getting used to it

Firstly, happy birthday to my sister Elizabeth!

Seconly, sorry for the delay in updates. I haven't been able to use my own computer since I got to Loja. I've been paying to use the internet at various internet cafes. I'm on day six here and today is my first day of teaching. I start in less than one hour and as of right now, I have no idea what classes exactly I will be teaching today. It's the first day of the new terms for kids at the school so it's really chaotic, I guess. I will be teaching Monday through Fridays from 3PM to 7PM, which isn't a terrible schedule. That will give me time to do stuff during the day and not have to get home too late at night.

I am getting used to the house I am living in. I've figured out how to make the shower slightly warm, certainly not hot, but warm enough where taking a shower isn't torture. It only took a couple days and being electrocuted while showering to figure it out. Yikes.  I bought a new frying pan and pot to cook with and that has made things much easier. I am still sleeping on my mattress on Annabel's floor, which is fine. Because of the leaks in the roof in my actual room when it's raining and how cold it is up there at night, I don't forsee myself sleeping in there anytime soon. I am also getting used to not flushing toilet paper. Really, its not a bad as you might think. This morning, Annabel and I even flagged down the water and gas truck to buy a 50 pound jug of water since we were out and I got a bit sick after drinking the tap water last night.

It's great to have met Annabel on my way here and now have someone going through the exact same thing as me. We pretty much do everything together and we have the same work schedule so it's really convenient. We walked around downtown Loja a couple of times. There are shops everywhere. A lot of them sell just random stuff, anything from spoons to mirrors to sheets of paper, food, whole chickens, pretty much whatever they feel like selling I guess. We went in a few clothing stores as well, many of them sell American clothes like Abercrombie, American Eagle, and Hollister stuff. Bizarre. We went to one store called American Clothing that had a sign on the front with a picture of Melissa Joan Hart on it (think Sabrina the Teenage Witch). The store itself was just a thrift store and it was really weird.

We were walking around downtown today when all the young kids got out of school and were walking home wearing their uniforms. Carnaval is this coming weekend and it's customary here for kids to throw water balloons and eggs at people in celebration. We saw someone through an egg at a little girl and another kid with a squirt gun and quickly dodged in the other direction. I think it's even worse for "gringos" here because we stick out so hopefully I dont get any eggs or balloons thrown at me, but I've heard that it's very likely to happen.

I am definitely still going through culture shock, but it's getting better here every day. I got a cell phone yesterday and that was quite the ordeal. Thank goodness I speak Spanish. I got it mostly to use locally, but can make and receive calls from the US. It's pretty expensive to call here from the US I believe, but when I can figure out for sure how to call here, I'd be happy to give anyone my cell phone number.

I will try to get some more pictures posted as soon as I can find some place with a fast enough internet connection to make that possible.