"Winter" in Ecuador!

I guess there's no real winter break for me this year.  Which is fine.  Going to work (along with the almost 70-degree weather) make being away from home during the holidays a lot more bearable.  In fact, it hardly even seems like the Christmas season at all.  Atenas employees worked all week last week, and this week we're working until Thursday.  So I guess in total I have 2 days off, this Friday and next Monday.  Still, I think we should have had a bit more time off.  And our students only got this week off.  Oh well, Christmas has passed and the new year is right around the corner.

I spent Christmas Eve over at one of my coworker's houses.  It was really nice to spend the day with her and her wonderful family.  Our dinner was quite late, but tasty nonetheless.  While some families are accustomed to eat turkey and ham for dinner, we had chicken.  They also make some Ecuadorian tamales which are typical of this time of year, but I don't like them.  Individually, nothing is offensive, but once you mix it all together…tooootally offensive to me.  My roommates and I were talking about it, and it reminded us of that one Friends episode where Rachel makes the Thanksgiving desert and Joey says: "Custard, good!  Jam, good!  Meat, good!"  Right, Joey, maybe everything tastes good individually, but once it's all put together…eh, not so much.  No offense to anyone who does like these tamales I'm talking about, though!

Anyway, my roommates all work at another school, and since they actually did get vacation time, they all went on trips.  Becca and Mark went to Chile and Argentina, and Emily went back home to Michigan.  We're all meeting up in Quito this weekend to commence this new year!  I'm excited to see all of them again!  I'm also going to, hopefully, go visit my host family at some point.  Yayy!  It'll be a great start to this 2012 year.  Still can't believe that 2011 is almost over.  I never thought graduation would ever get here -- in fact, I remember getting my "Class of 2011" shirt freshman year of college and thinking to myself, "this day will never come," and now it's come and passed.  Oh boy, I'm getting old.

Also, this blog post is starting to drag on and not really have a purpose, so I'm going to stop it right there.  I probably won't be updating this thing until next year, so talk to y'all then!

Lot of love and hugs and kisses!
Stephanie

THE CUTEST THING EVER...

Do you know what it is? DO YOU? Well, you may not agree with me, but little kids dancing and lip synching / singing in their second language is pretty damn cute! This past Friday, my school (well, more specifically the English department) held Atenas Idol, a contest for pre-k - 7th graders. There were quite a few participants that went all out and dressed up like celebrities and got up infront of a lot of people and sang their hearts out…something I wouldn't even dream of doing. We had a couple of Michael Jacksons, some Beatles, a few Selena Gomez's, a Ke$ha, a little Biebster, and we even even had Korn and Aerosmith. This event was definitely stressful to plan, coordinate, and run, but it was so worth it because it's one of my favorite things I've gotten to do so far.


I helped out with decorations and with getting the kids ready for their turn on stage. Originally, I was supposed to be a judge, but that didn't work out because my help was needed elsewhere.  At first, I was a little bummed that I wouldn't get to judge, but, in retrospect, I'm really glad I didn't have to do it because I actually got to enjoy the show and I didn't have to stress about picking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places. This program, like any program ever put on, had its problems, many of which the parents were not content with -- but it is what it is.


Remember when I talked about the difficulties of being a teacher? Well, I still stand by those words through and through, but I also know that there are things that make being a teacher worth it. All of this may sound extremely cliche, but I like helping students and seeing that precise time when they have their voila moment. This program forced the students to work with the language in a fun way.

So, all the technological issues aside, this program was such a success! It was awesome! And it was definitely the cutest thing ever! (:

Ignorance is Bliss.

At some point last week, I was waiting at my bus stop when the the fire department's alarm went off. I looked into the garage and the firemen were barely moving at all. I had the urge to go in there and yell at them to hurry the (expletive) up. The firetruck had not left the station when I got on my bus at least 5 minutes later. Well, this morning when I was at that same bus stop, I saw an ambulance making its way out of there. It was barely moving, though! So I'm going to go ahead and pretend that the alarm that went off last week was merely a drill that all the firemen tested foully on. And that ambulance this morning was only going out for a maintenance check. In fact, that was why it was moving so slowly: there was something wrong with it.

I like pretending that some things are better than they actually are.

