Exams

We (including my Spanish class) have exams every two weeks at CEC (5 exams in total over 8 weeks) . In addition to a written exam, there is a listening component and every other exam, there is an oral. I spent all of Friday night grading exams so that I could enjoy the rest of the weekend (party and trip to Cotopaxi).

The grades were pretty good on the exams. My Advance 1 classes did ok but my Immediate 1 students were the superstars. They are my evening students (6-8 pm) who, I think, care more about learning English. Or maybe they just really understand the concepts. Either way, I was really proud of the work they did.

My first Spanish exam went well. It covered past tense (definite and imperfect), future, and conditional. It was a lot of material but some of it was review for me. There are so many ways to conjugate a verb in Spanish - absolutely incredible!

Next Friday (Sept 9th) is the next exam. The fun just doesn´t stop around here!

Cumbaya, my Lord

On Saturday, my flatmates (Sarah and Karen) and I went to a going away party in Cumbaya (barrio in the north part of Quito) for our neighbor downstairs and his friend. They are both going to Canada for a few months for a Masters program.

There was tons of delicious grilled carne (meat) and cebollas (onions). I tried a new alcoholic beverage (Switch). How different it is to drink at a higher altitude - you feel the effects of the alcohol much faster! Don´t worry, I felt fine by the end of the evening (we were there from 4:30 pm - 12:30 am).

Later in the evening one of my students appeared. Turns out that his girlfriend is friends with one of the guys leaving. I think he enjoyed speaking to me in Spanish for a chance (students are NOT allowed to speak Spanish at all in class).

I really enjoy spending time with the Ecuadorians because they are really friendly and are helpful with my Spanish although I did a lot of listening without much comprehension. The truth: the first half of the evening, we all spoke in Spanish but at some point we reverted to English. Then I had an interesting experience. For any of you familiar with SARBOX (my work for the last year at Hewitt), I talked to a Ecuadorian who is a consultant with PriceWaterhouse who knows all about it! He just loves it (note the sarcasm).

(Later to blog - my first exams on Friday and adventure to Cotopaxi Volcano on Sunday!)

Parties, Sights, and Sleep!

On Friday night, we had a huge celebration for the school´s 5 year anniversary. What I didn´t know (or understand) is that the event was formal. Most of the teachers came straight from work and were not so dressed up. There were some seriously formal outfits such as the one girl wearing a wedding dress (no joke). We ate and danced the night away. Since I had been up at 5:30 am, I lost momentum around 2 am and went home to sleep.

On Saturday, I went to two different parties. In the morning, Britton (used to live in the flat) threw herself a going away crepe party. So she made fresh fruit crepes for some friends and hung out. In the afternoon, my flatmate Karen and I went to another going away party in La Florista (an area in Quito). The flat was gorgeous, overlooking the valley, and the food was excellent! We stayed until dark chatting with others.

On Sunday, my flatmate Bryn and I decided to meet some other teachers at La Capilla del Hombre (The Chapel of the Man) to see the artwork of Guayasamin. He is probably the most famous artist from Ecuador. Before he passed away in 1999, he designed a museum to house some of his larger paintings, murals, and sculptures. It turns out the museum is near a gigantic park (Parque Metropolitano) that is on some hills. After an hour long walk uphill in the park, we found the museum and walked around. I began to feel light-headed and had to sit down for a while. Luckily, I got better and enjoyed the artwork.

It was a fun and exciting weekend - a chance for me to catch up on my sleep! Bryn and I both are trying to see Quito so I think we´ll do one new thing a weekend together. So much to see, so little time :)!

Nutty Schedule

Teaching my lessons began today. The first two days of classes were just introductions, rules, and games. In one day, I already feel a lot more respect for all my teachers, even the bad ones. There is so much time and energy that goes into teaching. WOW!

So here is my nutty schedule during the week:

-My first class is Advance 1 English and is from 7-9 am. These students are mostly professionals who come to learn English for work. They are eager to learn and ask lots of great questions. They definitely will be challenging me this cycle.

- I am taking a Intermediate Spanish class from 11-12 everyday. So far so good, but I am having trouble remembering words and tenses. Ugh!

- My second class is also Advance 1 English and is from 2-4 pm. These students are high school level and most of them are at school because their parents are paying for them to come.

- My last class is Intermediate English and is from 6-8 pm. These students are a mix but I think they are mostly working professionals.


Needless to say, I have a very long day, leaving the house at 6:30 am and arriving back at 8:30 pm. I already told the Director NOT to give me this schedule next cycle (this cycle ends on October 7th). I have many 2 hour breaks and have spent the time in the teacher´s lounge. At least I am getting to know other teachers and they are sooooo helpful to me!

Don´t Quite Fit

Compared to Ecuadorians, I am pretty tall. As I mentioned before, I am in an apartment with 5 other people. My bedroom is great except for the small twin sized bed. The first night I tried to sleep on it, and my legs were hanging off the end of the bed.

To resolve the problem, my flatmate Bryn helped me to take apart the bedframe. Now I sleep on the floor on the twin mattress. It´s not perfect but it´s much more comfortable. I am now trying to decide if I should buy another mattress (they don´t use boxsprings here) to make my bed a little higher. I found a bed at a consignment shop for $70. But is it worth it?

What Kind of Nose was that?

After spending 7 hours on top of a train with little space to move, we (my friends Marion from Cali and Kathy from New Zealand and I) discovered that el Nariz del Diablo (Devil´s Nose) wasn´t anything to write home about (although it´s worth a blog posting). Yes, we actually had to buy a ticket for $11 to sit on top of the train.

The girls and I arrived in Riobamba by bus on Tuesday afternoon. After buying our tickets and finding a $5 hostel, we walked around the town for a bit and ate Chinese (chifa) food. I just recently learned that there was an influx of Chinese and Korean people to Ecuador in the last few years.

The train only runs on Wed, Fri, and Sun at 7 am from Riobamba to Alausi (4 hr trip) and then to the ¨Nose¨ (roundtrip about 3 hours). Wednesday morning we woke up early and walked to the station. It was a zoo in there! Most of the spots on the top of the train were already taken but we managed to squeeze in there somehow. I didn´t have much room to move (oh my aching body) but I tried to make the most of it. After 5 1/2 hrs, we finally went down the Nariz by way of 3 switchbacks. Not very exciting.

The best part of the ride was seeing all the indigenous people and children. Everyone would wave to us on the train. We soon discovered that people on the train were throwing candy to the children so we joined in the fun.

It took 6 hours to finally get back to Quito on two buses. I enjoyed being with the other girls (new friends) and seeing more of Quito. Other than that, I guess all I have is: been there, done that, eh?

Arrived!

I made it! I am in Ecuador. I arrived safely late on Sat nite with all my bags (5 to be exact). Alright so I might have overpacked just a bit but I didn´t know what to bring! My friend Kristin picked me up at the airport and we went to her apartment. It´s very nice and in a prime location. I looked at a place upstairs from her as a possibility to live on my own. I liked it but I wasn´t sure I liked the idea of living alone. I was concerned about getting lonely and not having as much of an opportunity to practice my Spanish .

After a day of looking around the city, the next evening, we went to a friend´s 5 bedroom apartment that has two rooms available. It´s further away from the school (15 minute bus ride) but I like the idea of living with other people. So I moved in the next day! One of the girls in the apartment is German but teaches English and French at CEC. As long as we have similar schedules, we can ride the bus home together at night.

I am slowly getting acquainted with the people and customs. Riding the buses are an adventure. There is no liability here and so the bus drivers are nuts! You can stand near the curb anywhere and the bus stops to pick you up. You have to get on pretty quickly though or you´ll be riding halfway out the door. It only costs $0.25 to ride. Which brings me to my next point... they use US dollars here. Ecuador went through the dollarization process back in 2000. NO KIDDING! If you get money out of any cash machine and you´ll get US dollars with the US president faces on them. They do have some additional coins (centavos) with some local faces (most likely, politicians). Also, men like to whistle and hoot at American women walking down the street. Kristin says the best thing to do is totally ignore them.

New teacher orientation begins on Thursday. There are only 4 or 5 new teachers beginning this cycle because the August - October cycle is the shortest one (good timing to start for me). Saturday is the all teacher meeting - then, I´ll get to meet more teachers.

I am on my first little vacation in Riobamba to take the train to El Nariz del Diablo (Devil´s Nose). I will report on that in my next posting.