Loving My Lazy Weekend

     Hello all! I hope your weekends were as relaxing as mine was! To say that I needed it would probably be the biggest understatement of the day haha.

     Friday morning, Laura and I went to work at the school as usual, but Laura had been getting sick and that morning she felt awful. So when we got our lunch break at 1 (we tried to tell them that lunch is supposed to be at 12, especially when breakfast is at 6:30, but they don't think so) we decided to just stay at home for the rest of the afternoon. I brought some work home with me on my laptop, and Laura, bless her heart, took a much needed nap.

     Saturday, I slept later than I planned - I had set my alarm for 11, but forgot to change the day. Way to go iPhone, helping me sleep late! Laura had scheduled herself a haircut appointment, and came back with rave reviews for the place, thank heaven! I was worried about haircuts while I was gone, but the lady that owns GiGi's speaks fluent English and has a kid at Emmanuel School with us. Laura said she cut hair just like anyone in the US. Plus, she does pedicures, for only $3! Definitely going to jump on that train!
     We switched to cleaning mode Saturday afternoon, finishing up what Laura's mom had started when she was here last week. Thank you so much Ms. Charlotte for making the apartment all bright and shiny! We got all the floors clean, the furniture Febrezed, our laundry done, and everything picked up and organized that had gotten out of place during the week. Yay for a clean apartment to start a new week!
     Saturday night we cooked a good home-food supper and cleaned out leftovers, and then we turned on a DVD. Tristan and Isolde. Love those tragic romances!

     Sunday was different for me. For one, church doesn't start until 10, or really about 10 after. The church we go to is actually at the school. It's held in the gym, so technically it's a semi-outdoor church. Think tent revival, but not as stinking hot, haha.
     First thing, their praise band starts the service. It's different than Thaxton for sure! For someone who actually loves singing out of a hymn book, any praise song service is strange. But to have it in Spanish...automatically throws you for a loop! I do have to give it credit, it makes learning the Spanish words easier because they are familiar songs, and you do have the words very large on a screen in front of your face. I think my favorite yesterday was 'Come, Now is the Time to Worship' in Spanish.
     The youth are very much like ours at home. Yesterday they all got up and each gave a small testimony about going to Teen Mission (kind of like youth camp), and did what we'd call a drama.
     The normal preacher didn't preach, which I was a little disappointed over. I had met him at the school, and he is very nice and personable. Plus, his name is Domingo, which in Spanish means Sunday. What a perfect preacher name, huh? The preacher yesterday wasn't as good, Laura says. He was rather monotone in his speech, and let me tell ya, if you think a monotone preacher is bad at home you should try hearing a monotone sermon in a language you don't understand. Let's just say, I read a lot of the book of Genesis.
    
     Sunday afternoon Laura and I ate at La Napoletana, one of the nicer restaurants close to the church. We chose it based on the fact our Sunday shoes were bothering our feet, and we didn't want to walk all the way back to the apartment and cook, haha. But the pizza we ate was good, and we got to watch all the other patrons being uber enthusiastic about the soccer game on TV.
     After eating, we came home and changed into capris and t-shirts. That's actually rare for us. T-shirts aren't something Ecuadorians wear. They'll wear polo type shirts, or fitted tees, or button down shirts, but I've yet to see anyone with an actual t-shirt on. So we save ours for our days or afternoons off.
     With our t-shirts on, we went to the 27th of February market. It's a funny name, yes. Even funnier, it's named for the street it's on. Everything is very fresh, and very cheap. Laura bought some veggies, bananas (for 10 cents each), strawberries, and a tiny tart fruit called ubinas. I bought a bottle of sugarcane syrup for $1 (like runny molasses), mini oranges for $1, and tomatoes to make tomato soup for $2.25. You can't get tomato products like spaghetti sauce or soup here, except ketchup. Just tomatoes.
     We ended our lazy weekend just laying around. I finished one of the books I'd brought, Laura laid out on our balcony for a while and went for a run, we both Skyped. All in all, I think we had a well deserved, relaxing, amazing weekend :)

The market goodies

Sugarcane syrup. They make it in big batches, then sell it by the small bottle or 2 liter bottle size.

