Upcoming work

Wow. I've got a lot of work coming up in the next month. My vacation to MN will be well deserved by the time we get on the plane.

Due to the dissolution of the university's language department, we will be taking on all of the language requirements for graduating students. This means that we will be acquiring quite a few new teachers and LOTS of new students. We have been going through the hiring process for the new teachers, deciding which teachers from the old language department we can use, since not all of them will be hired. Some need language lessons to improve their level of English, and that's what I'll be doing the whole month of July. So, I have to prepare the course and then from there teach it. Yikes! While not impossible, of course, it is going to be really tiring teaching a course on top of all the other responsibilities I have.

Then we come back from the US and begin the TEFL course, which is also very tiring. Really fun but so so so much work that I get literally burnt out for a month or more once it is finished, especially with a big class, which I'm sure, looking at the registration numbers, we will have this time. In September/October it looks like I'll also be starting a course at UCG in Guayaquil. This will be fun, last time that course was such a great experience.

In other news, I finished a review for a new language book series with Cambridge University Press. It was such an amazing, cool opportunity, and I got paid for it, too! There are some days I love my job and position and all the opportunities that are open to me for working here.

gross story #1: think daddy day care and DON'T READ if you are 1) not a mom or 2) have a weak stomach

(Note: No pictures in this one - you'll see why!)

Agustin has been potty trained since he was three years old, almost to the day. This greatly stressed me at first, since he was my first kid, and I imagined he would be in diapers as he walked down the aisle. It seemed like he'd never even have the desire to be potty trained. But, lo and behold, time works it's magic (as always) and one day, not long after his third birthday, he just decided it was time. No one told him, it was his decision, and from that day forward he stopped wearing diapers and not once EVER had an accident. Very cool. But he still needs help wiping after number 2, and has never said anything about wanting to be big enough to do it himself.

Until the other day.

He was in the bathroom, and calls me. "Mommy, I'm done doing poopies!"

So I go in, expecting to go through our little routine of cleaning him up and washing hands and all.
(Here's where the daddy day care part comes in. you know that scene, right?)

It was all over. Legs, feet, socks, toilet seat, hands, shirt, floor. Chunky and creamy (sorry for the image!) Since having kids, very little can really gross me out. Projectile vomit, dirt, garbage, sour milk, moldy food under the couch. But this was really gross. It took me days to get over it.
Turns out he had decided he is old enough to wipe himself. But he couldn't reach the toilet paper? Didn't know how much to use? Thought hands would be quicker? I don't know what he was thinking, and may never know, but we had a little talk and decided that he could learn to clean himself off, but with the help of mommy and daddy, who would teach him.

Andres took pity on my ordeal and the next day went in when Agustin called that he was finished.

Suddenly I hear a low scream coming from the direction of the bathroom.

Yes, again. Only this time he DID use toilet paper, but for some reason didn't put it in the toilet, just threw it on the floor. Lots of it.

So, something we are working on.

Yet another of the neverending stories of parenthood.

Isn't it great? Yes, it really, truly is.

cute story #1

Nicolas wakes up every morning like at 5 :30 am. Much too early for a weekend, and I'm the one he usually calls. So Sunday morning he wakes up, calls me, I go in there and try to get him to sleep a bit more, or read some books or something so that I can sleep more. But no, he starts telling me we have to get up - it's morning. So I get up, put him in front of Discovery kids, and decide to do a little early morning Internet window shopping. Suddenly, there is this little guy pulling on my pajamas.

Him: (in broken Spanglish): "I want to go downstairs."
Me: (still a bit groggy): "Why?"
Him: "I want to go downstairs to play with the bears."
Me: "What bears?"
Him: (getting impatient): "I want to go... downstairs...play with BEARS."
Me: (no answer, silently mulling over what bears he could be referring to)
Him: "DOWNSTAIRS...BEARS. Let's go mommy." and he starts pulling on my clothes again.

So, I get up and start walking downstairs with him, thinking, OK, he can play with his bear toys and I'll find something else to do.

Halfway down the stairs he stops. I turn around to see what's got his attention, and he is looking at me from the corner of his eye, a slick grin on his mouth.

Him: "The GUMMY bears."

Note: Andres had bought a small baggie of gummy bears at a specialty candy store the day before, and the kids were (obviously) really excited about it.

