Contentment

I had an image of myself as a blogger posting on a semimonthly basis, documenting everything, writing about fresh topics, making keen observations and creating meaning. I haven't quite hit the mark but "I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam," (Popeye, 1933).

Okay, what have I been up to in the last two months? I went to Mexico for a Fulbright conference and returned to Ecuador. Since then I've been enjoy my early retirement in Cuenca. It's not real retirement but I've been on vacation from classes all this time. Life has slowed down. I take my time, enjoy the perfect weather that shines upon us every single day. Sometimes it sprinkles for a few minutes but that's about it. Some rainy season I've heard about.

I've gone on some short trips to Guayaquil on the coast, Sigsig in the mountains, Ingapirca up in the province to the north and Yungilla down the valley.

We went to Guayaquil with a neighbor from down the street and his friend. The five of us crammed into a pickup truck, drank moonshine distilled from coca leaves, visited the Jamaican and Chinese consulates, climbed up 400 stairs to a lighthouse and drank a lot of beer. There is such a difference in altitude between Cuenca and Guayaquil that our plastic water bottles collapsed on the way down. Our driver, married and father of five children, picked up a shop girl and disappeared with her for about thirty minutes. It was hot, humid and buggy in Guayaquil. On our way back we ate fried fish at a truck stop, drove through heavy fog and almost hit a cow. We arrived safely.

The day we went to Sigsig we hopped on a bus blocks away from our house. The teenager living in the house is fond of the shortest shorts. She is the object of much attention in her outfits. Sigsig is a tiny little town, one of those towns that's little more than central square and a small market. It was a beautiful day and I remember how the sun shone on the mountains, big fluffy yet harmless white clouds floating in the blue sky. We ate in a small restaurant and bought delicious strawberries from a girl selling them from a wheelbarrow. After we bought the strawberries she came into the restaurant and had a small lunch and nursed the baby tied to her back with a blanket. I wonder if the strawberry sale provided the money she needed for her lunch? We took a bus back from Sigsig and didn't quite have enough seats to accommodate the four of us. The teenager stood in the aisle and a little wrinkled man was unable to tear his eyes away from the sigh of her young backside that peeked out the bottom of her shorts.

I went to Ingapirca with another Fulbrighter. We hired a driver who we mistakenly presumed knew what he was doing. He got a little lost but it wasn't all his fault. Part of the trip took us on a detour because of road construction. The detour wound us around the side of a steep hill. We were on a single lane dirt road without an inch of shoulder. Had anything gone wrong we would have tumbled down a steep hillside into a cow pasture.

Ingapirca is the site of the most important Inca ruins in Ecuador. We went on a tour lead by an excellent bilingual guide. I highly recommend a trip to Ingapirca for any visitor to Ecuador.

Our day trip to Yungilla started as did our trip to Sigsig. We hopped on a bus near the house with the intention of getting off in Giron. However, it was pouring in Giron so we stayed on the bus and continued to Yungilla. We ate lunch at a big restaurant. I had the best steamed fish I've enjoyed yet.

It was raining lightly when we left the restaurant and we walked back to the place where we got off the bus. Buses passed about every fifteen minutes and most of them only paused long enough at our stop to tell us they were too full to take on additional passengers. One bus driver asked if we had tickets and told us the only way to catch a bus back to Cuenca on a rainy Sunday afternoon was to buy tickets in Santa Isabel. It turns out Santa Isabel is a town about a 10 minute drive from Yungilla. We asked a man working at a gas station nearby to call us a taxi. We rode to Santa Isabel for a few dollars. The driver kindly dropped us off in front of the bus office. The woman working in the office was not as kind and she told us we couldn't buy tickets for at least a half hour. The situation wasn't looking up so we ended up hiring a driver across the street to take our group of four back to Cuenca.

Apart from these day trips I've been visiting the zoo, going to town to run errands, shopping at the market, watching pirated shows on the internet, reading and showing my dad and stepmom around town when they visited in February.

The zoo is across the river and up the hill from where I live. It's unlike any zoo you can imagine, not for the collection of animals on exhibit but because going there is an adventure from start to finish. To get there I run across a busy street and a highway. After that, I climb a steep hill on a winding road for 600 meters or just a bit shy of a half mile. I arrive at the base of the zoo hot and sweaty and from there the zoo visitor's hike is just beginning. Paths are narrow and twisting, you climb up steep and crumbling trails, over tree roots using barely secured handrails often with protruding rusty nails for leverage. I wouldn't change a thing, I love the zoo.

