Heat Wave

Funny how everything is relative. This month a "heat wave" was reported for Quito, with five days of record-setting temperatures in the city. I believe the high was 75 degrees. The weather has been lovely, needless to say. It has been humid for Quito, which means even though it may be 50 degrees it feels like a cool coastal morning. Mornings by our house are foggy and heavy, but the smell of the air! So fresh, so summer-like, almost like a living thing.

Back for the New Year

It's been awhile since I've written. I was back in MN for Christmas and the New Year, and it felt good to be back on my "turf". There was almost no snow and it wasn't very cold (I hear that's changing as I write), but it did snow for Christmas and New Year's, so we got our taste of it.

Things at work are hectic as usual. It always takes some time to get back into the routine after a long vacation. I'll be posting some pictures from our vacation later this week. In the meantime I am still trying to catch up with e-mails and planning our school cycle. Andres and I are trying to get things together for TESOL Seattle, and if that works out then we will be going in March. I would love to attend and just hope the university realizes what an opportunity this would be for our program. Andres will be presenting on Teaching English for FTA's or some other academic-sounding topic, so I'd love to go and see what he has to say about global English, too. (Don't think that just because we are married and live together we actually talk - those days are gone. Now our conversations consist of screaming over a kid's crying or playing or whining or... well, you get the picture. There is little "real" conversation, and much less work-related stuff, going on in our house at the moment).

With the new year I wanted to bring in some resolutions. I've always got more to do, more I want to do, I should say. But I still haven't been able to narrow them down yet. They say that you should only choose one or two do-able resolutions, and so I have spent the last two and a half weeks trying to decide which ones seem the most do-able. Of course, at this rate, my 2007 resolutions will quickly become my 2008 resolutions, so I guess I just need to commit. At the top of my list are (not necessarily do-able, however):

1. get in shape and lose weight/become healthier (I mean, really, it wouldn't be a new year without this one, right?)
2. actually sit down and write, whether it be my blog, work-stuff, a new blog (you know I can't resist!) or just a journal, but I want to exercise my writing hand more.
3. start a blog on Ecuador. Hopefully it would be enough to get me back to those feelings of awe that I had with the country pre-kids, pre-EPN, pre-stressed-out life with mortgage and debts and visa worries. Not ignoring the daily grind, but finding the joy in it.
4. and I guess I could always be a happier person, try to make more friends and keep in touch more with the ones I've got. Maybe try and reach out more at a social level with the Americans who live here and work for us.
5. oh, and I can't forget my work-related goals. Broaden my teacher training experience through other universities and establish contact with other programs, in and out of Ecuador. Start a teacher newsletter, student blog, increase usage and exposure of our wiki, etc. etc.

Now if THAT isn't enough to just sigh and want to give up and wait for 2008, I don't know what is!

you gotta laugh

Every week I get a message in my inbox about the progress of my nanowrimo. So far I've been able to ignore it with thoughts of, "yes, I'll get around to it" and "sure, I still have time." But this one, labeled Week Four, really hurt, because I haven't written a word since Week One. [Gulp]

So, without further ado, I am off to write 1000 words or so. I would have liked to get up into the 20k, but of course then I wouldn't be the procrastinating writer wannabe that I already am. At least I got more done than any other year. Of course I won't tell you what that number is. Not until I get over my guilt, at least...

Tin Turns Three!!!!!! Birthday Plans for Tomorrow

3:30 Guests arrive
4.00 Craft station: Create a Christmas ornament
4:30 Game time:
Balloon race - The children put a balloon between their legs, holding it at the knee. They race. First child to cross the finish line without dropping the balloon is the winner. If the balloon drops, the child must go back to start.
Freeze dancing - played like freeze tag. The children dance while the music plays. When the music stops, the children must freeze completely. Anyone who moves is out. Play continues until only one child is left.
Water Balloon Kick - The children takes turns kicking a ball at a water balloon, set about 25 feet in front of them. The first kid to break the balloon with the ball is the winner.
Mini Car Race - Each child chooses a Matchbox car. The children race the cars to the finish line by pushing them along a racetrack. Owner of the first car to successfully cross the finish line is the winner. Cars must cross with just one push.
Duck Duck Grey Duck (In Spanish: Pato, Pato, Ganzo) If time and energy (as well as prizes) left
5:00 Cupcake decorating: The children decorate their own cupcakes using sprinkles, M&Ms, chocolate flakes, shredded coconut, gummies and crushed peanuts.
5.30 PIÑATAS! Each child gets their own small piñata filled with mini toys, chocolates, candies, and suckers.
6:00 Cake time (adults)
6:30 Movie: Cars

We have five kids invited - Daniel, Camila, Emilia, Emiliano and Daniel Endara (the last two being second cousins). Emiliano is only 5 months old, so his mom will have to be his representative!

