LISA'S VISIT (:

Well after a long hard trimester here at the Center, it is nice to finally have a two week vacation. I was even more lucky because the lovely Lisa came to visit (: She is only here for 4 short days but we have crammed a ton of fun things in.

Day One- We went to the Mitad del Mundo (equator) and walked around. Then we went to the La Marin Center #1 and Lisa got to meet some of my adorable students. Afterwards we walked around the historic district and saw the Presidential Palace and the very ornate church where the CMT actually started. Then we went to the Basilica which we learned is the third largest in the world! That made Lisa just a littleee bit terrified when we climbed up the ladder outside up to the top of the bell tower (:  After that we visited the artisans market and headed home. Since Andy, Joe, Alexis, and Megan were still all around the house we decided to hang out with them, watch a movie, get burgers for dinner, and play some card games all night. It was a jam packed first day!

Day Two- The "Extreme Ecuador" Tour continued by going to the Guayasamin Museum. He is the most famous artist from Ecuador and the museum is at his old house so it was kind of cool to see. Then we walked down to my favorite place, Parque Carolina, where we got some ice cream and rented pedal boats to go around the river in the park! It was super fun and Lisa and I were pro's making some 4 or 5 laps before our time ran out. Then it started to drizzle a little so we stopped in El Jardin Mall where Lisa had some authentic Ecuadorian Ceviche for lunch (I opted for the authentic McDonalds...haha it's been a while okay!) and we nosed around for some souvenirs. That night we cooked up a tasty pasta salad with all the Christmas Meal leftovers and had a feast!

Day Three- We woke up early and caught a bus to Mindo which is a town like 2 1/2 hours away. We didn't really know what to expect but once we got there we realized it was the coolest place on earthhh! The plan was to go ziplining but when we got to the tour company we saw an add for Canyoning and decided to do that instead. What is canyoning you might ask? It involves climbing a mountain and then repelling down it's waterfalls to get back to the ground level! It was amazing!! We both slipped many times and got soaked but that was part of the fun I guess! Our guide was super nice too and he had a cute little dog that was more adventurous than all of us! After we hiked back to the road we decided what better way to dry off than to go ziplining, right? So we thought we could squeeze in 3 cables in 20 minutes and still make it to our bus in time. We got to do 2 cables and it was the most beautiful view in the world!!! We glided over canyons filled with forests! It was a mad dash to get back to the bus in time but luckily we made it & got first class seats sitting on the floor in the aisle for the 2 1/2 hour ride back (: We went home, ate, showered,  and then I exposed Lisa to Ladies Night Ecuador-style! It was a very fun night with lots of dancing & we topped it all off with the worlds best burritos.

Day Four- Today is sadly Lisa's last day :( We are going to the TeleferiQ which is a cable car that goes up a mountain and gives you a great view of the city! Then we will ride horses around Pinchincha Volcano! We stopped at the market on the way home and picked up some souvenirs. Then we had dinner back at the house with the Madres and Padre before watching a movie and resting up after a long, busy, fun vacation.

 

the view from the top

 us caballeras with volcan pinchinca in the background

 It has been an amazing week with so many fun activities crammed in! THANK YOU THANK YOU LISA for coming to visit!!! I loveee youuu!!! Also I hope this has convinced some other people out there to come for a visit (: (: It's superrr fun (: (: xoxo

Merry Christmas!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY LOVED ONES!!! I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy the time to relax with family and friends (: I am lovingggg my Christmas in Ecuador so far. Yesterday I baked those tasty looking Phil Delrue cookies, we went to a Gringo Mass (first Mass in English since I got here), and we went to Padres church way up in the mountains. Then we came back home by 11, ate delicious sandwiches and lots of sweets, played games, and exchanged secret santa gifts. Now I am off to the first of 2 First Communion Masses today & I am so lucky to have been chosen to be the Madrina for one of my students, Sayne. Then we have a big feast for 60 people here at the house. And to top it all off Lisa comes to visit tonighttt! I hope you are all as full of food & full of joy as I am here in Ecuador this Christmas! xoxoxo Much Love, Meredith

Fiestas del Centro & Fiestas del Quito

I know it's only December but I think this was just my favorite weekend here yet! Every year the city of Quito shuts down on the 6th to celebrate its founding and there are parties the whole week leading up to it. Also, the school celebrates its founding on the 5th with a HUGE all day long party! I'll put up pictures soon of all the fun things that went on but for now I'll just tell you...

