By some unwritten rule the normal highs and lows of day -to -day
life seem to be greatly amplified when travelling or living abroad and this
last week was no exception.
High:
Last weekend we went to Banos and it was beyond incredible;
Banos is a small, touristy town that offers a plethora of adventure
sports. It was our first weekend
out of Quito in the month or so that we have been in Ecuador and it was a
breath of fresh air both literally and figuratively. Banos is a 4 hour bus ride away and the bus costs only $3.50
each direction, and we were able to find lodging in a great hostel for only $6
a night. So needless to say we
plan to head back to Banos at least once a month. On Saturday we spent the evening relaxing in the volcano-heated
hot springs and then on Sunday morning we went white water rafting!!! Despite the fact that a large portion
of my life has been spent participating in water sports I have never been white
water rafting. The course that we
were taken on was a level 4, we spent an hour and a half rafting, we were in 4
person boat and it was just my friends and I and the surrounding wild life was
breathtaking! It was too
incredible for words, I loved every minute and I am DEFINILTELY hooked on white
water rafting now. Overall just a
marvelous, fantastic weekend!
Low:
On Tuesday I got the gnarly case of the 24 hour stomach flu
and barfed my guts out for 24 hours.
Needless to say it is never fun to be sick, but it makes you a very
specific type of homesick to be sick away from home. Luckily my mother not only taught me how to be a big brave
dog but also how to combat most common illnesses and with my supplies of;
pepto, Gatorade, lots of water, lots of sleep, bananas and a puke bucket I was
feeling like a champ and back at school within one day!
High:
I went to my first football match (soccer in North America)
this week and it was too much fun.
It was a league game and unfortunately our team lost but nonetheless
there was excessive chanting and shouting of curse words, flaming newspaper
torches, fireworks, banners, and general revelry. It was a was a great was to $6.50 on a Wednesday night and I
will certainly be attending more games in the future.
High/ Low:
I finally finished doing the placement testing of all of my
students and was discouraged to see how wide the spread of speaking / English
abilities are in most of my classes.
But in my classes that have been doing group projects students have been
collaborating and cooperating to make it work. I had a group of four 9th
grade girls today who transformed a simple exercise where they had to present
an English conversation into an elaborate production with carefully home-made
props, dramatic characters and plot twist. It was so great!
Overall it was a good week and I remain very happy to be
here! We are headed out of town again this weekend and I hope to have more fun
stories to report!
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