Well a lot has happened since I last updated my blog. In fact I'm back in the US safe and sound, I'm in Madison this week and then I'll be moving up to Minneapolis to start working. But back to Ecuador...

I finished up teaching at Pedro Luis Calero, all of the kids were sad to see me go. I received lots of notes and little gifts on my last day and got some great photos. It was really gratifying to know that the kids enjoyed the classes that I taught and it was hard to say goodbye. I'll definitely look back at that experience as a fun and educational time. I learned a lot, and although that I may have learned that I do not want to teach young kids as my profession, I do have a greater appreciation for teachers and have a lot of great memories.

Once I finished teaching, I had a week to finish writing my final term paper. That week was also when all of my friends from my program came back to Quito so we juggled some work with a lot of last minute fun as well. When it was all said and done I had a 20+ page paper to turn in and a short presentation and before I knew it my semester was over.

After that I spent some more time hanging out in Quito before I traveled to the coastal towns of Manta and Calceta. It was nice to get to the beach one last time, but the heat and humidity on the coast can be almost unbearable. It's definitely not what I've grown accustomed to living in Wisconsin and Minnesota...

On the 21st my Mom arrived in Quito. It was great to see her after so long and it was very exciting to have her in Ecuador. We spent the first day in Quito checking out an artisan market and also getting to know the more central area of towns (La Mariscal) where there's lots of shops, restaurants and bars. Sunday morning, we were picked up from our hostal by the tour group that we went birding with. We spent the next two and a half days doing a lot of hiking and bird watching. The birding tour had beautiful lodges that we stayed at and all of the meals were excellent. My favorite birds were all of the varieties of hummingbirds as well as the Toucanette (a small Toucan). After the birding excursion we returned to Quito where we spent more time in the Centro Historico (the old colonial part of the city) and also did some other Quito things like riding the TeleferiQo up the side of Mount Pichincha. We also finally caught up on some sleep after the long exhausting days of birding.

It's hard to believe that all of this was just last week, the past few days I've started to feel farther and farther away from Ecuador as I get readjusted to my life here in the US. It is good to be home, mostly to see everyone that I missed over these past months, but there's definitely a part of me that is still in the southern hemisphere. When I look back at my trip, I can confidently say that it was everything that I had hoped it would be and more. I learned so much about myself, what I like, what I don't like, maybe even some things I want to do in my future. And one of the first things on that list is going back to Ecuador. I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to have this experience and I know that if I could do it again, I wouldn't change a thing.

...teaching...

Well I haven't updated my blog in the last few weeks-I keep putting it off until I take some pictures of my school, but I guess I'll just post a picture-less one for now.

A few weeks ago, I started teaching at Unidad Educativa Pedro Luis Calero in Quito. It's a small Catholic Elementary/Middle/High School where I help the English teacher who teaches 2nd to 12th grade (here that's 5-12 year olds). We start everyday at 7:20 and go until 1:10, but it always feels like I've taught all day long. The kids are great for the most part, they are very loving and give me lots of hugs and kisses, even candy and snacks some days : ) However, can also be quite exhausting and the 40 minute classes definitely drag on at times. The teacher that I'm helping, Gladys, is Ecuadorian and her knowledge of English is limited. Therefore I basically spend all day in front of the class working on pronunciation and helping them with their work from their English books (which I have also found mistakes in). So between a teacher who can't speak English herself and materials that aren't great, the actual learning of the language definitely suffers. The good thing is that they start young, so hopefully by the time the students graduate they have some basic knowledge of the language.

One project that I've been working on are the presentations that the English classes will be putting on at the end of the school year. The little kids are learning short poems in English, and the others are learning songs (a few by Simon and Garfunkel!. One class will even be acting out The Three Little Pigs. It's been fun working on these presentations and the kids like it because it is something different to do. But again, getting them to pronounce the words correctly is really difficult. I laughed to myself the other day while I was working with the 2nd graders who are learning a poem. I would say a few words of the poem and have the kids repeat them back to me. There is one little boy in the class who stands there confidently only to say back sounds that are completely unrelated to what I've just told him (he's also the loudest and his voice dominates the other students). It reminded me of the Friends episode when Phoebe is trying to teach Joey some French for an audition. It was classic. So again, it can be frustrating at times, but also fun and even funny at others.

Besides working at the school, I've just been hanging out in Quito. It's different now because a lot of my friends are in different towns for their internships, but we've all been visiting each other too. It's hard to believe, but after this week, I only have one week left of teaching, then a week to work on my final paper and then the program is over! The time here has really flown by, it's been three months since I got here and already leaving in just over one! I'm excited to get back to the states and see everyone, but I'm definitely going to miss it here...

I promise to post another blog soon with some photos!

La Basílica del Voto Nacional y El Panecillo

I visited these sights around Quito a few weeks ago, but didn't have the time to update the blog before my spring break so we're going to go back in time a bit...

