word of the day

manguera: [man gheh ra] Spanish tubing or hose

Today I went to the hardware store to buy a new manguera for my gas stove. (It connects the propane tank to the stove.) They don't teach this type of necessary vocabulary in high school Spanish class.

lost in translation

When my students ask if they can have a piece of tape, they usually say, "Can I have some Scotch?" It caught me off guard at first, but now I have to fight the urge to respond with "I have some nice vodka in my desk if you'd rather have that."

Something tells me they wouldn't get the joke.

major accomplishment

Today I had to give a workshop in the music department (we are all required to do so) and so I decided to talk about ways to incorporate writing into the music curriculum. However, most of my department speaks only a little English, and so I felt I had two options:

1. Give a really fantastic presentation in English and chance that most people won't understand it.
2. Give an average presentation in Spanish that everyone will understand.

I chose option two. I wasn't able to go as in-depth as I would like, but I felt good that everyone pretty much understood what I said. Also, I think I earned some much-needed brownie points by doing the whole thing in Spanish.

be still my heart

I should be sleeping, but I stumbled upon this and have now watched it 5 times. Had I known about this sooner, you better believe I would have sold my right kidney to be in attendance. Josh Groban singing "Anthem" from Chess--just about the best thing ever. (Even with the slightly pitchy first note, I still love him and the song!)

yum?

Here in Ecuador, the main meal of the deal is typically eaten at lunchtime, and usually consists of soup, rice, vegetables, an entree of some variety, dessert, and juice. Our school cafeteria serves a really nice lunch everyday, with all of the aforementioned items for $2.00, and the food is really good. (Note: our school cafeteria actually cooks food, unlike most of the cafeterias in the States that now just heat-up or deep-fry.) I try to take advantage of the good meals several days a week. Tuesday, when I went in for lunch, I noticed the two choices were fried fish and guatita. As I'm not a big fried fish-fan, I opted for the unknown other choice called guatita. My roommate, Andrew, was in line behind me, and when he saw my plate, he said, "You got the guatita? Do you know what that is?" I replied that I didn't, but that I didn't really like fried fish. Then I asked him what it was. He refused to tell me, but said that he does eat it from time to time, and that I should tell an Ecuadorian today that I ate guatita. Feeling a little paranoid, I ran into another friend as I was leaving who has been here before and knows a lot about the culture. I asked her if she knew what guatita was, and she replied, "um, yes, it's intestines." I did not eat my entire lunch that day.

low point

I had my ridiculously horrible class today, and they were especially bad. I told several students to stop whining, and that I would only listen to their requests to go to the restroom if they would use their grownup voices. (Imagine a 2 hour chorus of "Alleezon Alleezon" in the whiniest voice you can think of...that was my afternoon.) By the end of the class period, I surveyed the damage to the room and saw that a student had graffitied my marker board with "Addison Addison Addison We love Addison She rocks!" It took me a minute to understand that the girl was referring to me.

They can't even get my name correct. Wow.

my name is...

So I've started to forget what my name really is. Everyone here--all of the Ecuadorians--pronounce my name with a Spanish (Ecuadorian?) accent, so now my name has two parts (Allee-zon) rather than the three syllable North American pronunciation (All-i-son). I hear this all the time, especially as my students call me by my first name. (It's a school tradition to address teachers by their first names.) So now I find myself introducing myself as Allee-zon. It's kind of a problem.

tales from the jungle

Well, I survived the jungle.

It turned out to be a great time. We stayed (all 12 of us) at Huasquila lodge just outside of Cotundo, Ecuador, and the place was beautiful. We had private cabanas, and the landscaping around everything was fantastic. I especially loved the huge gardenia bushes--they smelled wonderful at night. The family who owns the lodge was super nice, and took especially good care of us (their daughter-in-law works at my school, and one of my friend's boyfriend is a family friend as well.) The food was excellent, and they were very accomodating of our wishes.
Saturday afternoon we went to an animal reserve where injured animals are brought for rehabilitation. Some are released back into the wild, but others have injuries that prevent them from surviving on their own. We saw macaws, parrots, a toucan, several varieties of monkeys, indigenous wild pigs, and even a lion and lioness who were rescued from a less-than-credible circus. My favorite, however, was the smallest monkey named Lucas. We watched him for a long time, and he would mimic our movements and "talk" to us.

photo courtesy of Ken Shores

The next day, Leah and I hiked through a cave while the rest of the group went whitewater rafting. They dropped us off literally on the side of the road, and our guide led us up a hill and showed us various natural traps that the indigenous Kichwa people use to hunt animals. We reached the top of the hill and had a great view, and then began our descent into the cave. It was steep. It was rocky. It never would have flown in the US due to liability. I was saying my prayers. We entered the cave and saw bats and several waterfalls in the underground river, and then had to cross the river at one point where it is chest deep. It was pretty crazy, and we were pretty proud of ourselves for doing it. Later that afternoon, we went to see ancient petroglyphs, which were created between 300 BC and 1200 AD. That night, a Kichwa tribe came to the lodge and performed traditional music and dances for us. The next morning, we all took off for a 2 hour jungle hike, in the rain. We didn't see any animals (we weren't far enough into the Amazon for that) but our guide showed us lots of plants that have medicinal uses, and showed us the ants that are edible. I tried a few--they tasted like lemon. The final part of the hike brought us up to two waterfalls, which we could stand under if we weren't wet enough already. We finally made it back and were soaked, tired, and hungry, but it was a lot of fun. We cleaned up, had lunch, and made our way back to Quito. On the way home, we had pretty good weather, so we stopped to snap a few shots of the view.
It was a good weekend.