Alright yesterday...
For breakfast I ate a banana and coffee.
For lunch I ate soup and a piece of bread.
For snack I ate 3 candies on the bus because I was dying! And then 3 chocolate (from my students).
For dinner Ryan made this amazing chicken and rice with mango chutney! He's a really great cook!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Project Number 2 - Day 19 (Sunday)
I realize this is a day late but I told you what I ate already... Here it is just in recap mode...
Breakfast - coffee
Lunch - Juice, cevichochos, 1/2 of a pincho
Dinner - Coconut and passionfruit chicken over rice
Breakfast - coffee
Lunch - Juice, cevichochos, 1/2 of a pincho
Dinner - Coconut and passionfruit chicken over rice
What a day...
So no visa! We have to return on Friday miraculously with $1000 in a bank account for each of us. From what I understand we'll be canceling our student visas and extending our original tourist visas. Who really knows?! All I know is that it's always frustrating to wait for 3 hours and not have anything to show for it. Also, um I have $32 in my bank account. That might be a slight problem. We're working on a solution hopefully with inlingua, and if that doesn't work, we'll be knocking on some familiar doors =). Oh the joys of living abroad. I must say I hate these sort of things. Visas, rent agreements, moving, importing a dog, etc. I love the living abroad but I hate the arranging to live or leave. Its just too stressful for me. So hopefully, we'll return on Friday and we'll get our visas and we'll be on our merry little way to tackle whatever it is that may be waiting to stress me out next.
Side note - After having a year to decompress, I don't know how I worked in such a stressful job for over a year. I really don't know. In college I used to wait to the last minute for EVERYTHING! My friend and I had a joke about doing 'the printer dance' because I would wait to the absolute last minute to write a paper that I had to dance around the printer hoping it would print faster so that I could run out of my dorm to hand in the paper. Oh youth!
Anyways, I was feeling awful after we left the immigration office. I hadn't eaten, except for too much coffee and a little bread roll. We popped into a restaurant for almuerzo and I felt worse. I decided to cancel my classes for the afternoon and come home and nurse this headache. Remember how a couple of days ago I said there was a migraine just brewing in my head? Well it's still brewing. I'm having more and more blurred vision and more and more general cloudiness of sight and this constant headache. I came home and laid down with a damp towel over my eyes (courtesy of the best boyfriend ever). This was at around 1:45. I just woke up about 45 minutes ago, which means I slept for 3 hours straight. I feel so much better but my headache isn't gone. It's less intense, but still present. URGH!
So no visa and no Chuki tag, but hopefully still spending time with the Matson's tonight! I'm looking forward to it!
MULUB,
Taylor
Side note - After having a year to decompress, I don't know how I worked in such a stressful job for over a year. I really don't know. In college I used to wait to the last minute for EVERYTHING! My friend and I had a joke about doing 'the printer dance' because I would wait to the absolute last minute to write a paper that I had to dance around the printer hoping it would print faster so that I could run out of my dorm to hand in the paper. Oh youth!
Anyways, I was feeling awful after we left the immigration office. I hadn't eaten, except for too much coffee and a little bread roll. We popped into a restaurant for almuerzo and I felt worse. I decided to cancel my classes for the afternoon and come home and nurse this headache. Remember how a couple of days ago I said there was a migraine just brewing in my head? Well it's still brewing. I'm having more and more blurred vision and more and more general cloudiness of sight and this constant headache. I came home and laid down with a damp towel over my eyes (courtesy of the best boyfriend ever). This was at around 1:45. I just woke up about 45 minutes ago, which means I slept for 3 hours straight. I feel so much better but my headache isn't gone. It's less intense, but still present. URGH!
So no visa and no Chuki tag, but hopefully still spending time with the Matson's tonight! I'm looking forward to it!
MULUB,
Taylor
Busy Busy Day
Today is a very busy day. I have to leave for class in 7 minutes. 2 classes back to back. Then we're going to attempt to sort out our visa situation. Pray for us. Then 3 more classes back to back. Plus a very long bus ride and a very annoying cab driver. 3 highlights of the day: 1. possibly crossing visa off the to do list 2. picking up Chuki's traveling tags 3. 'seeing' Mark and Toby tonight via skype
I'll write more later, hopefully! Send us all the good vibes and prayers you can! We'll need them today!
I'll write more later, hopefully! Send us all the good vibes and prayers you can! We'll need them today!
Monday, March 28, 2011
No Cleaning Sunday
Ryan and I have a strict rule on Sundays: No Cleaning! We abide by in whole heartedly. And it's fantastic. The rule is really for me, mostly. I would always feel behind or guilty for not cleaning the house up on Sundays. A clean house is a really great way to start the week. But guess what... cleaning takes time and we decided that Sundays are fundays; the last day of the weekend for us to spend time together. So the decision was simple, there will be no cleaning on Sundays so that we have more time to spend together.
