Back to School - Home Is Where The Plane Lands

Another week has flown by here in Ecuador. I spent last week pretty much getting ready for school to start today, plus a few soirees on Friday and Saturday with teachers before the real work began. Last week were suddenly told by the Ministry of Education (No, not Harry Potter) that we needed to take a battery of health tests. This process, which thankfully was done at school, involved an eye test, hearing test, breathing test, blood test and….. a urine and stool sample to top it all off. Some teachers chose do their “business” at home and carry it on the bus with them to work. I chose to just “do it” at school. I even left the samples in my classroom overnight. Ok, enough about poo.

We also had the first of what teachers say are many mini forest fires in the area. They spring up during the dry months. I could see the fire from my classroom on the side of one of the mountains. Soon thereafter, a helicopter was hovering over a reservoir beside the school. It had one of those giant bucket things. It scooped up water a few dozen times and had the fire under control in about half an hour. Just your average day in Ecuador I suppose.

Speaking of fire… There are a variety of street performers and vendors in Quito. You see on the corners at stoplights. When the light is red, they’ll move out into an intersection and in between cars. To date, here’s a list of people I’ve seen blocking an intersection:

Jugglers – Balls, fire stick things, swords
Unicycle Juggler Guy who is terrible and yells at his girlfriend when she tosses him a bowling pin
Fire Breather Guy – He has a stick with fire on the end of it. He drinks some gassy fluid and blows fire everywhere.
Wash your windows people – Same thing you see in the states

People selling –

Oranges
Candy
Cigarettes
Plants
Corn
Water
Electronics
Mops
Shovels

So if I need a good deal on any of these items, all I need to do is go for a drive.

I signed the contract for our new place – Casa Gringo Loco, at the end of last week. I’m purposely not going to post pictures of it, so Alanna we’ll be totally surprised when she walks in the door. That’s just how I roll. It is really nice though and out in the country just a little bit. I’m still sort of living in the studio apartment in Quito, but I should be fully in the new place by the end of this week. And then… scooter. And by then… I mean a few months from now I hope. Right, honey?

And finally, school officially started today. I was able to meet with each of my classes for about 20 minutes (first day schedule), and I’m pretty excited about the kids. They seem smart, creative and ready to go. Tomorrow will start a normal full schedule day. I’m going to need a lot more coffee.

37 more days until Alanna and the kids…. hurry up.

And now…. pics.