A New Adventure Begins

So my last post talked about the last weeks in the schools, which was a bitter sweet ending for me: sad to leave the kids but excited Anik is now here and that I get to really experience this country! We finished with the schools last Friday, which we followed with a group celebration for being done. We spent the night at a karaoke bar with Carlos´ cousin and some of her friends. Let me tell you I´m not sure there are worse karaoke singers out there but at least we had a blast. At the end of the night we went down to the basement of the bar, which is more like a bar with live music. We were casually hanging out when the singer, who turned out to be the owner of the bar, warmly welcomed us and played the song Ï´m Yours by Jason Mraz. I guess we´re really noticeable or something. :) So we all got up and danced to the song and really enjoyed ourselves! Some locals in the bar even took pictures of us so we´re kind of a big deal I guess. haha. The bar owner came up after and told us to come back to the bar and he´d throw us a good party and then thanked us for coming that night. The only unfortunate thing of the night was we got home around 1:00am or so and had to get up at 5:00am to catch a flight to Manta! but it was worth it.

So Saturday rolled around, we all got up and headed to the airport. I think we were at the airport for 6:00, which was 2 hours early for our flight. It was an inter-country flight but with the problems on the way up we wanted to be early getting there. Turns out security here is pretty laid back and we got through without a hitch (I guess there´s a first for everything!). Most of the group was pretty hung over but they toughed it out. We loaded the plane from the tarmac, which is a first for me! It was also the shortest flight I´ve ever been on, only about 1/2 an hour. By the time you got in the air you were starting your descent! We got into Manta around 9:00am, checked into our hostel and then napped. After a nice little nap, we went down to the hostel pool and swam and tanned. Manta is SO hot but we enjoyed it. After a while we decided to go to a beach where we had lunch and then walked up the beach and lazed. There were tonnes of kite surfers at this beach but not many people. It was actually really nice! We had supper there and watched the sun go down and then went back to the hostel where we were all exhausted so had an early night. The next few days we spent at a more touristy beach that was sooooo beautiful. We literally spent from 10 or 11 am until 6:30pm at the beach every day eating lunch and dinner there. The seafood was amazing, the ocean was warm, the beach was beautiful and there were lots of little shops to buy souvenirs from. The one day some of the guys played soccer with some locals and actually won! Go figure! The guys also decided to buy these tight short swim trunks, basically speedos but in short short form. I was on the beach with Jen when they bought them. We saw them coming back, since we can pick our group out easily from anywhere, and I was thinking they bought new swim shorts with white bottoms. It turns out they were wearing the tight short short swim trunks and the white part was their glowing white legs. hahahaha what a site for sore eyes they were! Overall, Manta was very relaxing and I truly enjoyed the beach time. I´ve never been to a beach like that or spent so many days lazing in the sand going in and out of the ocean!

Also on an upside, my bites on my legs from Mindo are finally starting to heal. Initially my bites were swollen the least but after a few days of putting Caladryl (a local remedy for bites) and benedryl on my legs they actually got worse. I think I had an allergic reaction to one of the cremes but I wasn´t sure which one. They were so itchy and so red I didn´t know what to do! But I stopped using the cremes and I think the ocean and sun helped. They´re still noticeable but at least they´re going down!

By the time we got back to Quito on Wednesday, Anik was already here. He´d been staying in our hotel since our rooms were still there but we weren´t in them. I was happy to see him to say the least! He´d already toured down town Quito by himself, gotten Galapagos tour estimates, and taken a 1 hour spanish lesson. What a guy! Once the group got back to the hotel, everyone had to make sure they were all packed to make the trip home the next day and then it was time to celebrate and say our goodbyes. Interestingly, we had met an American from the navy on our trip back from Manta who had a long lay over in Quito, so he joined us for a little fun. Turns out he got stupid drunk and verified the stereotype of an American navy type. I´m not sure if that comment will get me in trouble but its not my fault that he acted the way I would expect him to! He was probably mid 30´s and spent the night trying to pick up one of the girls on our trip haha. We went back to the same karaoke bar from the night before Manta and had a good time doing some more terrible singing. He came along and even though we warned him he should be at the airport at least 2 hours before his international flight home, he didn´t end up leaving until after 10:30pm and his flight was around 11:30. After he left we thought we´d be rid of him,but as luck would have it, as we were leaving the karaoke bar to head home around 1:00am he pulled up in a cab. Turns out he did miss his flight and was mad about it! What! You stupid idiot! And he got a hotel room in our hotel. Ohhhhh lord. None of us wanted him around anymore but since he had a hotel room in our hotel, what could we do. I went with one crew to try and pick up some after-bar food while the rest headed back. I guess they ended up ditching him by sending him to his room and saying they´d come get him if they decided to party more, and then they all hung out in one room together with the door locked! Whew!

So the group left Thursday morning at 4:00am (so most didn´t sleep) but Anik and I got to sleep in at the hotel. We had a lazy morning, went for breakfast with Andrew and Justin (who were leaving for a Galapagos trip on Friday) and then spent time deciding what hostel we´d go to . We found a place called Blue House that sounded sweet. We had an interesting cab ride here, as it´s apparently hard to find, but we made it. Unfortunately they were full but the guy sent us to a hostel two doors down and said we could have a room for tomorrow night. We went to this other hostel which was super sketch. It had a bed and our own bathroom but.... yeah. I wouldn´t stay another night there. We were glad to come to Blue House this morning. I´m also glad the people at this hostel speak English. Our hostel last night didn´t offer breakfast in the morning but Blue House said since we were staying the next night we could come back this morning and have their free breakfast. So nice!! Anyways, so after checking in and putting our bags down yesterday we decided to go see about the Galapagos tours. There was one company that had a catamaran that was used for the boat tour but it was out of commission. We went back there to see if she had anything else cool and she got us a really good deal. We booked a 5 day boat tour and decided to spend 2 days on the islands ourselves to see hammerhead sharks, a flamingo lagoon, and a volcano that has penguins living on it. I loved the woman that booked our trip. She spoke excellent English but had the passion of a true south american woman. She was so interesting to interact with! The boat we have has 16 people on it, and we have our own room with a real bed (as opposed to the bunk beds) with our bathroom and even a little sitting area in our room. It´s apparently a ¨first class yacht¨used for these tours so hopefully its as nice as it sounds!! We leave on Sunday! So soon but I guess we got a last minute deal. With that out of the way we spent the rest of the day napping in the hotel and then met Andrew and Justin for supper and drinks. The sleep in the hostel was interesting, noisy, hard beds, and soooo uncomfortable but I survived.

So far today we got up from our hostel and packed our bags back up, paid the remainder of our Galapagos trip, and then moved into the Blue House hostel. We had breakfast here as well and met a couple of guys from London that just got in last night. We spent the afternoon going for lunch at a great Italian place, then wandering the streets making our way towards a park. We were able to chill in the park for a while and just people watch. We´re now back at the hostel just hanging out. I know the Galapagos tour might be draining so I´m happy for a few relaxing days. We plan to head to Otavalo by bus tomorrow, which may be an adventure in itself, and then see what the rest of the day holds.

Sunday we head to Galapagos for a total of a week so I won´t be blogging for at least a week! Hopefully when I get back I can upload some pictures of the islands. I´m ridiculously excited!

I Will Miss You!

We've been so busy lately it has been hard to post! I haven't forgotten about it.. it's just that the amount of time I have to post has decreased. Last week marked our final week in the schools. On Monday and Tuesday we started telling the students that these were our last days. In Zambiza, the 2nd and 3rd year Bachillerato classes, which is equivalent to grades 11 and 12, have a sort of practicum on Thursdays and Fridays so we let them know that Wednesday would be our last day with them. The 3rd year class is the one that I connected with the most and enjoyed spending time with the most. Their English was the best for our school and we were able to communicate the most. On Tuesday, one of our facilitators had a presentation with all the teachers so Justin and I were left in charge of the entire school. Luckily for us that's only about 80 kids. Justin took the grade 9's since their English is the worst and his Spanish is better than mine and because he admits he connects better with them. I took the 2nd and 3rd years since they're so much more mellow and easier to handle!! We had stuff planned until the break, which is at 10 am because we assumed the teachers would be back. I took my grades out to the courtyard and taught them the Boot Scootin Boogie! (I swear the kids down here are going to think its our national dance! haha) They seemed to have a good time and some caught on really quickly. We played some dodgeball then headed back into the classroom. I had them work on an "About Me" that was in English. I gave them some examples to use and had them write it out on looseleaf first so I could correct it. After that, we supplied colored paper, glitter pens, markers, pencil crayons and stickers for them to decorate their About Me with. I have to say the students here never complain about anything and are always willing to do what we ask. They're also very particular with their school work so their work books are immaculate. I've never seen such neatly kept books. Whenever we have them work on something that has to do with coloring or decorating, they really go to town. They put in so much effort! It was fantastic plus I got to learn a lot about them. So many of them want to be doctors, nurses, vets, or engineers of some sort. One even wants to be an English translator!
Once they were finished their About Me's some of them asked what I was going to do with them. I said I didn't know (since it was just an activity to keep them busy) but they told me they wanted me to take them back to Canada with me, so that's what I plan to do. It was break time so we all went out to eat and play games. The teachers still weren't back after the break so we had to improvise a little bit. It ended up that the teacher's didn't come back until 12:00 (which means we spent 5.5 hrs teaching when we thought it'd only be 3! I taught the kids a little about Canada geography and a few stats about the country. I also talked about a few animals, listed all the provinces, and then got the kids to list all the provinces in Ecuador. They didn't actually know how many there were! I was relieved when the teachers came back, that's for sure!

Wednesday was our last day with the older kids, and actually our last day at Zambiza school since we spend Thursday's at Inca and then Friday we were having a school Olympics with Zambiza and Inca vs. Calderone (the school that Justin and Flo were at). I was definitely extremely sad to be leaving the school. We had a day full of English classes, which was a great way to end off the day. We also gave all the kids in the school toothbrushes that were donated by the U of M Dentistry Faculty. It was so nice to be able to give these kids something. We presented the teachers with the supplies we brought down to donate to the school. We learned throughout our trip that supplies are very expensive for the students so we were glad to be able to help! We made sure the teachers understood it was important that the sports equipment be left out for the kids to play with on the break. To be honest, I expected a little more excitement and gratitude from the teachers, I mean we brought an entire hockey bag filled with markers, pencils, erasers, scribblers, binders, etc, but we assume they're used to donations from people that come so I let it slide. Our teachers are also the most shy out of all the schools so its probable they just weren't showing how grateful they were. For the 2nd year class, the teacher had something planned but she said that she wanted us to do something with the class. This class is the most shy, most quiet, and I think she said they have the least motivation. One of them is pregnant and two have new borns at home. We decided we'd play charades with them, in English. They were all quite shy but when we started doing the acting they really got into it. I had such a blast with the class and was glad to see them get excited about something! They're always just sooooo quiet. At the end of the day we had gym class with the 3rd year class. At the end of class we said our goodbyes and told them to stay motivated, so I really hope they do. We got a big group picture with them and then as we were standing around they all swarmed us and gave Justin and I a big group hug. It was amazing! They did this twice so we decided we would swarm them with a hug. After this, we really did have to leave so every one of them gave each of us a hug and said good bye. I could really feel the love from them and I knew I would miss them. I was really sad to think I would never see them again! :(

Thursday we spent at Inca, which was a normal day. It was Andrew and Dana's turn to say goodbye to their kids and they were sad to see them go. And then it was Friday. The Olympics day. We had to do all the organization for this day so we'd all put a little bit of work in. We decided to have events for volleyball, handball, basketball, soccer, puzzles, math, charades, and labelling a body with body parts in English. The day was really busy and a little stressful but it was amazing. All the kids seemed to have a fantastic time and I was glad to get to work with so many. At some points, I felt like I had paparazzi. One kid would ask for a picture and then 5 kids would come out of no where to get a picture of us and then 5 more kids would want a picture. It was unbelievable! The end of the day came and we made sure to get a picture with all the kids and all the teachers we'd been working with. I am so so so sad to leave the English teacher since I got to know her best. She's an amazing teacher and does so much for these kids. She's helped their English so much. We were saying our goodbyes and we had kids coming up to us from all angles presenting us with things. I ended up with an Ecuador bracelet, an origami heart, and a couple of cards. One card is my favourite with a picture of me with the kids and things such as "don't forget Ecuador" and "We'll miss you". I almost cried with the kindness they showed us and the cute things they presented us with. The teachers had lunch with us and then presented us with another card and a table runner with Ecuador on it. I never expected anything!