And no, I did not give him the gummy bears at 5:45 in the morning. He ate a soft-boiled egg and some toast and then got his gummy bears :) Note to all mommies: dangle gummy bears like a carrot on a stick to get your finicky kids to eat their breakfast.

a rare moment of peace in my day...

Both kids are taking a nap, so I decided to take a moment to post after a long absence. New York was great, and I'll come back to that a little later this week, hopefully post a few pictures. The convention was awesome too, although I got sick that first day and missed the whole first afternoon, including about 5 sessions I really wanted to go to. But regardless, the TESOL convention is definitely one of the best things I can do as a teacher/teacher trainer and it rejuvenates and motivates me like little else in the field...

A quick overview of our week:

1. Got home Sunday night to a distraught mother-in-law - turns out she had pneumonia while she was watching the kids! She went to the doctor on Monday and I stayed home from work, she's now got the right medicine and feeling better, but I definitely feel terrible about how bad she felt while we were gone.
2. Nicolas came down with a fever on Monday. We couldn't keep it down, so took him to the doctor on Tuesday and it turns out he has tonsillitis! What a nasty thing - after rotavirus it is the worst (so far) we have had to deal with. He cried constantly, had a fever that kept him delirious for almost 3 days, looked like we was wasting away (probably lost 2-3 lbs.) because he wouldn't eat or drink anything, and finally started feeling a little better yesterday afternoon. Quite a terrible week, just waiting for Agustin to come down with it now, hoping it won't happen, but even Andres and I feel like we have sore throats, so maybe we'll all get it. Not sure how contagious it is.
3. Talked to my grandma today and wished my uncle a happy birthday and it felt really good to make that connection with home after a week in NY being able to talk to my sister and mom whenever they got the time to call (and could locate us in the hotel room!). So great to think that we'll be there with them in a few short months. Will be our first time to the state fair in two years and we're really looking forward to it!

Guess I thought I had more to say. Will be back again with pictures and thoughts from our trip. In the meantime, here are just a few of the fun things we enjoyed while there:

• saw videotaping of Confessions of a Shopaholic
• waited outside of the David Letterman show with the paparrazi for a glimpse of an unknown star - never saw anyone though, haha
• shopping at Toys R Us, although our feet were screaming for our heads ("Off with their heads" at every painful step.)
• Times Square (you really don't have to say anything else here)
• Starbucks in the Trump Tower

And some things we'll be sure to get on the itinerary the next time we visit (hopefully the summer):

• Central Park
• a Broadway Show
• more Fifth Avenue (can't get enough)
• maybe the wax museum and Ripley's - just for the heck of it, wouldn't the kids enjoy that?
• A trip Uptown and to the East Side - we really didn't get east of Fifth Avenue.

On a side note, some guilty pleasures:

• coveting almost every scrapbooking kit out there (I want the CK April one!!!!)
• drinking raspberry coffee
• listening to country on internet radio - yes! Who would have ever thought? certainly not myself!

Jueves Santo: The Last Supper

Today, jueves santo, is the big day for Ecuadorians. For some reason, however, I am at work. We will be here until later today conducting teachers' meetings, getting ready for the next cycle, which starts on Monday. Of course, it is strange because Easter is so early this year. It's been hard to remember that we are already upon that day. (And I, the lone Easter bunny this side of the equator, have NOTHING to put in the baskets! EEK!)

Today is the day that Jesus and the disciples ate the Last Supper, so Ecuadorians celebrate by gorging themselves with fanesca. This soup is pretty complex, and aside from the dried salt cod (making it the vegetarian choice - imagine us Protestants eating HAM on Easter Sunday! My goodness, haha), it also contains all of the spring harvest items found in this part of the world: pumpkin, squash, peas, corn, fava beans, red and white beans, peanut sauce, even hominy and lentils or rice in some families! After you eat all you can of fanesca (for me that means a half a bowl - that soup is rich!), you eat some more. Then, you follow it down with a dollop of thick mashed potatoes on a leaf of lettuce, and rice pudding for dessert. A lot like Thanksgiving in the U.S. When you think your stomach can handle no more - you have another bowl of fanesca and a jug of Mylanta and call it a day. I don't think we'll be making fanesca this year - it gets quite involved and has a lot of ingredients, but I will contribute something to Sunday's lunch - I'll make deviled eggs with those eggs we colored last week. I hope they'll be good - last year they all went rotten on me and we had to throw the whole lot away.

