Today was the best day I have had at school so far. The other days I have felt like I’ve been more of an inconvenience to my collaborating teacher.
It was really cold this morning and I did not want to get out of bed. I swear I got ready in like 20 minutes. We had to leave the apartment a little early bc we had to stop at the ATM to get money out bc the cable guy was meeting us at Colegio Menor to put down a deposit. So we left the apartment around 6:50 and headed to the ATM. We got to the ATM but for some reason it wouldn’t let us take any money out…maybe bc it was so early in the morning. These ATMs can be a little tedious sometimes. So we went ahead and went to our bus stop. We weren’t sure what we were going to do about the money, but we didn’t have time to walk around Quito looking for am ATM.
Once we got to the school we had to go talk to Ruben about our water situation. Yesterday, we were told that we had hot water in our apartment, but Melissa, Jackie, and I did not have any in our rooms so we wanted to get that figured out. We ended up staying in Rubens office for at least an hour trying to get everything sorted out. He told us we would need to go to an ATM to get cash out to pay the cable man when he came. Melissa and I decided to go to Banco Pinchincha in Cumbaya during lunch break to get the money. We also went and talked to Cindy, the lady who is heading up the spring break trip to the Galapagos Islands, about getting signed up for that. She wasn’t there, but we ended up talking to her assistant who assured us we would be able to go…I cannot wait!!! Cindy had pictures up all over her office and they were gorgeous.
After talking to Ruben and Cindy, I finally I got to go to my classroom. The students were just getting back from Spanish and were getting ready to go on break. It was gorgeous outside today! It was really hot this afternoon though. In Ecuador, they say that you can experience all 4 seasons in just one day. That’s definitely how today has been.
We set up our cable, internet, and telephone after the students left. That was kind of a long process bc the cable guy didn’t speak any English…thank goodness Ruben was there to translate! Anyways, once we got that squared away, we had to go catch our bus.
Now we’re back at our apartment relaxing. Some of the faculty from our school are meeting to play Frisbee in the park by our house so we might stop by and play for a while…depending on the weather.
Anyways, hope everyone is going well! I really love it here!
Monday, January 19, 2009
January 14th, 2009 It’s the Altitude
It’s been a few days since I have blogged…everything has just been extremely crazy! We are officially settled into our apartment, but we still do not have cable, telephone, or internet. We do have hot water though!!! We’ve had to go downstairs and take showers in the workout area. It hasn’t been too bad but the doors are transparent and there’s nothing blocking people from seeing in which is a problem. We’ve been going down two at a time making sure that no one comes around the corner and gets a free show haha!
I’m exhausted! We didn’t get home last night until really late because we met up with the people from the Peace Corp and had dinner. We had a really good time, they all seemed really cool. We are at the school basically all day, which is fine, but by the time we get home, we are extremely tired. We just made some lasagna and now we’re waiting for it to bake.
The school is very nice. My teacher, Carolina (Caro for short) is great! She’s very young and just got engaged (like everyone else I know ha). My students are sooo cute! I’m having the hardest time pronouncing their names though! I’ll eventually be able to say them…hopefully!
Anyways, I’ve got some things to do…everything is going well!!
I’m exhausted! We didn’t get home last night until really late because we met up with the people from the Peace Corp and had dinner. We had a really good time, they all seemed really cool. We are at the school basically all day, which is fine, but by the time we get home, we are extremely tired. We just made some lasagna and now we’re waiting for it to bake.
The school is very nice. My teacher, Carolina (Caro for short) is great! She’s very young and just got engaged (like everyone else I know ha). My students are sooo cute! I’m having the hardest time pronouncing their names though! I’ll eventually be able to say them…hopefully!
Anyways, I’ve got some things to do…everything is going well!!
January 11, 2009 Third Days a Charm
Today was a great day! I got to sleep late, and if you know me, you know how important that is to me =0). Today was the Giants vs. Eagles game and Melissa is a die hard fan so we knew we were going to find a place to watch this game. Melissa had already researched online places to go to see American football. The sports bar was called Bungalo 6. Our cab driver didn’t know where that was located so we took the cab up to Hotel Quito hoping that they could help us.