Weekdays are the best days to go to the zoo because there aren't many other visitors. Sometimes I run into school groups but I've been lucky lately to not see many of them. Midway through the zoo is a small snack bar. Their ensalada de fruitas is excellent. They also have the best fries I've ever tasted. It might be that the fries taste so good there because by that time I reach the snack bar I've burned hundreds of calories and need to replenish.

When I visit the zoo I get hot, sweaty and dirty. I suck down quarts of water to stay hydrated and no matter how much sunscreen I apply, it's Ecuador and so I almost always get a little pink. I usually hit my head on something because I wear a wide brimmed hat to keep my face shaded. Today I slipped on loose gravel on my way back down.

Sounds great, doesn't it? It is. Maybe it's the sun or the dehydration or simply the release of endorphins from the physical exertion, but sometime after I pass the ocelot I experience complete calm and contentment. I'm in the moment, I have to be or I'll tumble down the side of the hill or get bitten again by one of their hungry little loose monkeys.

On Tuesday's trip to the zoo I thought a lot about my life here in Ecuador and what I want to take with me when I go back home. I want to take back simplicity and the need for less. I want to lead my life in the US that doesn't have as many distractions in it that take me away from what makes me happiest. I don't need magazine subscriptions, five different creams to make the skin on my face look youthful, lots of TV stations (really, do I need any if I have a decent internet connection?), shoes that perfectly match outfits, hair goo, nor all sorts of appliances that have a single purpose.

All of my personal possessions that I've been using for the past seven months (and all I expect to need for my last three months here) fit into a large duffle bag and backpack. Other than my bed and some simple furniture, this is what I have in my room. Of course I use the kitchen in the house I share with the family I live with but really I have all that I need and more even though I have fewer possessions than I've had in years, maybe decades.

My day to day life is as uncluttered as my collection of physical possessions. I have my friends and I enjoy spending time with them. Life has been taken down, maybe not as far as to the bare essentials, but closer to it than my life in Minneapolis.

What do I miss? Sometimes a good mocha but not really. I miss family, friends and my boyfriend, people who really know me. Sometimes I'll hear a plane and suddenly and unexpectedly a feeling of longing to be away from here comes up from my toes and spreads up through the top of my head. It's a moment of feeling the physical effects of homesickness, I guess. It's not that I want to leave, I'm not done being here and learning what lessons are still here to learn, it's simply that I am coming to realize that home is important to me.

I know that when I leave Ecuador, I'll leave behind a part of myself, of who I've become here. I'll be thrown back into my former life. My new life will be different from what it was before I left for Ecuador in September. I won't have the zoo where I can climb, sweat and find peace, I'll have to find another way to access that inside myself. It'll not be as easy to live my Ecuadorian life in the US just as it's impossible to create your US life in Ecuador.

There isn't much point in thinking about what life will be like in the US when I get back. I'm focusing on my life here, taking things day by day. It's important for me to think about what I like about my life here so I can keep it with me.

Changes

My last entry was nearly two months ago. In the weeks that have passed since I last wrote, I have finished the first semester of classes, returned to the United States for a two-week trip home and moved into a new house in Cuenca. I have been in my new home for two weeks. It's great. Often we don't know how uncomfortable a situation we're in is until we're out of it.

There were things I really liked about my first home in Cuenca. The lady who runs the house is great. I got along well with my fellow residents and the location could hardly have been more convenient. On the other hand, I didn't have much privacy and peace and quiet was in short supply. A younger person who loves to stay up late at night and party often would do much better than I did in the boarding house. Two nights before I returned to Minneapolis for my winter break the house hosted a party that lasted until dawn. Although I left the party to go to my room at around midnight, there is no protection from the music blasting away on the lower level. I can't blame the revelers, I was the one who wasn't fit for that house.

I'll miss the lady who ran the house. Sure, I have and will continue to stop by now and then but I won't be able to eat her wonderful Ecuadorian food at every meal and I won't have as many opportunities to sit and chat with her in the kitchen or venture out with her to the market to buy a week's worth of produce for a house of ten hungry residents.

