Money: on the American dollar so no changing hassles. Bring small bills. hundreds are impossible to change. Cash cards are good, but usually a charge for getting money. Few places take credit cards except in Gringolandia.
Culture: many public diplays of affection, bare breast-feeding, spitting and nosepicking
Personal services: bring shoes that need to be shined; it costs 50 cents to get them to "shine like mirrors". also come scruffy; haircuts and shaves are 1-2 dollars for 45 minute salon treatment.
Pedestrian rights: are nonexistant. have almost been run over while crossing on a green and not looking to my left. One driver in English told me to "check out the light". yeah it´s green, but for cars turning left into crowds of pedestrians too. Don´t fight with the vehicles you won´t win. I´ve tried.
Mauricio es mas macho
Many stray dogs = many stray turds
Bring SPF and sunglasses. Those of us from cloudier climes forget about that big, warm sun in the winter.
Bring umbrellas. It is the rainy season although it has been dry here. Often it will rain for about half an hour and then clear up and be warm and sunny.
The sun rises everyday at 6:30 am and sets every day at 6:30 pm no variation. you don´t really even need a watch, unless you have somewhere to be in between those hours.
The temperature is between 50-70 degrees F. every day. bring pants and one or two shorts or sundresses, sturdy shoes. always have a long sleeve shirt to put on for when it clouds over and the temp drops. I have put on and taken off said long sleeves 5 times in an hour.
That´s all i can think of for now. Any veterans please jump in and contribut and or correct any misinformation.
Be prepared to enjoy amazing scenery, friendly people, a plethora of fresh fruit and vegetables.
Asta luego
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
mariposario
At the butterfly (mariposa) farm in Mindo.
This is what I took about 100 pics of and killed the battery on my camera so it wasn´t available for the water slide.
Teleferico to Pichincha
Some very enthusiastic hikers at the top hiking to Rocu Pichincha. We didn´t make it; the altitude got us.
Riding the Teleferico up to Pichincha. There are two peaks. One is an inactive volcano called Rocu Pichincha (old man) the other is active called Huahua Pichincha (child). The Teleferico is a cable car. It is in Quito and also has an amusement park which has the highest altitude rollercoaster.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
I have an ugly child and his name is Emelec
No, we have not adopted a child. THis is a cheer sung/shouted by the futbol (soccer) crowd in Quito. We attended a game between Liga Quito and Emelec of Guayquil. Guayquil is huge city on the western coast of Ecuador. The people of Quito and Guayquil seem to be rivals in more than sports. Who has a safer city, a more beautiful city, nicer people.... We sat in Pablo and Maria Elena´s box, but could see "the cage" where most of the people sit. THere is a base drum beating the whole time - like a battle march and many songs insulting the other team and proclaiming their own greatness. It was an exciting game with some minor fights and no expulsions. Soccer players are the superstars here. They are completely idolized like many of our sports heroes. (Aaron Rodgers, Adrian Pederson, Mia Hamm. . .)Please feel free to post your own examples.
The game was a blowout 5-0 with Liga winning. THis game seemed relatively calm for mob violence, but apparently during a past game angry fans started throwing chunks of cement at rival fans. The next day the front page as well as most of the sports section was devoted to the match. I guess it would be similar to the Green Bay Press Gazette the day after a Packer Game. I had to search the sports section 4 times before I found 1 sentence telling me the U.S. Olympic men´s hockey team lost in overtime against Canada.
The kids now have Liga jerseys for the next game we attend.
Miss you all
The game was a blowout 5-0 with Liga winning. THis game seemed relatively calm for mob violence, but apparently during a past game angry fans started throwing chunks of cement at rival fans. The next day the front page as well as most of the sports section was devoted to the match. I guess it would be similar to the Green Bay Press Gazette the day after a Packer Game. I had to search the sports section 4 times before I found 1 sentence telling me the U.S. Olympic men´s hockey team lost in overtime against Canada.
The kids now have Liga jerseys for the next game we attend.
Miss you all
Monday, March 8, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Bruce with paragraphs
March 2, 2010-03-03
We are finishing our sixth day at Colegio Letort. jSo far, Beth and I are just observing and planning some lessons. We will both be teaching about 12 classes each week. My clases are spread out evenly throughout the week, but Beth has only 1 class every other week on Mondays and Tuesdays. I am teaching English to 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders, while Beth teaches the same to 4th, 5th and 6th graders. We`re both ready to work, we´re getting a bit bored.
Max and Jane are enrolled in the school full time. Both complain, but I think that they are beinning to adjust. It`s harder for Max because he is fairly introverted and he doesn´t like making mistakes. He´s just going to have to suck it up, because we´re here now, and he has not choice. Beth and I can already tell that both of them are learning Spanish although they could not admit it.
I was interviewed by two sixth grade students today for an article in the school newspaper. Their English is good, and they giggled a lot during the interview. They are going to take a family picture tomorrow to go along with the article. Kids come up to Beth and me during recess just to speak English with us. They smile shyly and creep up to initiate conversation. It`s very cute. The students also follow Max and Jane around. Believe it or not, but the Scandos from Minnesota are quite exotic here at Letort. We`re a bit like rock stars
Everybody here has been kind and generous to us. I´ve been invited to join the 6th grade Spanish Lanaguage class so that I can learn and study Spanish here at school when I`m not teaching. Beth and I were judges in a Books I Read speech contest for 7th, 8th and 9th graders. The particdipants were great and the whole affair was quite impressive and formal. Parents of the winners thanked us again, and again, we were treated like rock stars. The schoool has provided busing for us each day so we don´t have to travel all the way across town to get here. Beth and I are also given a lunch each day. The people here have been going out of their way to make us feel comfortable. We are so lucky.
We are finishing our sixth day at Colegio Letort. jSo far, Beth and I are just observing and planning some lessons. We will both be teaching about 12 classes each week. My clases are spread out evenly throughout the week, but Beth has only 1 class every other week on Mondays and Tuesdays. I am teaching English to 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders, while Beth teaches the same to 4th, 5th and 6th graders. We`re both ready to work, we´re getting a bit bored.
Max and Jane are enrolled in the school full time. Both complain, but I think that they are beinning to adjust. It`s harder for Max because he is fairly introverted and he doesn´t like making mistakes. He´s just going to have to suck it up, because we´re here now, and he has not choice. Beth and I can already tell that both of them are learning Spanish although they could not admit it.
I was interviewed by two sixth grade students today for an article in the school newspaper. Their English is good, and they giggled a lot during the interview. They are going to take a family picture tomorrow to go along with the article. Kids come up to Beth and me during recess just to speak English with us. They smile shyly and creep up to initiate conversation. It`s very cute. The students also follow Max and Jane around. Believe it or not, but the Scandos from Minnesota are quite exotic here at Letort. We`re a bit like rock stars
Everybody here has been kind and generous to us. I´ve been invited to join the 6th grade Spanish Lanaguage class so that I can learn and study Spanish here at school when I`m not teaching. Beth and I were judges in a Books I Read speech contest for 7th, 8th and 9th graders. The particdipants were great and the whole affair was quite impressive and formal. Parents of the winners thanked us again, and again, we were treated like rock stars. The schoool has provided busing for us each day so we don´t have to travel all the way across town to get here. Beth and I are also given a lunch each day. The people here have been going out of their way to make us feel comfortable. We are so lucky.
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