New Apartment, New Friends

Now that I have been working consistently, most of my weeks are pretty much the same. I work for 2 hours in the morning Tuesday - Friday and 2 hours at night Monday - Thursday, in addition to my 2 hour Spanish class in the afternoons.   The only big change from this week was that I moved to an apartment much closer to my job and school.  The apartment is at the end of the 11th floor so we have a huge wrap around balcony.  Obviously, that is Dakota's favorite place.  The building is located right in the middle of everything, which I love!

Thursday night, I met some friends at a karaoke bar.  This place was interesting because we were sitting outside but there were also 2 or 3 other rooms inside doing karaoke as well.  Every room had different karaoke going on at the same time.  Since there were only 2 tables of people sitting outside, we were having to constantly sing.  I was sick and can't sing, so I decided to only sing without a microphone-which I'm sure everyone appreciated.

Friday night a friend hosted a pot luck dinner, where you bring something that represents your home country.  I was going to bake something but I was gone all day long with Dad since that was his last day in Quito before returning back to the US, so I had to buy a dessert instead- sorry Mom.  I was able to meet so many new people that night and we had TONS of food. Here is just a little preview of what we had.

There was so much more food than that picture shows.  Every time I thought I had tried all of the food, more would come out of the kitchen.  We were all stuffed for sure.

Saturday night, I joined some other friends for a true Ecuadorean experience on the Chiva.  Basically, this is a giant dance party on the back of a truck/bus.

There is a dj and a bar on the truck, and it drives (slowly) around town making every single person that passes by in one of the local busses extremely jealous.  Seriously,  how can you not be jealous when you pass by a dance party on the back of the bus playing the Macarena?  This was absolutely amazing and needs to happen back home in the states!  Once we were finished driving around, it was just after 9pm, and not an acceptable time to end a Saturday night, so a friend and I decided to go to a bar to play some billiards.  In case you are wondering, No I cannot play billiards.  This was my second time playing and I must say that I am getting better but I'm still horrendous.  Luckily, most people are pretty patient with me and let me try again when I completely mess up a shot (or whatever it's called).

Sunday was a rainy, ugly day filled with errands.  I had to get some stuff for my new apartment and finish unpacking, so not much to say about that.

This coming Friday is Good Friday and since Ecuador is a very Catholic country, no one works that day, which means weekend trip!  I am headed to the jungle with some people from the Spanish school. I was told the town that we are going to is "more jungle than Tena"(the jungle city that most people go to.)  I have no idea what that means, but lets hope I make it back alive so I can tell y'all about it next week!

Life is Getting Busy

Since I haven't said it in a while, I want to thank everyone again for reading this and having an interest in my new life!  This week was spent working more, while also trying to have fun with friends.  My work schedule is very different from a normal schedule because I have a class for 2 hours in the morning, and then another class for 2 hours at night.  My night class is in the office and this is the view that I get to look at every night.

If you have to work at night, that's not a bad view at all!  My night class is a group of students of different ages and different backgrounds.  Having a group is a nice change from my morning class of just 1 student.  I like being able to have more conversation in the group and everyone has their own opinions so that keeps the class interesting.

Tuesday was St. Patty's Day, so a group of co-workers went to an Irish bar to celebrate.  Because I have class until 8:30pm, I had to go straight to the bar from work with 2 other co-workers.  And yes, I was that dork that brought my backpack to a bar.  

The rest of the week was filled with work, Spanish class, and rain.  From Tuesday through Saturday, it rained and rained and rained.  I was told that rainy season is normally like this, where it rains off and on all day long.  However, their rain is more of a lighter constant rain and not a pouring rain.  It is annoying because it rains enough for the roads and everything to be wet, but it is not hard enough to really need an umbrella.

On Friday, I went out with some friends from the Spanish school.  I feel so old around these people because most of them are taking a gap year and are 19 years old.  There are a few older ones, but the majority of the students are very young.  I can't imagine leaving everything and moving to a new country when I was 19.  

The entire week, I was looking forward to Saturday night.  Dad and Dakota were flying in, and I was so ready to see my pup...and my dad of course.  They arrived late, so Dakota came home with me while Dad went to the hotel.  Sunday morning, I woke up early because of the sun and my 4 legged alarm clock.  Because we were up, Dakota and I went for about an hour long walk to a nearby park. 