Nanowrimo

Do you want to hear something funny? I joined Nanowrimo this year. It isn't the first time. Two years ago I joined, also. What's actually funny is:
a) I think that I have the time to write 50,000 words
b) repeat the above
c) I have already passed my total word count for 2004.

I am at 756. I have gotten a late start. Actually, these 700+ words were written on the first day, but from there I haven't gotten back to it, due to our trip to Ambato (pictures to be posted soon). I decided, however, that I am doing OK. So, maybe I won't finish, but the point is that I got SOME writing done. And it feels good to be a part of the frantic pattering of keyboards around the world.

Even if mine is pattering considerably less than the rest.

Halloween Update

A little while ago the doorbell rang.

“The cable guy, finally!” (As Andres says, the bill knows how to reach us, but when it comes to installation, suddenly the company has no idea where we live!)

The doorbell rings again. A very insistent cable guy.

Open the door. It looks as if a tornado has hit. Jack is rolled over, face down, leaking candle wax all over the stoop as if he were bleeding to death. Candles slowly sputter out on the cfement step. Our solar lights which line the walkway have been knocked over and kicked around. Tufts of grass are pulled up and thrown around the sidewalk leading to the street.

Vandals, you say. Actually, no. Just over zealous trick or treaters!

Yes, there were about twenty kids swarming the door, begging for candy. they had no idea what to say, and only a few were dressed up (I saw a witch, a cat, and a big ugly monster) but there they were! Of course I had to dig around for candy. Luckily I found a bad of Safety Pops, which just happened to be from Halloween last year, but the kids got SOOOO excited to see a different kind of candy that they went crazy! So, Amy, I got to be that house too! How exciting.

So now we know for next year that we will go trick-or-treating. Tin is already talking about it. (It’s going to be a long year...)

PS I will add pictures to the previous post tomorrow at work. For some reason I still can’t add pictures from home. Bummer. Oh, and the cable people finally did make it. And we got cable in our room! Uh oh, I can see now that going to bed early is going to become a thing of the past, and it will get harder and harder to wake up at 5 am...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I’ve never missed being away from the Halloween celebrations back home - until I had kids. Now I think of how they’re missing a magical day - a day to be whatever you want to be, a day to dream, to feel a part of a larger whole, to become part of a community, and - let’s not forget - a day to get sick on candy!

It may seem like a romanticized view of Halloween, but Halloween is that day. A community sharing and participating, a city-wide, country-wide celebration, a day to be someone or something else, and to create. I feel bad sometimes that I’m not giving that to my kids, as part of their cultural heritage. Of course there are many Ecuadorian holidays, but I want them to experience both.

So last night we carved a pumpkin and roasted pumpkin seeds. The pumpkin was grown in Grandma Susy’s pumpkin patch in Calderon, from seeds bought in the U.S. last summer. It didn’t get very big, but the kids didn’t mind (know). They had a blast. Tin even helped poke out the design with a nail. We put “Jack” out on the stoop to get comments from the neighbors - some criticism, some compliments, but who really cares anymore?



After our pumpkin carving experience there was a firework show that could be seen from our house. I still have no idea why there were fireworks, but when Tin heard the noise he asked me where it was coming from. It was foggy out at that precise moment, and, not seeing the firework display, I told him I honestly did not know.

But he did.

“They’re dinosaurs,” he announced. “They’re stomping around with their big feet. Boom. Boom. Boom” He walked around the house like a dinosaur for a few minutes.

“Do you like dinosaurs?” I asked, expecting an emphatic yes!

“No,” he said, wrinkling his nose in disgust. “They have big toes. Yuck.”

Well. So dinosaurs have big yucky toes, do they? Hmmmm.

(On another note, tonight we get a cable connection in our bedroom. Yay! Happy Halloween to us. Hello, Jay Leno, Desperate Housewives, Big Love and the news! Goodbye soccer and Mexican telenovelas!)

