An Average Day

So yall like the pictures above? If you do, head to My Pictures link on the right. It´s under Useful Links. Two of those were taken not five minutes from where I live and work. Two were taken in Baños, Ecuador. The city, not the bathroom.

So I don´t have much to talk about, hence the reason I haven´t blogged this week. But then I realized the reason for that is that I´m sort of getting accustomed to living down here. My life now is routine, which is weird, but by no means bad. So I figured I´d just tell yall about my normal day, followed of course by blog points. I´ve been teaching now for three weeks and will continue for two more weeks before I come home to work and celebrate the holidays with everyone!

Anyway, my normal day is waking up in the morning and taking breakfast with the Ecuatorian family I´m living with. It´s pretty great, normally some fresh bread, coffee, fruit, juice, and some form of egg. Nothing excessive, but a great way to start the day. Then I help with religion classes from 8-11:00. In those classes, I´m a teacher´s aid. From 11:00-12:00 I have my own class, which is soooooooooo much better. I love doing what I wish and seeing these kids´ knowledge grow. From 12 to 1:30 I have a break where I either study and eat out or return to the house and eat again with my family. Then I tutor everday from 1:30 to 4:00. This is easily my favorite part of the day. I work with four different students all of which need different instruction. This is where I feel like I´m contributing. I try to teach practical stuff as well as life lessons. I will only be with these kids for five weeks, so I figure life lessons will probably go a longer way than sums and subtractions. I try to teach them why it´s important to learn how to read, why it´s important to know how to add, and then we read books and do sums. Then from 4-7 I do my own studying, Spanish and Pediatrics, head back to the house and have a good meal. I get to read for an hour or two before I hit the sack. I hope that blog wasn´t dry, but I figured I´d share what I´m doing. I know my mom will enjoy it at least.

Blog Points:
1. So buses are terribly common here! I mean they are everywhere, but unlike buses in the states, they don´t have bathrooms. So according to what I saw the other day, it´s totally cool to open the window and let your four year old pee in the wind when they need to go. Don´t worry about the open windows down bus!!!

2. The other day I heard this funky song, it was like a clubbing song with a good rythym. Well sometimes in songs like these you may expect to hear the electronic voice in the background say something to the effect of, oh yeah, or oh baby, or yeah yeah yeah, or go. You know what I´m talking about. Well this song had GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL mixed in it a hundred times. Ruined the song.

3. Saw a guy walking down a crowded sidewalk the other day. Was a bit surprised that he was leading five geese in front of him! Was more surprised that no one else on the sidewalk found this odd!

4. Loved this kid...Remember LA Lights? If you never had them, you probably dreamed of winning them on Double Dare or Finders Keepers. Well for those that don´t know them, everytime a kid steps the heel lights up. Pretty cool. Well Latin America took this to an entirely new level. This kid was wearing LA Squeaks! No joke, everytime he took a step, the shoes had a speaker that let out this loud squeak! Poor parents...

5. I passed by this store that was incredibly crowded. Whenever there´s a crowd I generally look to see what odd thing is going on. I wasn´t dissappointed this time either. Turns out it was a clothes store, and they were having a big sale. What kind of sale you might ask? A before Christmas sale? A soon to be after Thankgiving sale? No no, it was an ¨Invierno Venta¨ A Winter Sale!!! Give me a break! You´re on the Equator! What the hell? :)

One last thing. I´m putting out feelers for anyone who is willing to teach me how to ride a motorcycle over Christmas break. If you know how and have a bike, please be in touch.