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 –
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.