Unwrapping the ubinas

You have to wash all the produce in a special fruit wash.

Very fresh, pretty tomatoes.

Gorgeous big strawberries, perfectly ripe.

Gorgeous hibiscus plant they were selling at the market

Have no idea what the orange/pink flowers were, but they were pretty!

Mi Apartamento

     This is my 50th post! I'm so excited :)

     So, instead of inviting everyone over for dinner, I'm just going to offer you a internet tour of my house! I didn't think you'd mind. The drive to get here is kind of a pain! haha
     I live in a part of Macas called La Loma, which is just out of the business district and mostly has houses and apartments. The school rents out this second floor apartment to use as a female volunteer house. It's a four bedroom, two and a half bath, rather large apartment, and is very nice, but very different from any US apartment I've ever lived in or seen.
     We have a large living room, complete with a nice matched living room suite they bought when the old tenant moved out. Sorry, but no TV. No one's ever thought about buying one and installing cable, and to be honest, I don't miss it. I watched a little in Quito, and the commercials are just as annoying in Spanish. If I do need a fix, I brought some DVDs.
     On one side of the living room is a half bath, and on the other we have a dining room separating the living room and the kitchen. We also use that as sort of an office because that's where the printer/copier/scanner happens to live, and no one actually has a desk. Ecuadorians are sort of sparing on furniture/decorations.
     The kitchen is very very small. It has a normal refrigerator, tiny butane powered stove (you actually hook the stove to a butane tank), a one basin sink, small counter, and small pantry shelf.
     Our 'laundry room' is the fun part. Our washer and dryer are actually sitting on the balcony of the apartment. They have plastic slipcovers to keep them out of the rain. The dryer is run off butane too, so if the tank runs out, you don't dry many clothes. Fun times.
     Laura's bedroom is just off the dining room, kind of tucked away behind the kitchen. If you go down the hallway past the living room, you get to the other three bedrooms.
 
    In our apartment, my part consists of a large room with an attached bathroom. My room has two bunkbeds (I only use the bottom of one), a dresser, a Tupperware cart I just bought to use as a nightstand, a small closet rod/shelf, and two walls of windows (The windows aren't very insulated, so that takes getting used to, as it’s very loud here even on the second floor. I can sometimes sit in my room and it’s as loud as if I’m in the middle of the street). My bathroom is the most strange to me. The sink, tub, and commode are a very nice navy, haha. I have a tiny medicine cabinet and a small Tupperware storage tower, and my tub has no faucet, but an electric showerhead. Yes, you read that right. They don’t do water heaters here, they just heat the water as it comes out of the showerhead. It’s very finicky, and probably one of the top five things on my ‘biggest adjustment’ list.

    General things about the apartment: just about every room is some shade of yellow, peach, or orange. They're very popular colors here. My room, for example, has yellow walls and peach accents. The bathrooms are all done in blue or blue.
     We don't have air conditioner, and neither does anyone else. Well, no, I've seen one air conditioner. It's in the computer lab at the upper school, so the computers keep cool and working properly. Actually, I've missed heating more than a/c. The weather is very variable. It may be hot in the morning and chilly by afternoon or vice versa. However, since I've been here it's been more chilly. Much depends on the clouds and rain that day.
     To keep cool and ventilated in the apartments, there are windows in every room, even the inner rooms. They're up closer to the ceiling, and you leave them open most of the time. We actually leave our small outside bathroom windows open most of the time too, and our large windows open if we're home and it's nice out.

Pictures!

I borrowed this pic from Laura, just 'cause I didn't feel like going outside with a camera and feeling all 'gringo' haha. This is our apartment...the second floor, anyway! My room is the window off the balcony.

Our mega security door...

Our other door...seriously, it takes up to three different keys to get into the house.

The living room...and part of the air conditioning - the giant window.

The kitchen. No hot water, and no dishwasher either, unless you count Laura and me!

Our stove and it's gas tank

The pantry. Aren't we all nice and organized? We're very proud of ourselves.

The laundry room....enough said.

My room! See the Barbie dreamhouse nightstand? haha

My bed. Nobody sleeps on top. I just didn't like having a plain old mattress up there, so I prettied it up.

You can kind of see how the two-walls-of-windows works. Great air conditioner, bad for when you need quiet! Hence....the fan!

The lovely navy sink, and munchkin size medicine cabinet/mirror. Tall people, beware. It's mounted at exactly my face height. Ecuadorians are generally very short people.

The even more lovely mixed navy/periwinkle toilet. The others are either periwinkle or navy as well. Also, it's a push-button flush.

My improvised storage. I also have a small Tupperware cart.

The famous electric showerhead. Touch the wires while the water is on and you get a little jolt.

One of the Global office workers informed Dad that in Africa they're called 'widowmakers'. Thanks, I needed that in my head every time I want to shower! haha

The closet...no walls, just in the corner.

The Barbie Dreamhouse nightstand. I thought it deserved it's own picture...ain't it purty?

I bought these my first day here. I needed SOMETHING that wasn't orange or yellow on the walls!


Hope you enjoyed your tour! Come again soon!

BEST view in Ecuador!

     Today, Laura's Mom was going back home to Mississippi, so on our lunch break before they had to hit the airport, they went back to get pictures of the river I had no idea was behind my house. I went along to be the official mother/daughter photographer, and I think I got the best end of the deal.
     Folks, this HAS to be the most beautiful sight in Ecuador. Literally two blocks from my apartment, two blocks from taxis running by at 50 mph, from three story aparment buildings, from all the noise and smells and everything, you run smack into jungle, and a block of that later, you fall off a cliff.
    
     Literally.

     The land just ends, in this magnificent river canyon, with a mountain range vista on the other side. Breathtaking. No camera on Earth could possibly capture this view.

     But I still pulled out my Canon and tried anyway!

View behind Macas, on the way to the river view

View of what I call Mount Macas, but it's actually called Kílamo (sp?).

Roommate pic!

Begin the Jungle! I half expected to encounter a Mowgli...

This I was told is, funny enough, is called Camarón. In English, Shrimp Plant.

Gorgeous peach hibiscus.

The bouganvillea was ginormous. This bunch was probably the size of a large labrador.

Don't know what this is, some kind of bromeliad maybe, but it grows to a pretty good sized yard-tree, and they're everywhere!

Baby bananas.

Bamboo...about forty feet tall!

 The river! This is the widest part of the river, but the canyon is probably a mile across or more.

 Me :)

 Gorgeous Andes mountains

The sky is gorgeous today. It's been cloudy all week, so I'm glad to see some blue again!

First few days in Macas

     So, I have some catching up to do for the last few days, but it’s been massively, enormously, overwhelmingly busy.

     Last Friday, I started out in Quito. I had been invited to church with Sara Risser, an older missionary lady who lives in Quito. I went, even though I would be pushed for time getting back to my hotel and getting to the airport. It was different, of course. The song service was praise songs, a mixture of English and Spanish. FYI, it's kind of strange to have a praise song you could sing in your sleep be changed into Spanish. The message was in English, but definitely not a sermon, more like just a rambling speech that happened to have bible verses attached. Maybe it was just the guest speaker...
     I barely made it back to my hotel in time to change out of my church clothes and get my bags to the lobby in time to meet my driver. One of the first indications I had a problem was that this driver spoke zero English. Thursday I had been out shopping, and most of my interactions with people I had either understood the little Spanish they’d said to me or they had understood the little English I spoke to them. Well, change of plans starting now. My moderately good Spanish in Mississippi was rapidly becoming basic to bad Spanish in Ecuador, and that’s a problem.
     The airport I flew out of in Quito was a small company called Saereo, not the main airport. With a small amount of rigamarore, and $50 in overweight fees, I was finally on a plane to Macas.
     I arrived at 2:30, a little early, but the Gutierrezes were there to pick me up shortly. We dropped my bags up at my apartment, and left for their house so I could sign my orientation papers. I stayed over there waiting for Laura and her mom, and we ate supper there. My first Ecuadorian meal, yucca patties with cheese (yucca is similar to potatoes) and a chicken stew. Wendy sort of scared me when she took the chicken head and feet out of the stew haha, but I’ve come to understand many Ecuadorians use those to flavor food. I doubt I get brave enough to try that in my kitchen though!

     I got back to my apartment around 10, and unpacked. My apartment might just be the strangest place I've lived in yet, but it works for two or for five just as well. I'm in the process of taking pictures of everything just so I can show everybody back home.

     After lunch yesterday, Laura took me to the upper school where she works (I will work at the preschool across town) and gave me the official tour and introduced me around. I realized more than ever than my Spanish skills were not only inadequate, but embarrassingly absent. I told Laura today that when I’m just smiling and nodding while they talk at me I sort of feel like a half-retarded person, or someone who is deaf but nobody else knows.
     The ’mastery of the Spanish language not needed for this position’ part of the job description pretty much translates to ’you don’t need to be 100% fluent, but 90% would be advisable’. Unlike Belize, where most people I encountered spoke at least passable English, here it’s kind of rare for me to find a really fluent English speaker. For example, the teachers at the Preschool I’ll be working with. They speak ONLY. SPANISH. And that is kind of making me freak out a little. I realize I’ll pick up a lot, but school starts in two weeks…and that just scares me to death.
     The things I understand very well are money, like buying things and how much they cost, and greetings/goodbyes/being polite. Of course, that's what I do most. And the people here are very patient and accomodating. They find it very endearing that we're learning, and even if we mess up awfully they just laugh, help us find the right word, and go along with it. They do find my name very funny. Here, my name is pronounced more like Alicia, and they asked if, in the US, my name was Alice, like Alice in Wonderland. We had a good laugh at that, and told them no, Alice was an old lady name in America.

     Cool things I've done since arriving in Macas:
    
     Bought groceries at the Royal. There are two 'grocery stores' in Macas. One, the Tia, is like the Wal-Mart here. No, it's not anything close to a real Wal-Mart, but it has the most packaged foods and such. The Royal is like Dollar General compared to Wally World at home. It's smaller, but it's close to my apartment, and that counts for a lot in a place where you walk everywhere. I'm hoping to visit Tia soon, but I'll be taxi-ing back with my groceries.

     Went to the fruit market. It's like First Monday on steroids. The name is the 27th of February market, because that's what street it's on (streets here are commonly named for dates, like 5th of August or 10th of December). They sell any kind of fruit, vegetables, chickens, homemade sugarcane syrup (kind of like dark Karo), and homemade goods including pirated CDs/DVDs for $1.

     Ate THE best pizza. Homemade crust, homemade mozzarella (cheese is a big thing here), a very small amount of homemade sauce, just perfectly seasoned. And three of us ate until we were completely stuffed, with drinks, for $11.

     Taxi rides. Like US taxis, but without anyone having ever studied a drivers manual. All for the great price of $1! By far, the fastest way to get ANYWHERE!

     The BREAD. Fresh bread stores everywhere. A fresh, hot from the oven croissant with real butter will change your life. And five fresh, hot from the oven croissants for 90 cents will make you wonder why in the world you pay $3 for Wonderbread.

Day 1: Quito Adventures

     Hola from Quito, Ecuador! It's been an amazing day here for me. I'm very very grateful for the chance to chill out between the chaos of yesterday's traveling (if you've ever flown, you know it's never less than a mad dash just to get from one place to the next) and tomorrow's church, getting to the airport, and finally getting to Macas.

     Traveling yesterday went great, as far as my flying experiences have been. We had the shortest flight ever from Memphis to Atlanta. I mean, so short they didn't even have time to serve drinks. But, who's complaining about that? Our layover in Atlanta was a little rushed, but I think layovers pretty much fall into one of two categories: rushed or mercilessly long. But, we had just enough time to get all 38 of us to our gate, visit the bathroom, and grab us a snack for lunch. I have a feeling that snack will probably be the most expensive meal I buy all trip! Yikes!
     Got on our plane for Quito, and I settled into my windowseat, which I had the foresight to book ahead of time :) We were flying with a whole troop of kids headed to be foreign exchange students in Ecuador. I sat next to a girl who was going to be staying with a family in Riobamba. I assured her she would instantly be the most popular girl in school. I remember the day NP's first exchange students, Svea and Karl, came. Everyone pretty much fought over who would be their friends, and we were high school juniors! Haha but I told her she would have an amazing year and by the end she probably wouldn't want to leave.
     Our plane was delayed on the runway for over an hour. Atlanta is just good like that. But finally we took off, and the longest flight I've ever been on started. It was kind of a novel thing to me to have movies in flight; I've only had one flight with that amenity before, and it was a really short one. This flight was so long, I watched Water for Elephants (absolutely amazing, must see), Paul (has some funny moments, not that fabulous), and most of Jumping the Broom (I'll have to rent it on iTunes and finish it; it looked really funny). We got to Quito right about 11, 11:30.
     Customs were surprisingly easy and quick, and luggage followed suit. Nobody lost a single bag, and the only drama was one of mine got covered in thick, black grease. It's cool though, I bought it on clearance at Wal-Mart :) We got loaded on the buses and to our hotel, and were in our rooms bedded down by 12:30. I shared a room last night with two sweet girls my age named Stacy and Mary Ellis from Harrisburg, but I'm solo tonight.

     Today, I woke up early to have breakfast with the team and see them off. Harrisburg's team that I flew down here with have been amazing. I've just been petted and loved on and felt like I was the biggest celebrity. I really really needed the extra love yesterday. Leaving mama and daddy and Molly behinnd that security gate was probably one of the hardest things I've EVER had to do in my life. Top three at least. So, having people distract me all day long and keep me out of my mind was a Godsend.
     The team had introduced me to one of their friends from the US who lives in Quito, Savannah, and her fiance Aaron. I needed to go to the mall and find a cellphone, so Savannah and Aaron offered to walk with me and show me the way and some of the sights. We walked through the gorgeous La Carolina park, and ended up a Quicentro mall. They were amazing tour guides and gave me some invaluable advice about the city.
     I managed to buy a cellphone and minutes, using only a small amount of English (I had no idea how to say 'prepaid' in Espanol). Managed to find my way through the ginormous park and back to my hotel without getting lost. After that excursion, I was a little tired, so I drank some water - that's a big deal here, as the altitude is about 9 or 10 thousand feet and if you don't keep hydrated you'll get altitude sickness - and took a short nap.
     I woke up about two, and decided to explore a little more. I went to the other mall close to my hotel, El Jardin. I liked it much better than Quicentro. It was much more like malls back home. The food court had McDonalds, Burger King, Sbarros, even a Baskin Robbins/Cinnabon. I ate lunch/supper, and stocked up on drinks and snacks at a Walgreens type store.
     I'm really excited for tomorrow morning...across the street from the mall, I found an amazing bread store! Yum! After that, I'm going to church with Sara Risser, another missionary who lives in Quito. Then I'll pack up and head for the airport, and Macas!

Sunset from the plane yesterday...picture doesn't do it justice!

Quito city going up the mountain...rainclouds falling down the mountain.

City view from my window.

Tomorrow I'll take a piture without the clouds. The view is truly stunning!

The mini drinks they sell here. That's a normal sized juice box, but tiny tiny drinks! They're only about thirty cents.

Jumbled Emotions

This morning, I woke up, got ready, and left my house for the last time in nine months. I loaded two suitcases, a carry-on, and a backpack into the car and my family drove me to the airport. I got on a plane at 2:15 headed for Atlanta and then at 5:30 I'll get on another going to Quito. Bedtime tonight, I'll be in a hotel room in a foreign country by myself for the first time in my life.

So, here's the consensus of my feelings right now:

I'm a little scared about being alone in such a big city and traveling by myself once the Harrisburg team leaves. I've traveled alone before, but just in the US where I'm very comfortable with the language and customs, and never have I been without the very comforting presence of my family in a place as huge as Quito. Just thinking about having to navigate ALL this luggage, taxis, hotel rooms, finding food, finding a cellphone, hoping I can understand the Spanish...can you tell I like to worry ahead? I'm always apprehensive about new things. I used to get so nervous before piano recitals and band try-outs my mom would make me take benadryl or something, so I wouldn't work myself up so bad. I'm much better now as an adult, but something this big is different than having to play piano in front of church or something. I kinda feel naked almost, going into such new, unfamiliar, foreign, different situations without anything but myself and a cartload of suitcases.

I definitely have to work on worrying about control, what things I can control and what things I try to even though I have no way of affecting any outcome. Worry is my stumbling block. Worrying I can do, even if it doesn't help much of anything, you know? So I worry and worry and worry, til I either just drop or something gives. God doesn't like it much, and He usually lets me know that, so He and I are working on it. Slowly slowly slowly.

In other news, I'm actually very much a traveler. I love going to new places, and I'd actually rather fly there than drive. Opposite of my nerves, I'm excited to be going to a country I've never seen before and spending enough time there to actually see a good deal of it on my off-time. Oh I definitely plan to be sightseeing and going as many places as I can while I'm here. Hey, why come all this way and not live it up while I'm here? :) most of all, I want to see the Galapagos Islands. My parents are coming down at Christmas, and they want to see them too, so maybe then? If not, I know Laura plans to be going to as many of these little places as she can too, and maybe on our weekends we can team up and explore Ecuador.

I'm kind of nervous about starting planning lessons and getting ready to begin teaching. Not that I'm scared that it'll be difficult or anything, it's just one of those 'behind door number one...' mysteries still. No idea what to expect yet, so my mind tries to expect everything!


My goals this year:
Obviously exercising is unnessecary to write down. we have quite a hike every day to and from school, so I'm sure I'll come home with killer thighs and calves!

I'm going to attempt to keep a journal of sorts on my blog, pics included. It may not be a post-every-day deal, but I will keep up to date. I know people back home will be reading and wanting to know what I'm up to, but also I know I'll want to be able to look back on it later.

So, until Ecuador, this is Alyssa saying adios, miss you already! :)

One. Week.

     I love hourglasses. I have a purple half-hour glass on my chest-of-drawers with my collection of wine glasses. I think I could sit and watch an hour glass all day, watching the sand pour down and pile up. I just think they're so pretty.

     Today marks the last milestone before I leave. One. more. week. Half of me is thinking 'Yay! Finally, after all the planning and waiting and packing, I only have seven more days before I get to go to Ecuador!'. But the other half? It's thinking 'Oh God. I only have seven. more. days. One more week of Mama and Daddy and Molly, one more Sunday at church, one more week of home food and Wal-Mart and my pets and my bed...' Yeah. I think it might have hit me. 

     This week might be the slowest week of my life, and it probably will also be the fastest.

     Before Friday morning, I have to put ten months worth of clothes and shoes; most of teaching and craft supplies, apartment things, bathroom products, and food stuff I can't get in Ecuador (the parents will be USPSing the rest); a few highly selective books; three electric griddles (not mine, I'm just the delivery girl), my laptop, DVDs, and camera...in three suitcases, a duffle bag, a carryon, and a backpack. Total: 240 lbs or less!
 
    {Disclaimer: This is totally and completely just a loose outline, not my entire packing list. Don't be absurd, readers :) I've been loading my packing list into Microsoft Excel for two months now. And yes, I'm OCD, just a little.}
 
     So far, books are my main struggle. Y'all all know I prefer to live with my own library...just look at my room. One wall is solid custom-built bookcases that are very close to full. So, being that books are heavy, I can't take as many as I'd like (around 50 ish haha). I'm having the early symptoms of withdrawals. Since my parents aren't willing to establish a cross-continental lending library, collection of audiobooks: check...download Kindle app on iPhone: double check. 

    
     pray, Pray, PRAY for me this week, and next! I will probably need it more than I've ever needed prayer in my entire life! Thank you all!