Saturday- In the morning a bunch of the other volunteers and I went to a BULL FIGHT! It was mostly gross and sad but it was a great cultural experience and I'm really glad that I went! They only have bull fights five days a year during these fiestas so it is a very upper class thing to do and the people there reminded me of the Kentucky Derby almost. They all had the same type of hats and all the ladies were wearing high heels...we were very under dressed!
In the afternoon, we went to the Center #1 in La Marin to decorate it for the fiesta on Monday. David and I had made paper chains all week in art class so we were able to cover the entire ceiling in the dining hall and the downstairs gathering area. It looked so so nice and it was fun to help put it together!
That night we saw a free concert in Parque Carolina from this cool singer La Mala Rodriguez as part of the cities free celebrations. All the volunteers went out so it was really fun!

Sunday- I climbed a VOLCANO!! Me, Kristin, Julie, Juliana, and Andy took the TeleferiQ which is a cool gondola ride part way up a mountain. From there we hiked about 3 more hours up to the summit of Volcan Pinchincha which is over 15,000 ft high!!! There were some surprisingly difficult parts where we had to scramble up looser rocks than I have ever climbed in the past. We met up with a group of expatriates who were hiking that day also and they kind of help us as guides which was so nice and I don't know if we could have done it without them. It started raining as we went down which was a little scary on the rocks but it stopped after a short time. Then my favorite part was  when we came to a sand field (maybe volcanic ash or erosion or something...I'm not sure why it was at the top of a mountain but) and we slid/skied down it instead of hiking the same rocky path! It cut off a bunch of time and was super super fun! Needless to say that tired us all out and we went to bed early to prepare for...

Monday- A.K.A. the Center's birthday! The day started with all the volunteers preparing a pancake breakfast for all the families from both centers. I was busy chopping up fruit for the salad and then I was on dishwasher duty for the next two hours. It was great beacuase pancakes aren't a common Ecuadorian food so the families really enjoy it. Also I made a friend while washing dishes and she invited me to her house for lunch one day which I am very excited about!
Then from 8:30 am to 11:30 am the whole school had a carnival where the kids and adults could win tickets and get prizes! Us volunteers made an obstacle course, relay races, water balloon toss, and most importantly a dunk tank! Everyone had to take a turn getting soaked and it took four boys to lift the garbage can of water that they dumped on me (:
Next we had a special mass to celebrate Padre Juan and Padre Roberto's 50 years of priesthood. It was amazing because both schools were combined we filled up the entire Church area and adjacent cafeteria!
In the afternoon we all took the bus down to the La Marin school where there was a nice dinner followed by either bingo, a movie, or a DANCE (: I had so so much fun dancing with all the little kids and my adults from adult ed. It was an amazing day!
To top it all off we rented a Chiva (aka party bus) that night to celebrate the fiestas del centro y de quito. While I didn't imbibe at all because I had a skype interview this morning, I certainly did enjoy dancing! My friend Joanie and I especially enjoyed trying to get the people on the sidewalks that we would pass to copy our stellar dance moves (:

Tuesday- I plan on not leaving the house to rest up after this amazing weekend!  haha

!Viva Quito!

Liga Futbol Game & Some of my GIRLS (:

Sorry I am so behind on updating this blog! Here are some pictures from the Liga Futbol game we went to like a month ago. The stadium is only like a 10 minute walk from our house and games only cost $5 to $10 to go!