I left Ecuador on a warm and sunny day. It was a Friday so I went to the pool, walked outside under the sun so high in the sky. I met with the knitters and enjoyed their company. I got on a plane that night and three flights later, arrived in Minneapolis the following morning. I exited the airport and the sky was bright blue and there were few clouds in the sky. The temperature was 13 degrees Fahrenheit, nearly sixty degrees difference from Cuenca. I noted how low the sun sat in the sky at noon! It seemed barely above the horizon. After that first day the sun hid behind clouds for practically the entire remainder of my trip.

Seeing family and friends was wonderful. The first couple of days was like a dream, perhaps because of my lack of sleep. Eating my dad and Julie's Christmas cookies at their dining room table was a surreal experience, less than 24 hours before that I'd been in Cuenca. I don't believe I had much time to experience what some people call reverse culture shock. I was thrown back into life in Minnesota. I lived in my dad's house for the first time in 17 years, I drove their SUV to Costco and to the mall. That was odd. I caught a terrible cold and was sick for most of my trip. I tried my best to not hold me back but I knew it would take the Ecuadorian sun (yes, the same sun as in Minnesota, but allow me this device) to bake the cold out of my system.

The first few days were a big rush of Christmas gatherings and celebrations. I saw dozens of family members and friends in just a few days. I shared little snippets of stories from Ecuador, I saw my cat. I shopped or scavenged for things I wanted to bring back to Ecuador and set aside the silly things I brought on my first packing that I would not need upon my return to Ecuador (Coach purse, makeup, flat iron, etc.).

A blizzard in Montreal kept me from seeing my boyfriend for two days. That left me with only 35 hours to be with him. We had a nice time together and were able to work out where we are and what we want. The important thing is that we both still have strong feelings for the other and we're going to remember that. We'll see each other again in six months and in the mean time we're remaining in touch through email and video chats.

In the end, my trip back home was extremely valuable. I was ready to return to the sun, tropical fruit and my adventures by January 5th.

It took three flights and a night in the smallest hotel room I've ever been in (exactly one foot wider than a twin sized bed and not an inch longer). I had to move the suitcase back and forth from the bed to the bathroom depending on which I wanted to use.

Upon arrival in Cuenca I took a taxi to my new home in La Ciudadela Ingenieros Electricos at the corner of Telemaco and Ben-Hur. Every morning I eat oatmeal and drink coffee out on the patio. My bedroom is bright and filled with sunlight and I can smell the night-blooming jasmine growing in the garden. Right on the other side of the wall surrounding the house are pink hibiscus trees where giant hummingbirds fight for territory.

There is a zoo close by and it's a good hike from the house. By good I mean it makes you feel like you accomplished something after climbing the steep hill to the zoo. I went for the first time yesterday morning and a tiny monkey tried to bite a mole on my arm. I told Mom about it, she thinks it was grooming me. I think it was hungry.

The family that lives in the house is generous and friendly. I like living with them. We occupy our own spaces in the house but come together at meals and other times. I'm going to enjoy living here, despite the tarantulas. Yes, there are tarantulas outside in the garden. Sometimes the cat kills them and brings her prizes to the house but yesterday we saw a live one on the patio. I don't think the family has seen me move so fast as when I jumped out of that chair.

I go to Mexico tomorrow for a five-day Fulbright enrichment conference. I'll tell you how it goes!

A teacher's impact on the class

I am in my ninth week of teaching. Because I teach in three-week cycles, I am coming to the end of my third cycle and my third lesson with students. As I have surely mentioned in past postings, I meet with 39 different classes. Perhaps an outsider will say "duh" to this, but it is becoming more clear to me with each class I teach that who is teaching the class really makes a significant difference.

The students have only been in class for about three months so on the one hand, I think, how much difference can their teacher make when these students are coming from all different backgrounds, have different majors, varying past experiences with the English language but I can tell you that each of my 39 classes has its own personality and that more than anything I have to say that their teacher plays a really important role in shaping this class personality or classroom culture.

