You know what I did last weekend...

Alright, mis queridos...one last weekend update to share with you some sights, some adventures, and a little bit more of Ecuador :)

An incomparable sunset over Quito with a view of Volcan Cotopaxi

Friday, we were all feeling the need that comes for celebration with the end of a TESOL course week. So, we headed - Brianna, Lindsay, John, Raed and myself - to the Mariscal for a real dinner of our choosing, and ended up at the Magic Bean, como siempre.

There are a few reliable things here, actually. The weather is not one of them. 

But the Magic Bean will always be the best choice for dinner in la Mariscal, 

TESOL will always be stressful (even right to the very end), 

the altitude will hit you every time you walk uphill, 

my sister and her boyfriend will get into at least one nonsensical fight every week, 

every other taxi cab driver will try to overcharge you, 

and the buses will always fill la Avenida America with the unavoidable stench of diesel fumes.

Go out with a...HIGH PASS lesson! (aka, bang)

I always knew Audrey Hepburn was the right choice.

Eliza Doolittle, the flower girl

Eliza Doolittle...lady?

We teach who we are, and I am an Audrey Hepburn fan. She hasn't failed me yet. :)

Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing

Let's talk about a weekend in Baños.


...no, let's not. Let's show. :)

The side of Volcan Tungurahua, the 3rd-largest volcano in Ecuador and entirely active

Saturday morning and out to breakfast after a 2 am arrival Friday night!

Oh, just chillin in the hammocks waiting for our guide.

Courtyard of our hotel: La Petit Auberge. 

On a bicycle tour of the waterfalls

This is what happens when I take photos and ride a bike simultaneously: some cool photos of our guide in front, AND the speed bump I almost wiped out on por la culpa de la camara.

Brianna and Lindsay behind...

Mountains in the clouds, beginning to feel normal here!

Twin falls

How do you say...SUCCESS?

"Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." - Helen Keller

La Basilica de Baños

My first real adventure of the weekend was Friday, in my third class of the week. 

Each class is an adventure because, as an ESL-teacher-in-training, you never know how your class is going to react to your lesson or even how your lesson is going to unfold (perhaps unravel) in real time. Going into Friday, I had had one huge learning experience of a lesson (in other words, a flop -- or so it seemed in my initial reaction) on Monday, a half-flop, half-success on Wednesday, and another challenging lesson plan readied for my students. Because despite all of this, I still thought they could take it.

Teach what you know, learn what you don't

"A mistake is like a gift to the class."

I've been a very giving person this week.

My mid-week lesson was a huge topical shift from the not-so-inspirational-after-all lesson on Monday:

Cooking.

If you just laughed, you probably know me well.

I don't cook. Or rather, I do, I just can't stand to. (But I do like to eat. In the framework of independent living, cooking becomes a rather necessary function at that point.) However, some of my younger students had indicated a real interested in learning "to cook in English." Since Monday's lesson had been so intimidating for them, I thought this might be a nice change. Useful vocabulary and functions, but not hard to learn.

Well, it turns out it is actually quite challenging to learn the objectives of a lesson when you don't complete them.

Learning to Fail

"I have failed my way to success." - Thomas Edison

a teacher, learning

I had gone to sleep on Sunday night, como ya tu sabes, on a cloud floating above the world: from here perspective encompassed humanity on a grand scale and peace was abundant in such a position closer to the heavens.

Monday morning, I woke up in the very dirt of earth. I just didn't know it yet.

My confidence went before me with steady strides as I neared my second teaching lesson Monday afternoon after our TESOL classes terminated. El tema, or the theme, of my lesson was sure-fire: the students would be working backwards to dissect inspirational quotes from figures in the range of British and American history. The lesson would start with a warm-up activity as simple as ABC - literally.

From the start, says my colleague, the indefatigable John, the planets were aligned against me. (I thanked him later for blaming the universe on my behalf.) Monday brought a group of TESOL participants cranky and irritable, full of smart-alecky comments like me. There was just a pervasive attitude problem in the air. 

The students, our lovely intermediate-speaking English students, were under the same cloud when they came in the door at four o'clock. I don't mean to imply that they were rude; I'm sure the day is far when I will experience anything like American student disposition from an Ecuadorian in my class. However, they were quiet, and obstinately so. They weren't in a creative mood, they weren't in a happy mood, they weren't in a fun mood. And they hit me with my first shock in the first five minutes.

Mindo, and everything that's changed my life since

For my father, who wanted me to write more...and obviously forgot which child he was asking.

Seeing is believing.

Ok, I know we usually like to save the best for last.

But this time, I'm just going to come right out and hit ya with it: that photo is me.

WITH EL PRESIDENTE DE LA REPUBLICA, Rafael Correa.

From left to right, that is: Brianna, travel and TESOL buddy, Señor Correa, president of Ecuador, and me, Nikki, perhaps the most blessed woman alive.

Now we're TESOL-ing: brace yourself for acronyms

"We teach who we are."

“When learning is central teaching becomes subordinate to it.”

MY classroom!

I have to admit...originally TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) was just an excuse.

I wanted to travel, more than anything. One foreign country a year, a goal unbroken since 2007. But I wanted to be slightly productive, and put a focus on improving my Spanish fluency in preparation for grad school or a career opportunity or...well, just for fluency.

Somewhere around the time when I was getting quotes in the neighborhood of $4-$5,000 (not including airfare) to sit on my butt somewhere in a latin american country learning to speak el espanol a little better, I decided that this goal was too lazy, too.

So began my destiny with TESOL.

Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air

13,400' up in the Andes

Think a little clear mountain air might be just the thing to clear your head sometimes? 

Think again.

Esto es Ecuador

A weekend spent afuera (out) in Quito...

Jakob, Carl, Brianna and I at el Centro Cultural

The entirely cylindrical mall in la Mariscal

Amazingly picturesque presidential Plaza

In front of the famous Iglesia del San Francisco

There's so much to say, it's hard to know where to begin. Pues, para empezar, let's give a HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY SHOUT OUT to everybody at home who're probably gazing skyward at grand fireworks finales and eating barbequed hamburgers and apple pie. I'm celebrating my first Fourth "abroad", but I'll always be proud to live in the USA! I'm loving on Ecuador a lot from this blog, but I'm doing it from an American heart. Which I will always defend as a good thing, even when I take the mindset of a global citizen or find myself in a situation needing to apologize for my country.

Now no te preocupes, this is not a political blog. I want you to read it, after all. ;) But it IS the 4th of July, and it's the first one I've "missed".

Now, back to Ecuador.