 

These are my friend Kristin and Alexis who I went to the game with!

  

We got there like 2 hours early by accident so the stadium was still pretty empty in this picture, it did fill up though! 

And here are some pictures of one of my Girls Program groups (: On Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday after English classes we have this program where the girls take showers, read in the library, use computers, and then either have Cooking, Sewing, or Crafts for an hour.

 

Rosita, Marcia, and Evelyn (: 

 

These are the same girls with the Director of Center #1 after we made and delivered her birthday cards!

Cartas de Amor

Hi! Sorry it has been so long since I posted on here! I just wanted to send out a quick notice that Padre Juan will be in New York in about 1 1/2 weeks sooo I have the address of where he will be if you would like to send me any love letters (: (:

MJ Mastrella
46 E. Cherry Street
Floral Park, NY 11001

Padre is not bringing a big bag with him so please don't send anything big but I would love to get some letters! Maybe you could throw some pictures in there too! Or a mix cd of all the cool music I'm missing out on! Gracias! Love you all muchoo xoxo

Papallacta Hotsprings

Two weekends ago we took a trip to Papallacta Hotsprings to relax for a little bit after busy weeks teaching. It was sooo relaxing!

 

La Basillica y El Centro HIstorico

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS to  RILEY BURGAMY my new great-cousin who was born today (: (: I can't wait to meet you xoxo

Life here in Ecuador is going well! I am falling more and more in love with my students every day, learning more and more about how to run a classroom, and exploring the city more on the weekends!

Last Saturday we had parent teacher conferences at 8 in the morning. It was good to meet all of the parents and it was helpful to realize who is related to who.

After that some of my friends & I decided to explore the historic district of Quito again and visit the Basilica (you may remember the one picture from my first weekend here when we tried to go to the historic district and got rained on the whole time...this time was better)

 

This is the view walking up the hill to the historic area. It was very crowded!!

  The Basilica was BEAUTIFUL and HUGE!!! 

 

We bought tickets and were able to climb to the top of one side and also to the top of the Bell Tower. It was great because you would never be allowed to do that in the US. They were just metal ladders going up like 5 stories on the outside of these towers!

 

It was scary but very very beautiful once you got to the top. My friend CC is not a big fan of heights so she stayed on the ground and waved to us at the top! 

 

There were great views of the whole city and the Angel Statue on the Hill which is a major landmark for Quito. 

 

While we were walking back down we happened to notice a cafe that happened to serve beers so we happened to buy one and enjoy the view from the top of the Church (: It was a great afternoon!

And Sunday we went to a sports bar and I got to watch the Packers dominate & eat a cheeseburger (:

el mitad del mundo!!

 On Sunday a group of the volunteers and I decided to take a trip to el mitad del mundo a.k.a. the EQUATOR!! We took a bus there and you get off at this very touristy park with a monument and huge gardens to mark the equator. However, it marks the wrong equator! haha Since the invention of GPS they have discovered that the equator is actually a little bit further away than this monument. So we walked down the road and went to a more seedy, yet more official, equator line and museum (It reminded me slightly of the Petrified Wood Gardens in South Dakota if that's any hint... )

 

Joe, Megan, Julie, Julia, Andy, Alexis, CC, Kristin, and Julia outside the front gate (: 

Packers vs. Bears in 2 hours...duhh I wore my Packer Gear to the equator! 

 

Our nice tour guide showing us animals that we might want to avoid here in Ecuador...

 

Yeah, those are real 150 year old shrunken heads

 

LUNCH! haha just kidding! I still haven't eaten any guinea pig (:

 

cool totem poles from across central & south america

 

The COOLEST part about going to the equator are the little experiments they do to show how the gravitational forces are less and how other things like the coriolis effect don't apply there. 