We have tomorrow off and I plan to just lounge around the house. We are all trying to get over a cold, and the weather has been so rainy that the highways to the coast are pretty treacherous (can you say landslides?). So no beach for us this year. Anyway, the beach for semana santa (Holy Week) is usually so packed it hurts to go. No, we'll stay home watching DiscoveryKids and whatnot and eating deviled eggs.

In other news, last night at about 1 am we were rudely awaken by a quick tremor. It only lasted about 2 seconds, but was the type that, had I been standing, I probably would have been thrown to the ground. The earth totally shifted, it didn't even shake, and while it did that about 2-3 times quickly in a row, we stayed up for another hour wondering when the next ones would come. Luckily, there was nothing else, and the news this morning reports no one hurt and no property damage. After the huge earthquake in Peru, however, I am more nervous than ever. This was only a 4.4 - not much, but the first one I've felt since moving to our new house (over 2 years ago).

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I guess I should send out a very Happy St. Patty's Day to all of those with Irish descent out there. I forgot completely and am decked out in pink instead of green, but when I get home tonight I'll have myself a nice beer (no Guinness around here though) and wear some green to bed. I do have Irish blood, by the way, so by default so do my kids, and I am probably doing them a disservice by not hamming it up a bit more. Of course, what fun is St. Pat's Day until you're 21 and old enough to get some green beer? So, until then, my kids will probably never appreciate the nuances of this so-very-Irish holiday...

Pic from www.jupiterimages.com.

Getting ready for Easter

Agustin helped me dye eggs this morning. He got a little rough and ended up squishing a couple, but he was so excited. He was very particular in choosing the colors we used - first blue (of course), then turquoise, then orange and peach and then green (the prettiest in my opinion), and then he opted for a violet pink.














Little brother was with daddy doing errands, but got real excited when he saw them too. Amazingly, Nicolas was very gentle with the eggs, holding them so carefully. I'm surprised he didn't chuck it at the wall or someone's face, though. I think he'll grow up to play basketball the way he likes to throw things around.

Here they are choosing their favorites.
They don't want us to eat them though - too pretty.

Yes! It's the weekend!

Say cheese!
Getting ready for bed. Agustin didn't go to school today because he's got a bit of a cold. Nicolas is quite crabby and ready for bed. After the kids fall asleep I plan to scrapbook, blog/journal, check out the 2peas web site and just basically loaf around. Thank God for Fridays!

On the Merits of the Marshmallow

What is it about marshmallows? they seem to have an unexplicable lure for the members in my family, and father and sons together will literally drool for a small bowl of mini marshmallows. Every time my family comes to visit they are expected asked to bring a bag.

After school snack? Marshmallows. Hungry for supper? Need a marshmallow fix first. Why are the kids bouncing off the walls? Why, marshmallows, of course!!!!

In other news, yes, I forgot to upload the picture yesterday. We got back from playgroup rather late and by the time supper was made and kids eaten and in pajamas, there was no time for anything else. Agustin didn't have time for homework, either, and I'm sure the teacher won't be happy with us today. His homework is too long, some days, and I just can't make him do it when he's sleepy or crabby. Thirty minutes of copying a huge sheet of the letter Ss is too much for a four-year-old, especially when he's been in school all morning! I am just against this whole excessive homework idea, and I can see that this is going to be an uphill battle for me as the kids go through school.

Weather? Cold. Not as cold as MN, but downright too chilly not to have heat in the houses and at work. Add a co-worker who refuses to close the window, and you've got one ex-Minnesotan with frozen fingers having to type everything twice because her fingers aren't working right.

I suppose minus 5 is worse, but still: WHERE IS THE SUN?!

My baby turns 2!!!!

Wow, it is hard to believe but today Nicolas turns two years old! We have a party planned for this Saturday, and will also celebrate Grandma Shushu's birthday that day. Hopefully a few kids will come, and some family, and it will just be a restful day where everyone can enjoy each others' company. The weather hasn't been so pleasant lately, so we'll be happy if we just get no rain or drizzle (I'm sure the kids would like to play outside a bit) and, if we're lucky, maybe we'll even get a peek of sunshine.


