Uncategorized Archives - Page 3 of 7 - Home Is Where The Plane Lands

You have to try Xiaolongbao!

The Bike Shop

I’ve been running all over hell’s half acre this past week. While my E-Bike has made it very convenient to get back and forth to work each day, it can be difficult at times because it still works like… a bike. What I mean by that is, you can easily get a flat tire. Or slam into a pothole. Or bend the entire rim of your rear wheel frame.

Early last week I was riding around doing some HR work for campus. Let’s just say the hiring process has been quite the nightmare. It caused me to first miss flying with my family to China, and then wait an extra few weeks just to get there. I don’t think this is a “China” thing; I’m pretty sure its just a “my work” thing. There are a lot of hoops that you have to jump through to be hired in a foreign country, with work permit and visa requirements; then there’s the general onboarding process at your job that you’re probably familiar with as well.

So, going into month here in the PRC, I still haven’t completed my onboarding. Last week I needed to pick up a document from my building, and then take it to the HR building, which if you walk, is 30 minutes away. Taking the E-Bike, made it easier, until I ran over a nail on the way there. I doubt this is uncommon. Things happen, right? Thankfully the leak was a slow one, so I was able to ride to the HR building, then back to my building with no problem at all. I also had an air pump with me just in case something like this happened.

I needed to get the tire patched or replaced though. I can’t just be riding around on a leaky tire all the time. After checking with my colleagues, it turns out there is a bike repair shop on campus. Well, OF COURSE there is a bike repair shop on campus. You can basically throw a stone somewhere in China and it will land where there is something you need. Now FINDING the shop is a totally different story. Google, the global giant of the internet, is all but banned in China. While you can get around this issue at times with a VPN, using Google maps is a different story. You can get the maps app to work, but it’s not very accurate. The regular street view doesn’t overlap correctly with the satellite view. And forget typing in an address and getting what you want. That ain’t happening here, folks.

Thankfully, there’s Baidu – China’s version of Google. Yes, it’s a search engine and has all the other bells and whistles, including a map feature. Unfortunately, its all in Chinese. I downloaded the Baidu Map App to my phone and have been working on trying to figure it out. Thankfully it connects seamlessly with WeChat, and people can just drop a pin from chat and boom there’s a location on your map. One of my colleagues dropped a pin for the bike shop into my map app, and I was on my way. While I had no clue what the nice Chinese lady’s voice was saying for directions, the visual was more than enough to get me where I needed to go.

This was a very busy bike shop. People with bicycles, e-bikes and scooters were coming and going nonstop. I did some translating with my phone and they were able to understand I needed my back tired fixed. After throwing muddy water all over the tire, the seasoned bike repairman found the leak and plugged it… with, I kid you not, what looked like a rusty nail. Obviously, I was dubious about this patch job, but he assured me with nodding and a few thumbs up that all was well. The repair also cost about $2 in USD, so I can’t really complain. All seemed well with my bike so I hopped on and went on my way, thinking I should probably order a new tire online when I got the chance.

End of story? Nope, not in my world! I had a training session that lasted until after dark one night a few days later. Now… my wife, the smart one, has told me numerous times I shouldn’t ride my bike at night, at least not to and from work. It is hard to see, there’s construction everywhere, and I’m a careless E-Bike rider to boot. Long story short, I left work that night and slammed into a pothole. I mean a DEEP pothole. I blew the rear tire and bent the rear wheel frame. I was still a good 45 minute walk from home. I couldn’t ride the bike “bicycle style” because of the bent frame. My only option was to park it… behind some trees near the road, leave it unattended, and then call for a ride. Oh wait… I left my cell phone at home that day. I’m definitely not the smart one in the family. The bus station wasn’t too far away, so I began to hoof it in that direction. A green taxi honked his horn at me a few minutes later, so I hopped in his car and was able to say in Chinese where I live. It’s literally one of a handful of Chinese phrases I can say. He got me home and after a mild scolding from my better half, I went to bed dreaming of how to solve my bike issue the next day.

I took an Uberish car the next morning, and worked out a plan to… have a truck come pick up my bike, have a car come get me at work and take me to the truck that was picking up my bike, then ride in the (very dirty, smelly, nasty) truck to a bike repair shop near where I live. That all worked out fine, I got the bike fixed – a new tire and repairing the frame cost $20. Now I’m back on the road ridin’ dirty and trying not to bike to/from work at night anymore.

Ok, bike stories aside for now. Let’s talk about food. I love it. I’m by no means a foodie though. I’ve lived in some awesome places – Chicago Suburbs, right outside of NYC, The South, Ecuador, The Middle East, so I’ve had the unique opportunity to sample a smorgasbord of foods from all around the globe. I knew China was going to be another wonderful eating adventure and so far it has not disappointed me. If you follow my adventures on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve already seen me posting about the many odd (by U.S. standards) varieties of Lays potato chips I’ve procured and consumed.

While I’m on a pretty strict diet, I will sample pretty much anything that’s offered just to say I’ve tried it. That happened last Friday. Some co-workers ordered food for delivery during lunch and had me sample one of their dishes. The dish in particular was Xiaolongbao.

Xiaolongbao

When you say it, it sounds like “Shau Long Bowel.” To be honest, I’m still not quite sure what xiaolongbao is or isn’t, but what I had on Friday was Chinese Soup Dumplings. Basically, it’s a Chinese style dumpling, but inside of dumpling is soup, usually mixed with pork, or some other beef/chicken stock.

