8 weeks since i left home

I can´t believe it´s only been 8 weeks since I left home to come here. Oy vey.

In the mean time, here are a couple unclear pictures of the full moon from two nights ago. I just took them to show how the moon colored the clouds around it. Pretty bizarre, no?

I promise to post some more exciting things after the end of this weekend. Although next week I will be working my normal hours plus more again at Colegio Iberoamericano to cover someone who is going on vacation. ...hooray.

ramen noodles

In case you hadn´t heard, I found Ramen noodles in Loja. Things are much better now that I have Ramen noodles and I am not ill (for now, at least). I do apologize for not updating my blog very often, but it´s really due to the fact that I now just had a scheduled routine every day so I feel like there really isn´t much worth writing about.

This week, however, I am not only teaching my normal hours, but also at another school because one of the teachers is in Peru with her sister on vacation. The school I am teaching at this week is the most expensive private school in the city. It´s on the north side of Loja and on top of a pretty steep hill that I am glad I haven´t had to walk up. But anyway, the views of the mountains surround the valley from the school are a-ma-zing. Seriously beautiful. I am grateful though that this week is the exam week for the school so besides reviewing and giving test, I don´t have to teach at all, just babysit. There is a class of tween kids there (ranging from 10 to 16) and they are SO NAUGHTY. unbelievably so. I don´t remember any of my classmates being so bad when I was in middle school. I realize though I am just a substitute teacher, but they are awful and thankfully my last class with them was today. It´s a class of about 18 students, 15 boys and only 3 girls. The girls, of course, are well-behaved. One of the boys uses a mirror to try to look up their uniform skirts, which is totally inapprop. I yelled at him of course and I guess for some other reason, he almost got expelled from the school today. One of the girls brought her pet mouse to school and hid it in her sleeve all day except during English class. She asked me the other day if I liked mice and I said I do so I think that´s why she brought it. Another girl in the class said she wanted me to stay and didn´t want their regular teacher to come back, which I took as a very nice compliment. The other classes I´m subbing are fine. Little kids are super kid, 16 year old are cool and the 18 year olds who are just about to graduate seem to know more about English grammar terminology than I do. I can explain any part of English grammar in English or Spanish, but when it comes to knowing immediately what a grammar term is.... I have to think for a second. I took a grammar class so I know what all the terms are, but I haven´t been asked about any since I started teaching until this week... probably because I teach mostly level 1 classes and my level 4 class at Canadian House Center is filled with 10 delinquents who obviously should but unfortunately don´t know the difference between "is" and "are", that is, when to use either. Their lack of English ability more sad than it is annoying. "Be" is the first verb an English student is taught how to conjugate. You´d think that they´d know that by now.

Anyways, hope you are all doing well. I am planning on traveling with a couple of my roommates next Thursday because we don´t have class Thursday or Friday due to Holy Week. That should definitely give me something good to write about and nice pictures to post! Can´t wait.... I sure do hope I don´t get sick before we´re supposed ot go.

Peace-

hi

In case there is anything worrying about me, I am feeling A LOT better today.


Also, Happy St. Patrick´s Day!


That is all.

sheesh

Forget anything I wrote about going to Vilcabamba or Bob Marley tributes this past weekend. I spent Thursday night through this morning in bed (apart from teaching Friday), sick as a dog! I won´t go into specifics of symptoms because surely you don´t want to hear the gross details, but at the least, from what my mom says I had a strong case of gastroenteritis aka food poisoning. Waking up sore on Thursday morning was only the beginning. Thankfully, I´m feeling quite better today. I´m glad my mom is a nurse. She called me every day to check up on me and gave me advice, told me to eat only bread and other bland foods, which I have been doing.... I´m going to try to work so hopefully I can make it through without keeling over and eh hem, running out of the classroom to the bathroom. You get the picture. Anywho.... I missed out on going out for Charles´ birthday Thursday night, the Bob Marley tribute at Casa Tinku on Friday, work on Saturday morning, and the party that we hosted in our apartment on Saturday night. What a lousy weekend... I decided that if  I don´t get 100% better or something goes wrong in the next few days, I´m just going to go home. It´s not worth it being here and getting sick all the time. Understandably most of it is food related, which is unavoidable and can happen at home, but definitely not to the scale and frequency that I´ve dealt with it here.

Hope you all had a good weekend.... and here´s to hoping I fully recuperate and don´t have to fly back home anytime too soon.

ugh

I think that I am cursed. I get sick, feel better, something else happens, I get better, then I wake up with a sore throat and an aching body this morning. Has Ecuador cursed me? I am never constantly plagued with some sort of illness or symptoms while I´m at home. Maybe my immune system is really weak? Who knows...

I´m glad it´s Thursday already. This week is going kind of quickly, but the month of March on a whole seems to be crawling by at a snail´s pace. Hopefully this weekend is good. Today is my roommate Charles´s birthday so I think we´re throwing some kind of party on Saturday, but I don´t know the details and actually tomorrow night, there´s a Bob Marley tribute band playing at Casa Tinku (where I saw the Beatles tribute band) so that should be at least amusing. On Saturday, Annabel and I might to go Vilcabamba, but I am not positive about that.

Two new teachers arrived yesterday. Both from the US, Seattle and somewhere in Calfornia. The girl from Seattle is living in our apartment.

Anyway, things are well. I am ready though to get out of this city and see more of what Ecuador has to offer... 5 weeks in the same city is a long time.

Have a great day to whoever reads this.

march 8

Happy Monday! ...really, are mondays ever happy? Who gets excited about the start of their work week?... yuck! Anyways, I had a good weekend, stayed in on Friday and watched a movie. There are tons of DVD stores here that sell downloaded copies of DVDs for around $1.50, which is awesome because that´s cheaper than it costs to rent a DVD. Granted, they are burned copies, but they work just as well. It´s convenient.
 We went out on Saturday for Cassie´s birthday, had a good time, and then I lounged around most of yesterday and watched another DVD.

Two of my classes have exams this week. I have done as much as I could to help prepare them so hopefully they all do okay...

Here are some more pictures. Click on them to make them larger.

monthaversary

Happy Loja One Monthaversary to myself (and also Annabel since we arrive here on the same day).
Annabel and I both agree that it´s hard to tell if the first month here has gone quickly or slowly since we both feel like we´ve been here for such a short amount of time, but that we´ve been away from our respective homes forever.

And PS, I am definitely coming home this July rather than staying here for a whole year. I won´t go into details about it here. :)

In case you were wondering what my roommates look like. Annabel, Cassie, and Charles.