First Birthday

I will have to try and get some pictures up of Nicolas and his first birthday. We had a small party and he received some cute gifts. Of course, big brother monopolized the gifts and is having trouble using the word "yours" and not "mine" with them, but after the novelty wears off I suppose it will be easier. It is so hard to teach kids to share. I need some of your advice. Do I take the toy away and give it to the other one? Do I take it away and give it to no one? Do I force big brother to play with little brother and possibly get pushed or something else if little brother plays with the "wrong" toy?

In the meantime, I am enjoying the fact that the two are actually old enough to fight. I don't like seeing them grow up so fast, but it is fun watching them interact like little people.

Being a woman means being

invisible. It happens to me on a daily basis, mostly at work. I am the Academic Coordinator, responsible for the curriculum, teacher training, screening new teachers and deciding in the hiring process, creating materials, writing exams, and fielding students’ academic complaints. The sub-coordinator, who works beneath me on a mostly administrative level, is a man. When people come (especially men but also women, for that matter), they ask for him. They don’t believe me when I tell them that I, actually, am the one they want to speak with. They look at me suspiciously and then say, “Yes, very well, but I would feel more comfortable if I spoke to HIM (insert sub-coordinator’s name) directly.” And I am promptly ignored.

Today a gentleman came in looking for a job. I was with the sub-coordinator, and as I tried to help him with his questions, I noticed that he was not paying attention to me. Whenever I answered a question, he would look at the sub-coordinator and then respond. I would say it again, and he wouldn’t even acknowledge my presence. This often happens with Ecuadorians, although they are not always so rude as to not even LOOK at me as I speak. This gentleman, however, was from South Africa. Are men from South Africa known to be like this? I don’t want to generalize, but maybe there is something cultural that I am unaware of.

Whatever the excuse, it really annoys me. About a two years ago I refused to wear the uniform anymore because I was treated with such bias - like a “lowly” secretary, or someone that people could yell at and treat badly. (Of course I quickly learned that secretaries are anything but “lowly” having to put up with so much arrogance from others.) I would get a look as if to say “silly girl”, and a “A ver, mijita…” or “A ver, niña…” when I try to help them. They’d call me “little girl” or “little daughter” (already sexist terms), using a patronizing tone, as if I were someone of no consequence. Once I stopped wearing the uniform , the snide, rude, sexist remarks stopped.

It is bad enough that this happens with students and prospective teachers, but it also happens within the organization. It has been two years since we switched directors, and since then I have requested various times that I be put on the list of coordinators (a very important list in which all the important information such as meeting dates, etc. is communicated), to no avail. I remain off-list and yet am responsible for knowing the things which have been communicated through the list. How? Through ESP I guess, since I have asked over 6 times that my name be added to the list, and it never has. (I am the only female on the list, needless to say.)

This university is definitely an all-boys’ club. No room here for those bothersome women. And what are women anyway, but maids, secretaries, someone to go run off a copy or fetch a cup of coffee for you. Certainly not a peer. Definitely not someone with a higher position.

Women and Sleep

This seems to be a common theme today. I've seen two posts about it already, without even looking for it. Blogging baby had this to say about the subject, and one of the funniest blogs I read, The Sarcastic Journalist, had this to say.
What do I have to say? I have to say, I can relate. I am so tired all the time. I feel like I haven't had a decent night's sleep since Agustin was born. Even if I go to sleep at 8 pm, I am woken numerous times during the night. Often I have to sleep with one of them in order to get any sleep myself. I have tried letting the little one cry himself to sleep, and he does sometimes, but anyways my sleep is interrupted. When I do get a full night's sleep (once in a blue moon, like once every three months), I am so unused to it that I sleep like a brick and don't feel rested at all. Any advice out there?

More pics

Cool Slideshows

Another blog in the blogosphere

I've been largely absent on my blog lately. I've been really busy at work, which is the only place I can post blogs from, since Blogger doesn't like Safari much. I've also been working on the CEC blog, which I've created for CEC students but which could be used for English students in general. Here's the link. Check it out and leave a comment. It is a team blog, but so far (as you can see), I am the only one posting anything. I'm having a ball with it though as I learn how to embed youtube videos (easy) and other widgets like that cool Hangman game. Plus, I "get" to read books frm our library and post reviews, which gives me an excuse to read. And anything that gives me an excuse to blog, of course. Blogging rocks.

