More Ecuador

Friday´s are free days for us, unless we have a trip planned, like next weekend we´re going to Baños.  This Friday (May 13th), I went to ACLAS to finish up some homework and happened to meet up with three other George Foxians.  We decided to go back to the old central part of Quito where we had the night tour the first Monday we were here.  However, this time, since it was in the day, we would be able to go inside several of the churches rather than just see them from the outside.  They were so magnificent!!  Words cannot describe the ornateness and amazing architecture of these churches.  On the way to the churches we passed the building that the President works in I guess you could say.  Last time we went by there, it was calm, no one was really around.  This time however, there were guards, all dressed up in big hats and the works lined up along the balcony railing and there was a band with giant horns and drums and there were also armed guards (one of them chose to stare at us very intently from the balcony, kind of intimidating since he had a big gun).  The crowd was being diverted around the stairs up to the balcony of this building and so there was quite a pile up of people.  We finally asked someone what was going on, and apparently, the president of Panama was there to talk something out with the president of Ecuador.

Friday night my host parents and Jessica and her host parents (my neighbors and my host parents good friends) went again to the old central part of Quito to a street called La Rhonda (spelling might be a little off, but you get the idea).  This street is very lively at night.  There are tons of street vendors, music coming from every bar and restaurant you pass, food vendors, and lots of people.  We walked around for a while, then went into a restaurant and got some empanadas that were fabulously delicious!  We did not get back home  until 1am!!  Which wouldn´t have been a problem except that I had to get up at 5:30 the next morning.

Saturday, we went to Otavalo, which is a place that has a huge market where 100s of people set up booths to sell stuff.  This stuff ranged from food to scarves to musical instruments to clothes, etc.  It was pretty overwhelming!  On the way there we stopped at this place that makes figurines out of marzipan.  I found a couple super cute cows that I got....haha.  We spent about 2 hours in Otavalo shopping and walking around, then we headed out for lunch.  Lunch was at this hotel a little ways outside of Otavalo, it was so beautiful.  I have many pictures, but unfortunately, as I´ve said before, I have no way of sharing those pics until I get back home.  We could choose between steak or fish for the main course and of course there was soup before that and actually, there was also empanadas before the soup.  For dessert it was this cake with a berry sorbet type thing on top.  It was pretty good, I liked the sorbet stuff better than the cake, but then I´m not much of a cake person to begin with so....After lunch, we went to this lake that is made in the top of an old volcano.  We took a boat ride around the "lagoon" (that´s what they called it, but it´s not what I would normally think of as a lagoon) and the boat stopped a couple times so we could see the bubbles rising in the water.  Even though the volcano is dormant, it still kind of heats the water.  After that we headed home, stopping at one more place: a town that´s famous for it´s leather.  While there, this group of little kids ran by singing somos tontos, somos tontos, which in English is we are stupid.  They seemed to be having a grand time and it was funny to hear them singing that. 

One thing about Quito is that there are stray dogs everywhere, and I mean everywhere.  We were specifically told not to touch them because they are probably diseased and might bite us, but they are soooo cute.  I´ve taken some pictures of a few of them.  I wish I could take them all home with me.  My host mom told me that once when she was at her country house, she had 11 dogs at once because she´d take in all the strays that came by!

Sunday, my host parents and I went with Jessica and her host parents to Jessica's host parents' country home.  It was about 40 minutes outside of Quito out in the country.  It was very different than the apartments we live in in Quito.  It was beautiful.  They have a garden with avacado plants, lime and lemon plants, peach trees, lettuce, zucchini, peppers, tomatos de arbol (tomatos from a tree, more a fruit, not at all like our tomato), carrots, and much more.  The house is very spacious compared to the apartment.  We had chicken for lunch there and it was a very interesting way to cook the chicken.  They rubbed something that looked and smelled like a pesto sauce all over the whole chicken (and it was a HUGE chicken, like Turkey sized chicken) and then sat the chicken upright over a can of open beer.  Then they placed that on a flat pan over a charcoal fire and put a giant flower pot looking thing over the top of the chicken and let it cook for 2 hours.  We also had emapanadas, salad and corn.  It was super delicious.  And then for dessert, they had made popsicle like things out of tamarind juice and some out of chocolate.  They were also super good!  After we ate we played cards.  It was a game very similar to phase 10.  It was a lot of fun and I won!!  We stayed at the house until about 7-8pm, then returned to Quito. 

Monday was another day in Tomas Moro.  I was with 1st and 2nd graders this time.  After class, the teacher asked me if I could come up with an acitivity that helped teach the long and short a sounds.  She said they pretty much had the short a sound down, but were still working on learning the long a sound and recognizing that the two sounds came from the same letter.  She wanted me to teach this activity on Tuesday. 

So Tuesday, I taught my activity to that class of 1st and 2nd graders.  My two George Fox professor were there to watch me so they can write me a letter of recommendation basically saying how I taught in a classroom in Ecaudor, etc.  For the activity, I found a short poem in the school's library called The Name of the Game and it had many long as well as short a sounds throughout.  I read the poem once to the class and told them to really be listening to when they here the long a (which I sounded out for them) and the short a sound (which I also sounded out for them).  Then I told them I was going to read the poem again, but this time, I wanted them to do a motion when they heard the different a sounds.  For the long a, I had them glide their hand through the air (it´s hard to explain in writing....haha) and for the short a, I had them make a fist and pump their arm up and down a few times.  After that second reading, I started a list on the board of short and long a sound words and then let the students add to the list.  I think it went fairly well.  The teacher told me she was going to keep using those motions because she liked them so much.  I actually ended up teaching this lesson again later in the afternoon as I was with the same teacher, but in a different classroom.  She asked me to teach my activity to this class (which was also 1st and 2nd graders, but a different class).  This second time it did not go as well, mostly because the kids in this class were more out of control, but overall, it probably still went okay.  The teachers at Tomas Moro were so welcoming and so ready to include us in everything.  It was a great experience and I hope my experience at LeTort is also a great one.  I was also very much impressed with the level of English the students were at.  Tuesday night I participated in Salsa dancing lessons with 5 other George Fox students.  It was a blast and I actually caught on a lot faster than I thought I would.  We also learned the first half of a traditional Ecuadorian dance.  We have another class next Tuesday where we'll learn  the second half.

Wednesday was my last day in Tomas Moro.  My time there was so short, I wish I could have been there much longer, or at least for full school days (we leave at noon each day, but the students stay until 2:30).  For lunch my host mom told me the night before that we would have Spaghetti.  Well, the lady who comes and cooks lunch came up to my room to tell me lunch was ready and as I went down the stairs, I see this plate of bright pink stuff with a greenish brown blob on top......I had no idea what to think.  Well, it turns out it was Spaghetti, just not Spaghetti like I was thinking.  Apparently the noodles are pink because they're made from Tomatos.  I´ve seen reddish noodles before that are made from tomato, but not bright pink.  And the green blob was a meat, onion, etc. mixture.  It was actually really good.  This time there was Strawberry juice which was of course delicious.  Wednesday night I played cards with my host mom, my host sister and her boyfriend.  They ordered pizza and coke as well.  It was the same card game that I played when I went to Jessica´s host parents country home.  However, this time I did not do so well, I lost big time....haha, the beginners luck wore off I guess.  Well, the loser gets to buy the food for next weeks game, so in this case, that´s me. 
 

Los Primeras Dias en Ecuador

Tuesday, we had a second orientation at ACLAS in the morning, just going over some last minute details and details of our trips.  The guy who talked about our trips only spoke in Spanish....he knows English, but the rule at ACLAS is that we are not really supposed to speak English.  That way we can practice our Spanish and really start to learn it.  However, since I don´t speak much, there were several times I didn´t  understand what he was saying, but for the most part, I got the gist of it.  After orientation we went to the Equtor.  On the way we ate lunches that our host parent´s had packed for us.  In mine I had these chips that were pretty much like potato chips, but were made from plantains.  They were delicious!  We had a tour guide lead us around and talk about various things.  There were a couple different kinds of sundials that were pretty neat to see.  When it is noon, the sun is straight up in the sky and creates no shadow when on the Equator.  There was also a challenge to ballance an egg on a nail head.  I successfully balanced the egg and got a neat little certificate.  In one of the little huts we toured through there, there was a pin with a bunch of guinea pigs running around--babies and bigger ones.  We asked the tour guide if they were for eating and she said yes, so then we asked "even the babies?"  She responded with "Sure....guinea nuggets." 
After we got back from the equator we went back to our host houses.  My host parents invited me to watch a movie with them.  Now, something about Ecaudor is that the main hang out spot in a lot of houses is the parents bedroom.  This was the case with my family.  So, we all went into their room and selected a movie called the Sentinel.  My host dad handed me the remote and said "language?"  And I replied with "Español of course!"  We also had the Spanish subtitles on, so being able to see and hear as well as have the picture to follow, I actually understood most of the movie. 
Wednesday was my first day in the schools.  I am in a private school first called Tomas Moro.  It is a good distance away from my house, so I take the school bus in the morning (the stop is right across the road from my house) and then mine or James´s (another guy in the George Fox program) host parent will pick us up at noon.  It´s been interesting so far.  For the most part the teachers move classrooms, not the students.  I´ve been mostly involved in the English classes, but I´ve also been involved in a Science class (which was also taught in English) and a Spanish class (where the kids were working on learning their Spanish).  I´ve observed many things that are different than in the US.  The teachers at this school wear more casual clothes than most teachers in the US and the relationship between them and their teachers is less formal.  In the states the teachers are most always Miss or Mr. something or Professor or Dr. something.  Here, it´s often a first name basis.  The kids are so cute and I love interacting with them.  I´ll be in this school for 5 days (so I have 3 more left) then I´ll be at another private school called LeTort which is fairly close to Tomas Moro. 
Wednesday night a bunch of us went to a cultural dance performace type thing called Jacchigua.  It was really interesting, but we were all so tired, it was hard to stay awake despite how interesting it was. 

