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