Arghh!!!... or The Idiocy Behind Bureaucracy

I don't know why certain things about living in Ecuador bother me so much. For instance, the long lines everywhere (having to get up at 4 a.m. to get "a place" in a line), the ridiculous rules and horrible inadequacy and inefficiency of virtually every sector - public or private, Ecuadorians' acceptance of that's just how things "are". Well, I am tired of getting in an outrage about the way people are treated, about the DUMB things that you're told when you are trying to do some paperwork, about the fact that SEVEN months after my son is born he is STILL not registered in the book of birth certificates and therefore we are STRUGGLING to get his passport ready for our trip, tired of worrying about the fact that my mother-in-law is losing her land, losing her retirement, losing her job basically because the doctor says she is absolutely NOT allowed to work and the silly government offices will not respect her doctor's orders. And I am most definitely tired of being in an outrage and then told that I shouldn't be. Why do people tell me these things? Isn't it to make me feel outraged? And, if not, then I refuse to get outraged anymore.

So, basically I will just accept my lot. Granted, once Nicholas's paperwork is out of the way, we will have far fewer things to do. Once I get my foreigner censo, which will now be good for like four years or something, I will have less to worry about. And once I get my ID updated, I will not have to worry again until it is time for my driver's license. Of course, all the paperwork seems to come at the same time.

In the meantime, I will be taking some days off of work in order to get all these chores done - as well as waking up at the crack of dawn and standing in line for eight hours only to be told to come back tomorrow cuz the system is down or they are no longer attending. Worse thing is, we have to go through this all at the U.S. embassy to get Nicholas's passport, and it is no better there. You'd think they were run by a bunch of Ecuadorians. Anyway, that's my rant for the day, and - hopefully I will be able to keep my word for it for a long time from now.

By the way, anyone know if standing in line burns calories?

Disappointment at the Polls

What can I say? Eleven years here and I've yet to see a sound decision at the polls. Noboa or Correa? The answer is clear, in my opinion. But HOW could Noboa and GILMAR GUTIERREZ get more votes than Roldos, and for that matter, Cynthia? I think it is time to get rid of the mandatory vote - get rid of the populism, stop letting (making) illiterate people vote, educating people to vote for the candidate who best represents your interests, not the one who gives you two pieces of bread and a baggie of rice. Some say that that shows just how poor the country is... I don't agree. I think it just shows how ignorant the population is, which is another reason to chuck the mandatory vote, also.

Sigh. Here we go again. I doubt Correa will last, and I predict that Noboa will go no longer than three months (He is barely literate himself, in fact, and shows all the signs of brain damage). Of course, I could always be pleasantly surprised.

I’ll Always Hear the Rooster

There’s nothing like a rooster to wake you up in the morning.

Yes, a rooster has gotten loose in our neighborhood.

He’s living in the park behind our house. I suppose he belongs to someone in one of the housing complexes to our north, so I doubt he will be homeless for long. But, in the meantime, he’s made a place for himself up against our back wall.

Roosters are strange animals. Contrary to popular belief, they do not only crow at the crack of dawn. Actual, they crow all day and all night long. I guess they are actually trying to claim their territory by scaring off predators.

In our old apartment there used to be a rooster belonging to the family behind us. After seven years of its crowing (or that of its successors – I doubt that that rooster was allowed to live so long, I’m sure he made it into a soup along the way) I got accustomed to it. And early this morning, when I heard our new neighbor’s fierce crows, I felt oddly at peace.

They are a cultural phenomenon. Ecuadorians don’t seem to notice them at all. The other day I was in class observing one of our teachers when, to make small talk, she asked the students if the rooster outside the building bothered anyone during class. Now, our school is located in the business and tourist district, and the traffic, especially the bus traffic, is noisy and annoying. The class was at the top of the eighth floor, yet she had heard a rooster at some point that morning, and the noise it had made had registered somewhere in the back of her mind.

I didn’t know what was sadder – the fact that there was a rooster in the city, or the fact that this teacher had never had the chance to actually hear a rooster in “real life”, despite being from a small town in the U.S.

The students never noticed it, they said, and even seemed skeptical of its existence. All I could think of was the fact that, inadvertently, she had set herself apart from the others – made herself instantly foreign.

I myself proudly agreed with the students. I had not heard the rooster. I am becoming more and more Ecuadorianized.

Yet I will never fully be Ecuadorian. Last night's intruder woke me from a sound sleep, and I doubt DH even registered his cries. I will, without fail, always hear the rooster. The difference is, now I will welcome his noise.

Picture Time: The Best of Brothers

Picture Time: Agustin

And the other king of the house...

Tin and "his" daddy.


Playing with Grandma Chris's present.

Tin's vehicles, courtesy of Daddy.