Let me just say – I plopped one of these delectable suckers in my mouth and I was in food heaven. The soup just bursts in your mouth and the combination with the dumpling taste is simply amazing. My co-workers tried to tell me to eat it by pinching a hole in the dumpling with your chopsticks, letting the soup drain into a spoon, then eat the dumpling and drink the soup. That sounded like a lot of extra steps, right? Why not just plop they whole thing in your mouth? They are meant to be a snacking food, they are bitesize, so that’s what did.

Of course, I wanted to go home and tell my wife all about xiaolongbao. I even told her I would go out into town that evening and pick up some. I failed. Miserably. I’d go up to different dumpling type places and ask for “Shau Long Bowel”. They’d shake their head no, look confused, or just laugh at me. I would then show them the Chinese characters for xiaolongbao on my phone. They would then say, “Ohhh… Shau Long Bowel”, saying it THE EXACT SAME WAY I SAID IT. Clearly, I suck at Chinese at this point in my adventures. In any case, I found no xiaolongbao that night, nor the next day when we ate dinner out. We had some kind of dumplings, which tasted great, but weren’t soup

dumplings.

Waiting on my dang soup dumplings.

Finished off the dumplings even though they had NO SOUP FOR YOU.

I dragged the wife and kids through town yesterday morning looking for this mysterious xiaolongbao, and thought we’d finally found some, only to find there was corn inside that dumpling, not soup. Again, the corn version tasted great, but its not what I was after. Final step yesterday – I went to the store and purchased the frozen kind of dumplings to make them myself. The picture on the bag even had a spoon under the dumpling with soup in it. So, I “steamed” them at home (a very cool cooking process btw) and, once again, they tasted lovely but weren’t the SOUP DUMPLING.

Do you have Xialongbao? No? Okay.

The corn dumpling place.

Steaming the wrong dumplings at home.

Final plan – I will make my co-workers order the exact same xiaolongbao they ordered on Friday at the end of the workday, then bring them home to let Alanna have a taste. She better fall in love with them or I will xiaolongbao her in the face, whatever that’s supposed to mean.

Edit – Xiaolongbao order successful! I took them home, fed them to the wifey, and now we’re in a food coma. Have a good week.

Great Success!

Pic Dump –

A Maserati for the bride and groom.

Fruit Hat Kid

T-Shirt Chinglish

Coffee Mug Chinglish

No Clue

Recess

Storm Chaser

Some Green Screen action

Logan had a friend sleep over.

No Xiaolongbao at China BK.

Menu Chinglish

Star Student of the Week!

Lazy much?

Sorry, its been 4 months since I posted. No reason other than me being a lazy poo poo head. So I’ll give you a quick update and then show you a bunch of pictures, mmkay?

Our “spring break” was in February. I guess its not really a spring break when the weather is always amazing though. But it was a break and we took full advantage of it. The first part of the break we flew to Iowa. You know, corn, snow, corn. As most of you know, we’ve decided to move back to the States to get Logan into some special education programs. There really isn’t anything here for him and its become a very difficult struggle for both him and us. Thankfully, Alanna had quite a few options of the WHERE when we moved back to the States. Choices ranged from California, NC, SC, to… Iowa. Iowa you say? Yes, Iowa. Iowa offered Alanna the chance to become a first time principal. The tiny little town offered to fly us there so Alanna could have a formal interview (she’d already WOWed them on Skype) and so they could meet us, we could meet them. There was a foot of snow on the ground when we got there. That was quite a shock after it being 70 degrees every day for 6 months. I think both Alanna and fell in love with the idea of “Iowa” pretty quickly – low cost of living, family friendly, small community, it seemed like a nice fit for us. And a chance to hopefully settle down for a good while. Long story short, Alanna accepted and we’ll be moving to Iowa July 1st. So that means a new job for me. I’ve been on the hunt, but thankfully our finances means I don’t have to rush.

We flew back to Ecuador after the weekend and prepared for part 2 of our break – The Galapagos. They are actually a part of Ecuador, a few hours off the coast. The islands are on many, many people’s bucket lists, so it was kind of silly for us not to go since we were so close. Again, Alanna did most of the planning, and found us a cheap 2 bedroom apartment on the main island to rent for a week. The trip was simply amazing. You really feel like you’re in the wildest, broadest habitat you’ve ever seen. The wildlife and plant life was a sight to behold. Everywhere you turned, there was a lizard you’d never seen, or a flower you’d never heard of, or a sea lion sleeping on a park bench. And it was nice to be in a place that’s 90 degrees when most of your friends are back in the States having the worst winter ever. We didn’t do as much as other adventurous tourists did, as we had the little ones with us, but we did hike in lava caves, see giant turtles, swim with iguanas, ate traditional food, had a sunset view on our terrace, watched a daughter become a local celebrity, and a ton of other really cool things I can’t remember. Its a week I’ll never forget and to get to spend it with my family made it all the more sweeter.