You can call it ignorance, but sometimes not being aware of something can make life easier and a lot less stressful. Volcano Tungurahua is currently erupting. My roommates and I were made aware of this fact by someone in the States. In. the. States!! We're here, in Ecuador, about an hour and a half away from the volcano, and even we didn't know about it until we were told. We went through a whole day of eruption before we knew that we were living by an angry volcano. That said, today has been a lot more stressful than yesterday. Whenever I look out the window to the place where there's usually a perfectly cone-shaped landform, there are just clouds. Only, they're not just clouds…it's smoke and/or water vapor and/or volcanic ashes. My head is very creative, let me tell you, and it always thinks of the worst-case scenarios. Meaning that when the lava spurts out from it, I'm going to die. I know that I'm overreacting (especially because I was told by several people that Ambato is not in any sort of danger), but volcanic eruptions are things that I'm not at all used to. And as cool as it might be to see lava spewing from the volcano, I'm more scared than curious.

Just FYI, I wrote the above sometime in late November…I wrote it when I had no internet access and I had completely forgotten about it, oops.

This is what an angry volcano looks like.
Photo credit: Mr. Google Images…I didn't take it.

P.S. That is what Volcano Tungurahua supposedly looked like 3 days ago (as in, 12/8/11)...

P.P.S. Don't worry…I'm not in any danger.

Loveeeee!

Steph

America is Coming to Atenas!

Not really…but we are becoming a little more Americanized!  Unlike the US, Ecuador (and, from what I understand, most of Latin America) has their teachers move from classroom to classroom.  In other words, homeroom is the only room, even for high school kids.  As of the start of the new year, however, Atenas is changing that.  Each professor is going to have his or her own classroom and the students are going to move from aula to aula.  So now instead of having cubbies in the back of their homeroom, the school is investing money in the installation of legit lockers in the hallways.  When we talked about this seemingly minor change, some of the teachers were confused.  That's how foreign this idea is to them.  But they're excited about it!  Also, two more exchange teachers are coming to work here!  They're here on the same program I'm in, only they did the November course where I did the September one.  My coworkers told me that it should be nice to have "more people like you" working with us!   And it's true, I'm excited about it.

Other than that, I'm in the process of applying to graduate school for Spanish and/or Hispanic Literature at both UT and UTSA.  Applying from abroad hasn't proven to be the easiest of things so that's why I decided to only try for UT(SA) for the time being.  If I don't get it, I'll just keep on applying to programs once when I'm back in Texas where things are a bit more readily available.  My roommates are going to Baños tomorrow to go on some touristy bike ride, but, unfortunately, I will not be joining them.  I'm staying in town to work on applications and essays, BOO!  But it'll be nice to have an anti-social weekend because I haven't had one of those since I've been in Ecuador -- how have I been functioning?

Anywho, a little more than 2 weeks ago, Ambato had it's annual 12 de noviembre independence parade. The students from all 40-something schools in Ambato participated in a march.  We got there right when it started but we left before Atenas went on because they where 2nd to last (which I actually didn't know at the time).  I was, nonetheless, able to download pictures of the event from the school, website which made me happy.  I'm kind of bummed that I didn't actually get to see my students perform, though.  Not that it makes a difference…I know exactly what they did because all of the schools did the exact. same. thing.

Desfile del 12 de noviembre, independencia de Ambato

I'm sorry it took so long to update!!
Love you all,
Steph

Gotta Be Tough Sometimes

Being a teacher is hard.

All the seemingly "difficult" things are done for me: I don't plan lessons, I don't write objectives, I generally don't take work home.  But I'm a teacher.  I teach students regardless of the duties I may have outside of the classroom.  Plus, I often assist other teachers with some of their planning, I've written a few objectives for them and for our English department, I've volunteered to help with research and with grading.  I may not have much room to talk, but planning, writing objectives, and all the other work that comes with being a teacher isn't, at least for me, the hardest part.  Seeing the students' devastated faces right after taking a quiz or a test is hard.  Trying to cope with the students' psychological problems is hard.  Hearing that one of your students has a degenerative health issue is hard.  Not being able to help a student is hard.  In all, being a teacher makes me feel so helpless sometimes.  Not all the time.  But sometimes.

It may just be that it's exam week and that tensions are running high at school, but this week has been a bit chaotic.  With students and with teachers.  Testing week brings out the worst in people.  The way we do testing here is weird.  Every big test a class takes has to be done during a testing period similar to what we know as finals week, but it's not necessarily for the end of the term; it's just for the end of what they call hemiquimestres at Atenas comparable to the 6-week periods we did in grade school.  I don't get it.  In my opinion, this puts so much unnecessary stress on the students.  Having finals twice a year was nerve-wracking enough…I can't imagine having to study for 10 tests every. single. time. I had to take tests.

That said, I still love teaching.  And I love teaching here in Ecuador and at Atenas.  And I love my duties as a teacher.  I guess stress and dislikings and bad weeks have to come with anything you do.