We got our toddler a Prep n Serve kitchen, something we've wanted to do since Christmas but couldn't get the time to go and pick it up, and then they ran out of them at the store and it was too late for a Christmas present. This time we bought it early (Monday) to be sure to have it in time for the party, and the kids have been cooking nonstop since. Of course, now we basically just break up fights over who can cook and who can wash dishes (wish this were real life and not make-believe!) and of course, who the lucky duck that gets to play with the frying pan and hamburger bun will be. When they finally come to an agreement, however, I can think of nothing more pleasant than sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and watching my two growing boys playing peacefully together. It usually lasts about half the cup, so I've learned not to fill the coffee to the brim.

We have playgroup scheduled for today, so I'm thinking about bringing a cake so we can sing Happy Birthday, and then once we get home I plan to upload a picture of our birthday boy, taken early this morning on his special day. More to come!



Edited 3/14: Here he is on his birthday morning!

All Soul's Day

We spent a nice All Soul's Day holiday in Ambato, which they call Finados there (come to think of it, I have no idea why or even what finados is!). The kids LOVE going to Ambato, and although we planned on returning Saturday (luckily we didn't, as the annual Mama Negra event in Latacunga was going on full force and it would have meant MAJOR traffic jam), Agustin begged us to let him "please stay one more day". As he usually gets his way (well, spoiling my kids with something like spending one more day on vacation is fun!), we agreed to stay.

He was reluctant on Sunday to go home, but we managed to get him back to Quito, where, two minutes after he walked into the house, he turned around and said, "OK, let's go back to Ambato now!"

Nicolas, on the other hand, had a hard time sleeping there. He wanted his bed back home, I guess, and would make frightened faces at the ceiling, as if he were seeing ghosts or something. He had to be put to bed in his grandma's arms, and once asleep didn't have any problems. Last night you could see the relief in his eyes when we put him into his own bed again. While Agustin has never had a problem sleeping in strange beds or bonding with people easily, Nicolas is a different story. We have decided to go back to Ambato the weekend before Christmas, to pick up my father in law before he goes on vacation, and therefore have an excuse to get Nicolas used to sleeping outside of the house.

Happily, I got a lot of reading done over the long weekend. I finished two books, The Sleeping Doll by Jeffrey Deaver
(not a big fan, not sure why I continue reading his stuff, I guess it is just escape reading and something I can get through quickly while kids are screaming and pinching and hitting each other, and not have to worry about losing my place),








and The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant,
a book I had wanted to read forever and which completely surprised me in the end.










I also started Naked by David Sedaris, and, as expected, it had me snorting (laughing snorting!) as I read.

Everyone was looking at me like I was nuts, but that guy is just hilarious! Too much!

Happy Halloween

We missed Halloween, since, for some reason quite unknown to me, the neighborhood decided to celebrate it on Sunday afternoon. I didn't realize my mistake (silly me, thinking the trick-or-treating would take place today) until the doorbell started ringing nonstop at 6 pm on Sunday afternoon. I had to play the evil witch and pretend like no one was home since there was no candy in the house (and that is true - NO candy. Note to self: need to get to supermarket). Anyhow, last night I carved a green pumpkin (it was orange on the inside) into a cyclops face. Agustin was quite frightened and then offended this morning when he saw his jack o' lantern had only one eye. He told me to get another eye on him or throw the whole thing out because he wanted it gone when he got home this afternoon. And that pumpkin took me all night! Sure hope he has a change of heart when he sees it all lit up...













So Buzz Lightyear and Mickey Mouse will probably not go out tonight. But no fear, we got the cute pictures and, if that's not enough, look at the resemblance here... Now, can you tell who's who?









Saturday they got a little taste of a Halloween party at the Harvest Festival. Here we are with some others from playgroup.

Women in Power Meeting

Another successful meeting at the Ecuadorian Ambassador's Residence. I was (partly) responsible for organizing it and getting one of the panel members (executive director of a foundation here in Quito) to come. One of the panelists was the former Vice-President of Ecuador, Rosalia Arteaga (who, by the way, should have also been the President when Abdala was kicked out), another was the U.S. Ambassador to Ecuador, and the other was the dean of students of a bilingual high school here. All the panelists were women and spoke about women in leadership roles.

A common thread that went among all four panelists was the fact that, as women, we need to believe in ourselves, remain truthful to our values/beliefs and families, accept people as they are and understand their strengths/weaknesses to better use them to our advantage, and focus on our work as professionals and role models rather than get caught up in the battle of the sexes. It was a very enlightening and enriching talk, and I was able to converse with some great people. The moderator did a wonderful job and everything came together so smoothly that you never would have imagined some of us were pulling our hair out to pull it off!

