VISITORS!

I'm really REALLY excited because two of my dearest friends are coming to visit us in October! Roz and Doug will be here for 10 days in the middle of October and I couldn't be happier.

Just thought everyone should know!

--Taylor

Where's the love?

Just putting it out there, we love comments.

Instructions: Have a gmail account, click on the comments button at the bottom of a post, write your comment, select gmail account, enter your gmail email address and password, press post, enter the 'secret word', press post, enter the other 'secret word', press post!

If you don't have a gmail account, well you should, because then we can video chat and you can leave comments and both of those things make us feel good!

MULUB,

Taylor

How we got the new place...

So Taylor has shown you the pictures of the new place, but she hasn't said how it was exactly that we came to be there. It's quite a good story I must say.

Taylor found the number of a place in El Comercio and called it up. It was the number of real estate agents, a man and his two female cohorts, and they took her to see the place. It was Chelsea's last game of the season so I didn't go. The place that they took her to was too small, too expensive, and too far away, as I recall her saying. She said she didn't like it, so they said, Ok we've got another place for you to see. Then they took her to see the place we're living in right now.

Later in the day, when I met up with Taylor she told me about the place. She made arrangements to see it again in the late afternoon. We looked at a few other places in the meantime, including this huge, weird looking one that was super long and had an old-timey fireplace. So we look at the place we are in now again and I loved it too. It was perfect for us and for Chucki. We took a day to think about it and then called to say we wanted the place. So the real estate agents called the owner and arranged for us to meet and sign that Monday night.

We go there on Monday and find the real estate agents there, but the owner is not present. We wait and wait, and as I remember I was feeling really sick that night. We ask if they can call the owner and see what's going on. They call her and apparently she had sold the place, neglecting to tell the real estate agents

Needless to say we were quite upset about not getting the place. Taylor walked by the apartment later in the week and found the sign in the window still up. So Taylor called the real estate agents and asked what the deal was. Apparently the potential buyer was not quite ready to commit so he asked for more time and would know for sure by the next Monday. So we ended up having to look apartments that weekend as well. We found another place for the same price and it would've been a sufficient substitute. But we still wanted the other place.

So we called again on Monday, he did not call us, mind you. And he says he'll know on Tuesday. We get the impression that this guy is not a real estate agent, but instead plays in a professional foot-dragging league. It becomes apparent to us that, for whatever reason, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about. As I mentioned before, the sign in the apartment window was still up, and Taylor had taken down the number of the owner and called her. She said that the buyer had decided not to take the apartment, and she would rent it to us if we were still interested. We went to the apartment and sign the papers with her boyfriend, who is a lawyer.

That's all there is to it. Except. A week or two after we moved into the apartment, our apartment phone (it's a direct line to the guard) rings while we are watching a movie or something. Taylor answers but can't understand the guard so goes down to the front door. The phone rings again and it's Taylor and she tells me to come down right away. So I go down. The real estate agent is there and he brought his cadre, and they're yelling at Taylor. So I'm like "what's going on?" They tell me that the owner has failed to pay them their commission, and so they want us to pay it. I ask how much the commission is and Taylor tells me it's 400 dollars. I say no immediately, though I would have said no had they asked for 50 cents and a bucket of powdered Gatorade. Before I got there, apparently the guy had threatened that he was going to go all over town smearing us and say that we're bad people, and that when he doesn't get paid, bad thing happen. We'll he didn't even know my first name or either of our last names, so, good luck jackass. I say, look, I'm sorry you didn't get "your" money but that's not my problem, that's between you and the owner, so stop bothering us. More later.

-Ryan

The "New" Place

So I realize we haven't said much about the new place because when we moved we 'lost' the internet. So here are some photos... for those of you who've stayed here it looks a little different! Our top priorities now, before Ryan's parents arrive, is curtains for the big windows, a couple of lamps and getting the artwork we bought in Otavalo hung! Enjoy!

Here I am standing with my back to the front door

Look to the right and you have floor to ceiling closets and a 1/2 bath.

Maria Jose this one is for you. We finally hung your masks in the guest bathroom!

Look to your left and there's the kitchen.

Close up view out the kitchen window =)

Now, at the end of the kitchen, on the left hand side is a door that leads back to what would have been the maids quarters. (Yes, it is absurd that a one bedroom apartment would have a maids quarters.) That tiled block straight in front of the picture is where we wash our clothes. The cream colored thing hanging on the wall is the caliphone that heats our water, sometimes.

If you turn to the right from the washer, we have a little baby door that leads to the terrace.

Here's the maid's bedroom. We use it to store things.

At the end of the bedroom, on the left hand side, is another full bath. This is the bath our guests use!

Suicide shower and all!

Now, if you go back to the little room with the washer and you go out that little door, you are on the terrace. This is looking towards the left.

Here's a better view of Pichincha!

The rest of the deck. We spend a lot of time out here!

Here's a better picture of our view!

Now we're back inside and here's if I'm standing at the front door again.

Past the door to the kitchen, if you look to the left we have our little living room!

Slash dining room combo!

To the right of where the kitchen table is, there's a full wall that comes out about 9 feet (I really have no idea how many feet, I'm just guessing) and it creates a nook in which we've created our makeshift guest room! We're hoping that the bed will be fixed soon!