Picture Time: Nicolas

Here are some of the pictures of Nicolas that I promised to get up over the weekend. Enjoy!


My little jailbird.


Very drooly.


Just chilling.


Cutie pie.

Yeah for shopping

Well, as my previous post Mission Impossible stated, I had some trouble this weekend getting online and blogging. I had all the good intentions in the world, but life got in the way. One of the big pieces of news I had for everyone out there is that we will be arriving in MSP on December 16, in the morning (on the new Delta flight out of Quito). Yes, we finally bought the tickets (our return is Saturday, Jan. 6). And I am SO excited to be going back home, to see everyone and to do some major Christmas shopping! WOOHOO! By the way, Bati will also be coming, but one day after us (Dec. 17 am). He wants us to pick him up from the airport and go directly to the Mall of America. No goofing off on his part, you see. Gotta get the serious stuff out of the way, haha!

In the meantime, I just HAD to go shopping this weekend. I bought a new Christmas tree, since last year the stand on our old one went kaput - and no one could help me find a new stand. Actually, we eventually found one, but it is too flimsy for our big ol' tree. So I am going to be getting rid of the old and coming in with the new this Christmas - even though we will really only be in our house for a few weeks during the season. (I also got an advent calendar, which should be fun to do with the kids.)


I also decided to "splurge" on a new purse. My old ones are so old that I can't wait a couple more months before we go back to get one. I like the one I found, but I will definitely be purse shopping this winter.

On the Nightstand

I have been reading a lot more lately than I had been. Partly it is Amy’s fault, since she was getting through a couple books a week, and made me feel that old nostalgia. I remember looking forward to summer so that I could read twelve, fourteen, twenty books a week. I was insatiable. I loved it. There are no real regrets - I feel I got my fair share of play in, too. But going to the library and bringing home bags full of books - knowing that I actually had the time to get through them all - was icing on the cake.

So, I have started to make an effort to get more reading done. I still have a good ten books or so in my English collection that I haven’t read (lots more in my Spanish collection), and quite a few more I could stand to read again, so it shouldn’t be too hard. One thing that has changed greatly from summer days as a kid, however, is that my self-diagnosed, not ocmpletely-joking-about-it, attention deficit disroder has kicked in and I can no longer keep my mind on one book at a time. So, at any given time, I’m reading 3-4 books at a time.

Right now it is Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. This is a book I ahve been looking forward to reading for probably the last two years or so, and which I was so excited to find in a used bookstore here in Quito. I have been hoarding it since I bought it about a month ago, but now is the time. I am only a few pages into it, but I feel a little shiver of excitement go up my spine every time I look at its cover. (At this point I am sure even Amy is thinking, YIKES! She’s losing it.)

I am still reading Mosaico. In fact, I’ve only gotten through a few chapters since last time I blogged about this book. I am beginning to think that the problem is in the translation, however, and not the book itself. I just can’t get into it - it feels very flat and repetitive. And that’s too bad, but always the problem when translation comes into play, especially on books that are not best sellers or classics.

I am also reading Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund. It is not at all the kind of book I thought it would be, and is not an easy read. Yet, I find myself unable to put it down. It has some sort of magnetic pull, and the voice, which was annoying at first, has started to grow on me. When I am not reading it, for some reason I miss the characters. This doesn’t usually happen to me with this kind of book, so, without actually realizing yet, I’ve already gottten halfway through it.

And just finished is A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian. A crazy title for a great book. This, on the other hand, was an easy read, but not because it was not worthwhile or mere fluff. It was simply good writing, a great storyline that moved things along, and wonderful, funny characters. Really enjoyable. Too bad about the title, perhaps. When I first heard about this book I had no desire to read it. Then, I found it in the book shop here and decided to go for it, since I had heard so much about it. Definitely a book you could gobble up in one night on the couch sipping coffee.

The last book I am into right now is Mr. Murder by Dean Koontz. Yes, quite a change of genre and voice. It is my car book, however, and car books are very important to have. These are books that you keep under the seat of your car in the event that you get stuck somewhere in line and need a good book to entertain you. It can’t be anything too deep, because you could get pulled away from it at a moment’s notice, and it has to be something not too hard to follow since you may not get back to it for weeks at a time. This used to be my purse book, but since Agustin was born, it has become my car book, since I often get stuck in the car at malls, restaurants, home, etc. while we wait for him to wake up fmr his car nap. So a car book is vital at these moments.

It is an old book, a murder/mystery, and one which I think I may have read when I was younger. I chose it because I liked Koontz’s books when I was a teenager, and I wanted to explore that old fascination I remember having for them. I have been pleasantly surprised with the book so far - Koontz’s writing is sound and actually not bad, and the characters feel less flat than a lot of the other characters you see in that genre. So, a good car book that looks like it will be a good read. (Unlike my previous car books, Meg by Steve Alten and The Millionaire by David Baldacci - both of which have characters that are so predicatable and cliched that they distract you from the plots, which are also predicatable and cliched, but oh well. A car book is a car book.)

I found my library card and got online. My wish list is at 32, but I have thought of a couple more I’d like to put on there. I am sure I’ll end up buying many of them, since I will never get through them all. But I love getting online and dreaming my way through the library’s web site. And that’s Ramsey County.... Hennepin County is even cooler and better.

Next big purchase will be a PDA so I can buy ebooks online and download them instantly. It’s not my favorite way to read, but it is easy to keep up with the new stuff that’s out there, and I don’t have to buy a bookshelf to accomodate them (nor dust them, which is a big plus)!

I guess it’s time to end this post - I’ve been interrupted four times by screaming kids with nightmares/tummyaches/hunger pains, etc.
(Note: This was written the night of my frustration. I am uploading it a few days later.)

Mission Impossible

As you can see, I was unable to blog much this three-day weekend. The kids make it a lost cause during the day, and the baby must be going through a growth spurt because he hasn't slept well, napping or otherwise, in the past three days. I am back at work, and although we expect to be crazy busy this week with registrations, I will attempt to blog again.

Giving up

OK, I give up. Aside from the fact that my browser keeps quitting when I try to upload a picture (and I have a ton), and the snoring from next door that's grating on my nerves, the kids have woken up three times each, and it is only 10:30. Usually the first time they wake up isn't until 3 am or so. I swear, it's like they both know that Mommy is doing something she's been meaning to do for quite some time. Unfortunately, every time they start whining in their sleep, I have to turn off my Internet connection, since I pay for Internet per minute, as well as the phone line, per minute (like long distance). So I can't very well go off to a kid's room and leave the internet on since I don't know how long it will be. What a pain!

Maybe I'll get something else done tonight.

Don't count on it.

Goggles and Garth

Here is Agustin last night wearing his goggles as we danced to Garth Brooks. He really likes any kind of music, which is fun. The only music he doesn't enjoy is music that is "too slow" because it is "too sad."

Get that man a snoring mask!

As I sit here fighting with my internet browser and its incapacity to work with blogger for uploading pictures, I can hear my neighbor snoring through the walls. Very annoying. WAY too loud. Someone help that man and his family...

Guilt in the Form of a Blog

We all have guilty pleasures - something that we know we shouldn’t be doing but that gives us so much satisfaction we do it anyways. One of my guilty pleasures has been blogging. What could be more of a waste of time? I sit at work, and instead of getting semi-important things done (I am not so bad that I ignore the important stuff, at least not yet) I read blogs, search for new blogs, and, if the writing bug has bit, write on my own blogs (yes, plural!). If it isn’t in the urgent box, it probably won’t get done, since Kari is blogging.

Of course Andres thinks I’m crazy. I don’t really care. Other people may think I’m a geek or weird. Doesn’t bother me. I know there are better things to do with my time, but I can drown out that nagging voice at the back of my head. Truth be told, I like blogging. I love blogging. Something I never thought I’d say.

It is a wee bit like having a novel at your fingertips. Maybe if I had access to libraries, Amazon.com (without the horrendous shipping fees, of course), b&n, etc., I would be less inclined to spend my time reading bits and blurbs on the Internet. But since I don’t have this, blogging keeps me updated, makes me feel like I am not so far away, keeps me in the thick of things, so to speak. When I blog and read blogs, I don’t feel so bad about being here. I don’t feel so isolated. And that is an amazing feeling.

Still, with blogging comes many forms of guilt. Aside from just being a guilty pleasure, the onus it brings is at times unbearable. I use the blog to keep my family up to date on me, my kids, my life. But when I don’t blog I feel guilty. I am letting them down. I am reading about the lives of other people, people I don’t even know (I hear Andres’s voice again... 'crazy crazy crazy') instead of keeping my family on top of things. For example, my sister asks for my blog address so she has something to read at work. Since then I may have written what? A whole paragraph?

Shame Shame Shame.

So, if you feel that I am on a blogging frenzy this weekend, it is because I am. I’m making up for lost time. I promise to try to be better.