You don't know how hard it is to put together a meeting of this magnitude (and we only had 30 guests!) until you are part of the planning committee, so it is no wonder that some people sort of "take it for granted" and make trouble where there should be none. We almost found ourselves in a riot as some ladies got real upset that we are no longer going to email out the newsletter, but rather let them go to the web site and check it out (they seemed to think we were excluding them and playing favorites or taking away some inherent right they have to get the newsletter directly to their inbox). It is just a little embarrassing when older ladies, who are supposedly in it for their contribution to Ecuadorian society and charities, get into a shouting match at the Ambassador's personal residence over a newsletter...

Well, from what I've heard this has not been the first time and I doubt it will be the last...

Off to School!

Bright and early this morning, Agustin wanted to show off his uniform to his family back in Minnesota...

And then, he wanted to do a little pirouette...














And we can't forget little brother!

Doing Homework Together

Sitting down with Tin to help with homework is nice. When he cooperates. Last Friday his English teacher didn't send homework, but I don't know what will happen this week! As we sit and paint, color, draw, trace, cut and glue, baby brother looks on, apparently counting down the days until he can sit and paint, color, draw, trace, cut and glue with us!

Homework for Babies

OK, he's not a baby. But he's three, only two or three years away from baby-dom. He's a boy. He's his father's son (short attention span). And he gets homework every day!
At first the assignments were fun.
Scribble on a piece of paper with different colored pencils.

Scrunch up paper and glue it above the line.

Complete the drawings.

Paint all over the page.

Cut out things that are yellow and paste them to the page.


But little by little they are getting harder and longer.
Color the smaller circles blue and decorate the large circle however you want.


But the worst has been the English homework - it is only sent on Fridays but last Friday it was so long (about 8 pages - 2 parts of the body on each page - Agustin had to cut out the parts of the body and glue them under the corresponding word). Of course, he can't read, so who do you think gets stuck doing his homework?

Actually, I don't really do his homework. Most Ecuadorian parents do - which, obviously, makes no sense at all, although when faced with battling your 3-year-old to sit down for an hour and cut out miniature eyes from magazines and glue them onto a piece of paper, or just doing it yourself in five minutes - the choice doesn't always seem so black and white.

So, I am the mean mom who makes him do his own homework, the way he interprets it. Which means sometimes he goes out of the lines. Sometimes he glues things over the words. Sometimes his lines are far from straight.

So I get notes from his teacher: "I said to tear the paper and glue it, not rip it."

Was it a problem with my translation of trozar? Maybe not - after asking various people what trozar meant, I got such a variety of interpretations that I no longer knew what the teacher meant. He only got one star on that assignment, presumably because I didn't do it for him.

More than once people have hinted that maybe, if I want him to get good grades and be a good student, I should do the homework myself.

I can't even dignify that statement with an answer!

Back to School

I know, I know. It's a little late for a back to school post (although before the Ecuadorian School Curriculum Reform, schools would have been starting this week), but I have been so busy and haven't had any time to post at all. Also, it isn't technically a back to school post, since this is actually Agustin's first year in school (preschool). I still feel pretty strongly about the fact that he is only three until end of November, and thus, in my opinion, not ready for the vigor of Ecuadorian preschool, which is more like a kindergarten/1st grade mix, but what can a lowly parent do? Every teacher and administrator knows more than I (and me being a teacher myself!) and so, we can do nothing more than abide by the system, perhaps gritting our teeth a little along the way.

But more on how Agustin's doing later. The real question is: how are the parents taking it?
I must admit, it is exciting to see my little baby boy in shiny new shoes and uniform, marching off to school with a backpack slung across his shoulders. It is also heart-wrenching. He is so BIG! When I look at him with the eyes of a stranger I see an older boy, not a little recently-potty-trained and even more-recently-taken-off-the-bottle three-year-old boy.

It is fun to see and hear about all the different things he learned in school, and sad, also, knowing that his horizons are broadening and we (his parents) are no longer the only source of information he has. While it is a relief, at times, to know that someone else needs to take responsibility for things like teaching him numbers and letters and how they work, it is also disconcerting, especially when he corrects me (my Spanish, my knowledge of the difference between rip and tear, the way I taught him how to hold the pencil - wrong, of course). And the nerve of the teacher, which is cultural but also hard for me to stomach - sending home notes telling me that he needs his nails cut (and for pete's sake, they weren't really that long, either! We've had much longer!), or admonishing me for not getting him to complete his homework assignment ("He works so well in class and is so motivated, I wonder what his problem could be at home?"). (On a side note he does complete his assignments, but tires easily, which I happened to mention to the teacher, suggesting that perhaps they were a bit too long?)

Anyhoo, back to the beginning. We got his school supply list the first day of school, and was I ever in for a shocker! It seems that school supply lists in Ecuador are quite the science, since mine looked like a calculus formula or another language. Here, for example, is an excerpt (and following in parentheses a loose translation):

• 1 caja de pinturas 12 colores PAX CROMO MEGA 5.5 mm lápiz gigante
• 2 frascos de témpera grande: 473 ml. 16 oz. Azul-amarillo
• 2 lápices triplux delgados, 1 borrador de queso
• 1 tabla pegada fomix de 30x20 cm y 1 punzón punta metálica
• 1 marcador de tiza líquida PAPER MATE EXPO (rojo)
• 1 sacapuntas de caja doble orificio para normal y triangular
• 1 diario escolar
• 1 pliego de cartón corrugated (morado)
• 1 cuaderno parvulario grande de 50 hojas anillado
• 1 juego didáctico para 5 años, bloques lógicos 48-50 figuras
• 20 cartulinas muresco o iris de colores tamaño INEN

• (1 box of paints, 12 colors, PAX CROMO MEGA 5.5 mm gigantic pencil)
• (2 bottles of big tempera paints 473 ml 16 oz blue-yellow)
• (2 thin triplux pencils, 1 "cheese" eraser)
• (1 30x20 cm table glued fomix and 1 metal-tipped "stabber")
• (1 PAPER MATE EXPO liquid chalk marker - red)
• (1 double-holed box pencil sharpener for normal and triangular pencils)
• (1 school diary)
• (1 large posterboard of corrugated cardboard, purple)
• (1 large preschool notebook, spiral-bound, 50 pages)
• (1 didactic game for 5-year-olds, "Logical Blocks, 48-50 pieces")
• (20 cardstock A4 papers (Muresco or iris), various colors)

Well, things would have been easier if I had know that "paints" can also mean "colored pencils", a "cheese" eraser is a soft white one, PAX CROMO MEGA and Muresco/Iris are brand names, and there are certain kinds of pencils that are considered normal and others that are considered triangular (although honestly they both look the same to me). But these are the things I will learn, I guess. The list, by the way, goes on and on for a page more, including, among other things, 12 rolls of toilet paper, a towel (no size specification, although the original was sent back two weeks later with a note that we needed one slightly larger), baby soap, band-aids, cotton balls, colored Popsicle sticks, masking tape, glitter and regular glue, a 20-piece puzzle, various types and qualities of colored paper, fine markers, modeling clay, 2 used magazines for cutting up pictures, scissors, a bag of confetti, a hard-covered two-ringed folder... I could go on but you get the picture. (Notice that I'm not even counting the textbooks for class.)

Exciting! Imagine - those of you who know me can easily: I get to go on a shopping spree buying all kinds of stationery items - papers, markers, pens, pencils, glitter, glue, etc. I was thrilled, and not at all daunted by the size of the list...

UNTIL...

I get to the store. Now, remember, it is the first day of class. All 6 million Ecuadorian students have entered class on the same day, receiving lists of various pages of supplies that need to be bought, not by next week but by tomorrow. Hence the mad dash to the stores.

I saw the line of cars, stopping traffic, outside of the store. But still I persisted on. I mean, really, when do I ever have "permission" to go crazy buying tons of things I wouldn't normally need? I needed this excuse to shop, so I took Agustin's hand and went in with him (he was also very excited too, by the way).

No carts. We waited at the cash registers for the first available and only waited a few minutes. Not bad so far.

Well, imagine a store the size of your local gas station, a store in which close to 300 people and their kids have walked into, a store that has in reserve probably 50 shopping carts of which every single one is used... it was CROWDED. To make it worse, as I didn't know what the bleep I was looking for exactly, I would inch my way to an aisle, and after 10 minutes make it there, painstakingly read the itsy-bitsy fine print on the mylars, only to realize that no, no mention of a triangular pencil. We spent about 1 1/2 hours doing this. Occasionally a worker would whiz by and be able to help for a fleeting second, but they were being bombarded by every other parent in the store and also clearly stretched to the limits.