I teach the same lesson to the 39 classes over the three week period. I start with a week of level 3 students, then a week of level 2 students and finally a long week with the level 1 students. The last week is long because I have the most classes - about four per day - during my week with the level 1 students. It's exhausting (but still fun)! While in general the 3's are better than the 2's and the 2's are better than the 1's, there are plenty of overlap with the students and their individual abilities. I'm not completely sure how they end up in these levels, if it's through testing or simply by taking a year of each level. Anyway, this is not the point I'm trying to make. I bring it up because I've observed that despite the level of class I'm teaching, the differences in abilities, willingness to participate and performance in activities is subtle between the three levels.

What I notice more is kind of the overall attitude of the class, I called it "personality" before. For instance, yesterday I was with a class that got into their groups quickly and quietly and worked almost in silence for the 20 minutes they had for group work. The teacher has them work in groups often, she tells me, and she herself seems to be a quiet and diligent teacher. Another teacher is controlling and is the only one who really pushes me to adjust my lesson plans to conform to what she feels is appropriate. None of the other teachers do that. She's also the one that from the beginning asked me to "follow the book," meaning the text book the students use day to day. Basically that would just make me like a once-in-awhile substitute teacher for her. Lucky for me my faculty adviser does not support this and so I can teach my own lessons. I do make adjustments for this teacher because I want to cooperate and I want her to see me as an asset in the classroom. What I have noticed in this teacher's classroom is dramatically different from other classrooms. These students struggle the most with my lessons. In the last cycle, the students weren't able to answer a question asking the students opinion - even in Spanish! What?

There are teachers who support me in my lessons and encourage the students to participate. The best teachers, in my opinion, are working with groups on one side of the room as I work with groups on the other. These classes tend be noisy (in a good way!!) and active during group work. Their presentations are interesting, fun to listen to, and show a lot of thought. There are other teachers who are more hands-off during my lessons and they stay in the room, usually grading papers or doing other work while I teach. These students work pretty well. Maybe it's that they've been taught to be independent.

There's one teacher that I like, but she kind of barks out orders to her students when they seem shy. I ask for volunteers and she yells threats that if someone doesn't volunteer she's going to start calling out names. These students are like children whose parents say, "I'm going to count to five and if you don't..." and the child doesn't do what the parent wants until they reach number 4 in their count.

If I were to have the same classes everyday I would not be able to observe this. I am really grateful to have the chance to observe how much a teacher's style affects a class of students. It makes me think a lot about what I want from my classes. I want them to be active, independent thinkers who work well with others, who aren't afraid to give wrong answers and who, most of all, aren't hesitant to ask questions. So far that is my favorite thing as a teacher: answering questions! To me it shows a level of trust and interest on the part of the students and it's far too rare for my taste. There is one night class, I think it's in my level 3 group, that asks questions. The teacher for that class is one of my favorites. She's open, relaxed, approachable and happy. No wonder her class feels comfortable asking questions. There's one student who tries to ask provoking questions like after I talked about the origins of Thanksgiving he asked if it wasn't true that the Europeans later slaughtered the American Indians and stole their lands. Great question! Seriously, I get so few questions that I'll take what I can get, even the provoking one. And it really is a good question.

This is not meant to be a criticism of the teachers I work with at the University. I admit that my experience is limited since I've only been with the classes of each teacher a handful of times. I am only aware on the surface of the conditions under which the teachers work. I only write about my impressions and I know in general teaching is a really hard job. We do what we know to do and how we teach is based on our past experiences. I truly think that the teachers are doing what they think is best for their students. My observations are leading me to look more closely at who I am as a teacher and think more deeply about who I want to become as a teacher to do the best job I possibly can to teach my students.

I have only two classes today, both of these teachers are more of the "hands off" variety. It should be a relatively easy afternoon. Chao for now!

Riding the bus

I took the bus alone for the first time today. I rode it twice and I took a taxi by myself. Taxis in Cuenca are a piece of cake compared to buses and I've ridden in them alone before since I've been here.

My first solo bus ride. Is this a sign I'm growing up?

I am a big proponent of public transportation in the developed world. Subway and Metro systems are great and I ride them anytime I'm in a city that's lucky enough to have one. Back at home I am a regular on the bus and I would almost move back to south Minneapolis just to be able to ride the light rail around again. Buses and subways make sense to me in the United States. They run on schedules, their routes are easily viewed in schedules available on the bus, online and in conveniently located transit stores where you can buy bus passes. You know all this, right?

