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)