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Published: July 11th 2006
Well, just kidding about the title. Today was a great day and the fact that it was a Monday was exciting because I know I have yet another fun and exciting week of adventure ahead of me. It´s not a pain for me to get up and go to work on Monday mornings...at 5:30 in the morning...with a bunch of loud, whiney kids...And, actually, it´s not. It´s very well worth it and I do love it!! You´ll have to catch up on the past few days of my journey. Starting right where I left off.
FRIDAY (7-7)
Well today was a different morning at school in that instead of class for a couple hours, we had a presentation/play from a group of Cubans involving stringed puppets and clowns. It was very entertaining and comical. They even called on volenteers and, go figure, I was picked. Since I really don´t ever get embarrassed I had to yell out over the kids chanting "SHIRLINA" to one of the clowns that I wasn´t fluent enough in Spanish to be involved competitvely in the activity. Or at least that´s what I wish I could of said, but instead, I said
I was an American who spoke English and I couldn´t play with them. I chose one of the teachers to take my place in my stead. Well, when the clowns quit joking and finished up their act for the morning, it was back to reality for the rest of us. The good thing was I only had one class to teach now opposed to four, since the others should have happened during the show. But I was perfectly fine with it! My one fourth grade class went by quickly and before I knew it the day was up!
The kids at the school refer to me as Señorita Shirlina during class, though the older ones seem to "forget" when not in the classroom and just call me Shirlina. Or rather, Cherrlina. Apparently, my name is really complicated to pronounce. I do love teaching though! It´s a lot of work to keep up with so many students. And I´ve learned that you can´t always be the nice guy. When I teach I carry around a wooden ruler and if things get out of order I simply slam it down on the desk of the child who´s misbehaving, stare hard at
them for a few seconds, ask them a question regarding the lesson, and then procede where I left off. I don´t like to be that person and I wish I didn´t have to, but when I´m teaching I demand respect and if I don´t get, I´ll just send them to Señor Loyola´s office for him to explain to them. He´s not as nice as I am when it comes to discipline. Luckily I´ve only had to do that once to get my point proven.
Though what I like a lot is the fact that the kids love me! They admire me as an American girl who´s pretty and nice, caring and strict. They always ask me questions and give me gifts. I´m really lucky to work with such a talented and compassionate group of fine kids. Couldn´t have asked for better!
Later today, after we ate lunch and rested a little while, Dora and I headed out to the Bahia Mall yet again in search for shoes. (of course) Well I ended up buying these amazing Puma shoes from the Ecuador WC selection for 21 dollars, originally 34 here and at a real mall I saw them for
48, so I was happy. Though it wasn´t easy...While barganing, first we got it down to 25 because I´m American and while we argured for less, he said he´d have to talk to his boss. So we found his boss, which unfortunatly was a woman. For some reason, guys lower prices more quickly when dealing with a "mamasita linda." She said that since I was American I´d be able to pay fine. So Dora and I switched to plan B. "Now Dora (who is 26, but really looks 22) is my Ecuadorian mother. She´s 33 and I´m 15, the oldest of three in my family. My gringo father lives in America and we really don´t have that much money..." We´re good. Then I got another pair of shoes--gold dress shoes for 15 dollars, down from 26. My luck continued when I bought a turquoise ring for a dollar. After deciding that was enough money spent for the week, we looked around for a while. I got a new nickname, "Grandota" when a group of guys nearby called after us. They were saying, "look at that tall mami with the little one...she´s just my size..." I´ve learned to ignore it all,
Yum!
Oh, yeah, I can hear your tummy grumblin´ too!! (I almost puked)though when I´m with Dorita, we can´t help but bust out laughing after we pass them. (Her new nickname- La Chicita)
We made one more stop before coming home for the night and that was to pick up a hairbrush for me, since I don´t use one. Dorita´s treat, haha. When we got home, we ate, watching a little TV, and turned in for the night. Since it was so late I figured in the morning I´d sleep in a litte and stay home with Señora Loyola when Señor Loyola went to the market, but I had another thing coming.
SATURDAY (7-8)
I didn´t get to sleep in this morning. I woke up like usual to find out that in stead of going to the market with Señor Loyola, I´d be going to the clinc where Dorita works to help her clean her up a little there. Wow, I was excited-I´d much rather clean a dirty clinic than catch up on sleep, wouldn´t you?
Well we got there at about 8 in the morning. She said her bosses were going to be getting there around 7:30, but they weren´t there. We waited with
Río de Guayas
HUGE river that branches out all over the entire country and heads straight into the Pacific. Magnificant. five other people until 8:30 before Dora lost all patience and stormed away after leaving a long, detailed note to her bosses about the way she feels, etc. I hope she still has a job waiting for her on Monday!
It was breakfast time, we decided and so we pulled into a street and picked up some Salchicha de cerdo rallena de arroz de Pascuales. I´ve never eaten anything that looked that disgusting in my life and yet tasted quite delicious. It took me a lot of courage to eat it at first. The look, the smell, the fact that it was bought on the steet, and the fact that I had to eat this messy food with my dirty hands did not help matters what so ever.
We finished eating and we went to the car garage to see if Dora´s car was ready to go. We were driving the Trooper and Señor Loyola had the new Chevy. Dora´s car was suppose to be ready on Friday at 11 AM, and when we got there, it still wasn´t ready. She didn´t seem to upset, but if that was me, I´d let them have a piece of my
B´day Baby
Me with the Birthday boy who is happy to hold up three fingers now when asked "¿Cuanto años tienes?" Congrats to the Little Correa! mind! Especially since we drove past the house a good 15 minutes only to turn right back around for nothing. But I guess that´s just a little of my daddy rubbing off on me.
