Valentines Look

We've changed up the look of the blog for Valentines Month! Just thought you should know. We hope this whole month of February is filled with lots of love for each of you =)

--Taylor

PS. I picked the layout design. Ryan gets to pick next month. He says its going to be StarWars...

hmmm....

We we're walking through a shopping mall today looking for, oh, I don't remember, when we walked by a shoe store called, I kid you not, The Athlete's Foot. Maybe this was just lost in translation, or maybe there's something about their shoes that their just not telling us.

-Ryan

Settling In

So we're here and it's almost been two weeks. That seems crazy to me, because it feels like we've been here for months. We've done so much already but I'm excited to spend time with this city, develop a routine with it, get to know its ins and outs.

I mean this city is crazy. People do weird things like stop their cars in the middle of the road, leave their trash on the street, crash planes into mountains, just weird things. But there's something exciting about learning to live here. I can't quite explain it.

We're pretty much settled into the house. We need some hangers, a couch, and some nail polish remover... but other than that I think we have most everything that we'll need. Moving is always expensive, but at least the dollar goes a little further here.

I'm really enjoying living together. It's so nice to be in the same place after the last years of never being in the same city. We both love to cook, so we spend most of our time in the kitchen. We've made dinner every night together. Thursday we went to Megamaxi and stocked up; we ate quinoa with chicken and tons of fresh veggies. Then last night we made chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and green beens. And today we spent all day making chicken stock for chicken noodle soup. We'll be eating chicken for quite some time because we bought two whole chickens at Megamaxi for something like 6 dollars.

Ryan got his guitar today! He's really excited about it. In fact, he's playing it right now. And I used the KitchenAid today for the first time... chocolate chip cookies. The oven is well, ghetto. There's only two settings MAX and MIN. So it will take some time for me to get used to figuring it out. Also the flour already has baking powder in it, so that will take some adjusting too. But it doesn't matter because we each have what relaxes us; ryan the guitar and me the baking. So all is well.

We had our first house guests today. Maria Jose and Casey came over on their way home from the airport. We don't really have anyplace for anyone to sit except the dining room chairs.... it will be much cozier soon guys! Promise!

Anyways, it's getting late and I'm getting sleepy. It feels good to be here, to be getting settled and to be living the dream. Hope all is well with you, wherever you are!

MULUB,

Taylor

MEGAMAXI

In Ecuador there is a store called SuperMaxi. SuperMaxi is just like Wal-Mart, if Wal-Mart were more expensive than all of it's competitors. Above SuperMaxi there is another that takes Maxi to the max(i). That is the MegaMaxi. This one sells clothes and other accoutrements, not just groceries. It's unfair to say that MegaMaxi is more expensive than every other one of its competitors, though. Some of the things there are very inexpensive, especially the SuperMaxi brand merchandise. It's so cheap that is makes me think, what unknown demographic of people is living a worse life right now because I just bought 2 whole chickens for seven dollars, cockscombs and all.

Anyway.

Something about the MegaMaxi that weirded me out was that they were playing a lot of the same songs as they played at Macy's. Which, okay, doesn't sound that weird, America does export a lot of music overseas, but a lot of the songs that they played at Macy's weren't particularly popular, or they would be deep cuts off of a popular artist's popular album, so it's not like they were just blasting hit after hit. I mean who makes these playlists, the Illuminati? What is the significance of these songs? How come I can never hear a song once in my entire life outside of Macy's and then hear it for the only other time on the opposite side of the equator? Maybe I should listen to these songs backwards. I probably won't.

-Ryan

BIG NEWS!

This is a joint post:

So the big news is that we found a place. We absolutely love it. It's the one only a couple of blocks away from inlingua with a washer and dryer. We found the place through my mom's friend Chris Allen's co-workers cousin who lives in Quito. The cousin's name is Margarita and we are renting from Margarita's mother in law. We will post pictures on Thursday, when we move in. We would have moved in sooner, but she wanted to have a cleaning lady come in and clean for us before. She also is buying (or borrowing, who really knows) some extra furniture including another dresser for our bedroom and a stove/oven.

The only thing that we will need to buy is a couch. But she's not asking for a security deposit, so we'll use that money to purchase a cheap couch!

The best part is it has two bedrooms so we can have lots of visitors!

MULUB,

Ryan and Taylor

My Wonderful Day

OK. So I don't have any classes until next week so I have quite a bit of free time for whatever. We needed another cell phone so that we each have our own personal contact information. So I brought my debit card with me down to the Movistar to get a cell phone. Apparently the visa part of my card doesn't work here because Ecuador is one of their "restricted" countries.

Anyway I have to go back to the hostel to get another card, which is a pain in the ass because the hostel is a twenty minute Ecovia ride from the Movistar where someone speaks English. (The Ecovia is like a bus except that it is always packed completely full of people. Several times already someone on the outside of the bus has had to shove the doors closed, that is how many people they fit into this thing.)

I go back to the hostel and get the card, and as I'm walking up the street to the Ecovia, a guy stops me saying, "Meester, meester", and has me look at my backpack, which is covered in God only knows. I assure you this mess was not present when I lefts the hostel. It looks like baby yak and smells like fermented baby yak. It was the lutefisk of things you throw at foreigner's backpacks. I ask the man what it is and he says, "merda", which on closer inspection later it really wasn't, but for all intents and purposes it may as well have been. It was honestly the foulest smelling thing that my nose has been that close to. Even now I can smell it, when I close my eyes.....

At first I thought it was just somebody trying to eff with the Gringo, but then the guy was motioning for me to set in on the ground so he could wash it off, and then I was like, ehhhh, maybe not. Gracias, but no gracias. And I take my bag and start walking back to my hostel. Then this lady stops my and is trying to get me to go into the bathroom while she cleans off my bag. I respectfully decline her offer.

Look, I understand these scams but this is ridiculous. For one there was nothing in my bag. I had my English teaching stuff, and some sunscreen. These Quitenos don't need sunscreen. It's 75 degrees out and they're wearing black turtlenecks, and their babies are all wearing snowsuits. So the only thing this person could possibly have gotten out of this venture was a smelly backpack. I kept it, by the way, in hopes that a good hosing will cure its ills.

Later on in the day, the lady who gives out change on the Ecovia wouldn't take the gold presidential dollar. I mean it's covered in gold. It says United States of America $1 on it. I didn't mint the thing in my basement. Pat Boone would've taken it. I mean, I can't be the only one thinking this. Right?

-Ryan

SOOO BUSY!

We have been soo busy lately but we've been really productive.

Let's see... where to start. We had training on Monday with Danni (she is our inlingua coordinator). She's responsible for giving us classes to teach, training us, managing us, etc. Plus she also does all of the professional translations for inlingua; so she's a very busy lady. Anyways, we met with her and went over the inlingua philosophy. Basically its the same to the philosophy that we learned in TESL certification class... no translations, weaving technique, focus mostly on speaking and listening and less on reading and writing. Most importantly, she gave us our class schedules then. Now remember, we're starting off slowly and then building up to full time as we're ready and as classes are available.

I've started teaching. Today was my first day. I had a seven am class at Roche, an international pharmaceutical company. It was a two hour class with a man named Luis. We'll meet every Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Mondays will be at lunch time and then Tuesday and Fridays are in the morning. I got up at 5:30am and got to class right about 7. Here in S. America 7am really means anywhere from 7:15 to 7:45, but never actually 7. So by these standards I was early, too early. We spent an hour introducing ourselves and then an hour on his first lesson in the book. It was a very good class and it really boosted my confidence.

After class, I met Ryan in the park and we went to go get another cell phone (we'd been sharing one for the last week). The mall doesn't open till 10 though, so we go a coffee and waited. As always, there was some problem with something, this time it was Ryan's debit card, so we couldn't get the phone.