Like everything in Ecuador, the buses here follow unwritten rules that seem subject to change. After two months of observing buses and going on a few rides accompanied with my friends in Ecuador I have come up with a few points that help me make some sense of the bus system in Cuenca. We'll start with the easy ones first:

• The bus costs $0.25. Correct change required. You can pay more and have subsequent riders give you their fare to make change but personally I'd rather just make sure I always have a couple quarters on me.
• Bus drivers want to crush and kill you. Period. That's all. Watch out for buses when crossing on the street, even when standing on a corner fully on the sidewalk at times. They don't slow down, they don't wait for you. They probably get some kind of bonus for hitting foreigners by the way some of them drive. 
• Bus schedules are practically nonexistant. If you ask anyone they will tell you the information center on the Plaza Calderon has copies of the little booklet that has maps for the 20-some bus routes in the city. The truth is the information center has been out of schedules forever. They have one but they don't let it leave the premises. I personally know of only two bus schedule books other than the one at the information center. I have one. I am the third Fulbright grantee to possess this rare booklet and I intend on passing it down to my successor. Buses do not have schedules and there is no transit store as far as I know. 
• Even if you manage to get your hands on a bus schedule booklet, good luck to you. The maps in the book are tiny and streets aren't labeled. Like most things in Ecuador, it is meant for someone who is already familiar with the city. Hand the book to someone who's never been to Cuenca and it'll be useless. I guess now that I've been here for two months I might know my way around enough to get a some use out of it. 
• To Cuenca's credit they do have a transit website that has been the most useful tool for me. The maps are decent. They show the routes if not the stops. Yes, the bus stops only at certain places but you have to either look for the blue bus sign on the street or just look to see where people are standing around flagging down buses. Good luck. 
• I have found that the bus route maps don't fully capture the subtleties of the actual routes the buses follow. Sometimes the line on the map goes straight but the bus makes several turns. Also, I find a map for route 1 online and in my booklet but today the bus I caught was a "1B". What does the B mean? Where does the "A" go? Is there a "1A"? Are there more iterations of the 1 route? So many questions and so few answers. 
• Buses don't run all that late - only until about 7:00 on weekends and not much later during the week. The bus route booklet has the start and end times but I don't believe the website does. How do people know this? There is no schedule, so you can't go down to the corner and pick up the 4:13 bus that'll take you to where you need to go. However, most buses run every 5 - 10 minutes. That information is also in the bus booklet but not on the website. Again, good luck.
• During peak hours buses are packed and the drivers drive more like maniacs than they usually do. Hold on tight and be prepared to get tossed around with the rest of the riders. 
• Getting off the bus takes determination and skill. If the bus is busy, start squeezing yourself towards the back of the bus early. Stand close to the back door, you always enter at the front and exit through the rear door. When the bus is nearing a stop the driver will open the door. He doesn't slow down, mind you, and he doesn't take any more care when careening around corners so keep holding on tight. When the bus does finally come to a stop you have about half a second to alight before it takes off again.

If you have survived the bus ride, congratulations. It's not easy.

Rosita's house (AKA home) is located about 10 minutes from downtown and an easy 25 minute walk to the University. I haven't had to take the bus. Walking is much more pleasant, I get a little exercise and as long as I make time for it, I prefer walking. From now until the end of the month I am house sitting for a family that is visiting relatives in the States. Their house is located too far away for me to walk - at least on a regular basis. I think it would probably take me an hour or so, maybe more to even reach Rosita's house from here. There are two buses whose routes more or less make sense to me and pass by the places I need to go: the university, Rosita's house, and the coffee shop where the knitters meet on Fridays that has the really good chocolate cake. There are many other buses close to this neighborhood but for now I don't care to explore them. I know people who are brave and just jump on any bus to see where it goes. That's direct but not my style. I like to know where I'm going before I embark on my journey. That's why my brother and I have so many problems travelling together. He's more of the "hop on any bus" type. I'm the older one, it makes sense, doesn't it?

I feel I have wasted enough of your time writing about buses. If you come to Cuenca, ride the bus but be on your toes.

Afloat

How long have I sat in front of this screen trying to decide how to start?

We have reached the end of a week that has had periods of fun, sleeplessness, happiness, exhaustion, surprise, sadness, worry, regret, searching, restlessness and finally a little peace.

It was all a bit too much for me to take and while I'm happy to be over it, life goes on and I can only imagine what the future holds.

Last weekend was the Fiestas de Cuenca celebrating Cuenca's independence. I'm unclear on the history and what exactly Cuenca gained its independence from. What I do know is that Cuencanos party like it's 1999 for a good four days straight. Four friends visited me for the celebration. I should say that three are other Fulbright ETAs whom I met when we arrived and the fourth is a new friend that they brought along for the festivities. We spent out days walking from one end of town to the other visiting cathedrals, listening to music and shopping in extensive international markets featuring artisans throughout South America. At night the others went out and danced and I declined invitations to join. I still stayed up far past my normal bedtime although I was waking up at my normal time each morning. On Saturday night the city partied with loud music within a half block of my house until 2:15 in the morning. In my top floor bedroom it sounded like the band was performing on the roof.

My friends returned to their home cities and life began returning to normal. My body revolted against the weekend's change in schedule and I got sick again for a few days. It was miserable. I'm feeling better now that I'm back on a regular schedule. I taught classes to my level one students. They did pretty well and I finally wrapped up the lessons on elections in the United States and Ecuador. I have explained the electoral college system more than a dozen times and know it better than I ever have.

Two days ago without anything tangible changing, I was overcome by an unexpected change. I hope to spare this poor blog and its readers drama and proceed with dignity. I have been released from what has helped ground me for the last four years. The funny thing is that wandering down here around the equator for the past two months, my relationship was held together by infrequent video chats and phone calls. Everyday I thought about the connection I had to the one I love only to be made aware that while I wasn't looking the connection has been severed. It feels like I'm in a little lifeboat tethered to shore on a long rope. I'm bobbing along, looking at the waves, the sun, the clouds, drifting off to nap and then all of a sudden I find the frayed end of the rope floating alongside the boat and I'm in the middle of the sea, no shore in sight.

Oops, too much drama. Sorry about that.

I went for a swim for the first time this week. Between having guests, getting sick and recovering my strength, I haven't been able to go to the pool since last Thursday. In the pool I found my peace and I realize that nothing has changed in the moment and I have no control. All I can do is teach, eat, sleep, talk to friends, write, walk, swim, accept or reject invitations as I see fit, read and live my life here in Ecuador. Time continues to pass and in December I'll see my family and all the people I miss so much. That's only six weeks away and the time will pass quickly, I have no doubt.

For the next three weeks I'll be teaching a lesson on holidays and traditions in Ecuador. Or I should say, I'll be leading a lesson in which my Ecuadorian students will be teaching me about holidays and traditions in this country. I'm looking forward to learning a lot - I learned a lot about elections in Ecuador during the past three weeks.

Lesson 2: Elections

As of last Thursday I made it through my first cycle of classes. Yesterday I started the cycle again, returning to the level three students I met with my first week.

During the third week of teaching it occurred to me that I'd have to start planning the second lesson. As I explained in a previous post, I meet with a total of 39 classes (one was just added yesterday) on a rotating three week cycle. So I teach the same lesson for three weeks and then I change it and teach a new lesson for three weeks. I meet with third level students the first week, then second level students and finally in the third week of the cycle I meet with the first level students. I modify the lesson as needed based on the level of the student. We focus on conversation so it's flexible. One teacher asked me to follow the book more closely but the rest of the teachers have been amenable to letting me plan my own lessons. I agreed to email the teacher who wants me to follow the book a few days before her class to find out if there is specific verb tenses or vocabulary she wants me to work into the lesson. I can do that and she seemed satisfied.

I began planning a lesson on the fifty states. I was flipping through a book the Fulbright Commission provided called, "About the US." It has a lot of worksheets but none that fit the lesson I was working on. I found a list of questions about US elections and it dawned on me that the next few weeks is the best time to talk about elections in the United States. Ecuador has their own elections coming up in February. The night before class I changed all my plans and formulated a new lesson. The worksheet has nine questions ranging from the timing of the election to questions about the electoral college. I came up with nine questions about elections and politics in Ecuador like, "What are advantages and disadvantages of mandatory voting in Ecuador?" and "How can students become involved and influence politics in Ecuador?"