The last two months have been pretty tame compared to our previous adventures. Even in Ecuador, its easy to settle into day to day life. I work, Alanna takes care of the kids, and the house, all while getting her doctorate. No idea how she does it. Last weekend was Easter though, so we made it a point to get out of the house for the day. The Equator which runs through Ecuador is only about an hour north of where we live. Its a popular tourist attraction for gringos and locals alike, so we left early Saturday morning to visit the center line of Earth. It was hot, but not too crowded. There’s a long yellow line that denotes the Equator, that runs through a giant monument. Lot’s of people take pics of their feet on each side of the line. We did the campy photos of course. I even tried to sit Abby down on the line but she immediately started crying, which will make a great picture for her when she’s older. Abby again became the talk of the town though. Ecuadorians flock to her. A beautiful, pale skinned, blue eyed baby is very rare to see down here, and people always stop us to gawk at her. They talk about how pretty she is, how chubby she is, how beautiful her eyes are. Then they ask to hold her. Then they ask to take pictures with her. Yes, at the Equator, where people should be taking pics of themselves, we had more than one group of people ask to specifically take pictures with Abby. The father in me hopes she’s not this pretty when she’s 16. I will have to stomp a mudhole in some boys. Anyway, we had a great time there. They had a big village full of tourist gifts, and there was music and dancing to keep us entertained. So check that off the list.

Now we’re about a month out from leaving. We’re flying to Miami on June 1st, driving up the coast, hanging on the beach of a few days, then family hopping for the rest of month in NC. I’ll miss this country, but I’m ready for the next step, whatever that’s going to be.

Okay, here are some pictures to keep your eyes entertained…

feliz año nuevo

Feliz año nuevo, mi amigos!

I haven’t blogged in quite a while. I decided that for the entire month of December I would take a social media break. It was a culmination of many things – most of which were just annoying things that people post on these kind of sites. So on December 1st I removed all my social media favorites from Chrome and my phone and promised myself I wouldn’t look at any of them for the entire month. Let me tell you, it was great. Sure, I missed wishing people happy birthday and seeing what my friends around the world were up to, but that was about it. Here are some things I did NOT miss –

Political arguments
President bashing
Other party bashing
Healthcare debates
Bitstrips
Hashtags
Instagram pictures of people stuff copied and pasted from the internet
People talking about last night’s episode
Ducky Dynasty
App invites
Status updates that talk about what mundane thing you did
People posting about privacy issues
People posting about drones
Drunk NYE pictures

There are plenty more, and most of these I do mean in jest, but honestly… it was a lovely break.

On the Ecuador..

We’re still living and loving this country. I gave up on my scooter dream when we figured we’d save more money by not buying one and me just taking taxis to and from work every day. I did buy a bicycle though. I bought it off an Ebay type of site in Ecuador and they even delivered it to my house, the next day. Trouble is, while the back looked assembled and ready to go, you are supposed to tighten every single bolt and screw down before you go out riding. People usually buy the bike, take it to a bike shop and have a guy tune it up before they ride. So I got home from work that night and took it out immediately for a spin and… broke some stuff. One of the guards of my complex was nice enough though to take my bike to a shop and get ti fixed and tuned up for me. So the next day I was out riding like I was supposed to. There is an awesome bike/walk/run trail that runs some 20 kilometers and has a few geocaches to boot. I’ve only made it about 5K so far, but it’s fun, relaxing and gets me moving on my own without a taxi.

Work is fine, but I was happy to have a Christmas break. We celebrated a low key Christmas day. Logan enjoyed opening his presents and then thankfully enjoyed playing with them for most of the day. We got out of town on the 26th and headed down south to Banos (yes, bathroom). It’s an awesome touristy, gringo town with hot baths and a bunch of waterfalls, and all kinds of other stuff. It’s a 4 hour trip down to Banos, so I convinced Alanna that it would be good to take a $3.50 bus round trip. The buses around here are a bit crazy… to put it mildly. Alanna was REALLY worried and nervous, but thankfully the bus ride was uneventful for the most part, and our children were well behaved. And by well behaved, I mean that Logan didn’t have a pee or poop emergency.

Banos was amazing. Alanna did all the planning, cause that’s what she does. She booked a gorgeous, American family-run hostal. It was 3 blocks from one of the waterfalls, and we got free breakfast every morning. And the shower water was hot… which is a rare treat here. There were a few things in Banos I HAD to do. One was the swing at the edge of the world. Its a large, old tree house with a simple swing attached to it… that… if you swing out on it you swing off and over a cliff. Very thrilling. We had a taxi drive us up the mountain to the spot, then we preceded to hike up a wet hill with a 4 year old and a baby. Alanna was a little nervous. There were a few people already there when we made it to the top. We waited our turn, took some pictures in front of the tree house, then I jumped on the swing and Alanna nervously snapped some cool pics. Then… ALANNA DID IT. Ok, I basically made her to it, but she’ll tell you it was a blast and is glad she did it. Overall cool family adventure experience. We hiked back down the hill, getting some help from an Ecuadorian dude, then took the taxi down and then up to Bella Vista. Its basically a nice view point spot that overlooks Banos. GREAT VIEW. And there was a geocache nearby so I snagged it.

The second thing our my to do list was to go puenting. Its basically jumping off a really high bridge with a rope attached to you. No, its not bungee jumping. It is literally just a rope. You jump, then swing under the bridge, then get lowered down to the ground. So I had the taxi drop me off at the bridge (Alanna was too nervous to watch.) and headed out to the middle. I watched a few people jump and then paid my $20 to do it. Being a skydiver, I paid close attention to the harness and rigging they put me in, and the stuff looked pretty safe. I climbed over the rail of the bridge, stood on a tiny little wooden platform, counted to 3, then dove head first off towards a river 200 meters below. While it doesn’t give the same rush as skydiving, it was still really fun and I’m glad I did it.

The rest of our vacation we spent relaxing, eating and doing the touristy stuff. Banos is known for their hot baths so we had to give that a try. It was mediocre. The one we went to looked like a giant community pool. The water was warm enough, but sort of smelled like pee and they made you wear shower caps. But again, it was an experience.

The bus ride back, as with coming back from anywhere seemed to take forever. The driver pulled over at one point at a garage and decided it was time for an oil filter change. The engine was basically under the front row of seats, you know… where we were sitting. So they lifted up a door under us and got to work. Alanna was a little nervous. But they finished quickly enough and we were back on the road. We made it home and spent the last few days doing… nothing. Which I was more than happy about. Yesterday, we went over to a friend’s house and swam in their heated pool. Logan had a blast and actually let me throw him in the pool a few times, which I think is a huge step for him. It was Abby’s first time in a pool so we made sure to snap some pics. Last night was low key again for us, though Ecuador is CRAZY about New Years. Firstly, some men dress up like women, widows or something and beg for money by stopping cars in the middle of the street. Also, the locals make these paper mache dolls and then burn them at midnight. It is supposed to symbolize the getting rid of the old stuff from last year. Also, they eat 12 grapes at midnight to bring them good luck for each month of the new year. And finally.. the fireworks. You know how you see one show of fireworks somewhere on NYE? Well I’m pretty sure everyone in Ecuador had fireworks last night. They started around 8pm and didn’t stop until 2am. I gave Alanna some lip locking at midnight and then quickly made my way up to the roof. No matter where I looked for 360 degrees, I could see fireworks going off. It was pretty dang impressive. And it was neat to look down at the street and see people burning a bunch of paper mache figures.

OK, so now you’re all caught up. Happy New Year to you and yours.

And some pics…. in no particular order…

Ecuadorians Go Boom

I was looking at my weather app last night and seeing some of the places I’ve lived. While most of them were in the 30s and 40s in temps, it was a nice 60 something here. I really can’t complain about the weather. We are officially into “rainy season”, but when its 75 degrees out, rain ain’t so bad. Although every time I take the family outside to go somewhere, it always seems to pour as we are getting in and out of a taxi. Just. our luck I guess.

We’re into November now. No Shave November that is, and once again, to Alanna’s dismay, I’m growing out a beard. At least this time its for charity. I mean, yeah, growing a beard and raising money for charity really don’t go together, but I figure whatever you can do to help other people, in whatever way, is a good thing. So here’s the info for my charity if you’d like to donate –

Rob’s Charity – Smile Train

The family has been here for almost a month now and seem to be adjusting well enough. Alanna LOVES being a stay at home parent. I was lucky enough to do it in the UAE, so I know how rewarding it can be. She’s also fixing up some lovely dinners for me each night when I come home from work. Abby has her crying fits now and then, but for the most part she seems like a happy little baby. I can make her laugh at the drop of a hat, which pretty much makes me happy for the rest of the day. Logan… on the other hand, has been a problem. Are there such things as the terrible fours? He seems to have regressed a little. And going out with him is stressful. Hopefully its just mostly being in a new place and he’ll eventually shape up and get back to his normal self.

We’ve had two busy weeks. Two weeks ago was Family Day at the school. Its sort of like a fall festival, but there’s also a socc…. excuse me… futbol tournament, and the whole country seems to be invited. It was a nice chance to bring the family out to the school for them to meet people and the weather stayed nice. The tournament was fun to watch at times and our school’s team got the bronze medal. I also had to work at the festival just for a bit. I was assigned to monitor the casa de terror, or haunted house for all you who have no idea what I just said. The theme of the haunted house was an abandoned insane asylum. It was created and put on by the 12th graders. I really had nothing to do with it. They did have an introductory video that people watched before they went inside, and I was in charge of pushing play. Let me just say, the graphic, horrific material they put in that video would give most people the frights for weeks. I counted at least 10 kids who walked… ran… out of the room screaming and crying. I didn’t even go through the actual haunted house, but people who came out were white as sheets. Not sure it was appropriate for the 4 and 5 year olds that went through, but hey, its Ecuador right?

Halloween was last week and we actually got out for some trick or treating. Its not a hugely celebrated holiday here, but Logan already had a Spiderman costume he was dying to wear and we didn’t want to disappoint. One of my teacher friends found out her neighborhood was actually doing trick or treating, so we took a taxi over there and then walked around the neighborhood. Only 10 or so houses actually opened their doors for us, but they were all nice and gave candy. Logan had a blast after initially complaining about being sick. Abby was dressed as Minnie Mouse and just hung out in the stroller. There were small groups of Ecuadorian kids dressed up too, as well as 1000 dogs throughout the neighborhood that barked every time we passed them. There are a LOT of dogs here.

This weekend we also had All Souls Day. While its not that big in the States, apparently its huge down here. From what we gathered, locals go to the graves of their departed family members and have… lunch with them? I dunno, I’m still confused about that one. All seemed well and good until about midnight when apparently everyone decided to shoot off fireworks… until the sun came up. So that tended to keep us up all night. They also shot them off the next night as well, not sure why though. They REALLY like fireworks here. And loud noises. And dogs. And socc…. futbol.

5000 Miles – There and back again

Good morning, blog readers. I’m running on fumes this week, but thankfully I’m reunited with the most important people in the world (in no particular order) – Alanna, Logan and Abby. I flew out of Ecuador last Friday at midnight, arrived in Miami in the wee hours, had a lovely layover, got to Charlotte around 1pm and then Hickory where the family was staying with my favorite big sister Angie at about 3:30pm Friday afternoon. And it was all worth it. Honestly, there is no better feeling of seeing your son screaming your name and running to hug you as soon as you get out of the car. Alanna waited patiently while Logan go all his Daddy love in, then she planted a well-deserved kiss on me. Next was Abby. I was a little worried about her. I hadn’t seen her since a week after she was born. Would she remember me? Would she cry when I held her? I have no idea if she remembered me or not, but she gave me the biggest, toothless smile I have every seen when I held her and I knew then and there that all was right in the world. Well, except for the U.S. government, but I digress.

The weekend in the States went by so quickly thanks to me cramming in every single possible thing a person could do in those few hours of time. Friday night, Angie babysat the kids for us while Alanna and I had a quick date. Outback was my choice for dinner. Its not Alanna’s most favorite, but she understands I needed a nice big prime rib and some aussie cheese fries to get me moving through the weekend. We did some quick shopping for items that we needed to take back with us at Target, then headed home, packed a little and then I was in bed at midnight. And then up at 6am. My 20 year high school reunion was Saturday night, but some of my closest dude friends weren’t going to make it. We had originally planned to play a backyard football game, like we did for the 10 year reunion, but between all our other commitments and the main fact we didn’t want to break our old, brittle bones, we ditched the game and just met at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It was great seeing the fellas. We razz on each other so much, but these are the guys that have been with me since grade school. Although I don’t see them as nearly as much as I would like, and rarely ever all together in one room, I love these dudes like my family and I’m so proud we stay in touch.

I quickly drove back to Hickory after breakfast, ran a few more errands and got a haircut at Sportclips. Mmm… hot towel and scalp massage. Can’t beat that for $23. My parents drove up to Hickory to have lunch with us. We had Bojangles. So good going in, not the best going out, but I love the stuff and obviously can’t get it in Ecuador. I spent some quality time with the family, letting my parents hold Abby and talk to Logan, and then it was time to head out to the reunion in Concord. We left a little early so we could hopefully avoid the race traffic around Charlotte Motor Speedway (it was race weekend, which meant a bagillion extra people around my hometown) and also to see about getting Alanna’s iphone fixed which Logan had dropped in the toilet a month earlier. Quick plug for – Charlotte iPhone Repair. Lot’s of places won’t even touch water damaged phones. Alex, the owner was able to get it working perfectly in about 15 minutes. If you have ANY problems with your iphones, go see this guy.

Well Abby decided to mess up her outfit by blowing out her diaper (you get the picture) and in the rush we didn’t bring a change of clothes with her from Hickory for her. So before the reunion, we had to take a detour to Walmart and grab something quick and cute for her to wear. And yes, I did bring a baby to a reunion. We were those people. Abby is just not good with the bottle yet and much prefers the real thing from mommy. We finally got to the reunion right on time. It was a blast to see my old classmates, some who I haven’t seen in almost 20 years. It was a TERRIBLE turnout, and I would I have loved to see more people, but the ones who were there made it fun and memorable. We’re planning on doing another one for 25 years, so hopefully more people will show up – especially all of you that live 15 minutes away and didn’t really have anything else on your plate that night.

We got back to Hickory around 11:30 Saturday night, finished last minute packing and went to bed…. to get back up at 5:00 so we could drive to Charlotte airport. We said our goodbyes to Angie, hopped in the rental van (with one last Sundrop in tow) and made it to the airport on time and without incident. Well, Logan had to pee once, but that’s to be expected.

Airlines usually allow 2 checked bags for free on international flights. But I guess they can just change their policies at anytime, without telling anyone, even if you’ve already booked your tickets AND have written proof you should get 2 free checked bags. So, we found out that we had to pay and extra $270 at check in. That was lovely way to start our trip back to Ecuador. Oh… American Airlines was the airline we used so feel free to hate on them in whatever way you can. The rest of the trip actually went pretty well. For the most part, Logan and Abby were little angels on both the flights and we even got compliments from other passengers on how well our kids behaved on the plane. This was Alanna’s biggest worry I believe, so the kids being good really helped keep her calm. Did I mention she gets a little nervous on travel days? We got into Ecuador around 7pm on Sunday night and after a little hassle about one of our bags at customs, we made it outside unmolested and the director of our school was even there to pick us up. Some way or another we crammed our umpteen pieces of luggage into his SUV, sat on top of each other and made it to Tumbaco around 9:00. Alanna loves the new place, and Logan loves his new Spiderman themed room. And Abby, well she loves Mommy’s milk I guess.

We’re slowly settling in this week. I’m back to work of course and Alanna is unpacking and decorating. All of us took a trip to the grocery store last night. Not the best plan, but I wanted to get them out of the apartment. Overall though, we’re doing well and are very happy to have each other again. And I brought back GTA V which should keep entertain me for a fee months! Adios!

En Fuego!