Once we got to Hotel Quito, they could not help us either. We used their computers and internet to look up the address of the place. Let me tell you, I’ve never realized how addicted I am to the internet until now! We don’t have internet right now and it’s killing me! I don’t know when we’ll get it set up in our apartment. Hopefully asap!
We finally got the address of the place and took a cab there. The place was very cool. It was definitely in a very touristy part of town…we saw a lot of Americans in the area. The restaurant is located next to all the hostels. In the middle of the game, the power went out, so Jackie and I decided to take a little stroll just to see what was around. We realized we weren’t that far away from our apartment (about 25 blocks).
We met three guys from America at Bungalo 6. They are in the Peace Corp and “stationed” here in Ecuador. They were in for some sort of meeting because they are all finishing up and heading back to America in March. They gave us a list of things to do in Ecuador before we leave.
Elliot (the guy in the Peace Corp from Colorado) gave us directions back to our apartment…we would have been lost if it wasn’t for him ha! Anyways, once we got back home Correna and Jennifer were at our apartment talking to Fabian (our security guard). He does not speak any English and we don’t speak any Spanish sooo they were trying to teach each other.
We all decided to go eat at a Chinese restaurant on Whimper (or Whymper…depends on the sign you’re looking at ha). It was really good but they did not take American credit cards sooo we had a bit of an issue there. We had to pull the only cash we had together and try and come up with the money. Finally, we came up with the money and we were on our way!
Tomorrow is our first “real day” in the school…I’m sooo nervous but also very excited!!
Once we got to Hotel Quito, they could not help us either. We used their computers and internet to look up the address of the place. Let me tell you, I’ve never realized how addicted I am to the internet until now! We don’t have internet right now and it’s killing me! I don’t know when we’ll get it set up in our apartment. Hopefully asap!
We finally got the address of the place and took a cab there. The place was very cool. It was definitely in a very touristy part of town…we saw a lot of Americans in the area. The restaurant is located next to all the hostels. In the middle of the game, the power went out, so Jackie and I decided to take a little stroll just to see what was around. We realized we weren’t that far away from our apartment (about 25 blocks).
We met three guys from America at Bungalo 6. They are in the Peace Corp and “stationed” here in Ecuador. They were in for some sort of meeting because they are all finishing up and heading back to America in March. They gave us a list of things to do in Ecuador before we leave.
Elliot (the guy in the Peace Corp from Colorado) gave us directions back to our apartment…we would have been lost if it wasn’t for him ha! Anyways, once we got back home Correna and Jennifer were at our apartment talking to Fabian (our security guard). He does not speak any English and we don’t speak any Spanish sooo they were trying to teach each other.
We all decided to go eat at a Chinese restaurant on Whimper (or Whymper…depends on the sign you’re looking at ha). It was really good but they did not take American credit cards sooo we had a bit of an issue there. We had to pull the only cash we had together and try and come up with the money. Finally, we came up with the money and we were on our way!
Tomorrow is our first “real day” in the school…I’m sooo nervous but also very excited!!
January 10, 2009 Move-In Day…Alpallana 293 y Almagro Edificio Ficoa Quito, Ecuador
Today was a very long day! First of all, Melissa and I stayed up really late last night…I loaded all the pictures I’ve taken so far onto facebook, I blogged, and set up my skype account (my skype name is erinclayton…so if you have skype maybe we can talk). Anyways, we didn’t end up going to bed until 3 am. We woke up this morning around 8:15…Rueben was going to pick us up at 9:15 to go sign the lease at our apartment. We had to pack so we could check out of our room before he arrived. Btw repacking sucks!! I have no idea how I got all that crap back into my bags… Once we checked out, Rueben came and took us to our apartment. Getting everything figured out with the apartment was very difficult and time consuming. First of all, the super doesn’t speak English, so Rueben had to do a lot of translating. They would not sign a 4 month lease, we had to get a 12 month lease and we’re going to break it at the beginning of May. This means we won’t get our security deposit ($1200) back. So today we had to pay a total of $2400 for this month! At first the people wanted us to pay two security deposits, but we got that squared away.