I have to say my time in the schools was stressful at times but I truly love the students. As one of the teachers told us, "the kids here are kids. They aren't trying to be teenagers or adults or anything but kids" and its true. They participated in everything and I never saw the "I'm too cool" attitude. They appreciated us so much and showed us so much acceptance and worth. They commented our hair and eyes were beautiful and were so interested in us. There's even one kid in the Calderone school that wants to come to University in Canada. His English is better than most other students so I truly hope it happens for him. If I could do it, there's a lot of the students I would bring back to Canada. The unfortunate thing is that its so difficult for them to come to Canada. South Americans need a Visa just to come to Canada for any reason, vacation, school, work etc. They can't just come up like we were able to come here. It's especially difficult since their Visa applications go through Colombia so they find it impossible to come to Canada. It makes me so sad! There's so many amazing people here and I really think Canadians could learn from the warmth of the South American culture.

I really hope this programs continues on in the future. The program never turned out exactly as we, or the facilitators, really thought but it was the first year so we never really knew what was going to happen. The program has a lot of adjustments that need to be made and the schools have a long way to come for the program to be able to continue, but I truly hopes it happens. I wondered if I actually could have made an impact, but from the response of the students I know I was able to. There are people that didn't believe in what I was doing here and were skeptical, and I think the teachers here were skeptical as well, but I KNOW we did something amazing. I know we impacted these students and I hope our goodbye messages that they can do anything sticks with them. I am going to miss the students so much.

If I had someone to stay with me, I'm pretty sure I would stay in Ecuador for at least a year. I love South American culture, and it's not really anything I can explain. You need to come here and experience it for yourself!

Things I Never Thought I'd Do..

This past weekend the group went to Mindo for a little excitement. What an awesome weekend it was! Friday after school, we all packed up our bags and squished all 10 of us into the van for a 2.5 hr ride to Mindo. The scenery along the way was unbelievable (and so was the driving! people passing on a single lane highway around a blind corner. Some very close calls had us on the edge of our seats at times!) Ecuador is honestly just such a beautiful country with rolling mountains and valleys everywhere filled with lush, green forests. Sometimes you feel as though you're in the clouds! We got to Mindo, an extremely small town, and found our hotel that was costing each of us about $20.00 a night. The hotel pretty much had a jungle with a river flowing through it as its backyard and each room had a balcony with a hammock that faced the street or jungle. After settling in, we set out on the town to find a place to eat. There's really only one main road with a few roads that branch off it but its a very touristy town so there aren't really that many people that live there. As we're walking we see the end of the main road blocked off to traffic and tonnes of people so we went to investigate. Apparently there was some sort of festival this weekend that was starting on the friday night so there was a stage set up with a live band playing some sweet tunes and a group of people dancing. The rest of the people were just hanging out listening to the music. We ended up going to a little restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet book. The food was delicious as always and we had a good time. We all had the intention of going out on the town that night but by the end of dinner most of us were exhausted and ready for bed. The weeks here at the school are amazing, but long and tend to wear us down more than we expected. I also think the constant struggle of translating and trying to understand things is extremely wearing. A few of the crew went out to a couple bars in Mindo but most of us went back to our hotel to sleep.

Hiking to the waterfall

Hiking straight down a mountain

Our legs from the bug bites. Ouch!

Our cute room in Mindo

Saturday morning we still got up fairly early and met down in the hotel restaurant for 8:00am. We wanted to do lots of activities during the day so we made sure to be up early. Even getting up at 7:30am is an extra 2 hours of sleep we don't get during the weekdays. We had a good little breakfast and then decided to head to the location that we knew had at least zip lining. We figured if we went early in the morning it'd be better and probably less busy. While at the office, we all decided to go zip lining (called canopying here) followed by a tube ride down the river and then repelling waterfalls (which is called canyoning here). We went zip lining first, which was amazing. I wasn't sure I could do it because I am scared of heights but its so exhilarating and the views are absolutely unbelievable. With this company, there were a few zip lines that you could try different, more challenging positions by going with one of the guides. One was the superman where the guide is behind you and you look like a superman with your legs wrapped around his waist. You go across the zip line in this position, and I didn't think I could do it since you aren't holding onto anything and only your legs are wrapped around the guide but in the end I did it and it was crazy! There was also another position called the butterfly but there was no way in hell I was doing it! The guide goes with again but rides behind you while you're completely upside down with the guide holding your legs up in the air and spread eagled! You're actually in a star fish position upside down while zip lining. A couple people in the group did it and they're crazy!

Ready to go zip lining!

After zip lining we were all sweating pretty good from all the hiking around so we were glad to head for the tubing activity. It was a good thing we had gotten up early because by the time we finished zip lining there were tonnes of people there that had to wait for a while before they could go. We met some Canadians from Vancouver (they were wearing a canucks shirt and so was a member of our group) who we said we'd meet up with later in Mindo. We piled back into the van and headed to the tubing activity. We had all thought it would just be a mellow tube ride down the river where you go by yourself and just relax and do whatever. Boy, we couldn't be more wrong! They had like 8 huge inner tubes tied together with rope that we went down on. We had to go in groups of 4 and each group had 2 "guides" with them. They gave us quick instructions to keep our feet up so they don't hit the rocks, and to hold on tight. That was pretty much it. They told us where to sit in the tubes to try and disperse the weight and off we went down the river. It turned out that "tubing" here is pretty much white water rafting, Ecuadorian style. I've never had so much fun in my life! The guides were in jeans and t-shirts wearing big rubber boots. They would hop on the tubes and then when they wanted to steer us they would hop off, run along the bottom of the river or stop and work to turn the tube then jump back on. Sometimes they'd push off the rocks down the river to keep us controlled. It was seriously nuts. I don't even know how to describe it. It apparently isn't rapids season here, but I definitely don't want to see rapid season because it was a rough ride! Super fun though.

Best pizza ever!

