We had quite a time of things getting our butts out of the states. As many of you know, we had to jump through a lot of hoops and get rid of a lot of stuff (yard sales and Craig's list and give aways). Susan was really amazing and put us up for a week before we left - but she did a lot more than that. Susan - you are an unbelievable person and although I knew you had to be - I never really understood until we stayed with you - thanks for everything. One of the conversations that we had before we left went something like this ~

If something happened and we were never able to go to Quito, our lives would still be changed forever.


We have never experienced such an outpouring of unconditional love and support. Our families (near and far) and friends just kept telling us that they were there for us and that 'whatever we needed - anything at all' they were there for us. Our wedding was amazing, and this support rivaled that celebration. We cannot even begin to express our gratitude to all of you - to the Strommers and Jon for the party and so much more - to Kitty and Susan for giving us the best week ever before we left and letting us know how much we are loved - and of course to our families who never let us forget how much they love us and never, ever stopped taking boxes and boxes without ever thinking twice.



And once we arrived here... how wonderful that the first (and so far only) piece of mail we received was none other than Quinn's Finan Family Newsletter. It made us feel so at home to have that paper in our hands and read all about the goings-ons.







The first few weeks were quite a whirlwind ~ we moved into our apartment on the second day and we couldn't be happier. We're on the fourth floor (that's quatro piso en espanol) and have three terraces (okay the third one is actually a bit of overkill) we can sit in the morning and afternoon light. The one we sit on in the afternoon and evening has a nice view of the mountains and the city. We have a great, open kitchen and have been doing lots of experimenting with the fruits and vegetables here. It turns out Ecuador is a pretty good place for vegetarians - lots of lentils, quinoa, and some other cool legumes called chochos and some type of corn called choclos that are very fun to eat. A Spanish teacher at the school gave a little workshop on what to do with a lot of the fruits here so Chris has been juicing and making some delicious fruity margarita-type drinks.

We're figuring out how to run our household - things like getting our big water jugs filled and gas tanks - there's a few tricks to all of this since you have to have things delivered when you're not home. Luckily, our maid is awesome and immediately started taking care of business and there's a guard for the street who's around during the day. Also, the people at the school have been so wonderful ~ they really help you every step of the way. They took us around the city every day for the first week to shop for household stuff, set up internet, cable, apt. leases etc. and they even have messengers at the school who can take your money and bills out to be paid ~ funny thing about Ecuador, there's no mail service to people's homes (so where do the bills go? - we don't know) but we do get mail delivered to the school.



Speaking of the school, it's a really special place and it's been great so far. We walk to school together every day. We've had three full weeks with the students back. The science labs were being renovated over the summer so Chris just got into his classroom this past week. He is teaching four classes (that means four preps!). I've been working in the 4th grade with two wonderful Canadian teachers and I've gotten to do a lot of direct work with the students and the administration has asked me to do my student teaching right away so I can be a co-teacher for the fourth grade. The people we work with are great - funny and sarcastic and a very social bunch. There are a lot of like-minded people here that we have a lot in common with (makes sense since we all ended up here) and it's been very easy to start to make ties and get to know people. There's alway something going on and we went with several other teachers to a rainforest resort last weekend. It's a really nice community and we've started exploring the city ~ there are lots of fruit & vegetable markets, indigenous craft markets and a touristy area called 'gringolandia' that has lots of restaurants and bars.

Well, we can't quite fill you in on the last 5 weeks in one posting, so there will be more soon. But so far it's been very exciting and fun and we're starting to develop a routine and become part of the international/ex-pat community.

We hope everyone is doing well and look forward to your postings and news. We love you all so much and feel so lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives.