Life as I know it…
WARNING: This month´s entry is quite disconnected and random.
The main reason for the disconnected writing style of this entry is that I have virtually no free time, of course, mostly due to my own doing. I have returned once again to the happy world of teaching teenagers. Actually, my day starts with a 7am class of adults. While I would prefer to not get up that early every day, this class is worth getting up for. They´re sharp, a lot of fun, and are a healthy break from teens. Class ends at 8:15, and I then have a couple hours to prep, and if I have time left over, to check email. From 10:30 to 12:30 I have Spanish class. It would free up a lot of my time to not do those classes, but I feel that as a language teacher, I need to always remember what my students are going through, both mentally, as well as in the classroom. Plus, I´m a nerd, and have always enjoyed the formal learning setting, and like the chance to iron out pesky grammatical details such as prepositions.
After class I run home, grab a quick lunch, then book it to the sucursal (school branch) by 1:30 to meet with my tutorial, a rheumatologist (sp?). He is uber-motivated to perfect his English because in December, he is going to give a speech, in English, in front of 4000 other rheumatologists. I could NEVER imagine giving a public address in Spanish. He´s also fascinating for the fact that he lived in Russia for 12 years and married a Russian rheumatologist who returned to Cuenca with him. They have two children (one born in Russia, one in Cuenca), and he says that in their house, they always speak Russian. Their children, by the way, are also fluent in Spanish, English, and German. I hate people like that. Ok, in sincere truth, I´m blind with envy.
At 3, I teach my 1st class of teens. They´re 12-14 yrs old, and are actually quite adorable. The remind me that not all teens are walking nightmares. But then I go to my 4:30 class, where I remember why I don´t like teens. They´re aged 15-17, and really take it out of me. I come home just in time to watch the sunset over the Cajas, and then it´s time to grade papers. This is my life Monday through Thursday. I don´t teach on Fridays, but it gets quickly filled up with laundry, soccer, going to see my girls at the orphanage, going to the market for my fresh veggies and fruits, dance class, catching up on emails, etc.
Ecuador is having its presidential elections which in many interesting ways are quite different from those in the states. For starters, military and police are not allowed to vote. Everyone else is obligated to vote, and must pay a fine if they do not. Secondly, instead of 2 major parties, there are like 15 or 16. For the first round of elections, Ecuador becomes a dry country for 48 hours. No alcohol can be sold before the elections, in an effort to prevent drunken voting. Alcohol can´t be sold immediately after the elections either to prevent drunken mass rioting. In addition to the nation wide prohibition, there as also a nation-wide curfew (toque de queda in spanish). I felt that because I wasn´t allowed to vote, I should have been exempt from the non-drinking/ curfew rule. But I went outside at about 11pm on the Sat. night of the curfew, and it was freaking eerie. Every bar and club and disco shut down – not a soul on the street. All of this fun happens again the last wknd of November for Round 2, when there´s a vote off between the top 2 candidates of the 1st round.
I am now living with a woman from Australia (Rachel, 26) who was an accountant in her former life, and a guy from England (Andrew, 27) who worked for MARS chocolate co. After being around so many young 20 yr olds just out of school, it´s refreshing to be around other people who actually gave up bonafide professions to make virtually nothing teaching the richest children in Ecuador. I´m also learning quite a bit of British English from the 2 of them. Probably at least once a week one of them will whip out a word that I recognize, but use it in a way that I don´t. I´ve learned “to bottle out” (to flake out, not do something you said you would), “to flake out” (to become very tired), etc. I´ve also learned that Australians have an affinity for shortening words – ie – I was so unco at footy today. translation – I was so uncoordinated at football (soccer) today. Rachel and Andrew and I all agree that we have quite a fun house.
I´m in the process of figuring out the rest of my life. Well, maybe not the rest of my life, but at least the next step. Within the next couple of months I need to decide if I´ll renew my visa or not. Renewing it is quite easy, it´s just figuring out if that´s what I want to do or not. The story´s pretty much the same as it´s been for months – some days I´m so in love w. Ecuador, and my life here, that I can´t imagine leaving. I finally feel good about my Spanish, and want to keep learning it. There are some aspects of my life here that I know I´ll lose by going back to the states. And I´ve got some good friends here. And then other days, I´m very aware of how far I am from friends and family back home. It´s a conflict that I don´t think will ever resolve itself which of course makes it nearly impossible to figure out what I want to do.
I trust that all my friends in Madison made it through Halloween ok. I hear that they charged admission to State St. I imagine everyone starting to get geared up for Thanksgiving Day. Meanwhile, I´m trying to recover from the Fiestas of Cuenca, which has been 4 days long. So fun, but so exhausting. Well, time to close this very random blog entry. Know that I miss you all!
Tags: Travel
jenniferadams515
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