New Apartment!

9-22 Mitad del mundo

I went to the Mitad del mundo with some language corps girls Theresa, Colleen, Clair, Laura and our Irish friends that we have met here, Meadhbh (prounounced Mave) and Fillum. The bus trip was only about 45 minutes but when we got there, Clair, Laura and I felt a little weird. Maybe it was the equatorial forces working their magic on us. So we skipped the Mitad del mundo monument because it apparently cost like $7 and is only the monument (which isn’t even on the equator). The monument was originally thought to be on the equator but about 10 years ago when GPS came out, it was discovered that the mitad del mundo really wasn’t at the mitad.

We opted for the really cheesy museum which actually was on the mitad. At this place we did all these “science experiments” where we balanced eggs on nails (I failed at this) made water spin clock wise and counter clockwise depending on what hemisphere you were on, and we lifted people with our fingers because we were on the equator and apparently you loose tons of weight here. I have to admit the egg thing was pretty cool and I’ll have to go back and actually balance it. But the other stuff was completely fake and our tour guide made it sound like real science, so I was not really thrilled about being tricked.

What was cool though was that we were at the mitad on the 22 (a day before the equinox). We couldn’t actually go on the 23^rd because we had classes, but it was still fun.

Afterwards we were supposed to go to Quitofest – which is this big music festival, but none of us ended up going because the sun took so much out of us.

9-24

On Wednesday I taught my first two hour class. It was on fairy tales. The students listened to a scene from Shrek then we practiced writing. One of my activities was a chain story meaning everyone writes two lines of a story then switches their paper and we keep going around in a circle for like 10 minutes writing 2 lines of a story at a time. They came up with some really funny stuff. One of the girls in my class is a big Tim Burton fan so she mostly came up with really creepy stuff but it was a very successful activity. My lesson went pretty well and now I’m not really as nervous teaching 2 hour classes.

9-25

Was our last day of practice teaching and our students threw us a party. I thought they were just going to say thank you or whatever but they ended up buying us pizza and giving us these really cool bags. We had a dance party on the terrace of the experiment and the Teachers taught them how to dance to rap music. I was really entertained because they tried to teach us salsa ( I still haven’t quite got the moves for that yet) and then we tried to show them how to bob to rap music and they had a hard time for them. I think it was just too easy for them to put one hand up in the air and bend their knees.

What was really cool was that since classes were over I was finally able to speak to them in Spanish and I think my Spanish is getting tons better. But we were also talking and I said that I had been taking some Kichua classes (the indigenous language here) and they thought that was funny that I spoke it and they didn’t since they lived here.

9-26 last day of TESOL and graduation, trip, debate

Friday was our last day of TESOL. We did really do much except that we had a graduation ceremony and a fulfilled a lifetime dream of tripping while receiving my diploma. It was very satisfying.

After that we watched the presidential debate in the mariscol (the tourist sector of Quito where all the gringos hang out). But since the election was on Sunday the lay seca (dry law) was in full affect and almost all of the bars were closed – meaning la mariscol was empty. Empty except for the restaurant we went to- Uncle Ho’s. It was one of the only places showing the debate and was full with other people from the States, it was soooooooo crowded. I really couldn’t see the TV but I got the gist of it. The food took forever but it was well worth the wait. I’ll probably go back there for the next debate.

9-27

Saturday I moved out of my host family’s apartment. I really liked them but since I’ve lived on my own at college it was kind of hard to get used to living with another family especially since they were super protective and didn’t even want me to ride the bus by myself. But they were super sweet and very welcoming; I will miss having my lunches packed for me every day.

So my apartment is awesome. I live with Laura and Claire. Phillip, Lisa and Colleen live directly under us and Andrea and her fiancé live above us. The other people that live in the building are from language corp as well. They are really excited to have us move in and they’ve been giving us all sorts of tips about where to go shopping and what not. My room is really cool because it’s painted blue and may actually be the same color as my room in the states. I have a huge window that takes up one whole wall. It’s not the best view of the city but I have lots of light and nothing is blocking my view of the sky. But the best part of my apartment is that we each have our own bathrooms in our rooms. Mine is huge! I really like it and I think its just going to make living here so much fun. I’ll include pictures once I clean my room and I’m no longer embarrassed by the mess.

Of course now that I’m living on my own and I get cook for myself. I am pretty excited about that because I’ve been craving a salad for weeks. So to stock up, Claire and I went to this market that sells fruits and vegetables. It’s really cool and kind of reminds me of the market in Spain that I went to except the one here doesn’t sell freshly murdered chickens. But basically at this market I bought a dozen tomatoes, lettuce, bananas, a pineapple, cucumbers, eggplant, broccoli and grapes for under $5 and its all super fresh.

To get other stuff we had to go to a real grocery store but that was just across the street. I’m still trying to figure out how to buy milk. I bought some the other day in a box. I think it tastes like coffee cream, but Claire says it tastes like 1%. I’ll have to take her word for it seeing as how I usually drink

skim anything with fat tastes like coffee cream to me anyways.

We also went shopping at mega maxi so that we could get clothes hangers and pillows. Mega maxi is probably the biggest store I’ve ever seen. It’s inside a mall but there are more stores inside it. It is absolutely crazy. You can find anything you can imagine in here but it is insanely expensive. By expensive I mean that everything is probably the same price (except electronics which I’m sure are twice as much) as in the States. Since I’ll be living on $600 a month I think I’ll have to avoid this store.

9-28

Sunday I was so exhausted so I stayed in my pj’s and watched movies all day. I didn’t even want to cook so Phil and Claire went out and bought a pizza for all of us. We had a chill time doing nothing.

9-29

Today I have nothing to do. Laura, Phil and Theresa left for the beach yesterday. It’s a 12 hour bus ride so I figured I would skip this trip until I found some Dramamine. Lisa and Theresa are starting their first day of work at the high school. And Claire and I are enjoying doing nothing. We’re going to go for a walk later to explore our neighborhood. Other than that, I guess I’m just working on getting settled in.