Lorena, our realtor, and the super stayed at the apartment to wait on the water to be turned on (we still don’t have hot water). Melissa, Jackie, Kathie, and I were starving (we didn’t get up in time for breakfast) so we decided to go to the mall, which is right down the road from our apartment, and grab something to eat. First we stopped by moviestar, which is equivalent to Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc… so Melissa could set up her phone so that we would all have an Ecuadorian number. We were in there for about 45 minutes. The people didn’t speak English so that was kind of a problem. We now have an Ecuadorian number but we’re not sure how to work it bc it’s in Spanish ha. After that, we headed to the mall. I am very impressed by the mall. It has some really nice stores! The clothes are very expensive though! Lorena had warned us about that yesterday. But we went and ate at McDonald’s in the food court. I was surprised to see Taco Bell, Papa Johns, and KFC there too! Let me tell you, McDonald’s never tasted so good! I’m not sure if it was really good or if I was just starving.
After eating, we went back to our apartment (at this point it still wasn’t officially our apt bc we had only paid the security deposit and not the first months rent). I laid down and took a siesta! I woke up around 3:45 and Rueben, Lorena, the super, and the owner (a doctor) were coming at 4. They came and we got everything settled…they also brought Kathie a bed (bc her room was originally an office). But the movers didn’t switch the beds to my room (I now have a queen size bed =0) ) and Mel & Jackie’s room. Sooo we would have to do that later (there’s pictures of this ha).
Once everyone left, we decided we needed to go get groceries and have dinner in the apartment. We decided to walk back to the mall, which is were SuperMaxi is! SuperMaxi is like Publix. As soon as we walked in, we realized that they didn’t have everything we needed…we needed to take an excursion to MegaMaxi. MegaMaxi is like a SuperTarget. Anyways, we hailed a cab and had him take us to MegaMaxi. The cab ride was only $1.
Wow, our experience in MegaMaxi was very interesting. We all were very tired and STARVING…this is not a good combo. Anyways, we ended up spending at least 2 hours in MegaMaxi. While we were shopping in MegaMaxi, we ran into the other girls Correna, Jenny, and Jennifer! They were shopping for things too! We couldn’t believe we saw them! We wanted them to come see our new apartment so they waited on us to finish shopping and headed back to the apartment with us. It was a good thing they were here bc I had to use to cabs to fit all of our groceries ha. Well, actually, we didn’t buy any groceries…we bought “must-need” items like towels, sheets, pots and pans (our apt. didn’t provide them), and a few other miscellaneous items. Anyways, we took a cab back to our apartment (alpallana y almegro edificio ficoa…sorry, I’m trying to remember my address). We put all the groceries into the lobby and then stuffed all the bags into the elevator. Melissa and I were in the elevator with all the bags so we could unload them once we got to our apartment. Finally, everyone got to come up and see our casa. They really liked it!!!
Melissa went on a cleaning streak and decided to mop and entire apartment! It really needed it…the bottom of our socks had turned black from walking around. We called Wes to come meet up with us bc we all wanted to go to dinner together. After about 30 minutes (Melissa finished cleaning and Correna, Jenny, and Jennifer were playing rummy) Wes finally arrived. The guard at the front desk did not know any English so I had to walk back upstairs to get my Spanish-English dictionary in order to communicate with him. I kinda hit the frustration phase at this point. I really wish I could speak Spanish, but we’re learning so much soooo quickly!
After Wes arrived we all decided to go to the Microbrewery which is on Wymper Street (also were Taco Nazo is). It was sooo good! Definitely hit the spot bc we were all starving! I had ravioli! 5 of us got the sampler of beer where we got to try 4 different types of beer. That was pretty cool bc we got to keep the glasses! Our waiter, Johnny, was very nice! We had a hard time paying…it seriously took us like 30 minutes to pay bc they put everyone’s check (la cuenta) together. That was an experience. There are pictures of us trying to count it out ha! After paying, we headed back to hotel quito to catch a cab.