We had to be at inlingua at 10:30 for our spanish class assessment. The teacher, Jackie, was very nice but not at all impressed with my spanish. She has an oral test she gives everyone to determine their levels. Basically it has a bunch of basic questions on it that she reads casually to the student and the student answers. We didn't even get to the exam, we were still at 'Hello, My Name Is, Today's Date Is, I like to do...' before she just put it away and said beginner. It was pretty funny.

The good thing is there are enough teachers for us to have a beginner level class at the teacher discount. I think it comes out to a month of classes for 20 something dollars. Not bad, eh?

Then I had my second class at Nestle. So I hopped on the ecovia, climbed up the side of a mountain, and presto there I was. (Everyday, all of the time I feel as if I'm on a stairmaster; there are so many hills and stairs; everything is nearly vertical.) This class I was also early to, but this time by American standards (about 15 minutes). It was nice because I was able to talk with another inlingua teacher who was also teaching a noon class at Nestle who had been at inlingua for a while. She basically told me that in order to have stable secure work over the course of a year we should really look a teaching at a High School to supplement our inlingua work. So thats been added to the to do/to find out how list.

My second class wasn't as good as my first. It was supposed to be a class of two, but one is out taking care of her husband who has h1n1 for the week. So that kind of threw me off. Then Danni had told me the wrong lesson that they were on. Turns out they're not on a lesson at all but instead they are finished with the book and need to review for the test that they will take next week. I was totally not prepared for that! But tomorrow will be a better day. I meet with this second class Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 12-1:30.

Then we went to the Mariscol (also known as gringolandia) to look for more apartments for rent completely furnished under $400. You'd think that'd be an easier task but it's not. We wrote down a few prospects for Maria Jose to call for us.

Basically how the process has worked so far is Ryan and I walk around a neighborhood that we think we would like to live in and we look for signs that say "Se Arrienda" or "Arriendo" or "Rento" and then we write down the phone number on the sign. Then Maria Jose (I've decided that's what I will call you from now on) calls them for us because they only speak spanish mostly. She asks all the questions you would normally when renting an apartment (how many bedrooms, how many bathrooms, is it furnished, how much?) and decides if its worth seeing. If it is, then we make an appointment to go see it. She meets us at the apartment and translates more for us. Then Ryan, Maria Jose and I decide if we like it and if it's worth it.

We really couldn't do this without you Maria Jose! So far we've seen a great 1 bedroom with a living room and nice kitchen. This one wasn't furnished but she could get furniture just not a refrigerator or a stove/oven. She would use our security deposit to purchase the stove/oven and the refrigerator. Very cute, very nice... but just didn't feel like home. Oh and the price was just right. It was $300 and in La Floresta, which is a neighborhood that we like.

Then we looked at this brand new eco building (the first of its kind in Quito). It is uber modern, had a spa on the ground level. It is on a great street that's central enough to access anything but not too busy that'd it be too loud. It has a guard, which is very important and all the luxuries of a new modern condo building in Chicago... solar energy, recycled and purified water, led lights, etc. It's $450 but not furnished.

Then we looked in Guapolo, which is where Maria Jose lives. Its in the next valley from Quito. They share one side of the mountain and it's a very cute part of Quito. Its extremely safe and already Ryan and I are friends with half of the population in Guapolo (OK that's an exaggeration, but you get what I'm saying... it's very friendly). There are a lot of semi-permanent foreigners in Guapolo and it's cheap. We looked at three places there (we like this neighborhood A LOT! The view is out of this world) First we looked at a 2 bedroom in Melrose Place. Its a complex of about 15 apartments built staggeringly into the side of the mountain. The one we looked at was really long and on the absolute bottom of the complex, so it literally looks like your living on the edge of the world. It has a great kitchen, a very warm, almost Colorado camp feel. The view, seriously, amazing! The only problem is the woman we talked to couldn't make any decisions and the price she quoted us was for a 1 bedroom at $380 and a two bedroom somewhere between $430-$450. These are furnished and we really like them. Another problem is the commute. You can get to the other valley two ways, go to the bottom and come up the other side via bus/truck/car or climb the nearly 200 some vertical stairs...