All the while, Andres and the baby were out in the car. He finally decided to make an appearance, to my relief, and help out with some of the language barrier situations I mentioned above. It still took us another half an hour to determine that we had gotten most of what we could (some things were already out of stock) and then I got in line.

The line of the century.

This line stretched to the back of the store, weaving in and out of desperate shoppers and crying children. This line moved one cart-length approximately every 10-15 minutes. This line took us almost 2 hours to get through. Utterly exhausting.

Agustin was so good during the whole thing. He barely complained and remained in good spirits. I was a little more than irked, as you can imagine, but the closer we got to the register, the better I felt, knowing that soon we'd be going home. It got dark, Andres and the baby were sent outside to peer in through a large window at our progress as the store employees, tired and wondering when the stream of people may stop, decided to close the store 2 hours early.

We got home around 7:30 pm. I thought that my four-hour ordeal was nearing its close, but I was soooooo wrong. Next came the part that was really labor-intensive: putting Agustin's name on every notebook, bag, marker, pencil, piece of chalk, etc. And if you think I'm exaggerating...

Let's just say I'm not.

I was up until half past midnight, labelling all of his things in the Ecuadorian way. We had three plastic bags full of his supplies, all labelled (hopefully) correctly and organized for the teacher. We still had some things to get (every school-aged child in the country must be asked to bring cotton balls, because we couldn't find any in any of the pharmacies we went to), but for the most part we were finished. And I was exhausted.















It was going to be a long year...

Welcome Back

We are back home and getting back into things. Lots of work coming up - TEFL starting in September, two workshops for Thomson Heinle for Monday and Tuesday (that they just asked me to do today), the kickoff of the CEC Summer Reading Program on Wednesday, check signing on Thursday, a luncheon on Friday, an art exhibition at the end of September and jazz concert at end of October for Damas NyB, the Christmas Bazaar mid-November... Well, I've got a lot coming up. Which is fun. Until I find a great book and want to rest for a spat. Then it makes things seem reeeeeaaaaaaal tedious.

Coming to a MN Lake near you

Oh, the quiet and relaxation I will be experiencing in less than three days... sitting on the deck, watching the bats swoop down over our heads at the gnats waiting to eat us alive, swatting at mosquitoes, running after Nicolas as he attempts to dive kamikaze-style into the lake, catching Tin as he jumps Scooby-doo style into my arms after he hears a "scary dinosaur" in the woods behind the cabin... I can't wait to be in MN!

Oh the fun we will have! Cabin visits, baby showers for my sister Amy, playdates with friends I haven't seen in a LONG time, treks to the library (working on those biceps in order to carry away piles of books), shopping, shopping and more shopping (our true obsession - how lucky am I to get a husband who likes to shop more than me!), walks around the lake, sunlight until 8 or 9 pm, battling the mice in my grandma's basement, taking long drives around the state. We've got trips to Duluth, Two Harbors, Pine City, Mille Lacs, Stillwater (not really a "trip" per se), Hinckley (oh yeah, cha-ching!), downtown Mpls, and possibly Red Wing, planned.

We are arriving on Delta on Friday morning at 10 am, and I cannot wait for the heat to melt me! Won't be long now...

This is what it is all about

I am flattered and excited. Recently I put up an article on Suite 101 about making Chicha de Avena. Now, most of you are probably wondering - what is chicha de avena? It's a fruity oatmeal drink, something quite popular here in Ecuador, and something I love myself. But if asked if it was something people would be looking for on the web, I wouldn't have really thought so. I myself, of course, have tried to find something, but never have.
Well, as the most wonderful creative writing teacher and one of the nicest, best people I know, Deborah Keenan once told me that, if you can't find it, then your obligation is to write it. (I've butchered what she said, of course. My writing is still rusty, and having two small boys at home isn't helping. But that was the essence.) Of course I believed her, but I'd never had the opportunity to experience it in action. Well, wasn't it my pleasant surprise to find Francesca, who, on her vegan blog, was very happy to (finally) find a chicha de avena recipe (with pineapple! my personal favorite, too) on the web. And wasn't I happy to see Deborah's advice become reality. So, watch out world, here I come, writing all the things I've wanted to read myself but have never been able to find! (Uh-oh, head for the hills!)