Iguanas, bats and bites... "oh my"

Buenas noches Amigos.  It is night time here and I am trying to catch up on my personal emails, facebook, blog, etc.  Life has certainly been busy.  Some good news... I finished my college term off on a good note and passed all my tests and earned all my credits that I was supposed to this term... Whew!  I was worried there for a little bit - with the move and all - I got a little off track from my schooling and I pushed it right to the end of my term.  This week I am taking a breath before my next term starts September 1st - then I'm hitting the books hard again.  My goal to accelerate my program and get my degree in half the amount of time sort of took a side road for about 2-3 months, but hey, I'm back in the game, and I'm back on track.  This next term will be a good one and I will double my credits earned!!

Okay, enough about that.  We started our Spanish classes last week.  Only one class down so far.  I can say that I already know much more than I knew when we first arrived here - which was not much then, so now it's just a little more than that - but hey, that's growth!  Slowly but surely.

Our jobs at the school are going well.  We are getting more settled into our routines and getting to know the students better.  We have some really nice students I must say.  I have 9 classes that I have to plan for - and they are all different grades - so it's good that I have a little bit extra planning time.  It's nice to be on the same campus with Dan and Sam!  Of course I am used to having Sam with me since he went to my school for many years prior, however, working on the same campus with Dan is a nice change.  We only see each other occasionally during the day if we happen to pass outside when I'm picking up one of my classes from recess and he is getting his students for PE. But, we have lunch together every day.  Sam also has lunch at the same time as Dan and I so we usually stop and say hi to him and his friends and then the two of us join some other teachers to eat.  Some days we may go a little later and him and I get a quiet cafeteria to ourselves practically.  Dan and I both have Sam in a class.  I teach his 7th grade Computers and Dan teaches his grade PE/Health.  So far so good.  It helps that Sam likes both of those subjects. :)

So, lately the mosquito's - or no-seeums are REALLY liking me.  This past week I have gotten bit like 12-15 times on my legs mostly and a couple on my arms.  I'm like "not again"!  Most of the time it's in my classroom.  Today I took some bug spray in and sprayed under my desk before classes started.  I think the little buggers hide under my desk since it is dark and cool there. I never see them... they are invisible I think. I'm not liking the bites!!  A girl I work with says she is going to bring me some good repellent to put on and that should help.  There are a lot of little critters around here.  The other day we found a little bitty baby gecko in our house.  He was so tiny!  About a 1/2 inch long.  I took a picture of him.  Then there is the big lizards - the iguana's.  They are actually pretty cool to watch.  I saw one crossing the street the other day right in front of a car and I thought the car may run him over (because sometimes I swear they would run a person over), but oh my gosh the car slowed down and stopped  to let the iguana cross the road.  Wow, it cracked me up - but was so cool to see too.  There are some big ones that hang out around the swimming pool and they try to sneak drinks of water when no one is in there.  Today, when Sam and I came home from school - when we walked into our courtyard of the front of our villa I saw something stuck to the wall of the concrete fence.  I thought it may be some sort of lizard - but no, it was a baby bat.  He was alive, just hanging out there sleeping I think.  Sam wanted to poke at him to see what he would do and I told him no - they eat bugs so lets leave him alone.  There is a bunch of bats that hang out in a tree at school too.  Some of the little kids (1st graders) like to stare up at them at recess and occasionally throw things at them (which I stop them from doing when I'm on recess duty).  But I understand... they are curious little 1st graders and the bats, well, they are curious and fascinating little creatures too.  Please keep in mind, these are "not" vampire bats.  LOL.  We also have a pet iguana (not really our personal pet) but he lives in one of our four air conditioners.  There are some tropical plants and palm trees in our front courtyard and the iguana lives there. He has since made himself a home inside the air conditioner since we are not currently using it.  I think he goes in there to look for bugs and also to get some shade.  He is about a foot long - bright bright lime green (actually very pretty to look at).  Fortunately he can not get into the house, so we don't have to worry about that.