… … …

ON A MUCH HAPPIER NOTE:

Montañita, Ecuador

My roommates and I went to the beach last weekend during our 5-day vacation for Día de los Muertos and Cuenca's independence day.  It's generally a 6-8ish hour drive, but since we took a bus, we left at 5:45 a.m., stopped way too many times, had to switch busses, missed our stop once, took a taxi to the right station, got on the right bus, and arrived to Montañita a short 12 (ish) hours later.  I slept the entire way.  Thank goodness I don't have any problems sleeping on busses; it's airplanes I've always had problems with.  The beach at Montañita was beautiful.  When we got there we made our way to our hostel, located directly on the beach.  It had a gorgeous view.  Montañita was supposed to be crazy, but we're lame, so we were in bed by like 11 or midnight at the latest.

After our days in Montañita, we made our way north to Puerto López, another town on the coast.  Montañita was definitely prettier -- the beaches were a lot cleaner.  Right after getting there, we went to Los Frailes, another beach, and then to Agua Blanca, a site of Manabi archeological ruins.  It was nice visiting both those places, but definitely not the highlight of the long weekend.

Los Frailes, Manabi

Alright, so last Saturday was my 23rd birthday.  Those of you who know me well know how important that number is to my life.  My golden, or lucky, year was supposedly when I turned 5, but I don't remember much of when I was 5, so I'm self-proclaiming this year, my 23rd year, my golden year.  So far it's been pretty great.  I started off the year by running into the Pacific right at midnight.  Then we walked down the beach and made some friends with people that had a bonfire cause I really wanted a fire.  That day, we went to La Isla de la Plata, also known as the poor man's Galapagos, on that Saturday.  It was dry season so everything that should have been green was pretty dead.  And we didn't see too many animals on our hike through the island, but we saw plenty of blue-footed boobies.  We also came across a few other bird species, including red-footed boobies but those didn't want to show their feet.  After our 2-hour hike we went snorkeling in the Pacific and saw a bunch of coral, some beautiful fish, including a zebra fish!, a blue starfish, some eels, and more.  It was pretty amazing.

Sulfurous Lagoon in Agua Blanca, Manabi

Disclaimer: just in case you didn't notice, I feel so unmotivated to write right now … my trip to the beach was SO much more eventful exciting than this post makes it sound like.  My apologies. I'm glad you're still reading though.

Blue-Footed Boobie at Isla de la Plata

Loveeeee!
Steph

Jumping Off Bridges & Rio Pastaza

View from my apartment!

What a weekend!  My friends and I went to Baños again, but this time we did a whole lot more than last time.  We stayed in Ambato on Friday night.  After a nice dinner, we came home and hung out on the roof of our complex for a while.  We have an amazingly pretty view.  Our apartment complex is an 8 story building and there's a ladder that goes up to the very top of the building.  The scary thing is that there's no ledge, so we stayed in the middle and sat off to the side that dropped down only one story, not 8.  Sitting up there was nice and relaxing!  We left to Baños, which is only about an hour away from here, on Saturday morning around 9 or 9:30.  We were the first of our group to get there, so we had to wait a little bit, so we chilled at a café for a little.  After a little waiting, we made our way to Rio Pastaza (which is where we were going to go rafting), stopping to witness some people zip-lining.  I would have done it, except it would have been a 30-45 minute wait.  We continued on our journey to Rio Pastaza, but we stopped at another bridge where people were doing what they call "bridge swinging" which is kind of like bungee jumping, but kinda different.  You jump off the bridge, but you're not tied at your feet, and instead of jerking up and down, you swing back and forth.  A couple of my friends and I did it.  It was such an incredible rush!  I loved it.  Paragliding is in store for the near future.  I'm working myself up for jumping off a plane!  (But seriously... I want to skydive).  There's another touristy town near Ambato that apparently has some of the best quality jeans in Ecuador, and they also have paragliding there!  So we're going!

Jumping off a perfectly sturdy bridge :)