Yesterday I started the day with a nice swim in the pool. I've never thought of the pool as exercise before but goodness gracious it sure is. I always feel so tired, out of breath and sore after swimming laps in the pool. Ryan started the morning by sleeping in! To each his own =) Then we skyped with my parents. Which was good, except for one tiny part which involved my extraordinary emotional side. Oh well, it's certainly a part of me, so I guess I should, and everyone else should, just accept it!
Then we took Chuki to the park (Metropolitano). It's good for all of our souls to spend time outside of the city. It's refreshing and relaxing and rejuvinating all in one. Plus after an hour running around in the sun, Chuki literally sleeps ALL DAY, only getting up to eat and to change rooms when we change rooms.
After the park we left Chuki at home and went to drop off our towels at the laundry mat. Can I tell you what a treat it is to have our towels washed in a machine by someone else! Best $5 I spent all day! Then Ryan and I headed to the park (Carolina) for lunch. It was gorgeous out yesterday. I wore a tank top without a sweater! Ryan wore shorts! It was perfect! We started with juices at the juice stand. Pineapple, orange, strawberry for me. Orange, strawberry and naranjilla for Ryan. Delicious! Then we moved to one of the restaurants in the park because we had heard that there was great fish, but we decided it was too expensive. So we went over to the cevichocho area. Ryan had a large, I had a medium! It was great, except I always forget to ask for no tostado. So I end up having to pick it out. Then we split a pincho (like a kebab with sausage, a potato and a chicken piece). SO SO GOOD.
It started to rain while we were eating our pincho so we hung out under a tree and finished it. Then we ran across the street to the pet store to buy Chuki's water bottle for his cage, pee pads and a new ID tag. They didn't have the pee pads so were going to have to buy regular diapers to line the bottom of his crate with. Should be interesting. This week we'll get the diapers, the tag engraved and buy a new collar (one that snaps shut).
We picked up our laundry and headed home. We wanted to take a nap and watch a movie but we ended up watching LOST Season 2 disks 1 and 2. Needless to say we didn't fall asleep. Ryan made an amazing dinner of coconut and passionfruit chicken over rice! While it was cooking we slipped outside to watch one of the best sunsets we've seen in Quito in a while! Then we came back in to eat. Seriously, it was SO SO SO good! Kind of spicy, very tangy... mmm!
Then we went to bed. All in all a great Sunday, but certainly no time for cleaning. That's what we'll do today in between classes. I've already swept and picked everything up. All that needs to be done is dishes and laundry. YIKES!
MULUB,
Taylor
Yesterday I started the day with a nice swim in the pool. I've never thought of the pool as exercise before but goodness gracious it sure is. I always feel so tired, out of breath and sore after swimming laps in the pool. Ryan started the morning by sleeping in! To each his own =) Then we skyped with my parents. Which was good, except for one tiny part which involved my extraordinary emotional side. Oh well, it's certainly a part of me, so I guess I should, and everyone else should, just accept it!
Then we took Chuki to the park (Metropolitano). It's good for all of our souls to spend time outside of the city. It's refreshing and relaxing and rejuvinating all in one. Plus after an hour running around in the sun, Chuki literally sleeps ALL DAY, only getting up to eat and to change rooms when we change rooms.
It started to rain while we were eating our pincho so we hung out under a tree and finished it. Then we ran across the street to the pet store to buy Chuki's water bottle for his cage, pee pads and a new ID tag. They didn't have the pee pads so were going to have to buy regular diapers to line the bottom of his crate with. Should be interesting. This week we'll get the diapers, the tag engraved and buy a new collar (one that snaps shut).
We picked up our laundry and headed home. We wanted to take a nap and watch a movie but we ended up watching LOST Season 2 disks 1 and 2. Needless to say we didn't fall asleep. Ryan made an amazing dinner of coconut and passionfruit chicken over rice! While it was cooking we slipped outside to watch one of the best sunsets we've seen in Quito in a while! Then we came back in to eat. Seriously, it was SO SO SO good! Kind of spicy, very tangy... mmm!
Then we went to bed. All in all a great Sunday, but certainly no time for cleaning. That's what we'll do today in between classes. I've already swept and picked everything up. All that needs to be done is dishes and laundry. YIKES!
MULUB,
Taylor
Sunday, March 27, 2011
$$$
I often wonder how other people live abroad. Maybe that's ironic, but I am fascinated by it. I understand study abroad and now I understand teaching abroad but if you're not doing one of those two things, I don't get it. It got me thinking about if people wonder about how we live abroad. I just want to clarify to anyone that is thinking, 'oh I wish I could do that' that you can! We quit our jobs and came here with about 2 paychecks worth of money. We had arranged jobs ahead of time, which I would recommend. We didn't have a place to live. We didn't have a ton of money. Less than $5,000 for sure, significantly less. And we just committed to living within our means, for the most part. Our parents and grandparents have been very generous whenever we've been in a bind here and for that we'll forever be grateful. But we're not here living off of an inheritance or a free ride or a huge savings. We're just making it work. And if you want to, you can too. You should.
MULUB,
Taylor
MULUB,
Taylor
Project Number 2 - Day 18 (Saturday)
Yesterday somehow flew by without a trace. I remember being up, being crabby, leaving the house for a bit and then somehow it was dinner time. Who knows?! What I do know is that I ate A LOT of coffee cake yesterday. Like 1/2 the tray, save the 3 pieces that Ryan ate.
Saturdays are days that I like to bake in the morning. Eat something yummy and sugary. Yesterday was no exception. So I made coffee cake. Toby's 2nd Best Coffee Cake. It's good. Really good. Hence why I ate so much of it. Plus I had coffee.
Then we went for a run and took Chuki to the park. It was around 1:30 when we got home. We cleaned and googled things. Isn't it funny how that's become a hobby. We just checked things out online. Like how much a Land Rover costs; are there plans for a hybrid Rover; what model we would want in our dreams! We talked about living in California and buying a vacation home first, because we don't know where we want to settle. Anyways... There wasn't really lunch to be eaten. We split the left over soup from Gus and the left over chicken breast, back and wing. That was lunch, I suppose, plus coffee cake.
Then we watched The Kids Are All Right. Have you seen it? You should! It was good, really really good. Like maybe moved into my top 10. There are some graphic scenes, so consider this the disclaimer if you can't look past that. For dinner I was inspired by a dish I had seen on KERF for clams and linguine. I cooked some fettucine (apparently they don't sell linguine at Supermaxi). I boiled some green beans for 10 minutes, leaving them crunchy. I cut up two tomatoes, one for Ryan and one for me. Then I heated up the extra tomato sauce I had made for the lasagna. I added a big handful of spinach and a big handful of swiss chard to the sauce. Let them wilt and then added onion chopped onion at the very end after I had turned off the heat. When the pasta was done I added the tinned mussels to the sauce. Into each bowl went noodles, a tomato, green beans and the sauce (with spinach, swiss chard, onion and mussels). It was DELICIOUS! Seriously so good. We both loved it! The perfect pasta dish for spring and summer, not too heavy but still very filling.
Then I got into bed and read some more of The Penguin History of Latin America.
It's actually really interesting now that we've moved out of the colonial days and into nation building.
Today is a beautiful day in Quito. I want to make the most of it. The only thing that we have to do is go to Mascotas and buy the water bottle, pee pads and dog tags for Chuki's American Adventure. Then... who knows!?!
Saturdays are days that I like to bake in the morning. Eat something yummy and sugary. Yesterday was no exception. So I made coffee cake. Toby's 2nd Best Coffee Cake. It's good. Really good. Hence why I ate so much of it. Plus I had coffee.
Then we went for a run and took Chuki to the park. It was around 1:30 when we got home. We cleaned and googled things. Isn't it funny how that's become a hobby. We just checked things out online. Like how much a Land Rover costs; are there plans for a hybrid Rover; what model we would want in our dreams! We talked about living in California and buying a vacation home first, because we don't know where we want to settle. Anyways... There wasn't really lunch to be eaten. We split the left over soup from Gus and the left over chicken breast, back and wing. That was lunch, I suppose, plus coffee cake.
Then we watched The Kids Are All Right. Have you seen it? You should! It was good, really really good. Like maybe moved into my top 10. There are some graphic scenes, so consider this the disclaimer if you can't look past that. For dinner I was inspired by a dish I had seen on KERF for clams and linguine. I cooked some fettucine (apparently they don't sell linguine at Supermaxi). I boiled some green beans for 10 minutes, leaving them crunchy. I cut up two tomatoes, one for Ryan and one for me. Then I heated up the extra tomato sauce I had made for the lasagna. I added a big handful of spinach and a big handful of swiss chard to the sauce. Let them wilt and then added onion chopped onion at the very end after I had turned off the heat. When the pasta was done I added the tinned mussels to the sauce. Into each bowl went noodles, a tomato, green beans and the sauce (with spinach, swiss chard, onion and mussels). It was DELICIOUS! Seriously so good. We both loved it! The perfect pasta dish for spring and summer, not too heavy but still very filling.
Then I got into bed and read some more of The Penguin History of Latin America.
It's actually really interesting now that we've moved out of the colonial days and into nation building.Today is a beautiful day in Quito. I want to make the most of it. The only thing that we have to do is go to Mascotas and buy the water bottle, pee pads and dog tags for Chuki's American Adventure. Then... who knows!?!
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