Since the Salchica wasn´t plentiful, we stopped at MegaMaxi to eat inside at Sweet & Coffee. I had a great cappachino with a sandwhich before heading back to the house again.
When we arrived, the Loyolas we out shopping, so we hung out till the got home. After putting away the groceries and folding the bags, we left. The Loyolas were very impressed that I knew how to fold a plastic bag before anyone had to teach me. Thanks to Mommy!
Lunch was served to us at the Salon Vegetariano Chino. I had sopa de frigol con garallo y queso de soja first and followed that with arroz integral, ensalada de melloco, ensalada brocoli con chocho, carne de soja, and jugo de melón.
Jorge Louis called wanting to hang out, so we met him back at the house and he had his two girls with him, Gigi and Andrea. Dora and I left with them to go to Riocentro for the afternoon. It was a lot of fun, though I was kind of sad that we wasted such a sunny day indoors. I would´ve much rathered us going to the pool, but at Riocentro we played a lot of games in the arcades place. We ate some ice cream, Andrea got her face painted, and we ate at Burger King before we left! I think today was the day I ate the most...
SUNDAY (7-9)
After church this morning me, Dorita, and Sr./Sra. Loyola went to Cevicheria to eat encebollado for breakfast. It was basically a soup with rice in it and bread on the side. Filling, indeed.
We went home real quick to change clothes before hittin the long, long road ahead of us. Today we travel. Our destination, Milagro. This is where Mamá Luz lives, Señor Loyola´s mother. We also visited his sister who was there too. Great, great people!
On the way to Milagro, we passed through many towns and cities such as Duran, Cone, El Deseo. We than went over Rios de Monos before hitting Venesia, Naranjito, San Francisco (where Bonita bananas is), San Jose (Dole bananas), over Rio Milagro, through El Rosario, over both Rio Alegre and Rio Chague, through Bucay, into the Provincia Chimborazo and through Charguayaco, San Pablo, and Cumanda. What an adventure! The mountains were an amazing site. I´ve never been so out of breath by beauty. It was shocking! The Cordillera de los Andes. Most beautiful mountains I´ve ever seen.
We finally stopped in at Pallatanga and ate at a resturaunt called Bo-Pan and had Menestra y Carne for lunch. We got to enjoy our meal in front of the World Cup final game. Italy proves to be crazy again and claims victory over the French in penalties! Though sadly, I only got to watch about 30 minutes of it. I was excited to watch good soccer, though I wasn´t too excited by two teams who made it to the finals. The only thing France had going for them in my eyes was Zidane. When we got inside the resturanut, the game was already 13 minutes underway and Zidane had already put one in the back of the net. I was impressed, though I was hoping for Italy between the two. That´s why I cheered extra loud when I watched Italy score off a corner with a beautiful header! Way to go! I guess when I get back home I´ll have to watch the game with my brother...
Well, we turned back towards Guayaquil, though we made sure we didn´t go back home the same way we came. We headed over Rios Chanchan and Elvira, before passing through San Joaquin, Santa Martha, El Triunfo, and El Achoite. Amazing experience! We stopped frequently to visit the markets they all had, and I saw my first big and lamb slaughtered and cooking before my own eyes. Wasn´t too appatizing...and I know I had to stand out to the locals as "the white one holding her nose, looking like she´s about to throw up." I´m gonna try to work on that.
Finally we made it home and I couldn´t have been more happy. Señor Loyola made us the famous drink of Riobamaba called, Canelazo. It´s taken warm, and it´s quite delicious. Tasting something like minty herbs with whisky. I had two glasses. One for me and one for my State Trooper Uncle, haha. After Señor Loyola polished off his mug, we had a great heart-to-heart talk that I wish I could share with you, but is very personal.
After deciding to call it a day, well all headed upstairs. Sr. and Sra. Loyola to bed, Dorita to the TV, and me to the computer. It´s great to hear from all my caring family and friends. You all mean so much to me and I really appreciate how much you all care. Thanks for all the support! It´s hard being in a different country with different customs and language. Nothing is familiar and I didn´t know anyone prior to coming. It´ll be great when I get to see all of you again, and hopefully some of you will be coming to see me! I´d be great to see you, titi! Though always remember, despite how much I miss you all, I don´t wish I was in Harrisonburg. I wish you all were here and enjoying this beautiful country and new experiences half as much as I am. Because even then, with only half as much fun, it´ll keep you similing for months. I´m really having a great time and I love you all dearly and pray everything is well with you all.
MONDAY (7-10)
Well last night the Internet kicked me out while I was using it and wouldn´t let me back in, so I wasn´t able to publish my blog for you all. I´m sure you all cried...though, now you´ve got Monday in with the story as well! Yay! Though today was not very exciting at all.
During school I taught Kindegarten and sixth grade and squeezed in a little time to email my parents before we came back to the house for a yummy lunch.
Like noraml we all rested afterwards and when we got up, we went to Central Guayaquil to do a little shopping. We as in Sr & Sra Loyola and I. It was awesome because on the way back home we stopped in at Policentro to pick up some bread and moracho. Now that is what I call good. Don´t worry, Mom, I´ll learn how to make it before coming back so when we have moracho at home it´ll truly be Ecuadorian!
We enjoyed eating our food after getting home and I did a little picked up in my room/bathroom before Dorita came home. We watched a little TV and then I sadly had to leave her to write and publish my blog to stop the tears in my hometown back in the big n´bad USofA. So save a tree, spare a tissue, and I´ll talk to you all soon.
Until next time,
Shir
<3
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Shir
Shirlina MaC
Hi daddy's girl...
I love you!