to do

My mom's coming to visit next week for the holidays, and as with any guest, it's a catalyst for doing the things I've being putting off for awhile. This week (amidst the flurry of daily Christmas concerts at school) I need to accomplish the following:

1. Have my stove repaired so that Mom and I can do our holiday cooking. (I've been making due with an electric skillet as of late, which is fine when cooking for one, but not much more than that.)
2. Pick up my Christmas bonus gift card at school so I can go to Megamaxi and buy a toaster oven, new mugs, and new pillows.
3. Set up the Christmas tree. (This has been delayed due to the fact that fresh trees here are not placed in water EVER, and so I'm waiting until closer to Christmas in order to not burn down my house.)
4. The general cleaning of house, which falls to me as my bi-weekly housekeeper is traveling to visit her family. (I know you're all crying for me right now.)
5. Plan a Christmas menu that does not include turkey or ham, as I don't think I can squeeze either into the toaster oven I'm planning on purchasing (see #2.)
   

humbug

Forget this job searching business. I'm just going to marry Josh Groban instead.

(Josh, if you're reading, now is the time!)

tales from the usa

I'm in the States for the weekend, chasing possible job opportunities for next year. Yesterday I stepped off the plane here in Atlanta after some 12 hours of travel, and proceeded to the first Starbucks in the airport. (I've decided to be indulgently North American on this trip.) I ordered a small eggnog latte, and was immediately corrected by the girl taking my order. I forgot that Starbucks has their own sizing system, and that a small is actually a tall. Then I asked for my latte with skim milk, and was yet again reminded that at Starbucks, skim milk is called a skinny.

I guess I'm a bit out of the loop.

leftovers

Thanksgiving recap:

Turkey

Marjorie's cole slaw without and with the "addition" of red wine
(we had a little spill...)
Adriana's salad
Richard carving the turkey
making the gravy
a randomly-snapped shot of Leah

thanksgiving, ecua-style

I think being away from my family on Thanksgiving is more difficult than Christmas, and I suspect this is due to the fact that here in Ecuador the day passes without notice. Thanksgiving does not exist here. Yesterday, for all intents and purposes, was just another day--went to school, stayed late for musical rehearsal, went to the grocery, went out to an Italian restaurant for a friend's birthday. The school did provide a very nice semi-traditional lunch for all the staff, potluck-style, and the foreign hire teachers were responsible for the mashed potatoes. (Last year I spent a lot of time making the real deal, but cheated this year and bought the boxed instant potatoes--they dump them all into one big pot anyway.) Other than the school luncheon, no one really does anything to celebrate the day.

Today we have a half day, in honor of the North American holiday, Black Friday (kidding), and so my friends and I are gathering for a big traditional meal this evening. I'm making the turkey, dressing, and dessert (pumpkin cheesecake.) Finding the ingredients here is not always super easy, which is why I'm scrapping the traditional pie for a much-easier-to-make-cheesecake. The pumpkin puree itself is not easy to come by, and therefore I purchased some squash-like cubes in the grocery store yesterday which I cooked and pureed. I'm pretty sure it's not pumpkin, but any squash with enough cinnamon and nutmeg should do the trick. I fully expect this dinner to be much like my life here: a nod to the traditions I was raised with but with a slightly South American flavor.

glees (no glums)

My future husband was named one of People's Sexiest Men Alive. That's pretty much the highlight of my week.*

*It's been a pretty bad one.

i'm late!

A few days ago, I mentioned the idea of ecua-time in my post--meaning that everything and everyone here in Ecuador is perpetually late. I actually really like this, and here's why: I used to be perpetually late in the States, but here my being late actually translates to being on time. No one really expects you to show up at exactly the planned time, so being a little behind is perfectly fine. (We actually tend to set the time for events anywhere from 30 minutes to a full hour before we actually plan to begin.) And, if I'm running especially late, I can always blame it on ecua-time.

prefix

There's somewhat of a widespread phenomenon among the gringos living here in Ecuador to describe uniquely Ecuadorian things/happenings/etc. by attaching the prefix ecua- to the beginning of the word. For example, we refer to the strange consistency of the cheese here by using the term ecua-cheese, the extremely laid-back time schedule observed by Ecuadorians is ecua-time, and so on and so forth. Once you begin, it's sort of ecua-addictive.

debate

I've been deliberating over how much of my current job search process I wanted to document/make public on my blog. You see, I have two theories:

1. Keep it quiet and then you won't feel embarrassed when things don't pan out.
2. Talk about it all the time and maybe Santa Claus will hear and you'll find it under your tree on Christmas morning.

(Clearly theory #2 hasn't worked in quite some time.)

However, I've come to the conclusion that a limited account of what's happening is not bad, and therefore I'm going to document it, withholding a few names and locations.

Within the last two weeks, a possible job in a fabulous South American school has come available. This school is one that I have never really considered, as it's extremely tough to get hired and positions are few and far-between. My radar had been tuned into Eastern Europe, and so I was planning on attending a job fair in February where the schools in those countries would be hiring. When this fabulous job came available, I thought I'd send in my material and then just arrange a meeting with them when our paths crossed at said job fair.

I happened to speak with a friend who also would give her right kidney to work at this fabulous South American school, and she actually met with the administrators at the school and was told that they planned on doing all of their hiring sooner than later--much sooner, as in a month from now. Suddenly everything changed, and I am now making plans to attend a much smaller, all South American fair in Atlanta within a month. I understand that this is crazy. I'm only going to interview with this fabulous school, who only has one position open in my area. However, if I don't go, I'm afraid I'll be haunted by the "what-ifs." So I'm taking this huge risk, if for no other reason than to be able to sleep peacefully at night, knowing that I went for it.

drought and blackout

It's really dry here. We should be well into rainy season by now, and yet we've basically had nothing but sunny, beautiful days with just a handful of rainy afternoons for the last 3+ months. While I enjoy the sunshine (it's a lot warmer when it's sunny,) the lack of water has begun to take it toll on life, especially on our electrical company. Beginning last week, the electrical company here in Quito instituted rolling blackouts--cutting off power to various parts of the city one sector at a time. Now everyone is checking the blackout schedule online and factoring that into their plans. We had a few blackouts at school this week that caused the administration to push back the due date for our end of partial grades, because people didn't have access to their computer gradebooks. As for me, I've been fortunate--my blackouts have only been during the day so far, and the next is scheduled for 11-3 on Monday, while I'll be at school. Until we receive a large amount of rain, this will probably be the new way of life.

colonial getaway

Thanks to Halloween, All Souls' Day and the Independence Day of Cuenca, we had a 4 1/2 day weekend this past week. My friends and I decided to travel to the city celebrating its independence, Cuenca, which is a city in the southern Andean region of Ecuador. Cuenca is known for its colonial architecture, and it is truly a beautiful city, almost reminiscent of small towns in Austria or Italy. We spent a few days wandering the city, visiting museums and lots of shops (Cuenca is also a great place for handicrafts.) We also made a trip outside of the city to a small town named Chordeleg, famous for their filigree work in silver and gold, as well as to the Cajas National Park which is dotted with small lakes and beautiful landscapes.

The newer of the two cathedral in Cuenca, known for its blue domes.Parque Nacional Cajas

We had an amazing view of Cotopaxi on our flight home.

me, twenty years from now

I just found out about this new documentary called Cat Ladies. I think I definitely have to see this, if nothing else than as a cautionary tale against what to avoid in the future. I love my cat, but definitely don't need to add any more crazy to my life.

let's do the time warp again

As I passed the calendar in my classroom today, I did sort of a double-take--is it really October? Then I resolved to make sure the next place I call home has four seasons not including dry, fake-rainy, rainy, and unpredictable.

the replacement

Last June I wrote about a rather important document that I had lost, my Ecuadorian residency card, and how I worried about leaving the country without it. I finally got around to replacing said document last week--I'm not leaving the country anytime soon, so it wasn't high on my list of priorities. But with last weekend's trip to the beach, I felt like I should replace my card so that I could carry it instead of my passport.

Replacing a document (or doing anything semi-important for that matter) is rather complicated here. Last Wednesday, I went to the police station and stood in line in a small back room to make a denuncio--an announcement--that my card was lost. This involved me being given a form that I had to take to the copy stand in the entry and pay to have two copies made, then returning and filling out the form with the exact events of the lost document. I started to write the wrong date on the top of the form, scratched it out, and then was told to take the mistake-free copy back to the copy stand and ask for yet another copy. (Mistakes--not even scratch-outs--are not allowed.) Then I had to present my correctly-filled-out form to another person at another desk, and wait for them to stamp my paper.

Thursday afternoon, I took my passport and my denuncio to the Office of Immigration, where I was given a number corresponding to the document I needed. I made a copy of my visa and the first page of my passport at yet another copy stand, and finally my number was called. After all the runaround, the actual replacing of the residency card was fairly easy. After two days, five copies, a lot of waiting in line, and one very unflattering photo, I finally had my new residency card.

I guess I can leave the country now.

beach take two

Yet again, we went to the beach for a three-day weekend.

I really wanted to go back to the beach we visited over girls' weekend last June, and so three friends and I spent the weekend in Santa Marianita, a small beach village just outside of Manta. The beach is famous for kite surfing, in which we did not partake, but we did have beautiful weather and really nice accommodations (hostel with a pool and restaurant right on the beach.) We read, walked the beach, swam a bit, ate lots of fried seafood, and played cards. It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend.

Erica, Hannah, and Marjorie in the midst of our euchre playing

our hostel

Erica and Marjorie watching the sunsetHannah at sunset

snacktime

I know, I've been a delinquent blogger. Here's a new tidbit for your reading enjoyment:

Students at my school don't eat lunch. Lunch, here in Ecuador, is the main meal of the day, and is eaten in the middle of the afternoon, usually when students return home from school. Therefore, my students snack a LOT all throughout the day, especially during recesses. Snacks can be anything from a sandwich to fruit or a salad, or the little containers of beans that are mixed with dried crunchy corn kernels (think Corn-Nuts.) Today, as I passed a group of my eighth grade students seated at a picnic table in front of the music building, I stopped to say hello and noticed they had a more unusual snack. When I asked what was in the package, they told me, "hosts"--as in communion hosts. They told me they could be purchased at the big chain supermarket (Supermaxi) but that they were better with Nutella or Arequipe (a type of caramel sauce.)

Perhaps I could petition the Pope to consider changing from communion wine to communion Nutella?

holy rollin'

As I have changed residences since the last school year, I've spent the past week trying to decide which school bus is the most effective for getting me to and from school. (The school has over 100 buses that run daily routes all over the city, and students and teachers both travel by school bus.) I've spent some time riding different bus routes and timing them to see which bus gets me home the quickest. One thing I've observed on all these buses (as well as my buses from last year) is the quantity of religious items the bus drivers have on the bus. It's very common to see rosaries hanging from the rear view mirror, or stickers or figurines of saints displayed in the front of the bus. My favorite, however, were the multiple glow-in-the-dark figurines of Jesus as a child that one bus driver displayed. In a very Catholic country, these things are not so uncommon.

who turned off the lights?

Yesterday I came home to an apartment without electricity. I walked in the door and five minutes later the power went out. As this is not an uncommon occurrence here in Quito, I opened the door to the hallway to see if the hall lights were on. They were, and I could hear a television playing in another apartment. I went downstairs to report the outage to my doorman, and he handed me a slip of paper from the electric company stating that my service was disconnected due to lack of payment. I was outraged--the previous tenants in my apartment had failed to pay last month's bill, and then when the bill came this month, I missed it due to the fact that I was checking the wrong mailbox. Therefore, I ran like a madwoman up to the office for the electric company (after stopping by the atm in the mall) and stood in a line that wound outside of the building to pay my overdue bill. Then I went to the customer service office, took a number, and waited to speak to someone about reconnecting my service. The lady I spoke with assured me that someone would be by to reconnect me by 7 pm that night. However, at 7:30 I still had no service. I then called the number the lady had given me in case this happened--and I called multiple times just trying to figure out the stupid automated menu--and was told that the technicians did not work past 6 pm, so my service would be restored tomorrow. By now, I was in serious need of pizza and beer, so I went out to dinner with my friends and then came home to a dark house. I had enough hot water left in my tank to take a hot bath by candlelight and then went to bed with wet hair, hoping it would dry by morning. And I most certainly took my curling iron to school with me this morning and fixed my weird slept-on-wet hair in my classroom.

only in quito

This has become the school year that will not begin.

Originally, at my school teachers were to begin work on August 25, and students were set to begin September 1-3 (secondary students on the first, and primary students on the third.) A few months ago, the Ministry of Education here in Ecuador decided to mandate the date for the start of the school year as the first Monday in September, which this year happens to be the 7th. My school petitioned for an exemption around this mandate, but we found out two weeks ago that our petition was denied. Therefore, our start date for all students was moved to September 7th.

To complicate matters, we found out this past Thursday that the mayor of Quito decided to stagger the start date of students, as to avoid having some 48,000 students on the road all on the same morning. So now our beginning dates are as follows: Prekindergarten and kindergarten students begin September 7th, primary students begin September 8th, and secondary students on the 9th.

And as if this wasn't enough, due to all these changes we have now lost two days of Christmas vacation and a week of spring break (leaving us with only one week of break in April instead of two.)

Now the impending question is whether or not we'll lose days to the H1N1 virus.

It's never a dull moment here...

new place

Tobey and I are finally settled into our new place. I ended up going with a previously-undisclosed third option in the same building as the apartment with the oven. This apartment has neither oven nor washer, but it does have a bathtub--something neither of the others had. It was also slightly cheaper that the other options, which helped in the decision as well. My building is located on what is kind of like the Park Avenue of Quito, and it's a GREAT location--lots of restaurants and cafes close by, plus my favorite bakery and ice cream shop are just around the corner! I'm going to try and post some pictures of the front of my building and my street in a few days, but here at least are the inside shots of my apartment.

entry/kitchenkitchen/Tobey (loving the granite countertops!)

dining area

sitting area
"Tobey's" bathroom
my bedroom
my bathroom

It's small but enough for just Tobey and me. There are still a few touches that I'd like to add, but for the most part it was ready to go when I moved in. After last year's "colorful" apartment, I'm quite enjoying the white walls in this one. It's also very nice to have space all to myself (and Tobey too!)

searching

Transient is my middle name.

After an extended visit to the States during which I house-hopped and town-hopped and was constantly on the go, I was so glad to return home to Quito and finally sleep in my own bed. And now that I've done that for a solid week, it's time to find a new place to live.

(In reality, our contract for our apartment expires this month, and we've all decided to go our separate ways and live on our own.)

I began the search this week by walking around my desired neighborhood and looking for rent signs in windows. Then, my friend's Ecuadorian boyfriend volunteered to make the calls for me. This was important for two reasons: 1) I have a tough time speaking and understanding Spanish on the phone; 2) My gringa accent might very well raise the rental price of the property. After calling a list of sixteen numbers, Miguel had set up four appointments for me to view various properties. I checked them out, and as always, some were great and some were dismal. I've tentatively narrowed it down to two very similar apartments. Both are in the neighborhood I like, both are modern design and fully furnished, and both are the same price.

How am I going to choose? It will probably come down to oven vs. washing machine. While both apartments have beautiful kitchens, one has an oven and the other does not. The apartment lacking the oven, however, has a washing machine. The other has laundry facilities in the building but not in the unit. So therefore, I have to decide which is more important: washer or oven?

I'll let you know the outcome of this debate.

my summer vacation

What I did on my summer vacation:

a photo essay

back in the USA

Tobey and I landed safely in Miami on Monday! Tobey survived his trip in cargo, and I managed to not have a nervous breakdown anywhere along the way. I was a bit concerned that they weren't going to let me out of the country: the day before my friend was turned away from emigration and had to make a quick trip home to retrieve her Ecuadorian residency card before they would allow her to leave the country. My card is lost, and so I went to the airport Sunday morning not knowing if they would let me out, and had therefore concocted a very long and detailed story that started with me stating that I had been robbed the night before (not true) and ending with me offering to pay a "fine" (bribe) for not having the card. Fortunately, the lady at emigration did not ask for my censo, and so I was able to fly.

Tomorrow we're off to Disney, so I'll be sure to post lots of pictures of Gabe and me in Mickey Mouse ears!

ocupada

Today consisted of but was not limited to:

• A 6:20 a.m. trip to the airport so I could pay the $14 fee and receive the receipt that I have to present at the airport tomorrow so that I can get Tobey's export paperwork completed. (Tobey has to accompany me on both trips.)
• Three cab rides before 8 a.m. Airport, back home, school.
• A day spent running around school handing in various paperwork and getting various signatures in order to be able to collect my summer paychecks.
• Another cab ride home because I missed the 2:10 school bus.
• An end-of-year party tonight at my friend's house. A nap is definitely in order before this can (and will) happen.
  

the good, the bad...

The good:

Chess in Concert the album (featuring my future husband, Josh Groban) is now available for purchase on iTunes! I have been awaiting this release since I first found out about the concert version of this highly underrated musical last fall. It features an all-star cast including Idina Menzel (original Maureen in Rent and Elphaba in Wicked), Adam Pascal (original Rodger in Rent), and of course the always-fabulous Josh Groban.

The bad:

I just found out that Tobey cannot fly with me in the cabin when we travel back to the States this weekend--he'll have to go in the cargo hold. I am very very very nervous about this--I can't imagine handing my baby over to someone else and not being able to check in on him for the entire flight. Good thing alcohol is free on international flights...at least on this airline...

And how it might get really ugly:

Okay, I can't even begin to think about what might happen to my poor baby in cargo hold...and so the ugly will be me next Sunday as I'm trying to cope with entrusting my Tobey to other people. Let's just say I'll be pretty crazy...

as promised

This past weekend was girls' beach weekend--thirteen of the female international teachers from my school went to Manta to spend a relaxing weekend at the beach. We arrived Friday night, had dinner on the boardwalk, and then woke up Saturday morning to perfect beach weather. As the beach in Manta is more of a city beach (translation: dirty) we decided to hire a taxi to take us to a more secluded beach 15 minutes outside of the city. We spent all of Saturday on what was nearly a private beach, enjoying the sunshine and warm waves. We stopped for lunch at one of the two hostels on the beach, where we enjoyed fried seafood and beer out of teacups. (Side note on the beer: this weekend was Ley Seca, which means alcohol was not supposed to be served due to the election being held on Sunday. However, we managed to find a few places that would serve us, and this restaurant would serve us beer in teapots so as to keep it low-profile.) Our taxis returned at 4:00 to take us back to our hostel in Manta, and so we spent a relaxing evening hanging out on the hostel's porch and ordering pizza. On Sunday, a few friends and I decided to make the 10 minute trek to Montecristi, a small town outside of Manta that is famous for making Panama hats. We stopped first at the government building where the latest constitution was written, and which also is home to Eloy Alfaro's mausoleum. (Eloy Alfaro was a very famous president in Ecuador. The street I live on is named after him.) There was also a train on the grounds, and so we had a good time snapping pictures with the train. We then walked through town, stopping in plenty of shops selling everything made out of straw. We tried on lots of hats, though didn't buy any, and made a few small purchases. Then it was time to return to Manta, have one last lunch on the boardwalk, stroll along the beach, and enjoy the hostel's cable tv until it was time for our flight. It was, in all, a nearly perfect beach weekend.
p.s. Special thanks to Carrie for all the great pictures!

drinking our "tea"

the mausoleum for Eloy Alfaroplaying damsel in distress (I couldn't resist)this is not a good look for me!one of my purchases--you never know when you'll need a fan!