My friends and I had seen a lot of Quito at this point, but there were two main spots we hadn't made it to yet. First, the Basilica, which is located in the historic 'old town.' Although there are dozens of churches in this area, the Basilica is by far the most impressive and if you have the nerve to climb to the top of one of the towers the views are incredible. I made it to the top, but not without a lot of encouragement from my friends, it seems like every excursion we do here involves heights! First we climbed up about a million flights of stairs inside which had us all catching our breath (blaming the altitude) until we reached the top story which is as high as you can go inside. We walked across a long wooden plank/bridge that takes you to the other side of the building where you climb one last ladder that takes you outside. The fear really kicked in about here when I realized that we weren't at the top yet. In fact, there are two more ladders to climb, outside in the open air, but once I reached the top I was glad I made the hike. We took lots of pictures, it really is gorgeous up there. We decided to head down (another fun experience) and take a cab to our next stop, El Panecillo.

El Panecillo (literally the Little Bread Loaf) is a hill in the southern part of Quito which is visible from most areas and is where the huge statue La Virgen de Quito stands--she's the only Madonna in the world depicted with wings. We took a cab to the top, because when I say hill I mean a hill in the Andes, and got more great views of the city and of the statue. We all wished it had been a little less cloudy that day, but we still were happy to get to these crucial sights in Quito. [Mom, let me know if these look like something you want to check out!]

Anyways, back to the present. My week started off really well, I taught two days and the kids were really great. I got two mandarin oranges, a pear, another weird fruit and a cookie from random students and they're all pretty excited to have me there. Unfortunately I got pretty sick towards the end of the week and got to take my first trip to an Ecuadorian hospital (which pretty much resembled an American hospital). They did some tests and it turns out I have a bacterial infection that I must have gotten from something I ate or drank. The prescribed me some medications and I'm already feeling a lot better. Next week I have another break, my school is closed for Semana Santa so I'll hopefully go visit my friends that have moved away from Quito.

Chau!

Spring Break! Puyo, Tena and Cuenca

I just got back from a week of traveling through Ecuador with my friends Becky and Sarah. We wanted to see/do a variety of what Ecuador has to offer, so we decided to make it to both El Oriente (the western/Amazonian part of the country) and La Sierra (the central part of the country/Andes mountain range). So last Saturday morning, we hopped on a bus from Quito to Puyo, our first stop. It was about a six to seven hour bus ride descending from the mountains around Quito to the flatter rain forrest where Puyo is situated. In Puyo we visited a nature reserve which sits on land that just 30 years ago had suffered severe deforestation and now is a thriving beautiful rain forest. We also visited an animal rescue with 52 monkeys, birds, turtles and other animals. The rescue center consists of an empty house which the monkeys have taken over and surrounding forests where the animals are free to roam. Most of the monkeys have been rescued from animal trafficking, so they are pretty used to being around people, some very affectionate. Once we walked into the area, we were greeted by many of them, and they promptly started climbing up our legs onto our arms and heads just checking us out. They were also very playful and before we knew it, one of us would be covered with three or four monkeys. It was a really cool experience, way way better than a zoo. One of the curious monkeys even managed to grab my headband and run away without me noticing!

Sunday afternoon, we took another bus trip about two hours north to Tena another city in the Amazon. That afternoon we checked out a park which also had a lot of rescued wildlife. In the park we took a dip in one of the rivers where we saw a Tapir also taking a swim. Tapir are big black animals that look like a mix of a pig and an anteater. It was quite a sight seeing him swim around in the river, definitely didn't want to get too close. On Monday, the three of us got in touch with a small company that does river rafting in the area, in rivers that feed into the Amazon. We went on about a four hour trip, it was absolutely beautiful, we were surrounded by lush forests and we could see the peaks of the Andes in the distance. When we stopped for lunch, one of our guides even climbed up a tree to bring down some Guaba fruits. It was a really cool day, we definitely went through a couple exciting rapids, but there were also some calmer pools so we got to jump in and take a swim various times. By the end of the day, we were exhausted, which was perfect because Monday night, we took a 12 hour night bus from Tena to Cuenca!

We got into Cuenca, a cute colonial city in the southern Sierra, at about 7am on Tuesday morning and started looking around for hostals. We ended up choosing Hostal La Escalinata where we paid five dollars a night (!) for a cute room with three beds and a little balcony. It was also in the perfect location, so we were pretty pleased with our find. The next few days we explored the city which is just full of old cathedrals and colonial streets. It also has a beautiful river, Rio Tomebamba, running trough the center which was just down the hill from our place. We met a few Peruvians and Argentines and one night all went out Salsa dancing at a little place called La Mesa. We all really enjoyed Cuenca, it was a relaxing end to our trip and it was nice to stay in one city for a few days for a change.

We finally headed back to Quito on our last 10 hour bus ride Thursday night. Fun fact about the trip: we spent $26 the entire week on hostals--total! We were pretty proud when we added that up, and yet the trip definitely wasn't free : )

On Monday I start teaching, so wish me luck!