Week in the Life 2019 | Saturday Words + Photos

Welcome, weekend! Today was a busy day, but a fun one spent mostly in family. 

It's really hard for me to wake up, so I like to sleep in on the weekend, but then I wake up and feel guilty that I'm eating breakfast at 9 am. Today Andres had to work early and so he was out of the house by 7, which actually meant I ended up getting out of bed earlier than I probably would have otherwise.

Decided to start the day off right with a little treadmill walk. Watched cooking show reruns while I walked.

Stopped at a mile - I really want to go at least a mile (it seems so little!) each time I exercise. Ultimately, my goal would be a 5K every day, but I see that I will need to dedicate a lot more time to that in order to make it happen.

I had my breakfast before the boys got up. Some protein and carbs. There is no fruit in the house, so this was it. The kids got up and had some cereal. They also got interested in the toast I had, so they opened up a jar of peanut butter and made PB & J sandwiches as well. 

Andres was home by 10:30 and got to work on the agrio for today's lunch. We've been invited to his grandma's for Mother's Day and we're going to have a traditional plate of hornado as our main meal.

I decided to take a few minutes to do my nails, but this turned into a big problem, since everyone suddenly needed me for a dozen little chores. I swear, it's pretty sad that you can't just let your nails dry for 20 minutes without being expected to perform everyone's chores. I got angry but tried to get over it quickly. 

Andres made me drive (ha!) even though MY NAILS. Ugh. Whatever. It was a beautiful sunny day, warm already by noon when we left. It felt so good to have the windows open.

The kids do not socialize at these events. Instead, they sit on their phones and play games, then talk to each other telling all kinds of jokes in English. Hmmm, must be annoying to the others but no one says anything. The adult conversation was good, at least.

Bati and Gaby gave everyone these bouquets. They're beautiful even ten days later. 

A champagne toast. All in all, there was quite a bit of alcohol than I'm used to (wine, beer, and Scotch as well).

The meal was actually very delicious. Two kinds of hot sauce (the one made of peanuts wasn't very spicy but was so delicious), and the agrio was absolutely amazing. 

A toast from Andres´s grandmother. 

The whole group. Lots of excitement when Bati and Gaby announced that it's a girl and her name will be Amelia Isabel. 

Dessert was a Colombian treat called merengon. As also, very delicious.

More screen time after lunch.

Andres´s aunt was really happy with the chocolates we had brought her back from our UK trip. She kept reading the package and eventually decided she needed to open them right away and try them. 

Look familiar?

After lunch Laura got everyone involved in a card tournament. The traditional game here is "40" and we played on teams until there was a winning couple.

I was paired with Nico and Agus was paired with Bati (we drew sticks to see who played with who) and Nico even played the role of judge during one of the rounds. Agus got really worried when he saw cheating, so we had to remind him that cheating is a part of the game! (It's definitely a cultural thing and took me years to get used to, but now I think it's quite fun and funny. It definitely makes the game entertaining!)

A couple more rounds but Nico and I ended up losing the championship. Good times!

We got home around 8 pm and then rested a bit before our typical bedtime routine. 

Week in the Life 2019 | Friday Words + Photos

And just like that, it's Friday. Welcoming Friday with open arms, since it is our first full week back and I'm feeling the tiredness.

Early morning wake up. Peluches all over the floor. It's a dark morning.

Pepito got in front of us. He's our neighbor and often leaves at the same time as us. When this happens, it's hard to go around him (and he drives r e a l l y slow), so we often have to put-put behind him. We don't want him to think we're trying to race him or anything!

Happy to be commuting this morning with Andres. I have some demo classes for some prospective teachers, so had to stay a bit later than usual. Andres still has a few more days of staying until 4:45 to make up for the May 1 holiday.

New shoes from Miami are making it obvious that I have some feet problems. They are really crooked. No wonder I can barely walk some days.

Andres asked me to take a picture of the knickknacks on his desk, from all his travels (and a few he got as gifts). As I snapped the picture, he decided to do an "artistic" pose.

Breakfast is the humble frosted shredded wheat this morning. It's so hard each night to get a meal on the table for the kids while at the same time prepping our lunch for the next day (most of the time leftovers but not always), and also prepping breakfast. It's often like cooking or making three meals at once. Exhausting. I'm not one of those people who thinks cooking is relaxing apparently. 