We also looked at an apartment in Guapolo that didn't have some of the supposed problems on Melrose Place (water leakage from the gardens and possibly falling off the side of the mountain in a severe rain storm). It also is completely furnished, down to hand mixer (thankfully I don't need one) and muffin tins! The problem is its $450, which is high. Were it to be even 100 dollars cheaper Ryan and I would have said done and done, where do we sign on the spot... it was that amazing.

We looked at a huge 3 bedroom, two story house in Guapolo too. A 100% Ecuadorian family owned it and had moved to the suburbs and were now looking to rent it out. They only had enough furniture to give us a bed, table, couch and possibly an oven/stove. The cost was $350 "funished."

Then we looked at a real gem... It was a building that clearly was offices or possibly a cafe just a few months ago. I don't even know how to describe them. Just bad... outside, open air shower, missing walls, bedroom was in the old kitchen... just bad.

Lets see, we also looked at this really promising place that a real estate agent, of sorts, that Marie Jose knows took us to. She drove us there, along with the woman who owned the place and her boyfriend from New Jersey. On the way there she's telling us all about it, how nice it is, that people that work at the USA embassy live here. We pull up and its beautiful! We're thinking OK... then we get in the elevator and go down 2 floors. First weird thing. Then we walk in and if we had been a 45 year old divorcee we'd had found our new home. It was just weird with the decor and everything... plus there wasn't an oven (no good for me).

Then today we looked at two more. The first one was in the Mariscol (gringolandia). It was really nice in a brand new remodel. 2 full baths, 1 social bathroom, 2 bedrooms, all marble, huge open kitchen, huge living room/dining room, etc. Problem was its $350 and unfurnished.

The second one we saw today was a in the back of a house. Its furnished, we'd share an entrance with the family (meh). Very similar to a coach house. 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1 social bath. Full kitchen and wait for it... washer and dryer!!! Plus, there's a kitchen with refrigerator and she can get a stove/oven.

So that's what we've seen so far. We've seen a wide range of the spectrum. We're making a decision soon hopefully because we can't live out of our suitcases any longer. We can never find anything and its starting to smell (no joke).

Anyways, other than that not much is new. Check Ryan's post for some pretty funny stories =)

MULUB,

Taylor

PS. Still praying for Caders and the Matson family every night.

PSS. Email us times when you'd like to set up a SKYPE date. We're only 1 hour ahead of Chicago.

Meeting with inLingua

Hi All -

Just a quick update.

We met with inLingua today. Danni was great. We took the assessment test and despite us not knowing a lot of the information we are still making the top of the pay scale! WOO HOO!

We go in to the office on Monday at 11am to fill out health insurance paperwork and then again at 3pm for orientation with another new teacher named Christine. At orientation we will find out the names of the businesses, their addresses and levels of our students!

We start teaching a morning class and an afternoon class on Tuesday! That will give us about 12 hours or less to receive the curriculum and prepare our first lessons... YIKES!

Also, we'll be taking Spanish classes on Tuesday and Thursday from 10:20-11:20am. And we have inLingua training on Fridays for the next five weeks.

All in all though we are really excited and happy with the set up.

Tomorrow we search for an apartment. We can't live in a hostel any longer with all of this stuff, its driving us mad.

We're still praying for Cade's speedy recovery. Love you buster!

MULUB,

Taylor

Chilling and Stuff

Ok. So we've been walking around for two days now and Quito is a very cool city. However it is very hilly and and very high up so it makes me feel very out of shape. Well, it made me realize that I in fact am very out shape.

