Greg's Ecuadorian Adventure

The week prior to thanksgiving, David's family came to visit. At least this time was a scheduled visit, as compared to the last time his dad came! That Sunday I met them and David in centro historico. They were eating at a cute little place in la Rhonda. After they finished, I indulged in an amazing empanada! I freaking love those things! We walked around and watched this group of people learning salsa outside Parque Urbano. Afterward, we went to Iglesia San Francisco, the church named after the city it exists in. Like the other old churches I visited so far, it is oppulent in its design and size. This church has extremely high vaulted ceilings, natural lighting, and ornate gold designs depicting religious figures. As we walked out of the church, you can see how much traffic in and out of the place of worship has, just by looking at the natural stones laid for walking. They are worn down at the edges as sharp as a butter knife.  The rest of that week began my descent into exhaust...

Prologue--why there is a delay in this, and no pictures posted here The weekend of Halloween turned out to be a major turning point in our lives in Ecuador. We had off of work the following Monday, and I ended up being a bum at home. In the early afternoon, my friend Joe called and asked if I heard from my roommate, who was on a trip to the jungle. I said no, and that he left his phone in our apartment on accident. He proceeded to tell me there was a bus accident that my roommate and three other friends were involved in. I said it couldn't be possible because they had a private driver, or so I thought.  The accident left four people dead, including a child... but thankfully none of my friends. They were left with a wide range of injuries but each of them survived and have shown much courage and strength in getting through this ordeal. Read the story here . Josh and Mallory returned to the states, as Josh has sustained serious injuries. He came to Ecuador for the same reason ...

Update on work -- I just finished my first grading period, which we call partials here. It's exactly how we used to have three marking periods in MPS each semester. The only real difference is that each partial is not always exactly six weeks. Some are longer and others are shorter. We also have to have at least one grade for each of five categories, and some grades can easily be put into multiple categories. After that, we have to evaluate our students on "Discipline Grades" which seems so arbitrary. Are they responsible? Respectful? Aware of their actions? Participatory? It's the hardest part of the grades for sure.  Furthermore, I have so many different responsibilities in my position.  I am teaching 10th, 11th, and 12th grade biology in the international section at my school. The two differences between the two sections I feel are that:  National section classes are larger (25-30 students?), international classes are smaller. My two 10th grade classes have 1...

After a long and exhausting previous weekend and a tiring time getting caught up at work, going someplace to relax was at the top of my list. I hadn’t seen anything outside of Quito in five weeks yet so going away was pretty much a priority. A number of people were planning on going to Mindo , which is located in a cloud forest in the Pichinincha province about two hours west and slightly north from the city. Just about everyone left Friday afternoon from a bus station near the school, but a few factors led to my decision to leaving Saturday morning. First, I hope to have internet this week; however, directions were lost in translation and my roommate and I thought that it would happen before the weekend. Second , almost all of the school buses leave right after the day is over on Friday, and I am not a person who rushes well under pressure. That night, my roommate and I went to a new restaurant (to us) called Sur , located on Av. Portugal between Av. Elloy Alfaro and Av. 6 de ...

Telling people back home about Quito was like explaining Milwaukee to people who have either never heard of or been to. Quito is the second highest national capital in the world, after La Paz, Bolivia ( one place I really want to visit!) . The city sits at over 9,000 feet above sea level ( 2,800  meters), and is nestled in a valley between mountain peaks and volcano summits in the Andes Mountain Range. This makes for a very loooong and narrow city, extremely spread out and diverse as you transition from one area to the next. This makes it feel somewhat like MKE, as you find certain types of people in each of these areas. Overall, the people of Quito are quite helpful and patient, especially with us Grino/as. The exception to this is the company TV/Cable . Although their internet is (supposed to be) really good, their customer service sucks. David and I have experienced this a lot in the last almost two weeks. They kept scheduling appointments and then not show up. One night,...