Walking on Wymper Street at night felt really safe, especially with all 8 of us. Well, it felt safe until these MASSIVE german sheppards (they were guarding a building) almost jumped a fence to come after us! They were huge and keep barking and growling! I swear, my life flashed before my eyes ha! Jenny and I were walking in front of everyone and once we saw/heard those dogs we jolted to the back of the group (we all pushed Wes up in front of us ha). I ended up walking to the other side of the street. The dogs were sticking their heads through the poles…they seriously could have gotten out if they really wanted to! Anyways, like Wes said, they were just doing their job!
After all of us going our separate ways (either to homestays or our apt), we came home and decided to switch our rooms (the two twin beds were in my room and the queen size bed was in there room-they’re sharing a room)! We didn’t have a hard time moving the queen size bed, but we couldn’t get the twin beds through the door bc of the headboard. We ended up having to take the twin beds apart! By the end of this we were so exhausted! Today was a very fun day, but definitely very long and tiring!
Lorena, our realtor, and the super stayed at the apartment to wait on the water to be turned on (we still don’t have hot water). Melissa, Jackie, Kathie, and I were starving (we didn’t get up in time for breakfast) so we decided to go to the mall, which is right down the road from our apartment, and grab something to eat. First we stopped by moviestar, which is equivalent to Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc… so Melissa could set up her phone so that we would all have an Ecuadorian number. We were in there for about 45 minutes. The people didn’t speak English so that was kind of a problem. We now have an Ecuadorian number but we’re not sure how to work it bc it’s in Spanish ha. After that, we headed to the mall. I am very impressed by the mall. It has some really nice stores! The clothes are very expensive though! Lorena had warned us about that yesterday. But we went and ate at McDonald’s in the food court. I was surprised to see Taco Bell, Papa Johns, and KFC there too! Let me tell you, McDonald’s never tasted so good! I’m not sure if it was really good or if I was just starving.
After eating, we went back to our apartment (at this point it still wasn’t officially our apt bc we had only paid the security deposit and not the first months rent). I laid down and took a siesta! I woke up around 3:45 and Rueben, Lorena, the super, and the owner (a doctor) were coming at 4. They came and we got everything settled…they also brought Kathie a bed (bc her room was originally an office). But the movers didn’t switch the beds to my room (I now have a queen size bed =0) ) and Mel & Jackie’s room. Sooo we would have to do that later (there’s pictures of this ha).
Once everyone left, we decided we needed to go get groceries and have dinner in the apartment. We decided to walk back to the mall, which is were SuperMaxi is! SuperMaxi is like Publix. As soon as we walked in, we realized that they didn’t have everything we needed…we needed to take an excursion to MegaMaxi. MegaMaxi is like a SuperTarget. Anyways, we hailed a cab and had him take us to MegaMaxi. The cab ride was only $1.
Wow, our experience in MegaMaxi was very interesting. We all were very tired and STARVING…this is not a good combo. Anyways, we ended up spending at least 2 hours in MegaMaxi. While we were shopping in MegaMaxi, we ran into the other girls Correna, Jenny, and Jennifer! They were shopping for things too! We couldn’t believe we saw them! We wanted them to come see our new apartment so they waited on us to finish shopping and headed back to the apartment with us. It was a good thing they were here bc I had to use to cabs to fit all of our groceries ha. Well, actually, we didn’t buy any groceries…we bought “must-need” items like towels, sheets, pots and pans (our apt. didn’t provide them), and a few other miscellaneous items. Anyways, we took a cab back to our apartment (alpallana y almegro edificio ficoa…sorry, I’m trying to remember my address). We put all the groceries into the lobby and then stuffed all the bags into the elevator. Melissa and I were in the elevator with all the bags so we could unload them once we got to our apartment. Finally, everyone got to come up and see our casa. They really liked it!!!
Melissa went on a cleaning streak and decided to mop and entire apartment! It really needed it…the bottom of our socks had turned black from walking around. We called Wes to come meet up with us bc we all wanted to go to dinner together. After about 30 minutes (Melissa finished cleaning and Correna, Jenny, and Jennifer were playing rummy) Wes finally arrived. The guard at the front desk did not know any English so I had to walk back upstairs to get my Spanish-English dictionary in order to communicate with him. I kinda hit the frustration phase at this point. I really wish I could speak Spanish, but we’re learning so much soooo quickly!
After Wes arrived we all decided to go to the Microbrewery which is on Wymper Street (also were Taco Nazo is). It was sooo good! Definitely hit the spot bc we were all starving! I had ravioli! 5 of us got the sampler of beer where we got to try 4 different types of beer. That was pretty cool bc we got to keep the glasses! Our waiter, Johnny, was very nice! We had a hard time paying…it seriously took us like 30 minutes to pay bc they put everyone’s check (la cuenta) together. That was an experience. There are pictures of us trying to count it out ha! After paying, we headed back to hotel quito to catch a cab.
Walking on Wymper Street at night felt really safe, especially with all 8 of us. Well, it felt safe until these MASSIVE german sheppards (they were guarding a building) almost jumped a fence to come after us! They were huge and keep barking and growling! I swear, my life flashed before my eyes ha! Jenny and I were walking in front of everyone and once we saw/heard those dogs we jolted to the back of the group (we all pushed Wes up in front of us ha). I ended up walking to the other side of the street. The dogs were sticking their heads through the poles…they seriously could have gotten out if they really wanted to! Anyways, like Wes said, they were just doing their job!
After all of us going our separate ways (either to homestays or our apt), we came home and decided to switch our rooms (the two twin beds were in my room and the queen size bed was in there room-they’re sharing a room)! We didn’t have a hard time moving the queen size bed, but we couldn’t get the twin beds through the door bc of the headboard. We ended up having to take the twin beds apart! By the end of this we were so exhausted! Today was a very fun day, but definitely very long and tiring!
Friday, January 9, 2009
No Hablo Espanol...Lo Siento!
Hi! So, I've already been "made fun of" for attempting my Spanish...I think it's the accent! Anyways, like I said in yesterdays post, we hadn't seen what Quito looked like during the day. WOW...that's the only word I can say! It is absolutely amazing here...I have taken TONS of pictures, but it still doesn't do this place justice. Quito is like 11,000 ft above sea level so we're way up in the Andes Mountains. It's absolutely beautiful! The altitude had definitely affect our breathing! Anyways, we woke up and stood on our balcony for a while just looking at the mountains. We had breakfast here at the hotel...it was very good...they have some great fruit! We had to meet Dr. Bryan in the lobby at 9 am to head toward Colegio Menor (our elementary school) to meet our collaborating teacher. Colegio Menor is in a suburb of Quito called Cumbaya...it's like 10,000 feet above sea level. It's only like 10 minutes away from Quito (that can give you an idea about how mountainous it is here...within 10 minutes the altitude changes that much). The weather is very different in Quito than Cumbaya...Cumbaya is much warmer. It rains more in Quito bc the fog rolls in! Cumbaya is such a quaint little city! The school is amazing!! It's so nice! The school goes from Pre-K to 12th grade. Everyone speaks English, which helps us out a lot! There is no AC here bc the weather and temperature is so temperate. Andrew (the headmaster of our school) is soooooo nice! All the students call him Andrew, and he seems like he has a great relationship with most of his students! Once we arrived, he took us on a tour of the school. I got to meet my collaborating teacher, Caro (short for Carolina), who teaches 2nd grade! Andrew's daughter is in her class...her name is Sofia (her name is easy to pronounce). I had the hardest time pronouncing the students names today...they had a hard time pronouncing my name too! I was in the classroom helping for like an hour and then it was time for lunch. Everyone is soooo nice! All the teachers are so friendly and welcoming. We had to meet Reuben (the human resources guy) at 12:15...he was going to show us several apartments he had found for us. So that's what we did...we went apt. hunting. The first three we saw were pretty nice...they were all in the same building, but we would have to split up 2 to an apt. which