Nicolas recently had his one-year birthday. We will be celebrating this weekend, but we did have cake and a few presents on the real day. Here is the birthday boy now.



















and another one:




















and we can't forget his big brother...

The Amazing Race in Ecuador!

For Amazing Race fans (not saying who that may be, although some of you out there actually know me!), the reality TV show has finally made it to Ecuador. I missed most of the episode, but there may be a bit left in Ecuador next week.

Walking, walking, ... GONE!

The baby is starting to walk. It won't be long now. He can take up to six or seven baby steps himself before he decides to get down and crawl, but he lets go a bit more every day. He loves crawling up the stairs, too, and has recently began doing so upright. And he recognizes things. "Where's the music?" and he points to the stereo mounted on the wall. "Where's mommy?" and he points to me. "Where's ñaño (brother)?" and we get an earful of gibberish, hand gestures included. makes you really wonder what it is that he is saying.

Can you guess where I'm from?

I just took a quiz called What American Accent Do You Have? Of course, they were able to nail it on the head. I was really happy to see the question: Do you think bag sounds like vague? questions, since we Minnesotans get a lot of grief for our alleged mispronunciation of all words like tag, bag, and flag (to the point where I've had Californians ask me to spell the word because they cannot for the life of themselves understand where I've just put my paper and pens).

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The South
The West
The Northeast
North Central
Philadelphia
Boston
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Kind of fun!

Just took this one, too.

You are 79% Minnesotan

You are urban Minnesotan, or at least from the suburbs, and you know your stuff pretty well! Great job!

How Minnesotan are you?
Make Your Own Quiz

I suppose I got the speed limits wrong, maybe some of the highways, too.

It worked!

Wow, the experiment worked. I am going to be trying to put up videos and everything. This should be fun!!! Now I just have to update the photos and also my sidebar! I've been reluctant because it took me so long to figure out and then I tried changing it and it didn't work well. Let's try again!

Edit: Notice my new voice mail widget! I don't know how it works yet, so if you do, please send me a voice mail!

Testing what I've Learned

I've been involved in some online workshops about using technology (blogs, internet, wikis, etc.) in the classroom, and I've come across so many great ideas. Over the next few days, I'll be experimenting with them and posting them somewhere so I don't forget! Here is the first experiment: a photo cube! how cool is that?

Cool Slideshows

At work and liking it

I have to admit - I like to be at work. I am there now (and have been since early this morning), dreaming away my time on the internet, reading inspiring articles about teaching, catching up on what's new in the field, preparing classes and workshops, etc. etc. But I love the time I get here. Since I've had kids, I've been divided. Half of me wanting to go home, and half of me wanting to stay, just 15 more minutes, so I can get that "me" time.

On another note, my favorite author once said that having children turns your brain to porridge. Boy do I agree. In class I find that my lucid moments are further and further between as I try to think of such difficult words and phrases such as "I appreciate the observation you made", "perceptive", and - oh, what's that word - practice. Seriously. I can NOT think of words. I just go blank on the silliest thing. My mind stops working and, although I know exactly what I want to say, nothing comes out in the form of language. I can do the gestures, I can mimic my idea, but I can't get the simplest words out. So, what am I going to do about it? I'd appreciate comments. In the meantime I will start a word journal, copying down other people's thoughts and expressions until I somehow get over the bump. I blame it on the kids and hope that once they are a bit bigger my mind will become my own. But I don't know if that's fair. Can it really be their fault?

Can it be true?

I think we've done it - I think we conquered potty training. I can't claim victory yet - at night we are still in diapers. But during the day, we are accident free. I am soooooo psyched. I feel like this is bigger for me than it is for that cute little three-year-old. And it happened just like the books say. When he was ready. He was ready, and ta-da. There has been no going back.

Going now to do a little happy-dance.

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?