After that rush, we were on our way to the canyoning. When we had signed up for it, I hadn't thought much of it, even though I'm pretty scared of heights. We all piled into a van again and picked up our guides and then headed off. After about a 15 minute ride the van pulls over and they all tell us to get out. We were basically in the middle of no where. We were thinking "okay. so this is the point where they just kill us all and no one ever finds out what happened to us!". Luckily that wasn't the case. They tell us its about a 20 minute hike back into the forest/mountain to get to the waterfalls. So we follow dutifully. We get to this opening and they tell us we need to get harnessed up and that we could leave our bags here. We all get prepared, spray on some bug spray and then follow our guides again. This time, we were heading straight up a mountain. Let me tell you.. I had better be in the best shape of my life after this trip! We've done so many mountain hikes, plus the air is so thin here, it's unbelievable I'm still alive since I hardly exercise at all. We finally got to the top of where we needed to be and then we had to kind of scale our way back down the mountain a bit to get to the waterfall. I can honestly say I'm not meant for rock climbing! We get to the waterfall and it hits me that I was crazy to think I could do this and that's the point when I almost started to cry. I'm afraid of heights! Why would I ever sign up to do this?! It was one of those moments that I often have where I agree to do something without really thinking it through. Luckily for me in my life, everything has worked out for the best for me and this did too. We had very quick instructions from our three guides that basically consisted of "hold the rope here to stop, do this to let more rope go, lean back really far, and spread your legs". IS THAT REALLY ALL YOU'RE GOING TO TELL ME?! I was one of the last people to go and almost cried a couple times thinking about going over that ledge while only being hooked up to one rope. Apparently when you do something like this in Canada, you are attached to two ropes. One is the rope that you use to repel yourself down but the other rope is one that the guide has just incase anything happens. Not in Ecuador! Its you and you alone. If you let go of that rope.. it may not be so good. I finally did it and it actually wasn't so bad. I just didn't let myself look down and focused on where my feet were going. When I got to the bottom, my face probably look like a kids on Christmas morning. I couldn't believe I did and I felt like I did it properly! It was amazing. It's not like it was a huge waterfall but as you got half way down it,  the water started running over you and it was just such an exhilarating feeling. I think the first waterfall was about 12 meters high. High enough for me! Once everyone had gone down, we went down another one and then a third one. So much fun! I'm still so proud of myself for doing it. One unfortunate thing about this part of the day was the little itty bitty black flies. We didn't know it at the time but it turns out we're still suffering from their bites. Although their bites hurt at the time and we could see they made us bleed, we had no idea they'd swell up so bad, be so itchy, and last for about a week. Most of us look like we have chicken pox!

Once we got back from canyoning, we all took a much needed shower and then decided to head to a "frog concert". Just outside Mindo, there is this guy who rebuilt some marsh area that used to be farm land. Within 5 years, its grown into quite a forest with many animals now living there. It's called a frog concert because at 6:30pm all you can hear are frogs, and all different types of frogs. It was really quite neat. The guy told us how he started the project and that he actually never brought any frogs into the area, they just came themselves after he had built the area up. There's now many species of frogs, toads, spiders, etc living there. We got to take a tour of the area and they showed us this type of wood that actually naturally glows in the dark. It contains some sort of bacteria and its not very well studied yet at all but it literally looks like you're holding it under a black light. So amazing! It reminded me of the forest at night in Avatar.

We headed back into Mindo after the concert, and were all starving. By this point, Saturday had been an extremely full day so we felt like having some pizza. Best pizza I've ever had. Seriously! So good! I wish I could have eaten it every day when we were there. The guys met up with some guys from Britain we'd met at the frog concert and decided to have another night on the town. Because of the festival, there was a "Miss Mindo" competition the guys planned on scoping out. I wanted to go out but was so burnt out I couldn't do it. Man am I ever old!

Although I wish Sunday had been a nice relaxing day, we'd been talked into taking a hike to try and see a toucan with a guide that is originally from the US. We had to be ready to go by 6 am because once the sun comes out, the birds hide from the heat. We got up, piled into the back of the bush and headed up the mountain. Unfortunately, we didn't see any toucans but we did see some birds and had an incredible hike through the forest down the mountain. There was another instance of rock climbing at a certain part down the mountain and I have to say I haven't gotten any better at it, but I survived.

We got back to the hotel, got some time to relax and then piled all 10 of us back into the van to head back to Quito. We were all exhausted from our weekend and pretty much slept the rest of the way. I have to say that Mindo was one of those weekends I will never forget. I may even have to get a tattoo just to commemorate doing the things I never thought I'd do. To be honest, I may not have been able to do them if it hadn't been for the amazing group of people I'd been with. They've seen my fears on this trip and have always been supportive and willing to help in any way possible. They've been there to go down before me just to make me feel better, and at the waterfall they were cheering me on the entire way down. I'm almost done with this group and I will definitely be thinking of them during my back packing trip.. I will have to keep their encouraging words in my mind to help me get through!

Feeling the Love

Wow. It's been a while since I've blogged. I feel I have so much to blog about!! Monday at the school was an interesting day. We've found it interesting that sometimes teachers don't show up so we end up teaching something. On Monday, we were in computer class with the grade 9's. They were creating web pages for Mother's Day (have I said they create webpages using html formatting? and it's in English? So interesting!). Justin and I went around class looking at them and talking to the students since the teacher had left class. At the end of class, everyone had left except Justin and I and these two shy girls. They call us over to their computer and they show us a quick little webpage they had made for Justin and I. It had a picture of a dozen roses and a picture of a heart with a written part that said "For Justin and Sara from Lourdes and Natalie. Because we love them." Or something like that. I almost cried! How sweet! We said mucho gracis and then Justin asked if they wanted a hug and they both nodded so we hugged both of them and then they ran off to class. It really showed me how much of an effect we've had on them, especially since I felt like we weren't having an effect at all! It really gave me more determination to try harder to communicate with these kids. The rest of the week at the school was fairly normal. Some teachers didn't show up so we ended up teaching the kids some more. Luckily, we always have things in our back pocket.

One thing that we've found to be a challenge is sickness! We all knew we it was a possibility but I think all of us have had something. A couple of the group have had to miss some classroom days because they're so sick. I've had a bit of a stomach flu and then a cold so its taken its toll but we're all trying to keep our energy up!

Our Moma Oso (Meghan) left us today (Monday) so last week we threw her a going away. We went away to Mindo this weekend so we wanted to do something in the hotel for her. We set it up so we had a bbq on the roof and the hotel helped us set it up. We bought all the food and set some tables up on the roof and decorated them all nice. While we were waiting for her on the roof, not even knowing she was coming, we had to have a bit of a dance party because we were all so cold! She did eventually show up and was so surprised she cried! She said she couldn't remember the last time she was actually surprised and she had no idea about it. It was great! We had bbq'd corn on the cob, a salad, hamburgers, veggies and potatoes done on the bbq, wine! A good american meal. It was seriously delicious! We had another surprise for her after supper. We bought a pinata and hung it up for her and made her hit all the candy out. Ohhhh such a good night.

Otavalo & the Middle of the WORLD!