we really didn't wanna do! Anyways, once we saw those apts, we went to another apt building (our future home =) ). We were already told that this apartment was HUGE but could only house 3 ppl. Okay, so the HUGE i had pictured wasn't big bc the other apts we had seen were TINY...but WOW...this apartment was MASSIVE! The elevator opens up into our apartment (it's the penthouse apartment!!). You have to have a code to do that though. Anyways, this apartment is bigger than mine and trisha's apartment in kennesaw (if you've ever seen it). It's amazing! Once we figured out transportation arrangements, we decided we wanted it! Melissa and Jackie are gonna share a room (the master) and they'll have their own bathroom. I have my own room with a queen size bed and my own bathroom...my room has a great view. Kathy has her own room and bathroom. The living room is massive! The kitchen is awesome (the other kitchens we looked at were tiny!). This apartment also has it's own washer and dryer! This apartment complex has a jacuzzi, ping-pong table, and a sauna. We're planning on going tomorrow at 9:15 am and signing the papers! After apartment hunting, we went back to Colegio Menor just to get the rest of the ppl (Correna, Jennifer, Jenny, and Wes) set up with thier homestays. The homestays seemed very sweet! Once they got situated, we went back the Hotel Quito and took us a siesta (we were exhausted). We got up about 7:30 and were starving so we headed to dinner. We got a map and restaurant ideas from the front desk and decided to take a little "excursion". We ended up eating at "TACO NAZO" which is a Mexican restaurant. It had a great view of the city (which came and went bc of the fog...literally within a matter of 2 mins the fog rolls in). Anyways, after eating and chatting for a while (the waiter spoke no english so i had to pull out the spanish pocket guide lol), we made the trek back to the hotel. We decided to stop back in the casino since it was our last night...I lost $5 ha...Melissa won some though lol. After the casino, we made our way back to 331 and now i'm blogging. This experience is going to be AMAZING...I can't wait to see what the next 4 months brings! Miss Everyone!! =0)
We're Here!
Yay...we made it!! Our hotel (Hotel de Quito) is very nice!! But before I get started on that...our flight was great! Getting through security was not bad at all! It was probably the easiest security check I've ever been through! Anyways, Melissa and I were in the first row (which was an exit row) and so we had plenty of room for our legs, which was AWESOME! We did have a slight problem with our baggage...first of all two girls were over the weight limit by at least 15 lbs (Mel and Correna) haha! So they had to take some things out and leave them in the US! My baggage was okay, which is surprising! Once we got on board, Melissa had a "slight problem" getting her "carry-on" bag into the overhead compartment...she had put stuff from her checked bag into her carry-on so it was kinda big. The captain came over the intercom and said, "The boarding process is taking too long, we need to make this process a little quicker." HAHA what a great start! Anyways, we finally got that thing wedged into the compartment! The T.V. set up for the plane was great! We each had our own individual screen (which i had to hold up bc mine was broken, but no complaints =) ) but it was great bc we could pick our movie. I watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2...lol anyone wanna go to Greece...bc that's totally my next trip! Anyways, the flight was like 5 hours which isn't bad at all! We're on the same time, which is GREAT and very convenient! It was raining when we landed but not too bad. It only took about 30 minutes to go through customs! I thought that was great! Dr. Bryan had sent someone to pick us up (so we had a sign waiting on us haha). The hotel is very nice! We walked into the lobby and the center piece had at least 250 roses...so of course, I assumed they were fake...oh, definitely not! Apparently Ecuardor is known for their roses... you can buy 20 roses for $1 here! We're planning on having fresh flowers in our apt. at all times haha. Anyways, once we got our hotel room arrangements setup (Jackie, Melissa, and I are in the same room) we went to the Casino! We were starving. I think that might be the hardest part for me...their food is so different here! I spend $1.50 in the casino...i lost it haha! Anyways, we went back to our room (331) and finally went to bed about 3 am. We had to be ready to leave at 9 am! Anyways, I am so excited about everything...bc it was so dark we couldn't see what Quito looked like...man, did we have a beautiful surprise this morning! =0) I love my life and feel so blessed to be here!
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