First demo class of the day. I haven't been in the classroom much since TEFL, and I usually enjoy watching teachers. Today I was a bit preoccupied, however. Too many changes and too much stress at work. Trying not to worry all the time (it'll probably work out, like it always does), but also don't want to be blindsided by some major change or upheaval. Still taking it one day at a time.

Found this picture from last night on my phone. Funny boy.

Last night there were not enough leftovers for two meals, so Andrés took me out to "Hay Pan". It's about a 30-minute walk (some uphill) from work, but we took the car. It still took about 15 minutes to get there with traffic.

I had the cazuela de pescado, which came with rice and peanuts. It was so good, very similar in taste to the one my mother-in-law makes. I ate it all and it was VERY filling.

A glass of wine and a Coke Zero to go with it. Great view from this restaurant and just a nice place overall.

Came back for the second demo class. This one was so much more entertaining. 

Getting ready to take off. My desk is full of papers and books that I need to put away or file somewhere.

Came home and Andrés put the kids to work on supper. Agus helped make the "refrito" (tomato, onion, green pepper, cilantro and some water blended up). Agus also peeled the potatoes and, in his own words, "almost cut his finger off".

New shoes for a quick treadmill walk after supper. Need to get back into the habit but my feet protested the whole time. These shoes made my arches and soles of my feet burn and ache. I barely made it through the 30-minute walk.

Andrés hanging out with Agus in Agus's favorite spot before bed.

A little TV as I work up my "nerve" to get on the treadmill.

And I did it! Not quite a mile - I plan to up it to at least one mile a day. That sounds so unambitious but I need to start somewhere...

Week in the Life 2019 | Thursday Words + Photos

Thursday means we're halfway through the week. The weather has been slowly turning - mornings are gray and drizzly and foggy and cold.

Today the cleaning lady comes. This is one of the best things I can be spending money on right now. It's not real expensive and she does a great job. We leave the curtains open for her and I have to say, I love having the curtains open this early in the morning. We don't usually bother since we leave so early, then get home to only about an hour more of light. But then I feel like I'm living in the basement again and I feel so depressed. I love the natural light.

Henry's office. He's still around but soon he won't be. There are a lot of changes going on at work because of the new rector of the university, and so far most of them seem to be affecting us in a negative way. I can't see a good ending to these problems. The level of paranoia and mistrust are so typical of a political game that it makes me sad. Politicizing academics can never lead to a good place. 

Working on exam writing. These reading problems are killing me. Not so much the writing of the articles - that was fun - but making difficult and different enough questions about the article is what is slowing me down. The articles are only a few paragraphs, but I need to come up with about 16 different questions for each one, and that isn't easy.

Lunch was at the fritadas on Cordero street. I had mote con chicharrón and it was so amazing, I forgot to take a picture! So I took one as I was finishing and had already eaten what I was going to eat.

Had to leave work early for Day 2 of my listening workshops at Edinun. The sun came out but quickly went behind dark gray clouds again. We ended up with rain.

Poster writing. There were fewer people today than Tuesday, but in a way it was better since I ended up with the ones who most wanted to be there. 

The view from here is pretty nice.

The participants seemed to like the demo activities section of the workshop. They really got into the Qr code scavenger hunt. I'd love to try this with real students in the classroom. I think it would go over really well.

This view was blocked by the whiteboards but I managed to take a look in between activities. This has to be pretty great when it isn't cloudy. I'm sure you would see Cayambe and Antisana volcanoes perfectly. It's been a looooooong time since we've seen them though.

I came home a different way and didn't run in window washer problems luckily. Nico was helping Daddy with supper.

Nico made the tuna salad and Agus helped with the cheese sauce for the potatoes. It was very hodgepodge but that's how some days go. Andrés is still getting home late while we "makes up" hours from the forced vacation day.

Silly selfies at the dinner table as Agus "teaches" me how to get more out of my iPhone. He's really into that technology stuff right now.

Upstairs this cutie was watching his YouTube videos. Usually these are Minecraft vidoes or cube solvers.

Just needing a rest. This is the quiet time in the house and this is my typical view you could say.

Getting ready for bed and we found a person under this peluche mountain! Andrés apparently got tired of waiting for the kids to come into their rooms for prayers and fell asleep.

This guy. He is so funny.

And my sweet sweet Agus, who listens to his music, then comes in ready to fall asleep. 

It was a good day.