Like I said, jumping off that bridge was suuuper fun.  I thought that the scariest part would be the jumping off part, but the worst part was when we were just standing up on the ledge.  Jumping off was kind of easy.  When you're falling, there's this moment when you think, "oh shit!  What the hell am I doing?" but other than that, it's all fun and game.  Then it's over and you want to do it again!!  My head jerked quite a bit, but it didn't hurt in the moment.  Probably because I was on such an adrenaline rush.  It's a little sore today, but a lot of it probably has to do with rafting too.  Okay, so, rafting!  We finally got to Rio Pastaza and the company we were doing it through drove us down to the part of the river where we were starting.  They gave us a quick run through of how we were to steer the boart and what we had to do if we ourselves or anybody in our boat fell out of the raft and into the river.  The sky was absolutely beautiful when we were on the road, but by the time we got there, you could see a raincloud in the distance.  That wasn't going to stop of us from going rafting, though.  We had two boats, ours was yellow and we found a Barbie in it, so we named it Barbie's Banana Boat.  Our guide was awesome.  He knew that river like the palm of his hand.  Towards the end of of the rapids, I fell out of the boat.  It all happened in slow motion.  My foot was where it needed to be so I was dangling off the edge of the raft for what seemed like an eternity.  But then my knee got stuck in an awkward position, so I decided to move my foot from where it needed to be and I fell into the river.  Getting back on wasn't the easiest of things, especially because we were in the rapids.  I finally got back into the raft and assumed by position as if nothing happened.  We jumped into the river and swam for a little bit.  About halfway through our 17 km trip down the river, it started to drizzle a bit, and within the next hour or so it started to rain a lot.  My eyes and contacts didn't appreciate it.  The rain made things so much more intense.  It wasn't any more difficult to steer the raft through the river, but look wise, we looked like such badasses rafting in the rain!  At some point when it was raining a lot, one of the guys on my boat said that this all reminded him of the rain scene in The Notebook.  I took this as a cue to begin quoting it, so I said, "Why didn't you write me?  Why?  It wasn't over for me," and two of the guys (both of whom will remain nameless) on my boat automatically responded: "I wrote you 365 letters.  I wrote you every day for a year.  It wasn't over…it still isn't over."  Witnessing them quote The Notebook is definitely the most manly thing I've ever seen (heard?) a man do.  The rain was teasing us.  It would stop raining only to start again with greater force.  It got to the point that the rain was dropping down on us like needles.  It hurt!  But still, it was so much fun!!  At the end of the 17 km, we got out of the river and into the van that was to take us back to our original location.  We stopped at a mini aquarium that housed various types of creatures that live in Rio Pastaza, including electric eels, various types of tilapia, piranhas, and several other carnivorous, scary, ugly-looking fish.  We were supposed to go hang out with monkeys but we weren't able to because of the rain and because it was too dark outside by the time we finished rafting.  So we ate dinner and then went back to our hostel where we showered and got ready to go out in Baños.  One of my friends' co-workers was having a birthday celebration, so we went to that.  By the end of the night we met a bunch of cool people, including but not limited to, Jonathan from Israel, Caya and her brother, Cedar, from Canada, and Patricio from Ecuador.  We woke up early yesterday morning to secure a spot on a bus back to Ambato because Emily, one of my roommates, had to be back here for a meeting at 4.  We got home around 1ish, so I decided to take a nap and I didn't wake up until around 4:30.  Other than not getting to see the monkeys, it was definitely a successful trip.  :)

Chao!

Atenas

Alas, I am an English teacher!

Last week was my first week of work.  Before starting my job, I had to, obviously, get a teaching certificate.  As mentioned in previous posts, I was in Quito for about 6 weeks.  During that time I took a month intensive course (every Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 6:45 p.m.) for my TESOL certification.  Upon completing that, I moved to Ambato, Tungurahua (also in Ecuador) where I was to start teaching English at a K-12 school called Atenas.  The school year actually began in early September meaning that I missed about a month of school.  Because of this it would have been next to impossible to let me step in as a ''real'' teacher.  What I mean to say is that I don't have my own classroom...I still am an actual teacher, haha. 

My official title is ''English Tutor'', but I am doing more than just tutoring.  I'm not actually going to get my own traditional classroom per say, but I am going to be teaching solo in what we call tutorial rooms.  So I'm assisting the teachers but I'm not an ''assistant'' teacher.  Does any of this make sense? 

Explanation: The ''colegio'' (what they call high school) students, from 8th grade to 3rd year I.B. (11 year olds to 18 year olds), are going to come to me once or twice a week during their regular English class hours.  I coordinate with their actual English teacher and he or she gives me the topic of the lesson and we split the class into two groups, one of which comes to me.  The other group stays with their regular English teacher.  Basically, I'm a conversation teacher and we use their regular topics to converse in these tutorial rooms.  All of my classes are anywhere from 6 to 12 students, which is awesome!  We split the class up in order to give them more practice with their conversation skills.  The overwhelming part about it all will be coordinating with the English teachers.  They are going to plan my lessons for me.  On one hand it is nice because I don't have to worry about planning lessons, but on the other hand, I won't know what I have to teach until a few days beforehand.  This means that if I don't know the subject matter, I am going to have to do a lot of research and at least pretend to know what I'm talking about when I attempt to teach it.

That is it for now!  I hope to start updating more frequently once we get internet set up in our apartment!

LOVE!

Goodbye, Quito; Hello, Ambato!

Maroon 5 was playing as I packed my things to move out of my host parent's home and right as I put away the last of my things, Adam sang the “I can't believe that it's over” line in “Just a Feeling”. Crazy coincidence, huh? I honestly cannot believe that my time with them is over…that my time in Quito is over. It's been just about six weeks since I've arrived here. In those six weeks, I've traveled to a few different places, seen many beautiful things, taken Spanish classes, gotten TESOL certified, met amazing people, and formed a bond with this family.  Here's a picture of my TESOL group!

Back to my host family!  They have been so great to me and even to my family back in San Antonio. As we all know, mothers worry…a lot, and my mom is far from an exception. Señora Laura has talked to my parents on a few occasions, and talking to my Ecuadorian family is comforting to my real family. I don't completely understand why, but I'm also not a parent. Maybe one day I'll end up with a rambunctious little girl that decides to move far away from home and worries me just as much as I worry my mother and maybe then I'll know how she feels right now. Maybe. Anywho, the Badillo family welcomed me to Ecuador and they took me in as one of their own. Having them as a family definitely eased my transition from the States to Ecuador and I will always have a spot in my heart for them.  Here's the closest to normal picture of them that I have of them (we took some pictures on photobooth, but I don't think I ever got just a normal one…oops!)

Although my time in Quito is over, my Ecuadorian adventures still continue. I'm going to be in Ambato, a city about 2 to 3 hours (depending on transportation, rain, and traffic) south of Quito, from now until around July or August of 2012. A few days ago I got the news that I was “sort of” hired as a teacher at Atenas, which is a private colegio (or K12 school) in Ambato. I say “sort of” hired because although it was kind of confirmed, it wasn't really. I can go on and on about this, but basically, it's the way Ecuador (and most of Latin America, for that matter) functions – everything is very laid-back. Always. We United-Statesians are quite spoiled in that regard. We have deadlines and we either expect people to follow them or others expect us to follow them. Deadlines do exist here, but if someone says that they'll have an answer to you by today, you probably won't get that answer until one or two weeks later. And even if you keep on pestering people about it, their seemingly automatic response is: “oh, don't worry about it, things will work out” Thankfully, things have worked out quite well so far. I went to the school yesterday, and things were finally confirmed for real. I start my job as a conversation teacher for 8^th, 9^th, 10^th, 1^st year IB, 2^nd year IB, and 3^rd year IB this coming Monday. Phew! I'm excited but also ridiculously nervous to start this new stage in my life.

Three of my friends are going to live here in Ambato, too. They will be working at my rival school, CEBI, but we're all going to, hopefully (if things work out), live together. Mark and I were looking for apartments for a good while yesterday. Let me tell you, finding a furnished apartment that people are willing to rent out to complete strangers is far from an easy task. I called about 15 different people yesterday and no luck. Mark and I kept going on our research though, and we found a listing for a seemingly amazing furnished apartment. Upon further investigation, however, we learned that the listing was posted on September 12^th, almost a month ago! I called a few times anyway, but I kept on getting voicemail. I called again this morning, though, AND IT'S AVAILABLE!! We're going to go look at it today after the lady gets off work. Please please please keep your fingers crossed for us!!  For the time being, we are living in a hotel.  Which is a pain on so many levels.

Also, when still in Quito, we visited this absolutely gorgeous basilica.  We got to climb up its towers and see it's amazing architecture.  The entrance was definitely worth $2!

This is a picture of the four of us from the top of the bell tower.  And that's Quito in the background!

Like I mentioned earlier, I start my job on Monday.  I wasn't given any sort of assignment, so I have no idea how it's going to work out.  I'm probably going to plan some lessons on greetings because it's what seems to be the most fit for the circumstances.  I'll definitely keep y'all updated on how things go!

Tata for now!

Steph

Exploring More Of Ecuador!

My experience in Quito would not be what it has been were it not for the people that have come into my life.  First and foremost, Sra. Laura and Sr. Segundo have been awesome host parents!!  They've been wonderful in every aspect of things.  They have 3 sons, all of whom are married, and 2 of which have children of their own.  I've met all three of them.  Diego is the one that comes over almost every day.  He and his family are…well, they're great too!  Luis is the youngest; however, I don't see very much of him and his wife.  Juan, the eldest of three, has been over a few times with his adorable family, and they've even brought their dog (named Doggie) over as well!  We got to conversing about a lot of things, and I ended up going through almost all of my albums on iPhoto.  We even took pictures on photobooth, which they were all so very enthralled with!! 