We had a such a great weekend this past weekend! We were all in bed fairly early on Friday as it had been a long day and we knew that Saturday at the market would be a long day. I find the school days quite exhausting, especially the days when we're teaching or participating in P.E. (Cultura fisica). On Saturday, we got to sleep in (8:00am! wooo) although most of us are so used to being up at 5:30 that we woke up earlier. It takes about 2 hours to drive to Otavalo, which is basically a huge market town. We were able to stop at a little tourist shop that had an amazing view of the mountains! You could also pay some money to pet a little llama, but I never did.

This is at that location. So beautiful. This is what Ecuador seems to look like everywhere. Green mountains covered in clouds at the top with sprawling houses. So gorgeous.

We continued on and eventually got to Otavalo. Just a town made of a huge market! So unbelievable. We mostly stuck together so that we could buy things together. The guys all got poncho's, which look amazing I must say. I was able to pick up some things for myself as well as for my lucky friends back home! Don't worry friends, I was thinking of you! Things are extremely cheap here and we're lucky enough that our driver and his son came with us and were so helpful with the bargaining. It was actually hilarious to watch. Oh what gringo's we are! They have some really beautiful art here that I would love to buy but have no way of transporting home. They also have so many beautiful little trinkets with so much detail and the alpaca blankets are the softest thing you've ever felt! So amazing. After the market, we headed to another town close by that's the leather market but I can't remember the name of the town. You walk down the streets of this town and there's just store after store after store of leather jackets, shoes, and purses. It's sooooo cheap but is definitely legit leather. Luckily I didn't bring my visa with me and I was out of cash so I didn't buy anything, although I would have loooooved to buy a beautiful leather jacket. Maybe when Anik gets here we'll go back! We had lunch at another delicious little restaurant (I just can't get over how good the food is here) and then we were headed back to Quito. Our driver, Oswaldo, told us he has a surprise for us. He pulls over on the side of the road and tells us to get out. He then explains that we are in the middle of the world and are quite literally standing on the equator. Whaaat?! Craziest thought ever. He then explained a few little tricks to us.

 This is Dana and I standing on the one side of the equator. On this side, she's pushing down and my arms and I'm fighting it but she could easily push my arms down.

 In this picture, we're on the other side of the equator. You can see the red line in the background, the one close to Dana and I. On this side of the equator she couldn't push my hands down so matter how hard she tried. Seriously! I know it sounds insane but it's actually true.

This is how I felt when I realized that she couldn't push my hands down. Seriously. Oddest feeling ever that moving one foot made such a difference. Apparently it has to do with gravity at this point in the earth. I don't know but it blew my mind!

We were all blown away by Oswaldo's surprise. So neat! We all packed back into the van and continued to Quito. We stopped in a small town on the way back known for its bread and stringy cheese. It is the place of the original cheese strings! The cheese here is amazing by the way. So we got 10 pieces of bread $1.00 and $0.30 for a cheese string. So yummy! What a fantastic day!

On Sunday, we had a laid back day. Went out for a breakfast with the group and then came back to play some crib. Some of the group was going to play some sports but Dana, Jen and I went for a walk around the neighbourhood looking for a massive park that was shown on the map. We then headed down through the city to another a big park where there are lots of volleyball courts and so many people playing! Reminded me of Assiniboine Park, except with mountains in the background. We continued on our walk and then headed back to the hotel. We spent about 2 hours just exploring the city and walking around. We went for a swim to cool down and then I did some laundry and then we did yoga on the rooftop. Momma Oso Meghan is trained in leading yoga so we've done it a couple times on the rooftop of our hotel which has a most spectacular view. Then it was time for supper and then we just relaxed and played some games. Such a great day!!

To end this post, I just want to make note of a few things we take for granted in our schools that you may not realize we take for granted (the reason I'm posting this now is so I don't forget :)) :
- toilet paper
- paper towels or anything to dry your hands
- toilet seats (yes, toilet seats. The Inca school doesn't have toilet seats so I will have quads of steel by the time I come back to Canada)
- sports equipment
- substitute teachers (here, if the teacher doesn't show up the students do whatever they want. there are no teachers to substitute for them so the class just doesn't happen and the students don't learn)
- general school supplies (dry erase markers, pens, pencils, etc).

It's not hard here to realize how lucky we really are in Canada. Even for the complaints we may have about the school system or anything else, we're extremely blessed to have the luxuries we have.

You want me to do WHAT?!

This title might be a little dramatic, but this is how I felt! Before I get to that, I'm going to talk about Thursday. At my school, Zambiza, the grade 9's are the only ones that have classes on Thursday and Friday since the older students do a practicum of sorts. Since this is the case, Justin and I joined Andrew and Dana at the Inca campus to participate in classes with them and the students at their school. We had a lot of gym classes, which is great. Except their courtyard is a small area that's all concrete so they leave the school area to head to a park. It takes about 15 minutes to walk there but there's a huge basketball court and a soccer field there so I guess it's worth it. We had to walk there and back twice during the day with gym classes. We were able to play some handball with the kids and a little volleyball, which was nice. We also sat in on an English class where the teacher split the kids into 4 groups so each of us could work with one group on their pronunciation. After this class was over, the English teacher tells us that there won't be teachers around to teach after 10:30 am tomorrow so would it be possible that we each take our own class? Ummmmm. What? We agreed of course but the weight of this soon weighed on me and I wondered how I could teach a class of 40 students by myself for 1.5 hours! Especially with the language barrier. Oooooh my goodness. Well I guess I'd have to suck it up because we agreed! In the afternoon, we split up so Dana and I went to geography class. We thought the teacher wasn't coming so we started do a Canada geography lesson plan. The teacher did show up but she let us teach our lesson plan. We handed the kids out a copy of a map of Canada and then had them fill in the provinces name. We showed them where the capital is (approximately) and where Winnipeg is and then let them color the map. They seemed to like it and it was fun for us! After school was done, Andrew, Justin, Dana and I spent time preparing for teaching the next day. It seems everyone elses schools had empty spots too so we all brain stormed together. Typically, if a teacher doesn't show up, the students sit in the class room talking or go outside to play. Its nice that we're able to help out while we're here. Justin C had a great idea of doing a Dr. Seuss book so he read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and we decided we'd read it out, get them to copy it down and then get them to separate into groups and make a book with pictures matching the description. This would help them understand words they may have not otherwise and leave them with a great book! What a fantastic idea!
Friday came around and I was freaking out. Like freaking out. I'm no teacher! Forty students who can't speak English and I'm a long ways from speaking Spanish! Luckily, I have an extremely supportive group who got me through. We spent the morning in gym and English classes and actually had some time to get to know the English teacher. She asked us questions about Canada and told us her favourite animal is a beaver. She asked if Eskimo's were real and if using wolves (which we corrected as huskies) for pulling sleds were real. We told her they were and she was shocked since she thought it was only in the movies! She also told us that it used to be that people wanted the American Dream but it has now become the Canadian Dream! It's unfortunate though because the Ecuadorian visa's go through Columbia so its apparently extremely hard for them to even get a visa to come to Canada. We asked her a few questions and she told us that private university in Ecuador is extremely expensive (possibly $15000 to $20000) but a teacher in the country only makes about $200 a month. A MONTH! At max, a teacher would make $1000 a month but that's the most. Insane. This leads to overcrowding in the public universities since they are a lot cheaper. It was nice to finally get a chance to get to know the teachers, as we've mostly only seen them in classes. I know we have a lot of questions for them and they definitely have a lot for us. Hardly any have had the opportunities we've seen so they're extremely interested in us. We then had the break time so we played volleyball with the kids. Each day, more kids seem to come and play, which is so great to see. After the break, it was time to teach a class on my own! I was still scared but had to do it! They giggled a lot at the One Fish, Two Fish story but they listened attentively and I was extremely thankful. The class turned out to be alright, but being perfectly honest it was stressful for me! I know it will get easier and it's been a great experience for putting myself out there, but whoa man. A week in and we're asked to teach classes by ourselves. I'm proud of myself for getting through. The last half of the class, we all met down in the courtyard and taught them to line dance. It was so much fun! Some picked it up but they had a hard time with the turn. Hopefully we can try it again. I survived! We got off school early so we were able to go up to the rooftop of the hotel where we played some crib, listened to music, and read in the sun. Such a relaxing afternoon. We ended it off with a swim in the pool and went out for dinner. THE best mexican food I've ever had. Oh. My. God. Delicious. Well to be honest, all the food we've had here has been unbelievable. So much flavour and the fruits and veggies are so fresh, plus you can tell everything is homemade. What a great day! Here are some pics I've missed uploading:


The group on stairs outside the Basillica



Walking across a sketchy bridge in Basillica

Up high in the Basillica. Great view of the city.



Amazing window in the Basillica.

  

Best Pina Colada ever. Real fresh coconut in it.




Justin C, Jen and I at the "Graduation" dinner



The valley where we did the fishing. Beautiful.















Celebrate the small successes!

We've now spent 3 whole days in the school in Zambiza. In my last post, I talked about our first day at the school. It was extremely, extremely challenging. I've never been in a situation where it is so impossible to communicate with people and I find it so difficult! Although Monday was a challenging day, Tuesday was the most amazing day! We sat in on a math class in the morning and the teacher was welcoming and was communicating with us about what he wants from the students. What I understood was that he wants students to increase their confidence, which is what we also want! After the math class was over, there was supposed to be an anatomy class. Carlos joined us at this time so we were talking to the students while waiting for the teacher. We went around the class getting each student to introduce themselves and say their name. This was in the third year of the baccaleurete (grade 12) so the students are from the class are between 17-20. The teacher never showed up so we asked them what they were learning in anatomy, hoping it was something we could just pick up and teach. Turns out it was the reproductive system, which isn't something I want to try to teach! but luckily they had a skit they had prepared for the prof as an assignment so they performed it for us. What a soap opera it was! Quite a long story they had. It was basically descriptive of two couples falling in love, getting married, having a baby and then their lives start to be different. One couple has lots of money and is happy and the husband of the other couple loses his job, they start fighting a lot, get divorced, and give the child up to a rich family because they can't care for it!! Crazy for us to even think about! After this, we went to biology class with the grade 11's, where we found out one of the girls in the class is pregnant and two have new borns! The good thing was that the two new mom's were very good at school and seemed to be very motivated. Luckily, we still had Carlos to translate for us so we were able to understand. They were learning about lung problems, such as asthma, lung cancer, bronchitis, etc but they didn't have cystic fibrosis so, through Carlos translating, Justin was able to teach the class about cystic fibrosis and its symptoms. They haven't heard of it here but the teacher appreciated Justin's input. Then we joined the grade 9 class for "legislacion" and "cooperativismo". Legislacion is like labour laws so they were learning about not being able to come to work drunk and what not. They were also learning about overtime and double time wages and figuring out how much they would make. Cooperativismo was the students doing an organizational chart for a small bank or loan company I think. Either way, it was nice to finally understand something and feel like I would be able to help! During this class, the vice principal came in with some other teachers and made us stand up but she was talking Spanish so Justin and I couldn't understand. Carlos translates for us that since today was Justin's birthday, they wanted him to feel at home. Specifically, they said that they know he's away from his family on his birthday to be here with them and that must be hard so they want him (and me) to think of them as family and that they hope he has a great day and that we are comfortable and happy here. I was in tears!!! What an amazing feeling! For them to say they want us to feel like they are our family is truly an honour in my eyes, especially since we've only been here 2 days and haven't even done anything. We haven't even given them all the supplies we brought yet! They brought in a birthday cake with candles on top and sang Happy Birthday to him in Spanish and then in English. So unreal.

This is Justin and I with some of the teachers from the Zambiza school. To my right is the custodian, to Justin's left is the vice principal who doesn't speak English but has been very welcoming to us. Beside her is the gym teacher, and then the anatomy/biology teacher who is truly amazing and has so much energy!

