HEY!

Do you know what I realized? I’m terrible at updating this… I’m sure that’s obvious. But I’ll continue my attempt.

I’m been back in Ecuador for three weeks after spending two wonderful weeks in Minnesota! It was great to see friends and family, eat lots of good food, and enjoy the snow (although I can’t say that I miss the cold).

Since I’ve been back, I have very much been enjoying the lovely sunny days here.

I love the mountains and palm trees.

When I got back, I was telling one of my fourth grade classes about Minnesota and how it was really cold and snowy, and one little girl very seriously asked me, “Why didn’t you bring some snow back for us; I’ve never seen snow.” Haha, how cute.

Here are some interesting bits from December in Ecuador:

Fiestas de Quito! This is a week-long festival in the beginning of December, and it celebrates Quito’s independence. There were concerts throughout the city as well as parades and other festivities. My favorite part was the parade on the last night. It was very exciting! There were lots of bands and dancing.

Making Swedish Christmas treats with Cami, and our Swedish friend, Sabina. We made some bread, caramels, and a mint chocolate candy. It was a bit tricky finding the right ingredients here, but we made it work.

Last weekend, I went to the Botanical Garden with Jonatan. It was a beautiful, sunny 70 degree day, perfect to wander around the garden and Quito’s parks. Here are some pictures:

Let me share some of my recent culinary adventures with you. Cami and I are becoming more like Ecuadorians; we’ve been eating almuerzos (lunch), almost every day. This is a super cheap way to eat. There are many little restaurants that serve almuerzos for about $1.50; this includes juice with ground up oats in it (sounds weird, but is actually pretty good), soup, and a meat with rice and beans or potatoes. It’s always more than we can eat, next time we might share one. And this is sometimes an interesting experience. A couple days ago, we got potatoes with pig skin. It looked slimy and yucky; I just ate the potatoes. And yesterday I was happily enjoying my soup (they usually have bits of bone with meat on them), and I pulled up a spoonful with what I initially thought was a bone, only to realize it was a chicken foot….a chicken foot, in my soup. With the toes and the bumps and everything. Needless to say, I couldn’t eat my soup after that. But Cami on the other hand (she’s been in Ecuador much longer than I have), said, oh yeah, I have one in my soup too, and continued to eat it. Maybe by the time I come home, I will be able to eat soup with chicken foot in it too.

This brings me to some things we discovered at the grocery store. Now usually we just stop by the meat section briefly to get ground beef and chicken, but today we decided to investigate (this meat section was very large by the way) and found the following: stomach, liver, chicken heart, and the very best one, a cow tongue, a big, black cow tongue. And around the corner, a whole pig, just sitting there, in a tray.

It´s been too long

I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to update this! Ecuador has been busy!! And I have been here for 3 months already, oh how time flies! Anyway... here´s life in Ecuador lately:

I started Spanish classes! I have them two days a week for two hours with a private teacher, and it has been really helpful. I can see an improvement, just takin it step by step.

Teaching is still going well, definitely hard sometimes, but there are special moments that make it all worth it. Here´s a story: last week on Thursday, one of my challenging third graders was especially challenging, hitting, pushing, running around the class, and I was quite frustrated with him. Then, on Friday, he was a completely different child, he sat well, he listened, he participated, he did his work, he even wanted to be my helper. After class, I told him, I´m so proud of you, you worked really hard today, and his face lit up into a huge smile, priceless.

I finally made it to the city center, after I lived here for two months. It’s the old part of town, and it is very charming and cute. The architecture is completely different from the new part; it feels like Europe.

At the beginning of November, we had a five day weekend, which was lovely.  Cami, Jonatan (our Swedish friend), and I went to the beach for three days with some other friends. It is quite an excursion getting there, first an 8 hour bus ride, then another 1.5 hour bus ride, then another half hour bus ride, whew! It was cloudy the whole time but still very beautiful. And Cami and I even braved a chilly morning to take a dip in the Pacific. The town we stayed in is only a few blocks long, but we still found plenty to do between walking around the town, up and down the beach, shopping on the street market, eating, and napping. Here are some pictures:

Cami and Jonatan, on the bus, ready to go!

Mmm fresh coconut

Cami and I with our friend, Sarah, from Austria.

I had a birthday here! On my birthday weekend, Cami and Jonatan gave me a birthday surprise! We went to Volqano Park, near the Pichincha volcano, and rode rides, played air hockey, and ate churros. It was very fun! On my actual birthday, we went to dinner with some friends, which was also nice. Overall, it was a very good birthday!

I found a church to go to! It’s an English speaking church, with lots of Americans, and it feels like I’m in America when I’m there, how strange, but very comforting and familiar.

Tomorrow I will celebrate Thanksgiving at a restaurant (after school, boo), which will be different, but at least I still get to eat turkey J

On Sunday, they have their national Censo (Census) here. And to collect all this information, they have middle and high school students go door to door. This means that everyone has to stay home, and absolutely everything is closed, there won´t be any taxis or buses either. Crazy!

Cami and I have been spending a good chunk of time at the market, and I have started to collect some lovely Christmas presents for you guys!!

Speaking of Christmas presents, very very soon (December 18 to be exact) I am coming home for two weeks for Christmas!! I can’t wait! I want to see as many of you as possible! I’ve started listening to Christmas music and dreaming of fireplaces and Christmas cookies and SNOW! They have started putting up Christmas trees in the malls and selling Christmas decorations in the stores, and it feels a bit like Christmas in July because it’s 70 degrees out.

Minnesota, I´ll see you soon!

A short update!

Hello!!

I have been staying quite busy teaching and having fun here! Some highlights/interesting bits from Ecuador:

As I’m sure many of you heard, there was quite a situation here on September 30. The police and military were protesting a new law that takes away some of their benefits, so they went on strike, set tire fires, threw tear gas, and closed major highways and the airport. The president of Peru even closed the borders. We got out of school early, but before that, I was in a class with fifth graders who had heard something was going on and were panicking and crying. I had no idea what was happening or what to tell them that they could understand. Cami and I went home and stayed home because it wasn’t safe to leave. At night, the police were trying to get the president from the hospital he was at (he was injured in the protest). Most of the police were back by the weekend, but it still wasn’t completely back to normal for a few days. It was quite an experience, and strangely, it didn’t feel very different for me, but we didn’t see any of the protest, and we stayed home.

Here are some pictures from an outdoor market and photograhpy at a beautiful big park:

              

Last weekend I went to Nanegal with Cami and some other friends. It was so wonderful. We went to a waterfall and climbed and swam in it. There were beautiful tropical plants everywhere! We stayed at a lovely resort and enjoyed relaxing and swimming and the warm weather! Here are some pictures:

And here is a picture of our living room (since I forgot it last time):

My students are still pretty cute. They like to make me little art projects and cards and give me hugs…and food.

My Spanish is improving, and I´m going to start taking classes to get even better. I can´t wait!

I’m missing fall and everything that comes with it: leaves changing, apple orchards, pumpkin patches, and wearing warm clothes. But I am definitely not complaining about the steady 70 degree days.

Alright, bye for now!!

Hello!!

I have been adjusting to Ecuador and liking it here more and more everyday. It’s cool when I think, hey, I live here, I live in Quito.

My students are adorable. They call me, teacher, or teacher Kelli, or tia, or profe. And those little voices speaking Spanish (and English of course) just melts my heart.

I promised to post some pictures of my apartment (I forgot a picture of the living room).



kitchen



dining ¨room¨









My bedroom







My picture wall



Here are some foggy pictures of Northern Quito from my school. You can barely see the mountains through the fog. The stadium that says LAN is the Liga soccer stadium.

The traffic here is crazy; this must be what cars are thinking as they drive:

Yes, this is a red light, but I’m not even going to slow down, that’s right I’m going right through it.

What do you mean speed limit?

Yes, I am a bus at a stop sign, and that taxi coming has the right of way, but I’m just going to go.

I do see the pedestrians, but they’ll stop.

Yeah, that’s okay that this is a two-lane road, I’m small.

I’m a motorcycle, and I can go WHEREVER I want.

I know that honking won’t make anything move because we’re at a standstill, but I’m going to do it anyway.

Of course I can pass on this residential two way street.

Yeah, I saw all those people waiting for me, but I was in the other lane passing a car and couldn’t get over in time; they’ll catch the next one.

And I don’t think automatics exist, needless to say, I could never drive here.

Last Wednesday, I watched the South American championship soccer game (Liga Ecuador vs. Argentina) at a restaurant. Soccer fans are crazy (maybe more exciting than the game)!!! Liga won, so everyone was very happy afterwards.

Last Friday I went to the tourist district with Jessica, another American teacher and her husband, we ate dinner at a cute coffeehouse/restaurant/hostel. As an appetizer, we got an avocado peel filled with guacamole and chicken salad and served with pita bread on the side. It was so so good. The tourist district is really nice, and I felt a little bit like I was on vacation.

Last Sunday, I went on an all day hike around the Quitalo volcano with three other teachers. This was quite an excursion. We left Quito at 5am and got back at 8pm. I completely spaced and forgot my camera, so no pictures of beautiful Quitalo (google it!) It was amazing, we hiked the ridge around a crater filled with turquoise water, and on the other side of the ridge was the mountainous countryside. It took 4.5 hours, and some parts were difficult (probably due to the 4000 meter altitude), but it was very good experience.

I started a cooking class on Tuesday with some other teachers at my school. But, for the first class, one of the other English teachers and I were the only teachers there, with a room full of Ecuadorian women, and we had no idea what was happening. We got a list of things we need to buy, and we cannot figure out what one of the things is, according to my dictionary, it’s a cigarette holder. So we’ll have to see.

On Thursday Cami and I went to Mega Maxi; it’s basically like a Super Target. They have everything and more there. They even have Jif peanut butter, but I could not bear to pay $8 for a jar. But I did buy cheddar cheese! We spent a long time wandering around and finding things to buy.

We also “did” laundry, or dropped it off at the laundry place outside our gate. It is only .50 more to drop it off at that place than it is to sit at the laundromat and do it ourselves.

This weekend, Cami, her boyfriend, Jessica, and I went bowling, and the machines kept breaking and knocking down extra pins. It was quite the experience. On Saturday, we got haircuts and pedicures, $8 for both. It was a nice, relaxing weekend.

Missing you all still!

Until next time, ciao! (that’s what they say here)

First few days in Ecuador!!!

Hola desde Ecuador!


Hello everyone! Here is a synopsis of my adventures since I left home:

I arrived Saturday night after a full day of traveling without any major hitches, very nice!! Here’s a picture of my farewell crew at the Madison airport.

Sunday, my wonderful roommate, Cami, and I ran all over town with a few other teachers. We browsed a mall (there are a lot here, I’ve been to 3 so far), I bought a phone (I still don’t really know how to use it, I have yet to make a call). Then we went to one of the Ecuadorian teacher’s apartments for lunch, delicious! After that we went to El Mitad del Mundo, the center of the world. It was really fun and cute; I felt like a tourist. Here are some pictures.

After Cami and I said goodbye to the other teachers and took the bus back home, we walked to the grocery store, which is just a few blocks away. Going to grocery stores in foreign countries is always fun, so I was excited to experience it in Quito. It was small and had interesting things, such as huge packages of liver and chicken stomach lining. Good thing I brought peanut butter. Cami and I made chicken with rice and peanut butter sauce for dinner and watched a movie.

Monday was my first day at school, and I worked on my lesson plans the whole time. Everyone was busy getting ready for Wednesday, the first day of school.

Tuesday after school, we ate hamburgers in the food court at the mall, they were so good, but I missed ketchup a little bit. And when we were done, I brought a tray to the garbage that was right by our table, and a worker rushed over to take it from me, and Cami started laughing because you don’t bus your own trays here, I’m still learning.

Today was the second day of school, and I taught my first class by myself; I think it went pretty well. I am teaching quite a myriad of classes: fifth grade science, third, fourth, and tenth grade speaking (it correlates with the science classes), and ninth grade international culture, all in English. Tomorrow, the elementary school kids start, so I will have a full day of classes (I feel like I’m in back in college when I say that).

Cami and I have went to the market twice so far, the first time I bought a necklace for $3, and the second time, I didn’t buy anything, but I got lots of ideas for all of your Christmas presents! On the way home from both market trips, we stopped at a few stores, and we now have drinking glasses and food storage containers!

We live in a big apartment complex that’s really close to a lot of stores and businesses. Our apartment is really nice, I’ll post some pictures soon. I got a cool bedspread at store called Rose, and now my room is all set up, with plenty of pictures hanging on the walls. Oh, and our complex has a pool, steam room, and sauna! The downside is that it’s not open everyday, and we have to pay $2 to use it, but I am so happy I can still take saunas here!

I think my Spanish is improving, but I wish I was fluent right away, I don’t like it when I don’t understand people, and I just stare at them with a blank face and say, que?

I’m a little bit homesick, and I miss you all! But overall, I’m having a great time, staying busy, and staying safe. Thank you so much for all your prayers!