Happy Halloween everyone!
It's Halloween eve and just wanted to send out an update ~ we had our party last saturday night and it was lots of fun (lots of work too, to get everything ready). Here's a picture of the apartment. We bought over 300 roses ~ Ecuador is one of the major exporters of roses and you can buy 25 for $2.00 - $2.50.
So, Chris hung up lots of white roses and then we had tons of red roses in vases all around. We also had a million candles and kept the lights off but you can't tell from the pictures because I had to use the flash. Luckily, it didn't rain because so much of our party space is on our three terraces, which were also covered with candles and the kind that you put in the brown bags with sand on the bottom. Chris made his vegetarian chili which was a huge hit and I made about 40 corn bread muffins which weren't such a big hit for some reason.
Anyway, there were about 25 people here and some with some great costumes. There was even a bit of dancing to 80's music which always makes me happy.
We didn't get a picture of me in my costume but we had lots of packing materials from the move so I wrapped myself in the bubble wrap and I was 'fragile'.
Here's a picture of chris in his costume.....any guesses as to what he is? Just remember his history of dressing up as a squid, luna moth, lightening bug man, etc.


Then Chris' birthday was on sunday and we took it easy ~ cleaning and napping.

We're going to go out to dinner for his birthday this weekend and we actually have a four day weekend and we're staying in town. We're going to try to make it to the botanical gardens and hang around quito.

I have my last two evaluations by our principal for my student teaching tomorrow (Wed.) so wish me luck... I scheduled a massage for friday! Only $35 for 1 1/2 hours at the spa down the street ~ one of the many great things about ecuador.

We'll write more soon and hope everyone is doing great,
xoxo

2 things

thing 1 – We love the comments and we read them over and over. And the best thing (for me – because I am selfish) is that we don’t feel like I have to reply. Truly, keep them coming. And kudos to our #1 commenter, my dad! (thanks, dad – love and miss you so much) And Milde – I got the latex gloves from the sci department and we’ve already put them in the freezer – brilliant!

thing 2 – Our Skype is driving us crazy. We cannot figure out why no one can hear us when we call. Sharon has spent countless hours trying to trouble-shoot. We have bought new headphones and emailed support many many times. So if you are someone who might expect a call, please be patient. The freaky thing is that it was working beautifully (OK not beautifully, but it was working) and we can’t figure out what has changed. Just know that we are still pursuing a solution and we can’t wait to make many calls and talk to you (yes, you).

A long, long time coming…

I had been thinking about so many things I wanted to talk about on this blog the week before we left for Quito ~ because we knew the blog would happen sometime and that’s the way my brain works.

But it was such a whirlwind once we arrived. We knew where we lived and where the school was, but not much more. How do we get our hands on potable water? Crap – we don’t have hot water – have to get more propane.

Are you telling me I have to teach four different classes? Are you telling me that 2 of these classes have no curriculum? O.K.

So we have been busy and so many things have gotten buried.

The most important things I remember before I left are things that will never leave me.

I remember talking with Sharon and Susan before we left ~ two days before we left.

And I remember how truly blessed we felt.

And I remember talking about the last month before we left.

And what I realized is that if Sharon (my true love) and I, for any reason, were unable to leave for Ecuador – for any reason at all – our lives were already changed forever.

We had recently gone through the absolutely amazing experience of getting married.

And once again everyone we know wormed their way out the woodwork of their so busy lives to stand by our side and put us first.

I bumble through life trying to be good to beetles and moss and everyone we know (our whole world) ~ and once again everyone we know lifts us up and carries us on their shoulders.

Again ~ the people in my life ~ you people ~ my family and my friends ~ you continue to astonish me with your beauty and generosity ~ and you inspire me. Thank you and know that we love you and we do miss you so much.