After he blew out the candles, they took us to the teacher's area to eat the cake. They presented us with a small pouch with a hand sewn design saying it was a gift for us and through Carlos again we were able to communicate with them. It was a great feeling to finally be able to talk to them, especially since the first day felt so challenging for us. The day was definitely a high for us!
We had been looking forward to today all week since it was full of English classes and gym class, which are the classes we're here to actually help with! We had enjoyed the morning classes of English, helping out in whichever way possible. In the third english class of the day, the teacher didn't tell us her plan for teaching or anything, but had to quickly run out and left the class up to us. We were a little bit like deer in headlights but we quickly gathered ourselves and started going over clothes in english. We played a little game and got them to repeat the pronunciation since they have the most difficulty with that. We also  played "head, shoulder, knees and toes", the song with actions, so they did it in English and then taught us in Spanish! During the break I was able to, with a little difficulty, communicate with a girl in the grade 12 class. She's outgoing and not as shy so I've identified her as a potential mentor in the school. She asked if I had a boyfriend and I said yes, in Canada, which she told the rest of the girls who were too shy to ask themselves. They then asked if Justin had a girlfriend and I said no, to which I got a response that one of the girls has a bit of a crush on him! Oooolala! It was nice to finally break the ice and talk to them. Later in the day, that same girl asked me how old I was and then said I looked too young to be 24 after I had told her my age! After the break, we were told by the English teacher that the grade 9 teacher for the afternoon portion (although not really afternoon because they're break is from 10:00am to 10:30am but it feels like afternoon to us) was not going to be there so asked if we could entertain the kids... for 3 hours. We agreed although these students knew the least amount of English, there are about 40 of them, and they are loud and rowdy so I was definitely nervous!! We took them to play some volleyball and basketball for a while, then taught them how to play heads up 7 up, which took a little while but they finally understood. They were actually supposed to have computer class for this 3 hours and luckily we had sat in on that class on Monday, so we asked if they had work they could do if we went to the computer lab. They said yes so we took them to the computer lab for them to work. They kept asking us a question (tempo libre) which we translated with my book as free time, so we responded no, you have to work (trabajo)! But they kept asking and they seemed confused so finally, two girls went to google translate and translated that they were saying they needed a topic to work on! They were using html formatting for creating webpages but wanted a topic so we chose Canada! This kept them entertained for quite a while and they had lots of questions, although it was very very difficult to understand what they were asking. They actually did a good job so we spent the last part of the day playing soccer with them. I'm impressed we survived for 3 hours with no preparation, very very little Spanish, and the rowdiest class in the school. We can do anything!!! So although today was very frustrating at points, its nice to know we can do this and with a little more work, and with them speaking a little slower and in simpler words, we can communicate with them. Since there have already but lows and highs and it has been 3 days, this month is sure to be a rollercoaster, but at least the highs easily make up for the lows!! We've officially been here a week here now and it feels like we've fit enough activities in for a month! Every day feels like at least two days..

P.S. If you want a different perspective on the trip, you can check out other blogs posted on the right of my page. Andrew, Justin L, Justin C, and Dana have all created blogs as well so feel free to follow them or read their take on the events from this trip!

Mucho sorpresa!

When I said Enrique was full of surprises, I wasn't kidding and I will never go somewhere with him unprepared again! On Sunday, we thought we were going to the principal's (of the school that we danced at but we're not helping at) house for lunch. I was thinking we would be inside the principal's house the entire time and lunch would be no more than an hour and everything would be prepared when we got there. Boooooy were we wrong! The principal welcomes us to her house, which is at the top of this amazing huge, lush valley! Enrique starts taking us on a tour down the steep slope that was her backyard. As we're going down he points out a little pond with fish in it, and then there was another one a little ways down and another one. Meghan translates for us that they farm they're own fish so it looked to me like the first one was the little little fish and then when they get bigger they move to the next pond, etc. So we get a ways down this steep hill, which I was unprepared for wearing flip flops, and we stop at this bigger pond. Enrique can't speak English but he motions for Chris to jump in the pond with a strainer looking thing. Chris says his typical "when in rome" comment and jumps in the pond, which was up to his knees. He holds the strainer looking thing and tries to catch the fish, which are actually about the size of a small walleye. Turns out we had to catch our own lunch! I can't even tell you how hilarious it was to see us trying to catch fish. We spent probably an hour down there trying to catch our lunch, which could mean we aren't very good at Ecuadorian life. Everyone took a turn, and most people caught a fish. I did not, but I blame it on the fact we had already caught 9 by the time I got in so I think there weren't many left, although I wasn't trying tooooo hard. The principal was laying on her stomach beside the pond and caught a couple with her bare hands! So then Justin C lays down and tries and actually caught two with his bare hands. Turns out he really is a bear! Papa Oso! After catching the fish, we hiked back up the steep hillside to the area where they descale and fillet the fish. Everyone also got a turn in working with the fish and filleting them, although I wasn't feeling well so I just watched. They don't actually cut out the fillets, they just cut out the guts and cook the rest of the fish as in. We then followed the fish to this huge outdoor stove that I can only explain as a massive upside down bowl on a table of bricks with a little door. Once everything was cooked, they served us potatoes, fish, chicken, and cooked plantains. The fish and chicken were probably the best I've ever had! Seriously, just unbelievable. Not even a hit of fishy flavour in them and soooo tender. So we learned to be prepared for anything when going out with Enrique! Who knew we'd be involved in the whole process of making our own lunch! After we got back to the hotel, I still wasn't feeling well so I slept for quite a while and then did a bit of prep work for going to the schools and then went straight back to bed. Luckily today, I'm feeling a bit better but unfortunately my stomach isn't allowing me to eat all the delicious food I want! So onto the events of today. It was the first day going to the schools by ourselves to meet the students and observe classes. We were all soooo nervous and I kept asking myself "did I really agree to do this? Can I actually do this?" but I'm here so I'm doing it. It did turn out to be a challenging day but as time goes on, we're hoping the teachers and students open up to us a lot more. We were up by 5:30am and heading out to the schools by 6:30. Classes started at 7:00am so Justin L and I introduced ourselves to our first class. My Spanish is still terrible and extremely broken but they seemed to accept what we said. We observed all day, which we found difficult as the teachers don't speak any English (except the English teacher whose only there on Wednesdays) and we don't really speak Spanish. Chemistry was the first class we sat through and we were both lost since neither of us took chemistry in high school. The teacher tried her best to include us and gave us a warm welcome. After chemistry we sat through anatomy, which we were able to pick up more of luckily. They have a half hour break at 10:00am so Justin and I brought out the volleyball and basketball we brought along. One young girl, in grade 9, came up to me and I asked her to play (jugar) and she agreed so her and I just practiced throwing the basketball. Some other kids were playing volleyball with a soccer ball but Justin joined them and brought them a real volleyball. By the end, we had about 4 girls and 1 guy playing a little basketball game with us so that was fun. I tried to get others to join but the kids are extremely shy. Like extremely extremely shy. It was still nice to have a couple of them play so hopefully tomorrow more of the kids feel more comfortable around us and will play. In the afternoon we sat in on a computer class with the grade 9's. They were creating a webpage using html formatting! A thing of the past in Canada I would say. I found it interesting that the html formatting was all still in English, so they still used font= background color=, etc. We then sat through what we think was a natural sciences class where they were creating a powerpoint presentation on the ecosystem and climate (clima) in Quito. We weren't much help in either of the classes and I think both the professors were very shy so they didn't talk to us much. We then moved onto observing a biology class with grade 11 students. I actually understood a lot! They were doing genetics and punnet squares and that a parent with AA genes + a parent with bb genes = children with Ab. It was nice to finally understand something! School ends at about 1:30pm so Justin and I were to head to a school where Dana and Andrew were teaching because they have an accelerated school program for students that have had to drop out for one reason or another and then have come back that starts at 2:00pm. We were waiting outside the school for a while waiting for our driver but he wasn't showing up. At 2:30 a taxi pulls up to us and we're saying no, gracias! thinking he was trying to give us a ride. Turns out he was our drivers son since our driver was unable to make it to pick us up, but we couldn't understand why. We helped with the English class for the accelerated program, which was interesting. They weren't as shy and were very interested in us. The teacher made them ask questions in English, since they're very behind, so we got asked questions like are you married, how old are you, what is your favourite color, etc. They were very happy to have us and very interested so I will be excited to go to that class every week. They probably need our motivation the most, and we can already tell a few of them are very bright, but there's some reason that made them quit school so we need to make sure they stay in school! So we finally got to head home around 5:00pm where we were met by a very excited Meghan! She explained to us the reason our driver couldn't come pick us up was because there was a landslide inbetween Quito and Zambiza (Zambiza is like a suburb of Quito and that's the small town Justin and I are teaching in) so Meghan didn't know if we had been picked up and spent most of the afternoon trying to contact people to let us know what was going on. She was definitely glad to see we were okay! For that hour Justin and I sat outside waiting to be picked up, we definitely felt like those kids whose parents for got to pick them up after school. haha but it all turned out alright! (A landslide! Really! No big deal. just a landslide! Still blows my mind). So after that long day, we're back in the hotel and preparing for tomorrow. Meghan definitely had to give us all a pep talk after the challenging day we had and reassured us the teachers and students will warm up to us. We are the guinea pigs so the teachers don't know what to expect of us or what the program is really about so we just need to give it time. We'll see what tomorrow brings.. We never seem to know on this trip! What an adventure!

