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Published: March 24th 2005
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This is going to be much easier than sending group emails. A quick overview. I am living in Quito for 2 months, until the beginning of May and then I am going to the Galapagos for a month. I am teaching English at a school near my house. Everymorning I walk down a steep hill and then down another street for two blocks. The kids at my school are between the ages of 2 and 5. It is basically a preschool, but they actually teach them, especially English. The kids know all their colors and numbers up to 10 and other random words and phrases. I like going because no one there speaks English (excpect for the director who speaks a little), and I am not tempted to speak English. Something I am afraid I do a little too much. Regardless, my Spanish is getting much better and I am going to work more and more on speaking only Spanish.
Que mas...Alright, so the people I am currently living with. The woman who runs the house, and is actaully the directer of the volunteer program in Ecuador, is named Mariana. She is the age of my parents. She has a son
named Michael who is 25 and still lives at home. This is not uncommon here, but in Michael´s case, it is not good. He needs to get out on his own, enough said about that. Then, Michael has a daughter who lives at the house named Johanna. She is either 5 or 6, there is a disagreement about this. It´s a sore subject. She is really cute, but annoying just like a little sister. She touches everything in my room and doesnt understand when I want to be alone. There is also a dog, well actually two. The older on, princess, is very sick and smells bad. So we kind of forget about her, sad. The new puppy is named Mony. There are also two parakeets and some chickens, which is where we get our eggs.
So food here, we eat two big meals, and one small one. It is a little difficult because I am used to snacking all the time. We eat a big breakfast at the table. It usually consists of eggs, toast with great jelly (pineapple is my favorite), tea, some very thick homemade fruit juice, and really really good bread. Then, at about 2:00 we
eat lunch, which is always a couple of courses. We have soup first. The soup is some kind of soup with vegetables and potatoes, spinach (which is my favorite) or tomato which i like a lot too. Then, we have a plate full of food. There is always rice, which I never eat all of and then some other stuff. French fries, potato, pasta, fake meat, guacamole, this potatoe pancake thing with cheese, stuff like that. One interesting and slightly annoying thing is that there are basically two kinds of cheeses here, table cheese and cooking cheese. To me they are the same. flavorless and chewy. Well, I found a couple stores where I can buy really good aged cheeses, Michael thinks I am gross. Then, sometimes we eat a small dinner at the house and if we are out we grab something then.
So, today I had my last Spanish lesson. This is sad because I love the teacher, Gaby, but it is also nice because my afternoons with by free. This week is the Semana Santa, its a holiday here and so I didnt have school today and I do not have school tomorrow. Gaby came to the house at 9, and I was still asleep, I swear my alarm never went off, oops. She we reviewed subjunctive, and then we went to El Panecillo. This is a really high place in Quito where you can see the whole city. There is a statue of a virgin with 7 different names. She comes from Incan tradition and has been incorporated into Catholism. This was really fun and it was interesting to hear all the stories about this area and the legands about Quito. Including one about gold that existed here during Incan times and has dissapeared, no one knows where it is. I met someone who was convinced he could find it and spent days in a valley exploring caves, only to be unsuccessfull. Jess and I then explored old town (the old part of Quito), got lunch, and walked to this internet cafe which is where the clubs are that we usually go to at night. I have to head back to the house right now, but this will be my new form of communication. PLease still email me if you want to. I hope everything for everyone is going well.
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