As soon as we got back, Dad sent me a text saying he wanted to go to the park since it was such a beautiful day.  So, Dakota and I got in a taxi and met Dad at Parque Carolina for another 1 1/2 hour walk.  I really enjoyed showing him around my city and where I work.  However, I was exhausted by the end of the walk, so we found a place to eat lunch outside.  Once we were done eating, we took Dakota back home and headed for Mitad del Mundo- the equator.  Apparently, the French decided that a certain point was the location of the equator back in the 1700s, but they were wrong.  They were south by about 240 meters, but many tourists still go to this location.  Ancient Ecuadorean tribes and GPS have calculated where the equator actually is located.  The Jacksons refuse to go the the fake equator, even if it is more popular, so we walked 240 meters to the real one.  At the real equator, there is a museum that explains the history of different tribes and has some demonstrations that can only happen on the equator.  The guides do a flushing demonstration, where they flush water in the northern and souther hemispheres, and on the equator.  The water flows counter-clockwise on the northern side, clockwise on the southern side, and goes straight down on the equator.  You can also try balancing an egg on a nail, which I was only able to do for 1 second.  Another demonstration is walking along the line of the equator heel to toe with your eyes closed.  This was almost impossible- you feel very drunk.  There is something with the gravitational force being different exactly on the equator.  I was fascinated since these are not experiments that you can alter, so it proves that you are on the equator.

Sorry, this week wasn't incredibly exciting but I am happy to be working so I can make money and experience more of Ecuador.

Feels Like Home

I have been in Quito for about a month and a half now, and it feels like I left Atlanta months ago.  So much has happened in this short amount of time, and I feel so blessed to be living this life!  Already, I feel that I have pushed myself physically, mentally, and emotionally much more than I ever have before.  Part of that has been from meeting people from different cultures and starting a completely new job.

This past week, I finally started teaching for the school and had one class that met for 2 hours in the morning, 4 days a week.  The great thing about my job, is that we do business English, so we go to the companies.  This particular company just happens to be located on a corner right next to Parque Carolina.  As soon as my class is over, I walk out of the building to this amazing view.

I spend about an hour either sitting in the park studying my Spanish, or walking around.  The weather has been great so far and it is usually 70 degrees by 9:30am.  I'm hoping to have a great tan by the time I come back to Atlanta.  After tanning, and looking like the biggest gringo there ever was, I walk to the nearby Juan Valdez for an hour long private English lesson.  It really doesn't feel like work, when you get to have class in a coffee shop!  Next, it's off to more Spanish class.  I'm starting to be able to communicate more with the locals.  I can surprising understand a decent amount of what people say.  However, it is much more difficult to produce the language and respond, so I say a lot of "si" and head nod.

At nights, we have a combination of salsa class, soccer games, and just getting a drink and relaxing in Plaza Foch (Gringolandia).  Everyone in the school is incredibly friendly, so there is always something going on.  Friday night, there wasn't an activity planned, so we "convinced" the teachers to organize a soccer game in the park.  Since Parque Carolina is right in the middle of the city, 3 girls and I went to dinner after the game.  We went to get sushi, which was pretty good.  After eating, we weren't quite ready to go home yet, so we went a few doors down to a cafe to get a drink.  Once we walked inside, we immediately so the desserts and couldn't resist.  This cafe quickly became one of my favorite places in Quito.

I'm sure you are drooling already, and yes the drinks and food tasted even better than they look! We needed to load up on sugar for our hike that we were doing on Saturday-as if we needed an excuse.

No one wanted to do much over the weekend, so about 7 of us decided to go up the Teleferiqo and hike some.  In Quito, the weather was sunny, but as soon as we got up to the top of the Teleferiqo, we were surrounded by clouds.  Even though the view, wasn't as good as last time I went up, it was a very unique feeling to be hiking in the clouds.

It is becoming a tradition that whenever we see an animal, we MUST take a picture with it.  So here are a few of us with our new llama friends.

Once we were done hiking, we went back to our favorite place, Gringolandia, for lunch and had some great burgers- so American.  Then, it was time to rest before going out.  I was invited for a typical Ecuadorean dinner at my friend Maria's host family.  In case you are wondering, a typical Ecuadorean meal consists of about 2 pounds of rice, multiple potatoes, and a small piece of meat... and then more rice and potatoes.  After being absolutely stuffed, we went out to practice our salsa dancing skills.  Unfortunately, Ecuadoreans prefer to listen to what I consider "American" music instead, so we weren't able to practice salsa dancing much, but I still had a great time and even had some Cubans buy us a rose.

Every Sunday, Amazonas, a main road in Quito, is closed for riding bikes and walking.  Of course we wanted to take advantage of this, so we walked from Parque Carolina to Plaza Foch.  If you can't already tell, those are our 2 favorite places in the city.  We ate lunch at one of the restaurant patios in the Plaza and enjoyed the sun and each other's company for about 3 hours.  Then, I went with Maria to her host family's house because she was cooking a traditional Norwegian dinner for them and invited me to join.  Maria cooked what she calls pancakes, but to me it was more of a crepe with chopped up bacon in it along with some chorizo.  It was very good, and now I am trying to figure out how and when I can get to Norway since I have heard such amazing things about it.

Every week has been a learning process, but I feel so grateful that I am allowed to have this experience.  Thank you for all of the prayers and well wishes- it truly means the world to me to have everyone's support.

One Month Down!

To start this week's post, here is a picture that is just a small glimpse into my exciting week

I have been in Ecuador for a little over a month now!  Finally, this week I started actually working.  I have a student that wants private lessons, so we met 4 times this week for 1 hour each time.  We decided to meet at a coffee shop, which is the Ecuadorian version of Starbucks, around Parque Carolina.  I absolutely love looking out of the corner of my eye and seeing the park with the mountains in the background.  I don't think I will ever get tired of seeing the mountains.  After the private lessons, I walk about 40 minutes to the Spanish School for my daily lessons.  Luis is my teacher and we pretty much just laugh for 2 hours, while learning Spanish of course.  One of the great things about the Spanish School is that there is always coffee, tea, water, and bread available.  During breaks, my friends and I will catch up while drinking coffee and eating bread.  I have eaten so much bread over the past few weeks- it's becoming a problem.

Monday was a pretty boring basic day at the school.  However, on Tuesdays and Thursdays the school offers free salsa classes for an hour.  I decided to give this a try since everyone goes.  I'm very surprised to say that I absolutely loved it!  I really don't enjoy dancing, but salsa is so much fun- I think it's because I get to spin constantly.  Then, on Wednesday the activity was going to the park to play soccer.    A few of us got tired of playing so we left and of course got a drink since it was ladies night.

After salsa class on Thursday, 3 of my girl friends and I went to dinner at El Ventanal because it was one of the girl's last night in Ecuador. El Ventanal is a restaurant near the Old Historic City and sits up on a hill so you have beautiful views of the city.  We were given canelazo, which is a traditional spiced cinnamon rum drink as we took in the views from the upstairs patio.

Friday was once again a normal day.  After my Spanish class, some of us went out for a drink.  However, we all went home early since we all were about to have a very exciting weekend!  This weekend the Spanish school had a trip to Lake Quilotoa and Cotopaxi.  Lake Quilotoa might be one the the prettiest places I have ever seen.  It is a lake that is in the crater of a volcano.   You drive to the top and see this view.

After taking way too many pictures at the top, we started our hike down to the lake.  It was about 300m from the top to the lake.  After probably an hour, we finally ended up at the lake.  Part of our trip including kayaking in the lake, so we did that for about 10 minutes.  My Norwegian friend Maria and I kayaked our way from the shore and decided to relax and let the current take us where ever it wanted to.  Then we would turn the kayak around to face the sun when it emerged from the clouds.  Once we were done kayaking, Maria and I decided to go into the lake.  We were told that it was cold, and our guide told us it was 6 degrees celsius- but like the typical American I am, I have absolutely no idea what that really means.  Out of our group of 17, we were the only 2 people to go into the water.  So we stripped down to our bathing suits and ran into the water.  The water actually wasn't as cold as I was expecting, but I didn't stay in long enough to really test it out.  Both of us were expecting to walk gradually into the water, but as soon as the water reached our mid-shins, the ground dropped and we fell in.  That was a shock!

Now, I can cross essentially doing the polar plunge off of my bucket list.  Once we dried off, it was time to hike back up.  I ended up taking a horse/mule up because my leg was hurting.  Then, the group went to the hostel that we were staying at for the night.  Besides the fact that the workers kept turning off the water, the hostel was pretty fun.  There was a room with pool tables, ping pong table, and foosball.  We all stayed there for most of the night until everyone was so tired that we almost passed out.  There wasn't heat in the rooms, but all of the beds were layered with alpaca blankets so most of us were actually hot during the night.

Sunday was an early morning because we had to drive to Cotopaxi for our hike,  Cotopaxi is the highest active volcano in Ecuador.  I know most people think a volcano on the Equator must be hot- this is not the case at all.  It might be on the Equator, but it is very high up.

As you can see, there is snow at the top of the mountain!  We drove up to about 4500m and layered up in every piece of clothing that we brought so we could start our hike.  You start the hike in the clouds and the wind basically assaults your entire body.  It was difficult just to stand up let alone hike up a volcano.  When we reached about 4800m, there was a little cafe where you could stop and by coffee or rest.  Most of the group decided to keep going up to 5000m, which is where the glacier starts.  This part of the hike was difficult because of the wind and the cold.  I was lucky that I found some great clothing to keep me warm, but since you are in the clouds there is "rain" being blown into you at a very high velocity- and that's not a fun feeling.  However, it was worth it as soon as we saw the glacier.  I have never been to 5000m except in an airplane, and it might be one of the neatest things I have ever done.  I am so proud of the group and of myself for battling the altitude and the elements and making it to that point.

This was one of the most amazing weekends I have ever had.  The weekend started with jumping into a lake in a volcano and ended hiking up another volcano to a glacier!  I am exhausted just from thinking about this past week and it might take a while to fully recover from everything that Ecuador has to offer.

Getting Settled

This past week, things finally started to come together.  I started the week with job training, a new home, and Spanish school!  I was so excited to finally do what I came to Ecuador to do.

First, I will start with job training.  Training consisted of learning the methodology that Inlingua uses.  I was lucky that I recently finished the TEFL course, which is very similar to how Inlingua does things.  The school that I work for does mainly business English, where we teach classes at the companies instead of them coming to the office.  An Australian and I were in training for 2 hours a day for 4 days- not too bad.  To make things better, the office has an amazing location where you can look out the window and see green mountains.  For the last day of training, we each taught a "lesson" to each other and to our instructor.  I got pretty good feedback, which really helped my confidence since I haven't ever taught before.

Once I was done with training for the day, I usually had a 1 1/2 hour break before Spanish class started.  Because everyday is sunny and 70 degrees, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and walk about 45 minutes to my Spanish school.  I have class for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week.  In only 1 week, I feel that I have really learned a lot- that is until a local says something to me and then I realize that I really don't know anything.  However, like learning anything else, it takes time.  One day during the week, I was learning commands and it didn't take long for my teacher to learn that I LOVE my commands.  That shouldn't be a surprise for anyone that has ever met me before.   Something I really like about my school, is that they have activities just about every night of the week.  Wednesday nights consist of either a cooking class or a cocktail class.  This week, it was a cooking class where we made ceviche.  I have never had this before, but I really enjoyed it.  We made it with popcorn and banana chips.  I'm not sure why popcorn was included, but who doesn't like popcorn, right?

About 20-25 people went to the cooking class, so I was able to meet many new friends.  There were people from all over the world, and a lot of Europeans.  Some of the students are only in Quito for a few weeks, and others are like me and will be staying for a while.  There is such a big mixture of people at the school, which I really enjoy.  And Wednesday is Ladies Night at the bars, so we had to take advantage of the 2 for 1 drink specials!  Then, on Thursday, some of us went on a night sight-seeing tour of Quito.  The tour consisted of 5 stops around the city that showed how beautiful Quito really is.  I was able to spend some more time with my new friends while exploring more of the city that is becoming my new home.

The tour ended at a small "market" in a park, where we could get food.  Jorge, our tour guide, bought a special food for us to try.  I had a feeling that this would be something that I had probably never eaten before, and most importantly, didn't want to eat...ever.  And I was right- the mystery food was grilled cow intestine!  The taste wasn't so bad, but apparently intestine is very very very chewy.  Luckily, the market had other vendors serving more common foods like kabobs.  Now, that is my kind of food!

To end the week, one of the guys at the school had a party at his apartment.  I am so lucky that the school is filled with such amazing and friendly people.  I'm sad that some of my new friends are leaving in the next few days, but they have truly been a blessing in my life during this short time.

Another exciting part of the week. was that I was able to move into my home!!  It felt so nice to finally unpack after living out of a suitcase for almost an entire month.  I had forgotten which clothes I even brought to Ecuador because I only wore the clothes that were the top 2 layers in my suitcase.  And of course, I was beyond thrilled to finally have hot water again.  The first shower I took, is what I imagine Heaven to be like.  It was perfect- and yes I realize that is a little dramatic, but take cold showers for a week then take a hot one and you will know exactly what I mean.

On Saturday, our group of expats went to the park again for a futbol game.  Since 8 of us showed up, we played 4 vs 4 and then we must have looked good because some locals asked to join our group.  Obviously, they were better than all of us, but we had a great time.  It was nice to finally play a sport that I am somewhat good at.  It has been a while since I played soccer, but my "skills" started to come back after a little bit. 

To end the week, I went on a hike with one of my roommates and some friends to see more waterfalls.  I'm in awe of how much nature surrounds the city and how close I am to forests and waterfalls.  Getting to the hiking spot was a bit of a trek.  We had to take the ecovia (trolley/bus) to the bus station, then take the bus to another town.  Once we got to the town, we got a ride from some random guy in a pick-up truck up to the beginning of the trail.  Pretty sure the guy was just driving down the road and had no idea he would be taking a bunch of people 25 minutes to the trail.  Since this is Ecuador, we picked up a few people along this drive.  I just can't get over how friendly everyone is in this country.  Along the hike we were able to see multiple waterfalls including this giant one.

This week was exactly what I needed after my previous week.  I feel that I am starting to get settled and feel as though Quito is my new home!

Until next week...