Surprise!

We've had an eventful couple of days. I explained Enrique in my last post, and he is always full of surprises! In the last post I mentioned we would be attending a ballet, which we did. On Friday night, we went to a cultural building to watch the ballet. Now when I say ballet, it's nothing like anything you might be thinking. It was just in a big room with fold down chairs. An announcer talked for a while about the ballet, although I couldn't understand anything he was saying, and then the dancers started. It was more of a traditional dance I think with the women and men wearing traditional clothing. It was very neat. After a portion of the ballet, the guy talked again for a while and they taught us how to do the dance. So we stood up and followed along with the dance for a while. After this, Enrique surprised us again by having them announce us being there and they welcomed us as Canadian guests. During the show, we heard a lot of noise outside on the streets. We look and Enrique is motioning for us to come quickly so we all jump up and run out of the ballet. It turns out Friday was the March of the Saints!

We were told about the Cucurucho by Meghan and since this parade only happens once a year, we considered our minds bloooown! The picture to the left is the Cucurucho marching through the streets. Interesting hey? Enrique, being who he is, ran to the front of the parade and made them stop marching so we could catch up and take pictures. Just stops a holy parade. Oh Enrique! The parade leader didn't like this but Enrique didn't care and did it again!
They marched through the streets to the Church of San Francisco followed by hundreds of people! Enrique took us to the top of some other building so we could overlook the last part of the march. We had an unbelieveable view of the city from the roof of the building and were able to watch the end of the march without being in that huge crowd of people. Our minds were blown again!

After that, we went down and were able to get a picture with a couple Cucurucho, thanks to Enrique, and then walked through the church. The church reminded me a lot of the ones I saw in Israel, with such tall ceilings, amazing detail, and gold everywhere!

 This is a picture of us in the Church of San Francisco. Amazing right? What a ridiculous night. So hard to explain! After the church, we walked down streets lined with shops and little pub type things. There were lots of people and it was great to see some of the culture. We went into one tiny pub, which was the size of my bedroom at home, literally. There were about five or six other people in there so the 9 of us and Enrique squeezed ourselves in there. There were two young guys playing guitar and singing. Everyone was singing along, and we wanted to but we didn't know the words! We had a traditional drink - it's like juice with cinnamon and some sort of alcohol in it served hot. It was delicious but very very strong. Side note: The area we were in at this time used to be really bad with a lot of prostitution and drugs but the government put a lot of money into cleaning it up to have it be an area for people to walk around and have fun I guess. Hard alcohol wasn't allowed for this reason but this traditional drink was allowed so you saw many people walking around drinking it and it was the only thing served in pubs.
They were very welcoming us and they cheers'd us for being from Canada and were just all around very friendly. We had such a blast in that little pub. Once we were back at the hotel we invited Carlos over and played some drinking games. He taught us one they play here, which is basically categories with a couple different rules. Overall, Friday was a fantastic day. It felt like a week with everything we did and saw! Yesterday we had a fairly relaxed day. We went to the Basilica, which is an old church with two clock towers. You can climb all the way to the top of the clock towers. Unbelieveable! I will post pictures next time. So we spent the day walking around the various levels of the church, walking across some scary planks used as a bridge from one spot to another, and climbing some steep steep stairs. Even though I'm scared of heights, I braved it and I am so glad I did! The view from the top was amazing, plus the experience itself was a lot of fun. After the Basilica, we walked down the streets to the area by the Cultural Centre and went in and out of shops just wandering for the afternoon. We came back to the hotel from some down time and then went out for supper to La Boca del Lobo (the mouth of the wolf). Its in "gringo" area so things were in English but it was a neat little pub. Gringo is the term used for tourists here, which usually has a negative connotation but we use it amongst ourselves when we're acting really touristy. The food in Ecuador is amazing! The fruit and vegetables are soooooo fresh and delicious and everything has so much flavour. There were five of us that missed our graduation dinner in Canada so we were considering this our grad dinner. We cheers'd a lot and overall had a great time. We're very loud in Ecuador, since most people of soft spoken, but we like to have a good time! Now today we've had a relaxed morning and are going to the Principal's house from the school that fed us the fish. She invited us for lunch today so we'll be heading there soon and then the rest of the day will be preparing for the schools tomorrow! I'll probably blog less as I assume the week days won't be as exciting as the past couple days! I'm looking forward to the school experience, but I'm extremely nervous. I'm picking up a few words a day of Spanish but I'm still having trouble understanding it! I guess we'll see how it goes..