The food here is very good.  So far, most lunches at my host house consist of a soup (usually a vegetable soup of sorts, but not like the veggie soups you might think of in the US, they´re a little different), then a meat such as chicken, pork, or fish along with some sort of veggie platter and also with rice.  Some days we will have dessert as well, such as gellatin or something.  Oh, and at my house, at lunch we have a freshly squeezed juice.  So far, I´ve had orange juice, papaya mixed with orange juice, kiwi juice, and mango juice all freshly squeezed.  They are so good, I don´t know how I´m going to go back to the processed and bottled juices in the states. 

Estoy en Ecuador!

As many of you know, through the George Fox Master´s for teaching program we are required to teach in a diverse population.  For mine, I chose the option to go to Ecuador for three weeks to teach in a Spanish classroom.  I left the states just yesterday at the bright early hour of 6:20am.  That meant that I had to be at the airport by around 4am, which in turn meant leaving my house around 2am.  I did not sleep as I thought it rather pointless to sleep for like 2 hours, I figured I´d just sleep on the plane.  ((I´m going to say now that the keyboard here is different slightly than the American one, so if there´s a typo or some wierd symbol, that´s why)).  I go to Quito, Ecuador at about 9:30pm.  They are two hours ahead of Oregon so that means it was about 7:30 Oregon time.  I was met there by my host family and went home with them.  My family is a husband and wife and one older daughter who still lives at home.  I have my own room which even has it´s own bathroom!!  I didn´t expect that so it was a nice surprise.  Quito is a beautiful city and I look forward to seeing more of it while here.  Today for lunch the housekeeper placed down a large bowl of soup on my plate.  It was very very good and I was thinking "wow, for people saying how much they feed you around here, this is a pretty normal amount of food".  Well, turns out that was just the appetizer.....haha, there was a plate of a veggie salad and pork and rice still to come.  I was so full, I'm glad I was gone for dinner so I didn´t have to eat more food.  Tonight we went to the old historical part of Quito and went on a short walking tour.  Unfortunately, I don´t have a way to post pics until I get back home, but they will come eventually.  So far it´s been a good experience, and I just found out I passed my ORELA that I took back in April (for those who don´t know that´s a huge test that teachers have to take and pass in Oregon to be able to teach).  Hopefully there´ll be many more posts to come.

Phew!

I finally finished everything with my grad school application. Yay!  I feel like a huge weight has been lifted.  For the past two weeks I've been scrambling to finish and perfect my resume, the essay, and the application and to get all the materials together to send off.  And now after all that stressing, it's now officially out of my hands.  It's such a relief on one hand, but on the other hand it's nervewracking.  All I can do now is wait in anticipation and hope that I get accepted.

After the stress of recent and irritations and such, I decided to just get off campus and take a me day.  I went to my second home aka Barnes and Noble and was there for about 5 1/2 hours.  It was bliss. I studied, and read C.S. Lewis, listened to music...During the time I was there, there was these two people sitting at the two tables next to me who started conversing about beliefs and God and the Bible.  So I paused my ipod, but kept my headphones in so I could discreetly listen.  The man said that he was an anti-theist, not an atheist, an anti-theist.  He had some really interesting arguments, several of which I'd never heard before.  He cited specific scripture verses several times too, and I looked them up as he talked about them and some of them he was just taking completely out of context, but others had me thinking "what Bible did he read?"  It was really interesting.  There were several times I wanted to interject, but I was not sure enough of my knowledge to do that.  I hate that.  I want to be confident enough in my faith to be able to talk to people openly about it.  However, even if I would have been confident in this situation, the man seemed very set in his ways and not open to suggestion or in changing his viewpoints.  As he brought up new arguments and sub-points for each argument, I opened a word document and began typing out his conversation (unbeknownst to him of course).  Now I can take his arguments and study them and turn to the Bible so that next time I can perhaps feel more confident speaking about my faith.

I've been so busy lately that my priorities have gotten a little skewed.  I've pushed God to the sidelines and said "I'll get to Him when I have time."  I've really been working on changing this lately.  I'm beginning to feel distance from God and it's my fault and I don't like it.  I've started up daily time with God again, but half the time I don't know where to start.  I know that may sound silly, but that's how I feel.