Its been a couple weeks since I posted, sorry. I wanted to build up some drama in my blog. Whatever that means. Anyway, life in Ecuador is rolling right along. In less than 3 weeks, I’ll return to my home state of NC to, most importantly, collect my family, but also to attend the CCHS Class of 1993 20 Year Reunion. It will be great to see all the old people. And yes, by old , I mean people I’ve known since Kindergarten AND yes, literally old people. I told myself I’d lose a little weight before the reunion, and I have, but only because I’m in a foreign country and it was easy to drop 10 lbs. That weekend is going to be a little hectic. I fly out of Ecuador at midnight on Oct 11th and get into Charlotte the next morning, pick up the rental car, drive to get my phone fixed (speaker is busted), drive to Hickory to meet up with Alanna and the kids, have family time, shop for items we need to bring back from Ecuador, hopefully get in a date with my wife, sleep, reunion on Saturday night, sleep, fly back to Ecuador with the family and a billion pieces of luggage Sunday morning. Yes, that was run-on sentence.

My 38th (see… OLD) birthday was September 13th. I hated not being able to spend it with Alanna and the kids at Outback (I’m simple like that) but I was able to spend it at an American style restaurant with a good group of teacher friends. The place is called Smoke, and its run by an American dude from Arkansas. They have tasty BBQ and sweet tea! So about 25 people showed up and we chowed down on some good old southern North American food. At this point in my life, good food and conversation is really all that I want for my birthday. Other than skydiving, which I’m working on here too. Some of my students even brought my snacks and candies to class that day. They already know how to get bonus points.

En Fuego! So I think I’ve mentioned that they have forest fires here, right? Well last weekend, someone or some group of arsonists started a fire close to Quito and its been burning steadily since. You can easily see the smoke from anywhere in the area and my kids have brought in pictures on their phones of the actual fires. Yes… they’ve spread and are multiple blazes now. I’m sure they have firefighters working to put them out, but the only thing I see and HEAR are the helicopters. There is large reservoir right beside the school, so this is the spot that every single helicopter comes to scoop up water to dump on the fire. I’m sure these buckets that are attached to the helicopters are larger than they look, but it seems like they wouldn’t do much good against a fire. The copters are so loud though! And they disrupt my class! Stupid arsonists! Ecuador is offering a $100,000 reward for information on the crime. For $100,000, I would easily turn in one of my students if I could come up with some fabricated proof that would stick.

In other news –

The apartment is great, but sometimes loses power (as does the rest of Ecuador it seems).
School is still good. Classes are working out.
I’ll be teaching and extra after school class for 4-6 graders once a week.
I have Direct TV now, and about 30% of the channels are in english.
I wish the Redskins would win a game, but my fantasy team is 2-1.

Ok, adios!

Pics…

Teacher Friends

Oh Lordy… Sweet Tea!

Yes, still taking random pics of 23.

And another

Random Superman in a bathroom

This is disappointing to see in Ecuador

Skydiving Santa… a must have

Best care package gift ever.

Theatre Students

Jif is $10???

Forest Fire

So gorgeous

Beautiful family, see you soon.

And a video of a helicopter carrying a water bucket…

Fireworks, Fussball and Fun

The first true week of school has come and gone and tomorrow I’ll start it all over again. I have to say, the kids are pretty good. I have 7-9 graders and 10-12 graders. For the most part, they seem well (enough) behaved and generally interested in me teaching them all about the wonderful world of theatre. I also have a class of seniors for CT. Its community time, kind of like homeroom in a sense but also more about learning different principles to make you a well rounded person. Character counts after all.

I had my first professional development of the year this weekend. It was Destination Imagination. Although the little seminar wasn’t the most exciting, the program itself is really impressive and the school will be hosting an event it next April. Here’s the info about it if you’re bored…

Destination Imagination

I did finally move into the new apartment, aptly dubbed Casa Gringo Loco. Its nice, quiet and it takes me at most 15-20 minutes to get to school each morning. I can live with that. So now I’m out of the big city and living in the burbs – Tumbaco to be specific. There are still plenty of people everywhere here, but it “feels” less crowded and that’s what matter most to me.

After my professional development on Saturday, I took a bus to Guapulo, a little suburb nestled right up against Quito. Some of the teachers live there and the town was throwing a big festival – again, something about Mary I think. I think they just use any chance they can to party. So the bus ride wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. If you read the blogs and travel guides or talk to Alanna, you’ll come to the conclusion that riding a bus in Ecuador is dangerous because you will get robbed. People pickpocket you, use knives to cut open your backpack to snag items, you know, that kind of unsavory stuff. Honestly, I have heard the stories, even from other teachers, but the bus ride costs 25 cents so its hard to pass up. We got on first too, and got nice seats so we didn’t have to stand (which is when you get robbed).

We made it to Guapulo and safe and sound. I had a nice dinner and game time at a friend’s house and then a bunch of us ventured down to the bottom of the hill where the festival was being held. It was in a courtyard like area in front of a big church and there were a bagillion people there by the time we arrived. There was a huge band on stage playing, plenty of food vendors and half of everyone there was dressed in costumes – mostly clowns ans gorillas. I have no idea what this has to do with the Virgin Mary, nor did I make any attempt to figure it out. Everyone was dancing, conga lines were passing by, and somehow one the teachers decided it would be a great idea to weave our way through the throngs of revelers and stand right in front (below) of the stage. We were dancing and having a generally great time when a woman came up to us with her little boy. I’d say he was 3, 4 years old at the most and was dressed like a clown, She asked us (I think) in Spanish to pick the little clown up and put him on stage. So we did. She then shook her head and told us to sit him down on the stage. So we did. And then she smiled and walked away. Yeah. I know. So here the two of us are, standing beside a 3 year old clown boy sitting on the stage. He didn’t seem very happy, so I took his hands and helped him dance back and forth. He did this just fine, even swung his tiny clown legs around as well. He still never really looked happy. I guess he was a little confused as to why his mother left him to be babysat by two gringos. The lady finally came back and retrieved her son, and we mingled back through the crowd.

We’d also heard rumors that they shoot fireworks off, sometimes into the crowd. Stories about burn holes in clothing and scars on faces were running rampant. So… when I actually saw fireworks being shot off, of course I ran right for them. A little history about Rob – Back in my younger days, I was the rabbit of our group of friends. A rabbit, in medium to long distance comptetive running, is a special guy or girl who runs at the front of the pack. His job is to be the pacesetter for the race. Many times the rabbit doesn’t even finish the race. So, long story short – I was a rabbit, in general terms. Just ask Matt Ford or Jeff Heglar. They’ll tell you countless stories about how I was the one who always volunteered to do something first, to test it out, no matter how dangerous and completely idiotic it might be. So back to Guapulo – in true rabbit tradition, I headed right for the fireworks. Now these weren’t the kind that shoot up in the air (those were later), but were more ground based fireworks on some kind of metal contraption that men were carrying around. They’d light these suckers and hot, fiery like missiles would shoot horizontally into the crowd. There was a large circle of people jogging around this, but me… I decided to go inside this circle and directly up to the firework missile launcher thingamajig. Rather, I was pushed towards it. Anyway, it was me, the missile launcher and about 50 people in a circle blocking my escape. So these missiles start firing off, smacking every bit of body I brought with me into the circle. It didn’t hurt at first, then these hot fiery objects started smacking exposed skin – arms, face, the back of my neck. This was a tad bit unpleasant. So I did what any brave man would do – I ran like a sissy. The only problem was the circle of people blocked my way out. I tried to push my way through, and at one point I caught an elbow to the face, which of course knocked off my hat, glasses and almost sent me to the ground. I quickly retrieved my belongings and finally found myself safe from the missiles and crazy circles of people. So I learned my lesson… until I do something even more stupid next time.

After escaping near death from fire, we found a tent area that had these old fussball tables and tons of kids playing on them. And when I say old, I mean old. These things looked like they were made 50 years ago. But the kids loved them. So, of course, I had to play. A friend and I worked our way over to the tables and managed to challenge all the kids to a match. So me and him were on one side, and all the kids on the other, with about 10 more kids just crowded in to watch. We crushed them. Come on, its their national sport right? Soccer? Futbol? These kids were no match for our obviously superior fussball abilities. Ok, Ok, yes they were pretty much all under 10 years old and we were grown adults, but hey… we won. It was a blast. They didn’t speak English, I didn’t speak Spanish, but it was a very neat cultural experience and just to see those little guys having a great time was so rewarding.

Finally, the big fireworks started. They were unsafe, ungoverned, but impressive. There was even one that shot up little some kind of spinning UFO and then exploded. I don’t think I’d ever been that close (directly under) fireworks that big, but I’d almost lost an eye to the smaller ones earlier. Why should I be worried about these? All in all, it was a blast to hang out with the locals and soak up Ecuadorian culture. And I made it out without any burns or ruined clothes so no harm no foul.

Pics!

Casa Gringo Loco

Gift from MT NJ Show Cast – You guys rock.

My taxi driver has a wee bit of a mullet.

Professional Development Project – We taped it up in the director’s office FTW.

Teacher Pals – Comfy Bed

First look at the festival

People everywhere!

Here’s the unhappy clown kid.

Told you we got close to the stage.

The church

Fussball Game Face

It got serious

Victory dance.

Kaboom.

Kaboom 2

UFO Firework thing

And a Video! Imagine me right in the middle of all that taking an elbow to the face.

Back to School

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.

The classroom is SLOWLY coming along

Samples…

AWESOME view from Casa Gringo Loco

Forest Fire. No big deal.

Active Volcano. No big deal.

Line at the bank. Don’t you ever complain again.

I think this is some kind of memorial.

Another Week in Ecuador

I’ve now finished up my second week in Ecuador. I’m still doing OK, for the most part. Not seeing my family is a huge downer though. Abby turned 4 weeks old today, and Alanna said Logan was telling some random kid at Chick-Fil-A that his dad is in Ecuador. Thankfully I have Skype and can see/talk to them everyday, but that extra personal affection of a touch is something that nothing can replace.

Missing them and my wife. (Wife not pictured)

The last week went by slowly but surely. Turns out the spot we picked (before we moved) to live in Quito isn’t the best place for us. Its not horrible, but its just not the right spot for a family. Alanna would be stuck inside all day and it takes me about an hour each way to get to and from school. So while Quito has lots of neat stuff to do, we’ve decided to move to Tumbaco, a smaller, greener, flatter town located much closer to the school. I began looking at places last Monday. I was stood up by realtors twice, cancelled on twice and generally had rotten luck with the search. Thankfully near the end of the week I found a perfect place for us and I’ll be signing the lease for it in a few days. AND…. Alanna says I can have a scooter. I am so excited. Driving here is a big crazy, but with a scooter I can take the back roads and get to work easily enough. Did I mention I’m excited? Alanna technically says I have to wait though and make sure its in our budget. Budget, smudget. Hopefully I can have it by November.