1. First, they spun a globe really fast. If you look at it from the north pole it appears to be moving clockwise and if you spun it and looked from the south pole it appears to spin counter-clockwise but the equator always looks the same. They then showed this by putting a big sink on the equator line, pulling the plug, and you could see leaves just drain straight down. Then they moved the sink like 3 feet south of the equator and you could see a little twister forming in the water & the leaves would spin all around! Then they moved the sink 3 feet to the north and the twister spun the opposite way as the water drained!! It was wild! 

 

(One of my friends took a video which is way cooler than this picture so I'll post that once I get it from her!)

2. The second experiment was to show how much less resistance we have on the Equator. First we all stood on the Southern Hemisphere and laced our two hand together, arms straight out, level with our head. The guide would count to 3 and then push down. Most people could resist this pretty well (although not me with my scrawny arms...haha) Then we moved to the line at the equator and tried the same exact thing again. Even the strongest boys had ZERO resistance when they were on the line! It was very cool! 

3. The third test was to close your eyes, hold your arms out to the side, and try and walk a straight line on the equator. It was hilarious to watch everyone do it because everyoneeee tips over!! It is the weirdest feeling like you are being pulled one way or the other by some kind of force! 

4. And last but not least...the old "balancing an egg on the head of a nail" trick! I unfortunately didn't do it on my turn & then another tour group came up behind us so I had to stop trying but like three girls from our group could do it and our guide could do it in 3 seconds!

 

All in all it was an amazing day trip and I had a great time! Check out some more pictures that my friends have posted on Facebook & I'll try to load that video up here soon! xoxox

Weekly Update

Wheww this week went fast! Classes are going well but I'm still adjusting to working from 8 am to 8:30 pm everyday. Today seven of the volunteers and I went downtown to get our censados which are like our identification cards you need to carry with you when you travel around here. We had to leave our house at 7:30 this morning which was tough and we didn't get back home until 1:30 so it was a long day with lots of waiting around. However, we meet some nice Canadians who teach here at an English school so that was good!

 

 On an unrelated note, I now have 300 new nicknames that my friends have come up with here (: They begin with Mere and then say any word that starts with the letter "d" haha For example, there is MereDiversity, MereDope, MereDon'tStopBelieving, and many many more as you can see in this picture of the interactive nametag on my bedroom door.

Also I was able to hang up some pictures in my room this last week (: I love you all & miss you & love seeing your smiling faces on my wall now xoxox

Time Flys!!

Today is my ONE MONTH marker for living here in Ecuador! It flew by so quickly!! I have been teaching for 2 weeks now and it's going great because we have 2 retired teachers here to help us. They have given us so many helpful tips on classroom management and these kids at the Center are pretty wild so I've needed all the help I can get! (:

My favorite class so far is girls English level 3 which has about 6 nine and ten year old girls. They are super well behaved so we can play a lot of games and do a lot of activities in class without getting out of control. On Friday we played "telephone" to practice saying What time is it? and answering with It's ____. They loved whispering and passing the answer around the circle.

My most difficult class so far is definitely my Human Relations class for all three levels of high school girls. There are no plans that exist from previous years except for one 6 week unit the freshman should learn and the director of the program is not being the most helpful person. Also it was no fun being a 13 or 14 year old and my colegio girls definitely are in that awkward stage right now. I think one of our trainers, Cory, will come into my class on Wednesday and try to help me get these girls to buy into the class and their education to see that it is their best chance to change their lives.

Today I am celebrating my 1 month anniversary by writing lesson plans (: A visitor just arrived this morning & brought us all teacher manuals to go along with the English workbooks we have for our classes so I am really excited to have that! It will make planning much easier and probably more effective! Oh and of course I will be watching the Packers beat the panthers (: (:

scheduleee

Is it a bad sign that classes haven't even started yet & I'm posting my list of vacation days already? hahaha joking! While it is overwhelming right now making plans for so many different classes, I'm just looking forward to actually starting on Monday!! Then I'm sure everything will become more clear & fall into place.