We serve an awesome God!

I was recently going through old sermon notes and I found a quote my pastor made saying "God can grow roses out of life's manure." I really like how this quote is put. No matter how stinky and yucky life gets, God can make something as beautiful as a rose come from it. God can work even through our sin to fulfill his will. Wow, what an AWESOME God we serve!

Note to self: God loves me for me

So, I have decided I am going to try to keep up with my blog. Writing provides a release for feelings, thoughts and struggles that I’ve been holding inside. So here goes for my first post in like forever! Haha.

Lately I’ve really been struggling with constantly putting myself down. Nothing I do is good enough for me, everyone else is better than me. I find myself constantly comparing myself to those around me and in my mind I am always falling short. I am full of insecurities about who I am. For example, I love playing the piano, it's my way to relax and melt away my stress. But lately, I hear others playing and all I can think about is how much better they are then me and that causes me to analyze and criticize my own playing which does not make it very relaxing. I came across this quote the other day and the words ring true to me right now, but at the same time, they haven’t quite stuck yet. "Don't rely on someone else for your happiness and self-worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can't love and respect yourself - no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are - completely; the good and the bad - and make changes as you see fit - not because you think someone else wants you to be different."

That last part of the quote is precisely my problem recently. I don’t accept who I am. I feel like I don’t measure up and that if I truly let go and be myself around people that they won’t accept me for me. I want so badly to be accepted and loved that a lot of the time I try to change who I am. It’s okay to change things about yourself, but not if the only reason is because you think someone else will like you better for it. Somehow I need to ingrain this into my head. I know I’m probably not the only one that that struggles with this, but sometimes it sure feels like it. I look around at all these beautiful girls who appear confident and appear to have it all together and then I see me and practically see the opposite. I just feel awkward all the time and I think what is wrong with me? 

I feel horrible for feeling this way, I feel like it’s a slap in the face of God because He made me who I am and God does not make mistakes. Psalm 139:14 "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." I need to be looking ultimately to God for this love and acceptance I desire because only He can give that unconditional love and no matter how I act or how much I mess up, He still loves and accepts me for me. And this is comforting to know that even if everyone hated me (which isn’t true, but if it was) God would still be there with open arms waiting for me to run in. This is just something that God is continually working with me on.

It's been a year...

Last year at this time I was preparing to go to Australia and anxiously awaiting the day of departure. Now I am back at Simpson. It's been an interesting adjusting period. Everyone asks about Australia and it's a challenge to know what to tell them. How long of an answer do they want? I want to tell them all my stories, but at the same time I don't want to bore them and for most of the stories they would be meaningless to those who weren't there when they were actually happening. The more time goes on the more I realize that while I was in Australia, though I was having the time of my life, I was also constantly thinking of people back home missing them, but now that I'm back home I constantly think about the people who I was with in Australia and wishing I could go back with those people and about how many more things I could have done while in Australia. Why is it so hard to just live in the present where I'm at and enjoy the here and now rather than always dwelling on the past and wishing I could go back to it?

Though only in Australia for four short months, it definitely did take some adjusting coming back to the states. Even just little things, but things like remembering which side of the car to get in and not freaking out when it looks like no one's driving....lol. Things like having to go to class three times a week instead of once a week, not being able to just catch a bus/train or ferry to go on random cool adventures with friends or by myself, not being able to simply go to the beach to do homework whenever I feel like it and things like not going out and doing stuff with friends almost every day and night.

I recently joined a program with a group at Simpson where we read through the Bible in 90 days. We read about 12 pages a day and then once a week we all meet for discussion and there's a video we watch with a speaker. This along with resources to help us makes it so it's not simply reading through the Bible but helping us engage in it as well. I have only just started but I am super excited to see where God takes me on this journey. Some people might ask why you would want to read the whole Bible and my answer is that I want to know the Bible in it's entirety, to be more familiar with it and I hope it will draw me closer to my Savior Jesus Christ. Also, when people in my life ask me a question about Jesus or the Bible I want to be able to better answer the question and better direct them on where to look in Scriptures. While in Australia, I had a couple instances where someone on the street in passing heard our American accents and started talking with us. We mentioned that we went to Westley University which led to talking about how we are Christians. One instance in particular, a woman began telling us her story and asking lots of questions and I found myself unsure of how to best answer. Thankfully my friend with me answered with specific verse in the Bible and other knowledge about Jesus that comes from a closer relationship with Him and from knowing His word. This instance really encouraged me to strive to learn more and more so I can better answer questions that are thrown at me.

I hope to continue to update this blog as the semester continues, but we'll see how busy I get.