“…joy and amazement at the beauty and grandeur of this world, of which man can form just a faint notion.” ~ Albert Einstein

Sunday, October 15
Just a quick update for the week....today is election day in Ecuador. We're not sure who won yet but it looks like one of the frontrunners is 'a candidate of the people'. He is running on an anti-poverty ticket and has ties with the indigenous populaton here ~ probably partly inspired by the last election in Bolivia. We even heard a report about the election and the candidates today while we streamed NPR over the computer. It's been a quiet weekend - lots of things are closed and no alcohol is sold on Sat. or Sun. when there's a presidential election.

Also, last Thursday at school we had an earthquake drill. I was teaching one of the fourth grade classes all week because the teacher's wife had a baby last weekend. So, we went through the procedures and all the 'what if...' questions and during the drill and I had all the fourth graders under their desks...

Well this morning (sunday) Chris and I were at school early doing some work and we were each in our classrooms when all of a sudden the room started shaking. It was kind of like a huge truck passed by the window (although I wasn't near a street) or there was a huge wind from a major storm. After it stopped, I went out to find chris and he was headed to the bathroom ~ his room was on the first floor and he didn't know we'd just lived through our first earthquake. While we were sitting outside enjoying the sunshine (it's officially the rainy season now so you really need to enjoy the sun when it's out) there was a little more shakey-shakey. So, it was kind of exciting but definitely a very minor earthquake. Apparently when you live tucked in between active volcanoes you are also suceptible to earthquakes.

That's about it for now ~ did I mention that chris and I are reinstating his tradition of celebrating halloween by hosting a party? We have two weeks to get ready and we'll definitely post pictures of our costumes and the decorations.
hope everyone is well and very happy,
Sharon and Chris

Weekend away...
Last weekend we had a three day weekend so we decided to take a trip to the tropical cloudforest. It's about 2 - 2 1/2 hours from Quito and it was our very first trip via bus (so far we have gone on trips with other people who have cars). A few other teachers had reccommended this place - it's called El Monte Sustainable lodge in a town called Mindo that's small but growing as a destination because of the great bird-watching, butterflies, orchids and waterfalls.







So... we got up early on Sat. morning and took a taxi to the bus station ~ which was really more like a small parking lot with two buses in it. We thought there might be only one bus (at 8:00) in the morning to mindo(it's sometimes hard to pin people down on details such as price and schedules) and we knew it would be busy because of the holiday weekend. We stood in line to buy our tickets and suddenly someone shouted out "mindo!" and a bus started pulling away out of the parking lot. We saw someone hop on so we ran over to it and hopped on too. There was a young guy manning the door and he seemed to be agreeable to us jumping on the bus without tickets so we looked around and there were about 5 empty seats. As soon as I sat down a man assured me that the seat was 'occupado' as were all the others.

The guy at the door of the bus gave us and another couple some cushions so we could sit on the floor and put our feet in the stairwell (actually one person basically got to sit on the huge dashboard console of the bus). Then the bus proceeded to stop a few more times outside of Quito and about 15 more people got on the bus. So, actually, even though we were on the floor we felt lucky to not have to stand in the aisle and we were very happy that the ride was only 2+ hours and there were amazing views along the way. When we arrived in Mindo, we immediately bought two tickets to return to Quito on Monday with reserved seats.

A person from the lodge picked us up at the bus station and drove us 10-15 minutes down a dirt road. We pulled over next to another car and a white horse and saw that the way to get across the river to the lodge was by a small, hand-powered cable car.
Here's a picture of Chris and I travelling across (one at at time) with our stuff...















The lodge was really wonderful ~ they have six cabanas and they are right on the river so we didn't even need our noisemaker to sleep at night.

They had their own organic garden and served gourmet vegetarian food (and a little bit of chicken and fish if you like that sort of thing). The food was delicious ~ definitely the best we've had (except our own) since we've been in Ecuador.
There was a main lodge where you eat, family style and hammocks, chess, books and a fire at night. Chris found a book (in Spanish) on beekeeping and started talking to the owner about volunteering to come down and start a beekeeping/honey project. At this altitude there are special non-stinging bees that are supposed to make delicious honey.