The people I've met on my program have all been great.  The 4 of us that are here through LanguageCorps have gotten along especially well.  We were just discussing this last night: we are so lucky that we all get along as well as we do!  Becca, Mark, Emily, and I all came for the one week of Spanish prior to the TESOL certification program, and we pretty much got along very well from the get-go.  I've done a bit of traveling with them, and we all applied to the same jobs in Ambato (city 2.5 hours south of Quito) in hopes of being placed in the same city so that we may be able to live together (or at least in close vicinity) once we're out on our own.  There are two other guys in our program, but they kind of do their own thing.  They've both been to Ecuador before and they each have Ecuadorian girlfriends.  Anywho, the dynamic that the four of us has been not only lots of fun, but it's also been quite convenient with taxi's, traveling, booking rooms, and such.  Here's a picture of the group of four!

We just got back from a trip to Otavalo this weekend.  Otavalo is known for its mercado artesanal (textile and other arts and crafts market).  

Before going to this market, we went to an animal market.  Prior to getting to the animal market, I was excited about it!  I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but it was SO. FREAKING. SAD.  All of the animals seemed miserable.  And I couldn't help but deduce that most, if not all, of those animals were going to end up dead very soon.  Chickens, roosters, and ducks were all tied up by their legs.  Guinea pigs (which they eat here) were stuffed in bags.  Pigs were squealing miserably.  I was offered three dogs for ONE DOLLAR!!  They were adorable poodle-look-a-likes, and I wanted to buy them!  But I made the logical decision and said no.  

The day got MUCH better after that.  As I mentioned, we went to the mercado artesanal after the animal market.  I bought a couple of really cool looking things.  Later we just hung out at the hostel's roof for a bit, and then went out for a little.  We were back in the hostel by like 10 or 11 though because we were going to go on a tour the next morning.  Our tour through Otavalo and Otavalo's indigenous outskirts started at 9.  A tour guide named David took us to a whole bunch of different places.  Tejido is an art which consists of making various baskets, pads, and figurines out of water reeds.  We visited a family who specialized in this craft.

After this we went to Cuicocha, a lake which is actually a VOLCANO!  Otavalo is actually surrounded by 6 different volcanoes, but this one is different.  Hundreds of years ago, a volcanic mountain basically collapsed in on itself and a cone-shaped crater was created.  That crater is now filled with crystal clear blue water.  Because the volcano is active, it releases various gasses that, in turn, purify the water, so it's drinkable.  No sea creatures live in Lake Cuicocha because of its temperature and because of the gasses that are emitted.  It was such as beautiful lake!  I just wanted to jump into it! (Side note: I'm not completely positive that all of what I just said is 100% true).

Before going to the lake, we visited another family's home.  The father of this family is dedicated in making various instruments, all of which originate in either Ecuador, Chile, or Peru.  He demonstrated the making of one of the instruments right in front of us, which was amazing!!  He then had a little one-man-band session for us which was amazing.  Becca, Emily, and I bought an instrument that looks like a little turtle figurine.  I named them all Señor Tortuga!  

We had lunch in a little city outside of Otavalo.  They're famous for leather products, so we walked around and looked at some of the stores.  They had some pretty cool jackets and purses that cost a lot less than a 100% leather product would cost in the US, but it was still kinda pricey.  After walking around a little more and getting coffee, we went back to the hostel to check out.  The guy that runs the hostel we stayed is named Roberto.  He was so funny!  He cracks up at almost everything he says (and rightly so).  It was quite a fun-filled weekend!

Love love.

Stephanie

Ambato, Baños, La Mitad del Mundo y Pichincha

Between having no internet access at home and having a lot of school work, I haven't updated this blog in a while.  My apologies.

School has been great…well, as great as school can be.  Aside from school, I have been doing just a little bit of traveling on weekends.  Ambato is a city about two or three hours south of Quito.  It is home to CEBI, the school where I will potentially be working for the next year.  Odd thing is, it's a very nice private school with an IB program…not exactly the place I would have imagined myself working while abroad, but, hey, a job is a job!  Well, I probably shouldn't get too ahead of myself; it's not exactly confirmed as of yet.  We went to a market in Ambato, and that was a cool experience!

Our main objective in going to Ambato was to visit CEBI.  We (three of my classmates and I) figured that since we were going to be in Ambato, we would make our way to Baños, a touristy small town.  Man alive, Baños was gorgeous!!  We didn't do much of the touristy things -- we didn't go to any of the waterfalls, or any of the baños (hot springs), we didn't even go on any of the hikes.  But we DID walk around town a lot and familiarized ourselves with the town: we will DEFINITELY be going back there at some point.  The following picture is one that I took while on one of our walks through the town:

We decided to stay in Quito last weekend.  We went to La Mitad del Mundo (middle of the world) on Saturday, and that was such a great experience!!  This is the place that was thought to be the "middle of the world," but, with the invention of GPS, it was discovered that the real center of the world was actually just north of there.  Regardless, I can still say that I've been to the middle of the world and as such, I have been in multiple hemispheres at once!

This past weekend we went on a hike up Pichincha, which is actually a volcano (don't worry, it's not in danger of erupting anytime soon).  I like hiking, and I've done it plenty of times before, but oh. my. goodness.  It has never been as difficult at it was this time.  The altitude is harsh, and although my body has done pretty well with adapting to it, climbing up mountains was a completely different circumstance.  Being up there was breathtaking -- figuratively and literally.  4100 meters wasn't the highest I got, but that's the only picture I have of me with a sign.

We're planning on going to Otavalo this weekend, which apparently has a huge market of artesanias.  And lakes.  And fun.  I'll let y'all know how that goes!!

Love you ALL!
Steph

¡LLEGUE AL ECUADOR!

          Even though I'm completely terrified of airports I was able to make my way through four of them (SAT, DFW, MIA, and Quito) with little to no complications – airplanes I'm fine with, it's just the actual airports that make my palms sweat. I had the aisle to myself on the flight from San Antonio to Dallas. A lovely couple from Oklahoma heading to the Grand Canyon flew next to me from Dallas to Miami. From Miami to Quito, a very quiet man (who strongly resembled Phil Barker – a professor at AC, for those of you who don't know – only this guy was in his mid to late twenties…not that you're old, Phil) sat next to me. Once we landed in Quito, however, five minutes before getting off the plane, he started talking to me, at which point I thought, “really, dude, we've been sitting next to each other on plane for four hours and you're starting a conversation now?” It was a good chat nonetheless for I learned that little Phil was from England and, as such, had an adorable English accent.  He attempted guessing my nationality, but was unable to do so correctly, so I told him that my parents are Mexican but that I was born in America, to which he responded: “brilliant.” I shared that I was in Ecuador for both study and work-purposes, which he also described as “brilliant.” He told me that this was his second visit to Ecuador and that it was a “brilliant” place. Currently, he's in Ecuador to commence a backpacking journey throughout South America, but I didn't quite catch where he was headed to next. We should have talked more during the flight, but, alas, shit happens.

          Once off the flight I went through migration (stamp #4, yay!), got my luggage, went through customs, and then I stepped out of the double doors into the great unknown – which, by the way, “the unknown” is one of my greatest fears. THAT was a bit overwhelming, especially because there were thousands – or so it seemed – of people and because I was not exactly sure of who I was looking for. Luckily I spotted a little sign that read “Stephanie Almanza” not too far in the distance, so I walked towards it and was happily greeted by my host mother, Laura. Upon walking out of the airport, I was immediately flabbergasted. The weather here is unimaginable…mostly because I just came from a land where a 100-degree day was a decent one. We grabbed a taxi and drove to what is my home for the next five weeks. Everywhere I looked, I saw mountains and GREEN! So I thought to myself, “holy shit, this is brilliant!

          My host family has been great so far. I went to mass on Sunday morning, which was a lot like mass at home because Catholicism is very set on traditions. Other than that it was a very a relaxed Sunday. One of Laura and Segundo's sons came over with his family, and everyone seems genuinely nice. It was great getting to meet one of their three sons; I'm sure that meeting the other two will be just as pleasant.

          On another note, I have absolutely no sense of time here...shoulda brought a watch! But seriously, I have to ask my host mother what time it is all the time. I do, however, have a good concept of N-S-W-E, which is weird, because I've never really had a great inner compass…the mountains probably help. This will probably become very handy for navigating through the city!

          There is a 3-story mall called El Jardín. On our way there we stopped at a phone booth – they called them locutorios in Argentina, but I'm not exactly sure if they have a special name here – and I got to talk to my daddy! My dad told me that Heights lost its first game by one point in triple overtime, at which point I felt my first surge of nostalgia; however, I'm convinced that this nostalgia stems from a longing to attend one of my brother's football games – which I know for a fact will not happen this season – rather than from outright homesickness. That happened on my first full day here, and I will not allow myself to be homesick this soon! Except my dad also told me that he was making fajitas and pico de gallo for dinner that night and that I was invited…

          Anywho. The mall. Woah! I did not feel like I was in South America at all, what with stores/restaurants like Baskin Robins, Kenneth Cole, DKNY, McDonald’s, Sunglass Hut, and Cinnabon, surrounding me?! Also, they use the US Dollar here, which also throws me off a bit, but it also makes my life a lot easier. Bottom line, El Jardín was nice! It was nicer than a lot of malls I've seen in the US (ahem, Midway Mall). It probably even rivals North Star in San Antonio, which is, in my opinion, a very nice mall.