I've taught the lesson twice and I've been making a few tweaks here and there but so far I'm really happy with how it's going. I divide the class into nine groups and give them two questions - one about US elections and one about Ecuadorian elections. I make sure each group understands both the questions. I tell the group the answer to the question about US elections and describe it a little more in depth as needed. I then ask them to discuss the question about Ecuador and come up with an response to present to the group.

We work on this for about 20 minutes then it's presentation time! I call the groups up one by one. They read the US election question and answer. I provide additional background as needed, especially about the electoral college since they use a system based solely on popular votes. Then the students read their question about elections and politics in Ecuador and they give their group's answer. I was really impressed with the thought the students put into their responses yesterday! It worked so much better than just asking the students to participate in open discussion with their peers as I did in the first lesson. Now they are required to produce something to present to me and the rest of the class so they stayed on task a lot better than before.

I have class from 3:00 to 8:00 tonight. I have a minor adjustment to make but I'm basically going to repeat what I did yesterday. I'm not expecting any miracles. Every class is different and I could do the exact same thing in two classes and find it incredibly successful with one group and falling utterly flat with the next.

Teaching is hard work but I'm finding it rewarding. I know this will sound cheesy, but now that I've met all the students it's so fun to see them the second time around, smile at them and see them smile back! A few of them, the engineering students in particular, still seem a little nervous around me but I'm working to let them know they can relax around me, be themselves and have fun - as long as they're doing it in English!

Room for rent, foreigner wanted

Do you remember the foreign exchange students in your school? They were a little on the strange side, dressed differently, maybe they had a weird haircut, smelled a little funny, perhaps walked around quietly with a wide-eyed look on their face looking slightly confused?

Well, that's me. Here I am. At 5'9", or 175 cm, I tower over the people around me. My giant head, covered with my thick "blond" hair floats above crowds like a flag that shouts, "giant foreign woman here!" Sounds like fun? Not always.

In the house the young students have accepted me as their friend the gentle giant. However, I'm at least 10 years older than the rest; I could have children of my own who are the age of several of them if I were into teen pregnancy. I leave parties early (1:15 am is about as much as I can handle), I don't eat meat and I'm clumsily learning the local slang.

The kids took me to visit a nearby town on Sunday; we had a good time. I enjoy trying new things and I think they like being the ones introducing me to different foods, explaining what words on menu mean (trust me, every unfamiliar word on a menu is just another word for a form of meat). I don't have any close Ecuadorian friends yet and don't worry, I'm not feeling sorry for myself. I accept this. However, I'm open to being pleasantly surprised.

Yesterday as I walked home a man struck up a friendly conversation. He was the typical Ecuadorian man who feels it's appropriate to talk to me on the street: middle aged, short and chunky. I made the mistake of politely responding to his questions of where I'm from and what am I doing here. I got extremely uncomfortable when he followed me to the door of my house and asked for my phone number. I explained that I don't give out my phone number and he insisted he only wanted "English lessons." He persisted and I squirmed and tried to tell him that I only teach at the university and that I'm very busy with classes. Suddenly the door opened to my house as one of the students was exiting. That provided the perfect distraction as I warmly greeted the student and ran inside. It wasn't exactly graceful but it was effective.

I told Rosita about the encounter just in case he comes around looking for me. She told me about persistent men who asked her about Emilie and she informed them that if Emilie were interested she would have given them her phone number and that she wasn't going to share any of Emilie's personal information. Whew!

Rosita has two vacant rooms now that Emilie has returned to the US and another resident moved out earlier this month. I asked her if other girls were moving in and she told me she is hoping to find foreign people like me to move in. I don't know any who are looking for a place to stay I was sorry to tell her. It made me feel appreciated. I really like Rosita, she uses terms of endearment like "mi reina" or "mi cielo" (my queen or my sky/heaven), she prepares special vegetarian dishes for me, she tells me my room needs dusting, she lets me use the washing machine for free while she charges the other residents (ssh, don't tell anyone!) and she lets me hang out with her in the warm kitchen while she's cooking dinner when it's cold at night.

For my part I pay rent on time, I stay out of her way when she's busy, I clear my dishes, I keep my things in my room and my room is tidy (if not dusted) and I chat with her now and then. I feel at home here and Rosita is more of a host mother than a landlady.

So, if any of you foreigners out there need a room to rent, Rosita has a couple available. :)