Then to the right of the guest room is our bed room. This picture is taken from the front door. Chuki clearly wasn't ready to get up yet!

In our bedroom on the right hand side, if you're standing at the door to the bedroom.

On the western wall of our bedroom is our big walk in closet. (My side)

Ryan's side.

And then just south of the closet is our bathroom. Nice toilet seat huh?

Trickle of a Shower...

And just for good measure, Chuki scratching himself!

Recent Rumblings

We haven't had magazines in a really long time. But when my parents came down they brought a ton. All different kinds too, People, golf magazines, Newsweek, Chicago, etc... Anyways, I started reading them and had two observations:

1. All I wanted to do was buy things. There were articles about how to have great summer hair, of course you had to buy one of the ten products featured. There were articles about the perfect outfit to wear while traveling in which most of the articles of clothing you had to buy. Buy, buy, buy that's one of the many mantras of the USA that I've become quite disgusted with while being abroad.

2. The second observation was somehow, backwardly, all of these magazines are saying you need to want more. You need to want to be prettier or live in a better neighborhood or take better/more trips. You need flatter abs and you need them in 5 weeks. You need better romance and you need it in 20 steps. You need a bigger house and here's where you should look.

Seriously? Is that all I've been missing? It's interesting to me how I loved magazines at home! I would read through them cover to cover and I would always have a couple of things in mind to 'pick up' next time I was at Target. But now, I look at them and all I can think about is I'm satisfied with my life here and I didn't know I needed all of these things or needed to be a certain way until I picked up this magazine.

This certainly wasn't one of the things I had expected to learn while being here. But its an interesting rabbit hole and I think I'm going to explore it further.

I first had these thoughts a couple of weeks ago and since then I keep coming back to them. Another thing that I've noticed is that everything needs a gimmick. For example, I have in my hand 3 issues of Prevention. On the cover of one "Drop Two Sizes Flatten Belly Bulge, Tone Your Butt, Shrink Your Thighs." On the cover of another "SLIM BY SUMMER!" And on the cover of the third "25 Healthiest Foods for Women." I don't know why this is bothering me but don't these all sound like gimmicks? I can tell you how to drop two sizes, every woman in the world can tell you how to drop two sizes. Burn more calories than you consume. It's not rocket science. The "SLIM BY SUMMER" issue came out in May. Isn't summer one month away? What if I'm 30 lbs overweight, I'm not going to be slim by summer. It's not going to happen. And the "25 Healthiest Foods," I bet you could ask a 1st grade class to name you the 25 healthiest foods. Can I just tell you that I just now opened the magazine to list for you some of the healthiest foods and THEY ARE ALL PACKAGED FOODS! WHAT IN THE WORLD AMERICA? YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS! Prevention, please tell me you are joking! If you were to ask the 1st graders they would tell you things like spinach, carrots, tomatoes, bananas, strawberries, chicken, beans, potatoes, milk, etc. Not Healthy Choice All Natural Roasted Red Pepper Marinara, Triscuit Thin Crisps, or Annie Chun's Mini Wontons.

We wonder why America is so fat it's because we read this garbage and we believe it.

Now Prevention is a reputable magazine, focused on women's health but let me ask you... Why is there a Prevention magazine? Everyone knows what they need to do to live a healthy life, right? Eat well, avoid foods that aren't natural, move your body on a daily basis, don't drink too much, don't smoke too much, do things that give you joy inside, exercise your mind, engage in positive relationships. I didn't have to read those things from a magazine, you just know them.

Another one of America's mantras that I have come to detest is "how can we make money off of this?" The health industry has become just that an industry and the people that control it don't care about your health, they care about making money. From health food, to healthy lifestyle magazines, from beauty products to workout clothing and videos, they care about one bottom line: making a profit at the end of the day. I know some of you will disagree with me, but let me just ask you this one question:

When women in America want to lose weight they try to cut calories by eating diet products. Diet soda, diet salad dressing, diet crackers, diet popcorn, diet, diet, diet. Call it what you will: diet, low fat, zero calorie, whole grain, whatever... it's all diet. Plus they join a gym, create a home workout plan, buy some new videos. Now, how many of those women actually loose a substantial amount of weight? How many of us women are still trying to loose that weight? How long have some of us been trying? Years upon years... let me just tell you: it's an industry ladies.

More to come...

MULUB,

Taylor

Photos from Quito

The whole family after a fabulous dinner at Zazu.

I love this one because Dad and Elliott are just being silly =)

Mom in two hemispheres at once!

This is also one of my favorites. Ryan is teaching Elliott how to play guitar.

Mom and I in front of the stained glass at the Basilica!

Cotopaxi Photos

Here are some of my favorite from Elliott's solo time here and our trip to Cotopaxi!

Chuki sitting in the hammocks at the hostel by himself!

The three of us on our last day in Cotopaxi. Somewhere behind us is a perfectly cone shaped volcano!

Elliott and I decided to go horseback riding up one of the other volcanos next to Cotopaxi (called Ruminuahui (sp?)) Needless to say, it was more like ponyback riding for Elliott. His poor horse was soo tiny!

The three of us feeling victorious after climbing to the glacier of Cotopaxi. Notice all of the snow, even in the parking lot!