          School has begun! For the week we're just working on our Spanish. There are two other girls in my class, both from the states – Michigan and Ohio. So far we have reviewed grammar (which is very much needed in my case) and read a short story. We have class from 8:30-12:30, and then after that we have orientation. Today is only the second day of classes, but everything has been awesome so far. I can already tell that I'm going to learn a lot while here in Ecuador. While I have no internet at my home stay, I'm going to try to keep you all updated by the means of this blog. I also plan on getting an Ecuadorian cell number and once I have that y'all can call me using Skype To Go!

¡Los quiero muchísimo a todos!

Stephanie

What'd ya eat, rocks?

My little brother was giving me a neck massage just a day or two ago (without Kim Cook in my vicinity, my options are limited), and he said, and I quote, "woah, what'd ya eat, rocks?".

THAT is how tense I am. My little brother thinks I'm eating rocks … and that they go straight to my shoulders/back-of-neck-area. Okay, he doesn't actually believe that. But still, his saying that is an indication of how incredibly stressed out I have been these past few days, and silly me thought that some of that stress would be magically alleviated upon my completion of the GRE … wrong! Now that the GRE is done and over with, I have to prepare to move to another country. Not an easy task, my friends. I'm not usually one for to-do lists (surprised?!), but I think I may have to make an exception. There is so much to do in just ten-days-time. Until then I'm going to have to prioritize and ultimately bring the things that have been resting in the backseat of my mind aaaaaall the way up to the front. Which, in turn, will probably make me stress out a tad bit more. Just a tad, though.

I guess that's that: I will continue to eat rocks for the next few days. Ugh.

BUT, in ten-days-time I will be in what they call the land of eternal spring. Yeah, that's right, there is NO 100+ degree weather there, which is going to be a very MUCH welcome change. I canNOT believe that I am going to wake up in another country in a mere TEN days, woah buddy! Am I scared?, yes! Am I nervous?, yes! But most of all, I'm extremely excited and sure that this is a great opportunity. I'm excited to meet my archaeologist host mother and her professional photographer daughter!

SO, keep up with my life, dearest friends!! It is my upmost intention to actually update this blog on a somewhat regular basis. I will probably put things on facebook, twitter, tumblr, and google+ (holy crappers, I'm a social-networking slut), but, if internet permits, I will do my best to remember to write about things on here first. No promises though. Either way, I'll probably write about things more in depth on here. Plus, there will, more likely than not, be a link to this blog on said social-networking sites!

Chao por ahora!

Stephanie.

Que comiste, ¡¿pierdas?! -- ¡En español!

Mi hermano me estaba dando un masaje hace uno o dos días. Al sentir mis hombros me dijo: "ah, que comiste, ¡¿piedras?!".

Ahí tienen una indicación de que tan tensa he estado: mi hermanito piensa que estoy comiendo piedras y que se van directamente a mis hombros o a la zona dorsal de mi cuello. Bueno, no piensa eso verdaderamente. Pero comoquiera, todo esto es una indicación de que he estado demasiado tensa estos últimos días. Ah, y yo pensé que al terminar mi exámen del GRE que un poco de esta tensión se iba a aliviar como por arte de magia … ¡estuve equivocada! Ahora que terminé el GRE tengo que prepararme para mi salida a un país completamente diferente, lo cual no es una tarea fácil, mis amigos. Yo no frecuento usar listas, pero quizás tendré que hacer una excepción. Tengo muchas cosas que hacer en solo diez días. Hasta entonces voy a tener que priorizar, lo cual me va a causar más estrés … pero solo un poco, ¿verdad?

Bueno, así va a ser: continuaré comiendo piedras estos próximos días.

PERO, en diez días estaré en lo que llaman la tierra de primavera eterna. ¡Sí!, así es, ahí NO hay temperaturas de más de cien grados, algo que sera muy bien recibido de mi parte. Lo que no puedo creer es que voy a despertar en un país completamente diferente en solo DIEZ días. Me han preguntado: ¿tengo miedo? sí. ¿estoy nerviosa? sí. Pero sobre todo estoy demasiadamente emocionada y segura de que esto va a ser una oportunidad de la cual nunca me arrepentiré; esto es una oportunidad única. Y estoy muy emocionada para conocer a la señora con la que voy a vivir, la quien es una arqueóloga y también a su hija, quien es una fotografa profesional.

Solo que, ¡sigan mi vida, queridos amigos! Es mi intención escribir de mis experiencias aquí, y ojalá sea frecuentemente. Pondré cosas en mi facebook y twitter y en todos esos sitios sociales, pero aquí sera donde pongo cosas en detalle. ¡Los quiero!

Chao por ahora!

Stephanie.