Advertisement
So I have told most of you about our time in Quito, our wonderful Christmas experience at the local shelter, and our exciting out of town travel adventures, but now I would like to give you a glimpse into our daily lives here in Cuenca, Ecuador.
Today our first alarm went off at 6:15 a.m.—three alarms later Chris is up, out of bed and doing push-ups. I’m still half asleep, grateful to be able to stretch out and go back to whatever dream I was having. All year Christopher has had a 7a.m. class, whereas I don’t start until 1 p.m.
After Chris leaves, and I fall back asleep, another alarm doesn’t sound until 8 a.m.—my hour for exercise. Today I did the outdoor aerobics class at Parque de la Madre (“mother park”) which is just around the corner from our apartment. But let me tell you, this isn’t just any aerobics class, no no, aerobics in Ecuador, at Mother Park, costs thirty-cents and is performed to the blasting beat of reggaeton (basically a Latin rap with salsa, rumba and meringue beats) and the majority of the exercisers are women in their mid forties, wearing sweat
bands and spandex. Yes, sweat bands. So my two friends from the university and I bounce to the beat, standing a head taller than everyone else, and being the least graced with the gift of “rhythm”. On the days we aren’t reggaeton aerobicing, we are jogging around the park, getting passed by Olympic medal winning speedwalker Jefferson Perez and his followers (yes, he really did win a medal for speed-walking!)
Usually after rocking to the reggaeton, or jogging with the walkers, I come home and prepare for my two classes (advanced intermediate English and a TOEFL II prep course) grading homework and then doing my own homework for Spanish class. I have been taking Spanish classes through the University of Cuenca’s “Spanish Language Program for Foreigners” It is an excellent program that has significantly helped me learn the basics of the language and equipped me to better express myself in Spanish. Throughout the year I have taken courses 3-4 days a week with a wonderful Ecuadorian teacher named Rosa. (Please email me if you want more info on the program!) And usually when I am in my Spanish class, Chris is doing his own studying, grading, or (for
those of you who know him, and his opposition to early mornings, this one’s obvious) napping!
The Intensive English courses that we teach are about 6 weeks long, 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, and we tend to have about 14-20 students. I have taught the 6th level nearly the whole year, so I receive new students every cycle, but Chris follows his students from level 7 to level 8 and right now has had the same group of students for the last few months and they have all grown to be pretty close. The university students here in Ecuador are wonderful. They are so sweet, respectful, and very eager to learn English. Many of them have dreams to travel through Europe, or to one day study or work in the United states, while others want to work for a travel agency or open their own hostel here in Ecuador. Because of all these ambitions, learning English seems a very practical, useful, and necessary tool for them to advance personally, professionally and economically. They always want to learn anything and everything we can teach them, and are often curious about culture, customs, habits, and the big
one--why people in the United States don’t like to spend a lot of time with their family, but do like fast food....that's a tough one to answer!
Through our students Chris and I have gained a wonderfully unique perspective of our "United States life," and how it could be different. Living here we have also had the chance to try out that different way of living; to spend weekends with each other, our own little family, or with the family’s of our students. Being here has slowed us down a lot and taught us to appreciate every moment of our time together and to really look forward to cherishing every moment we will have with our families when we get back to the states.
After I teach my 1 o’clock class, and if I am not heading to the shelter, Chris and I both have free time. We use this time to catch up on emails, make some lunch, go on walks, or go to the market to replenish our stock of fruits and veggies. Today we went to the 10 de Augusto market, a HUGE market full of stand after stand of indigenous men or
women selling every fruit, vegetable and/or grain that you can imagine. There is also a substantial “Carnes” section where various animal parts (mostly cows, chickens and pigs) hang from the tops, sides and corners of the market stand and the flies, discovering the haven, hover nearby…we try to avoid this section. At the market we can buy a wealth of mangoes, papayas, bananas, tomatoes, avocadoes, squash, beans and carrots (not like Grandpa K’s carrots, but still pretty good!) all for just a few dollars total. Since moving out of our host family’s house Chris and I have become quite the cooks and have a lot of fun picking out fresh fruits and veggies for that night’s meal.
Another favorite freetime activity is to stop by one of the hundreds of DVD stores, where we can buy just about any DVD, new or old, for just a buck and a half. We have become slightly obsessed with this pastime and our movie collection has grown more than either of us would have expected when planning our move to Ecuador! Our other guilty pleasure resides near the park...It is a small, but locally famous, little empanada y morrocho kiosk where
Chris buys his favorite Ecuadorian snack, empanadas. Empanadas are a fried bread pocket filled with chicken, cheese, plantains, or carne con vegetales. I’m not a fan of the empanadas, but I love the warm corn drink,morocho, that they serve! Chris and I will sure miss that little local hangout, and I know Chris's heart will sometimes long for his other love, the little woman on campus who sells empanadas from her basket (yes, from a basket on her arm ,and he eats them and loves them!)
The university is just a 5-10 minute walk along the river from our apartment, or a 10 minute walk from downtown (across the river). We live in a super central location and have become accustomed to walking anywhere and everywhere we need to go: school, work, the parkthe market, the gym, the post office, net cafes, or our favorite vegetarian restaurant.
In the evenings, Chris and I either have our five o’clock staff meeting at the University, or have an hour more of free time, until we teach our night classes. Our night classes are much smaller (about 5 students each) and we have had the same students all semester,
or in Chris’s case, all year. I teach a TOEFL preparation course (testing of English as a foreign language) and most of my students are professionals, or students hoping to obtain a master’s degree from an English speaking country and are taking my course to help them pass the necessary TOEFL test. Chris also teaches professionals in his Professional Conversation class, and his students usually want to better their English to help them in their jobs. Our night classes are a lot of fun, but I have to say, it took us a while to get used to students twice our age calling us “teacher” or “professor”!
We finish up our night classes by 830 and then usually head to a nearby gym (Christopher is the Arnold Schwarzenegger of Cuenca!) and then come home to make a late dinner.
And that is a typical day in Ecuador for us! We love it here in Cuenca, and have really become accustomed to the “tranquillo” rhythm of life. Although we look forward to returning to our friends and family back home (two more weeks!), and starting the next chapter of our lives in Denver, Colorado, we will miss
the time we had together here.
As always, we love and miss you all, and thank you for all the ways in which you have supported us a made this year possible!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0423s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb