Theresa in South America

It has been another crazy busy week- classes to attend, classes to teach, assignments to turn in...  And many of those days, I didn't leave the center.  The beach and town are only a 10 minute walk away, but they could have been in China for all the notice we took of them.  Thursday rolled around and we still had classes and assignments, so Thanksgiving came and went.  However, of the 11 trainees, 9 are American, so one of them decided to organize a Thanksgiving celebration and invite the staff to come with their families.  Friday night after classes we sat down to an unusual combination of dishes, but like any traditional Thanksgiving meal in the US, there was way too much food and the ages of the diners ranged from 7 months to 60+.  It was a relaxing end to the week and many of us spoke to family at some point or thought of them as we sat and overate. Saturday I needed to get some exercise.  A couple other trainees and I headed north on the bus t...

Montañita Week 2 is over and we are all working harder than ever.  We have done several observed classes of 40 minutes (which has been a challenge for me since I have never taught such a short class and it is difficult to really delve into a topic and answer all of the students' questions.)  The brevity of the class has forced me to really focus on exactly what I want students to get out of that time.  We have the schedule which I mentioned previously, but we also have a language analysis due every Monday morning which means that our weekend is not completely free.  Of course some trainees get the assignment done early, so they can play the rest of the time.  Others party early and then spend all day Sunday working.  I am in the middle; I work on it Friday before going out and then finish it over the next couple of days.  It helps that I am an early riser.  Only one other person is and the 2 of us have quiet time in the morning with access to...

I arrived in Guayaquil around 1.  Going through customs, the agent said, "You were here in 2006."  "Umm, yes, that's true." "Why?" "I was living in Peru and came to visit Ecuador."  I didn't mention that, of course, we had had to leave Peru every three months to comply with visa requirements. I met up with other trainees in the airport and we waited for the van to take us to Montañita, the small coastal town where we would be taking our teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) course together for the next 5 weeks.  The 2 1/2 hour ride was through terrain similar to that of northern Peru: scrubby trees, low hills, and lots of brown.  We arrived and were given a quick tour.  We each have our own room and bathroom. Entrance to Casa Cacique, iH Montanita The grounds from the main building The pool and my cabaña on the right mosquito netting! As you can see, it is very beautiful and our r...

Having spent my 6 days in Uruguay, here are some of my thoughts. As I mentioned in the last post, the food in Uruguay is very expensive.  Strangely, it is also very Italian.  Although the national dish is parrilla,  which is a barbecued/grilled meat, all of the restaurants have some form of pasta as well.  These were brought over by Italian immigrants.  In the 6 days I was there, I ate Italian food everyday.  I started with gnocchi on Dia de gnoqui  and then had ravioli in various dishes (soup, plain, etc.) and finally had risotto (my best meal in Uruguay served in a restaurant named La Petite Cuisine.) Sign outside a cafe, Montevideo, UY Although the sign translates at "Free fork of meat," it is basically offering an all-you-can-eat buffet of different kinds of meat.  Notice the dollar sign which they call the peso sign .  This was very confusing to me when I arrived and first used an ATM at the airport. Mercado del Puerto,...

Welcome to Uruguay, I hope you brought your wallet.  Although that is not the national slogan (as far as I know), it probably should be, at least for those who like to eat. My trip to South America started as so many of my trips do, with a bit of chaos.  Funkship had their annual Halloween gig on Saturday night and I had to check in at the airport at 3 a.m. on Sunday, so I just didn't go to bed.  Rod dropped me off at the airport and then drove to Jasper's apartment to sleep before heading back home.  My flights from Portland to Houston and then to Panama City went fine.  However, when I got to Panama I discovered that my bag had been checked through to Uruguay, but I hadn't.  The customer service agent was helpful and informative, "Right now the plane is full.  Well, not full, but they will only fill those final seats after they check the weight of all of the luggage and see what the weather is like on the way down there.  That way they wil...