Well, that's about all from here.  The only thing real exciting we did this past week was go shopping for groceries (and this time we really stocked up!!) spent $245.00!!  How's that possible?  I don't know, but we did. We do eat breakfast at home every morning, take our lunch to school every day, and eat dinner at home as well.  We do not eat out much.  We are looking at possibly planning a beach trip soon and also a trip to Quito in the next couple months.  I hear there is a chocolate factory there that we need to tour!  Yum!

I am attaching pictures of some plants in our back area near the pool (purple flowers) which are so much prettier in person, some more iguana photos (hanging on fence by the pool at school), the bat, and the baby tiny gecko.

Until next time - adios!

Michelle, Dan and Sam

It's been almost a month... hard to believe!

Buenas noches... buenas tardes... buenos dias!  Good evening, good afternoon, good morning!  It is past my bedtime currently, and I am very tired... so I am going to make this one a quick one.

Well, it's almost been a month since we moved to Ecuador.  It's a strange thought in several ways because some days we feel like we have been here for a lot longer than that - yet other times it's hard to believe we are even here.  It's like some days we say "Wow" we really live in Ecuador.  It's so strange to think about what we were doing one, two or three months ago back in the States because life here is so very different.

We still do not have a car and currently have no plans to get one.  The taxi service to the stores is only $3.00 each way - and that's to go to the mall or to the big grocery store about 10 minutes away.  If we need milk or bread we can just walk down the street and in about 5 minutes we are at the little shopping plaza inside our gated community.  Yes, the food and items there are a little more expensive than the big stores, but we figure we save a $6.00 round trip taxi fare so in the long run we are actually saving money.  Besides, if we lived in the States we would be jumping in our car and driving to Fred Meyers, Safeway or Walmart and those were not just a walk away.  The amount of time we used to spend in the car just driving to work 30 minutes each way has now changed to a simple 2-3 minute walk across the street and instantly we are there! It's so nice actually.

Dan and I are still getting to know our students, and Sam is still getting to know the kids he goes to school with.  Sam is doing real well and has adapted to the change very well.  Of course life is not perfect and we all have our good and bad days.  But hey, we take the good with the bad and at the end of the day we all three go to bed happy and thankful for this wonderful opportunity that we are living right this very minute.

We were invited on a waterfall rain forest hike this past weekend from a man that Dan met here.  I could not go because I am studying for a big test coming up but I encouraged Dan and Sam to go along and believe me I didn't have to encourage much... they were more than happy to go along.  Dan's friend picked them up and they met 3 other people and then they drove about 90 minutes out of town to the rain forest.  I am attaching pictures of their trip.  They were gone all day and came home with big smiles on their faces.  They really had a good male bonding time.  Dan said he was very proud of Sam - he did really well on the hike, and it was not easy.  They did repelling and they had to climb sides of mountains with only ropes to pull yourself up.  Sam hung in there with the big boys!!  There was more than 7 waterfalls on the hike and Dan jumped from the top of some into the clear water below.

In a couple weeks we are planning a weekend trip to the beach with another teacher and her husband - it should be fun! Of course I will try to take a bunch of pictures and post them when I can.

The food here has been very different from home and I have lost some weight.  We do not eat anywhere near the amount of "snacks" that we ate at home - and our food has much less preservatives here. I have a sensitive stomach and I am shocked that I have not had any tummy problems here yet!  (KNOCK ON WOOD).  Back home I was having stomach issues all the time it seemed - but gosh... not here.  And, heartburn... only have had it here two times in almost a month.  That's a huge change.  I'm saving a ton of money not having to buy Tums and Mylanta.  LOL. The cost of food varies quite a bit.  Some things are very cheap - like pineapples for .64 cents and the other day I bought 2 nice big bananas for .14 cents. But anything that is imported costs a ton.  For instance Hunts Ketchup.  A bottle in the states that costs you about $1.00 is about $4.00 here.  A 6-pack of Corona here is $15.00! That's a six-pack. But, if you buy the local beer, which is actually pretty good you can get a 6-pack for $3.00.  I did find a jar of Jif peanut butter here and it was $7.00.  I bought it because the local peanut butter is not like home.  There are just some things you like and want.  Clothing, shoes, electronics, and items that are not a "need" item are pretty expensive here too - and the quality is not necessarily the best.  We already have our Christmas list of items that we will be buying in the States when we come home to visit in December.  Watch out... Costco and Walmart here we come!

Our Spanish is coming along... slowly.  We start Spanish class this Thursday and it's only one day a week.  I hope it helps.

Well... better run.  Will post more later as our adventure continues.

Hasta la vista!

Michelle, Dan & Sam

 

The first day... and the second!

Hola.  I hope this post finds you all well and happy.  We have now completed our second day of school for the 2012-2013 school year at InterAmerican Academy!  My computer classes have gone great so far - and Dan's PE classes have also gone well - and best yet, Sam's 1st and 2nd days went really good and he has met some friends. I can tell that we are back in school because the past two days we have all been so darn tired when we get home. Tonight Sam had homework, as did both Dan and I.  I am fighting to stay away right now as I type this post actually.  Last night we went for a walk right about dusk.  We went over to the school and Dan and Sam played some B-ball and I walked around the school campus and took some pictures.  Those pics are what I am posting.  Notice all of the plants and trees and the various bright colors!  They are very beautiful in person.  The school grounds are nice!  I was looking for some of the iguana's to take their picture, but they were no where to be found when I was snapping photos.  Today, during lunch time Dan walked over to me and told me that he just saw an iguana over by the pool and it was about 5 foot long.  That's a biggee!

So far we are enjoying our new life here in Puerto Azul.  It's very simple.  We are struggling with the lack of Spanish we have learned.  We are trying to pick up words and phrases - but it is tough.  We have been trying to order water and gas the past few days and we keep getting a voice mail - which is in Spanish and we can't understand it.  Our bad!  We should have really studied the language more.  Good news is that our Spanish classes that the school provides will start in about 2 weeks or so - that will help.  Tonight we were trying to order pizza from Domino's (because they deliver and it was a 2 for 1 special), but oh my gosh... we could not find the right number... our cell phone was not cooperating... and we spent about 30 minutes just translating what it was we wanted to say when they answered the phone.  After an hour... we gave up and made dinner.  It was just too much work to order pizza.  Good news is that they have the 2 for 1 special every Tuesday, so we will prepare and get ready ahead of time so that next Tuesday we can have someone from our school help us out and order it for us.  LOL.

Last Friday night we decided to head out after school and get some shopping done.  We had the school van drop us off at the mall on their way through town.  We had a two page list of things we needed to get.  It was the first time that we could shop "on our own" and not feel rushed because someone was waiting for us. We spent about 4 hours at the mall.  We looked around, shopped in their version of a hardware store where we could pick up some kitchen utensils, etc.. then we headed over to the food court and got some food.  There was a lot to choose from and Sam and I had a hard time picking out what we were going to eat.  We shared a plate of pollo and arroz, which is chicken and rice.  It was pretty good. Thye have a Burger King there and Dan ordered a chicken sandwich from the $1.10 menu (funny, it's 1.10 value menu instead of the 1.00 like in the states).  We were not sure what the chicken sandwich would taste like, but we were both surprised that it was actually REALLY good. It was not the cheap processed chicken patty like most places have on their dollar menu... nope, it was the expensive processed chicken patty that usually costs $3.00+ dollars at Burger King, so it was a better value.  Hahaha.  Dan and his fast food.  I have to say though, that has been the only time we have eaten fast food since we have gotten here.  And the adventure continues...

Well, time is ticking and I'm really tired.  I will try to write again very soon.

Adios!

Michelle