This is what I’m going to look with a scooter.

School is going well still. The students start next Monday, so I’m still getting things in order. I got a computer in my classroom today. And they cleaned it. And they added mirrors. I’m moving up in the world. Oh, and I’m totally getting a scooter.

Pics…

I have about 100 pictures of 23. Why? Cause that’s what I do.

A bagillion people looking at a dinosaur.

Ecua-Volley!

I don’t think they like him.

DInner at KFC – $2.99

I have no idea.

First Week and Zuleta

It’s been a whirlwind amazing first week here in Ecuador. I won’t bore the reader with too much “school stuff”, but so far I really like my job. We had new teacher orientation Wed-Fri. The staff is very friendly and seems to be on the ball about pretty much everything. We had a little “incident” on Thursday when we went to get our Visas finished up though. When we got the place, one of the teachers (she will go unnamed), accidentally grabbed one of my needed documents and put it with her stuff. Of course I couldn’t find it, and was freaking out. I took a taxi quickly back to my studio to look for it, and even called the school to see if it was there. So that day ended with Rob not in a good mood. Yes, I went all 3^rdperson on you. Thankfully that night, I got a FB message from the teacher and hopefully tomorrow I can go back and get it done.

The school paid for the new teachers to go on a little overnight excursion this weekend. It’s a place called Zuleta, about 2 hours north of Quito. It was overnight stay, and a hike was planned. We left early Saturday morning on an uncomfortable bus. About an hour in, we stopped at a market town called Otavalo. It has a huge market that’s sales all kinds of crazy items. We were pretty sure that many of these items were shipped from China, but were relieved to see some of the vendors were actually making stuff right there in their stalls. I mostly window shopped, thinking that I’d bring Alanna here when she comes so we can buy some stuff we might actually use. I did sample some of the local cuisine while there. Let’s see… I had sugarcane, some kind of bread thing… and boiled quail eggs. They’re smaller than chicken eggs of course, but taste about the same. You could buy 10 for a $1.00. No, I didn’t eat them all. I made my colleagues eat them with me since I bought the eggs. We also saw what we thought was a child serial killer, a man playing 3 instruments at one time, whole stacks of dead chickens complete with the heads, and some other weird things I can’t remember.

We then got to Zuleta in the late afternoon, checked into our little rustic (but nice and clean) cabins, and then headed on a short jaunt to a Condor preservation they have here. It was cool I suppose. They were in cages and you really didn’t get a very close up look, but hey… it’s a condor, right? We had the choice to ride the bus back to where we were staying or walk, so most of us chose to hoof it on foot. Well, some of us got lost. I would say about 7 of us straggled behind, and then took a wrong turn. Well, 2 hours and 5 extra miles later, we finally found our way back in the dark. They served us dinner and then we headed to a local festival – something or other about the Virgin Mary sleeping. I dunno. Anyway, it was a neat little time. There was a DJ, dancing, a guy dressed as a bull trying to gore children, a huge bonfire, and also a little boy lighting a tree on fire for some symbolic reason. And fireworks. Sort of like you see on Fourth of July, only 20 feet away from us shot out of cans. We finished the night off with some board games and then off to bed. Speaking of my bed… when I sat down on it the first time, I broke it. I mean really broke it. I literally snapped one of the sideboards into two pieces. I need to lose some weight or the beds in Ecuador aren’t made well. Probably both.

This morning we got up, were served a breakfast of scrambled eggs, along with a grilled ham and cheese. Tasty. We then went on our “hike”. I’m used to nice hikes through the woods, at low altitudes. This, however, was a hike up a mountain, starting at 10,000 feet. I knew as soon as we started that this wasn’t going to be pleasant. The altitude already has me not being able to get a full breath and then today I combined that with a vigorous mountain hike. About an hour into the hike, with about 30 more minutes left to get to the summit, I began to see spots in front of my eyes, and felt like I was either going to immediately pass out or throw up. This was about 12,000 feet. I sat down, drank some water and one of the peeps with me said I had altitude sickness. He said I probably shouldn’t continue to the top. Trust me, I was done. Thankfully, there were quite a few, about half, of us that didn’t make it to the top, so I didn’t feel like too big of a wuss. After relaxing for a bit, I started the hike down and once I got to 11,000 feet, I felt perfectly fine again. So I guess 12,000 feet is my limit at the moment before I become a walking disaster.

After the near puking/passing out experience, we made it back to our lodging. They served us trout for lunch, as they have a local trout farm nearby. I’m used to fish with no heads when I eat them. My trout had a head, as did the rest of them. Even the eyes were still there. One of the teachers asked me if I was going to eat the head. I figured she was joking and told her only if she did. Well it turns out, that’s what they do here. They eat heads and all. So I did… eat head and all, including the eyes, and it tasted just fine. After lunch, we piled on the bus, stopped in a small town for some Ecuadorian bread thing and cheese, and got back to Quito tonight just after dark. I’m sore, extremely tired, and would absolutely love to kiss Alanna and the kids right now, but all in all it was a good first week here in South America.

Adios!

And now some pics…