But for now if any of you are looking for a top notch vacation to El Mitad del Mundo, here are my days off where I could be your top notch tour guide (:

November 2nd -6th
December  26th- January 8
February 18-21
April 6-15
And anytime after July 13th

There are like 10 or 15 guest rooms here & the door is always open (:

teaching assignments

Today we finally found out what we will be teaching for the next year! I have:

1st grade English (3x a week)
3rd grade English (3x a week)
Art (1st-6th grade)
Human Relations- for high school girls
Computers- 1st level for hs girls
Girls Program
anddd
Adult Basic Education

I'm going to be busyyy!!!

el mercado artesenal

Today we all decided to check out el mercado artesenal which was like a 20 minute ride from our house. It was about a block long & just full of different booths with vendors selling different things. A lot of it was touristy stuff like key chains and shot glasses but some of my friends got cool things like blankets, purses, rugs, hammocks, and scarves. I trieddd to remind myself that I will be here for a year & didn't need to buy every cool thing I saw but I did walk away with...

 

a cool Ecua-Headband (which is hard to see in this picture, sorry!) that is yellow, red, and green for only $2 bucks!

 

I also got a Liga jersey! They are Quito's home team & I can see their stadium from my window so I am sure we will be going to a game one of these days (: 

Well today was very fun but tomorrow we go back to work with our first Minga of the year. We have to meet at 7 a.m. tomorrow & will drive up into the mountains to build or add on to a home. I hear it is something like the Amish barn raising in the past...haha Anyway the Madres told us to expect that it will be hard & dirty work but I'm sure it will be a great experience!

tid bits

1.      1.  Chapas means the lock on a door. It is also slang for police in Ecuador who are know for being corrupt. Chapas dormidas literally means sleeping police but it is the word for speed bumps in Ecuador. #respect hah

2.    

       2. I learned the hard way that it is not okay to play Frisbee with the cute little kids on my lunch break. Turns out they are supposed to be at the afternoon Mass & not running around with me…whoopsies

3.    3. I tasted an Oblea tradicional at the mall which was sooo so good! Imagine a thin wafer, like 10 inches in diameter, that tastes like a waffle cone. Then take two of those and fill the center with crème de leche and any other fruity or chocolatey filling! I ordered the traditional filling which tasted kind of like hazelnut & it was a great snack!

4.    4. Every day I have either played Frisbee, basketball, or fútbol with some other volunteers and the kids. It is super fun, a great way to pass time before dinner which isn’t until 8, and it turns out I am more athletic in Ecuador. I beat my personal best all-time scoring record in basketball by scoring a shocking 10 points last game (: 

5.       5. My picture & bio is uploaded on the WBC website….check out my terrible picture taken after a downpour & cheese ball bio here http://www.workingboyscenter.org/meet-our-volunteers

 

Those are some of my fun side stories so far but mostly we have been in orientation all day every day this week. We are learning more about the Center and getting trained by two retired teachers on how to teach which is super helpful!

bienvenidos a quito

 

Leaving at 1:30 a.m. from mi casa in Wisconsin to begin my adventure to Ecuador!

 

and 16 hours later....here I am!! This is the cool view from my room looking right out to the Centro de Muchacho Trabajador sign & onto the mountains surrounding us!

 

We each get our own HUGE rooms & bathroom with a shower built in! Also there is plenty of space in my closet for my Packers gear to hang (: 

 This is another view from our patio. Pretty pretty, huh?

And this is a blurry picture of a church! haha

It was all that I captured from our excursion to downtown Quito on Sunday. We rode the bus for an hour just to arrive at the main plaza in time for it to downpour. Also most of the vendors were closed since it was a Sunday. We still got to walk around for a while & we got coffee at the cafe so it was a very fun day after all. Good thing we are here for a year so we can go back & do the sight seeing the right way next time (: