Crepes y Waffles" and then had a beer in the main plaza. Here's a little snippet of us amusing ourselves. Clearly I should be a TV personality because I am so dynamic on camera...

Andrés playing the guitar

This is a video that Andres was going to send to me a while ago but couldn't get the computer to cooperate, so I've decided to put it on here in order to brag about him. It's called "Capricho Arabe."

http://xkcd.com/181/

Cooking in Quito

Tonight Andres and I continued on our saga of cooking adventures. Neither one of us cooks very much (him less than me if you can believe it) so pretty much every time we turn on the stove it's a gamble. Tonight we tried to make chicken burritos, which doesn't sound very hard, but you'd be surprised. Cooking in a strange kitchen is a difficult task in its self, but add to that that it's a foreign country with unexpected ingredients and you have me cooking in an Ecuadorian kitchen. The chicken was in big frozen chunks with bones etc, so we defrosted it in the microwave and attempted to cook it on the stovetop. After cooking for a while we took it off to see if it was done (it wasn't) and to cut some of the bones out. What we ended up with was a tiny pile of chicken meat and a huge pile of bones. So on to round two. This worked out better because by the we had lots of teeny tiny pieces of mostly cooked chicken (we'd also cooked up some less boney chicken at this point) and proceeded to double-cook all of our chicken. We ended up with a great many dishes due to all the chicken fandangos, but thankfully we also managed to make some very tasty burritos, huzzah!

I like to think we are getting better at cooking, but seeing as we cook the same three things every time, its hard to say. I will keep you updated on further cooking fandangos which will surely prove to be silly, frustrating, and hopefully at least some times delicious.

http://xkcd.com/148/

more about blagging

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I've arrived!! The plane flight was long and grueling. My observations are as follows: TACA is nice because they still show free movies and give out pillows and blankets and food. El Salvador is pretty and green at least what I could see while landing. The Lima airport big and impersonal. Andres is awesome and I can't say how happy I was to see him after such a long day of travel. Now I am recuperating from travel and caffeine withdrawal (drinking coffee isn't something most Ecuadorians do everyday so I've decided to quit to make it easier, but in the shortrun, did anyone else know caffeine withdrawal can make you nauseous? the internet knew.) I am settling in well and all of my stuff fit into the drawers! Which, I admit, I was a bit anxious about. Hurray and tata for now!

Returning to Quito!

My visa is here, my ticket is purchased, my bags are all packed (not really, you know me) and I am off in 3 days! I will be moving to Quito on Sunday to live with Andrés and teach English for a year! I'm terribly excited and a little bit nervous (at this point I'm just hoping I don't get stuck in El Salvador on the way there). I have vowed to keep up my blog while I am away, mostly because it's fun and partly to avoid being killed by my mother for not keeping in touch.

So anyhoo I will be posting! And I will try to include pictures. chau chau and nos vemos pronto