We went on lots of hikes and walks ~ the price included a guide to take you around and show you all the local plants (right up chris' alley) and he took us out at 6:30 to see the birds before the noise of the day started. We also went on a great, steep uphill hike through the forest to a larger, machine powered cable car that can take you over to the next mountain to hike to a bunch of waterfalls.

Hello everyone!
Well I wanted to give some updates on events of the last few weeks. Two weekends ago I went on a girls' weekend trip with 8 other teachers. We headed north to a town about 2 hours from here that has what is, I think, Ecuador's largest indigenous market. There's also a town 10 minutes from there that sells all leather goods (jackets, shoes, bags, etc.) ~ it seems like the towns here like to have a theme and sell all the same things.... leather, woodworking, livestock, etc. Anyway, we had a great time shopping, eating and drinking and there was even a little hiking. Here's a picture of the group at dinner.














And here's a picture of the market in Otavalo. It's really huge on Saturdays and you have to do a lot of bargaining (in Spanish, of course) because they always start by quoting you the gringo price. There are a ton of ponchos ~ I've actually bought three ponchos because they're more than just a fashionable item here, they really keep you warm in the mornings before the sun heats everything up. I tried to get chris to wear one but he's sticking to his fleece, for now anyway. They have alpaca blankets and sweaters, bags, rugs, jewelry and lots of other fun stuff (lots of great gifts....)

got clouds?

Academia Cotopaxi
As promised, here are some pictures of the school where we work. It's a little less than a 15 minute walk to school from where we live and it's preschool through 12th grade. There are about 550 students in all (including early childhood) so it's not too big. The campus is kind of divided between the upper and lower school but nothing is too far away ~ Chris and I can stop in and say hi during the day or run into each other at the copy center.







Here is a picture of chris in his classroom - like we mentioned, the labs were renovated over the summer so it's pretty large and it's great that he's moved in ~ now he just needs all the boxes unpacked so he can find all the supplies for his labs....














This is one of the fourth grade classes I work in~ reminds you of elementary school, eh? Each of the two fourth grade classes have 19 students, which is really large for this school ~ which is where I come in to help.
















I took this other picture (below) from the window of my classroom. The green is the lower school field where they have recess - and play lots of soccer, and then we look out at the mountains (sort of a theme here in Quito). In between the buildings we can see planes landing and taking off all day because the airport is right in the middle of the city.

Hola,
I wanted to post a few pictures we took from our terraces so you can enjoy our view with us. We spend the most time on the terrace that looks out over the city. It gets the afternoon sun and is a great place to hang out in the evening. Chris is starting to fill it with plants which makes us both very happy.



Here's another part of the view - luckily we're on the 4th floor so we get to see the city and the mountains.
















Here's a plant on our terrace and the house across the street (and hello kitty).















This picture is of our short, one way (una via) street. There's a guard who's there during the day who keeps things clean, keeps it safe and kind of manages deliveries and anything else that's going on during the day. You can also see the edge of Qutio's largest park - Parque Metropolitano, which is right behind our house ~ it's a great place to take walks (although it has lots of hills) and breathe fresh, clean air.

first stab at posting

first stab at posting

Hola amigos y amigas ~ ya estamos!

Things are good and Quito is a city. We are well and the transition has been remarkably easy. The folks here are very kind and patient with us as we bumble our way through their language and their culture.

This picture is one of the views from the hotel we stayed at the first night here.


Academia Cotopaxi is the name of the school at which we work. It takes its namesake from a local volcano (Cotopaxi) which we can just see the top of on clear days.

Because of her brilliance, Sharon is well on her way to being a full fledged teacher. She has already been promoted to a "paraprofessional" and should be through with her student teaching by January. As you all well know - she's amazing.

We miss everyone at home but are truly excited to be here and feel this is an important step in our journey through this very short time on this Earth.

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.