I need to learn Spanish. Nobody here speaks English, which makes it very difficult to get around. But that's okay, I'm sure I'll pick it up fast enough and most people are pretty friendly. Yesterday we got kicked out of a restaurant and were instructed to go to another restaurant, a fast food place, if we wanted to have lunch. We've already seen two KFCs, which are apparently still legally allowed to be called Kentucky Fried Chicken in Ecuador. We also saw a Payless Shoes, which at that point was a bit of a misnomer, as it had by far the most expensive advertised shoes.

The churches are very, um, interesting here. The Cathedral in the Plaza Grande had a painting of Jesus and the 12 D's munching on some cuy (roasted guinea pig) at the last supper. Another one showed a llama and a goat in the manger with Jesus.

Overall, I'm very pleased with Quito. It is quite the modern city. Some people were like, "have they invented the mattress yet?", or "when it's cold out is there heat or do you have to cut open a tauntaun carcass and spend the night in there?" Although I must say, we haven't ridden the bus yet and we hear a lot of petty crime goes on in there if you're not careful.

Tomorrow we might just go to the purk and hang out, look for Peeetur. Quito has a lot of cool parks. We have our assessment tests tomorrow at 4 so wish us luck. This test determines whether we make 7.30 an hour, or whether our hearts will be sacrificed to Kali and our bodies lowered into the smoldering magma.

Please comment. We're lame so we actually have to ask. But it's nice to know that people are following us. We're also available for skype or video g-chat, so let us know if you are too.

P.S. We're praying for Cade and the Matson clan, so you should too.

-Ryan

We're Here!

Hello everyone --

We've made it safe and sound to Quito! Our flights went very smoothly, no real delays and no real turbulence. Some of you know that Ryan doesn't like to fly, but he did a very good job especially on our second flight.

Mom and Dad Bogdan drove us to the airport this morning. They parked and saw us to the gate... no bus for us. We went through security pretty quickly, although they did pull my bag out to check the Kitchenaid. Don't worry all is well in the world and the Kitchenaid is safely in Quito now! =) We stopped at the Admiral's Club and relaxed for a couple of minutes before we boarded for Miami.

In Miami, we went to the Admiral's Club again and were able to check our bags there so we could go get lunch without an additional 100 lbs. We were able to eat at the cuban restaurant, as my Dad suggested and we stopped at the Duty Free and bought a bottle of Champagne.

I slept most of the way to Ecuador, which was nice. Ryan is literally exhausted. The hostel picked us up at the airport and we were able to check in without any hassle. The hostel has this really weird layout which caused us to haul all 300 lbs of our luggage up 4 flights of stairs, cross a hallway to the backside of the building, and then down 3 flights of stairs. Very odd and very tiring. Luckily a very nice hostel employee helped us!

The city itself is amazing thus far (although its dark and we can't see much). We walked out of the airport in t-shirts and the nights breeze was cool and refreshing. The hostel has the coolest rooftop terrace with a pretty delicious sounding kitchen. The terrace overlooks the city, which is all lit up at night. They have a big bon fire in an old wheelbarrow, where we sat and chatted with another traveller over regionally brewed beer! Couldn't have been better.

On a different note, thanks to everyone for all of their support in this transition. We still don't feel like it is real but we're trying to take in every moment that we can. After six months of planning, dreaming, wishing, and worrying we are finally here in Ecuador to live and to teach and to explore with each other this new continent.

I've always travelled by myself, which is what I'm used to and lately I've always said to myself "man, I wish Ryan was here to experience all of these new things with me!" and now he's here and it doesn't seem real. It's very comforting and takes the scariness out of solo-traveling. It really is a dream come true.

Keep us in your thoughts and your prayers. Breakfast ends at 10am tomorrow and it sounds amazing for $2. So we're planning on getting up, going to breakfast and then setting out to explore our new home. But for now... we sleep. Upstairs we can faintly hear the sound of someone playing the guitar and a couple people singing, lots of laughter, and that friendly conversation that only happens in hostels... what a way to fall asleep.

MULUB!

--Taylor

Going Away

Check back for our first blog on January 19! We'll blog from the airport. Hope to see everyone on Saturday =)

--ryan and taylor