School & Spring Break

 Erika, Erika, Jenny, Alison, Silvia, and Maria from my 3rd level English class outside doing a "5 senses scavenger hunt".

 Spring Break stop one = Banos. We rented bikes and rode to El Diablo waterfall, went bungee jumping off a bridge, took a gondola ride over a valley, and sat at the edge of a waterfall just to name a few things.

 Stop two was Cuenca, the oldest city in Ecuador. This is a picture from the National Park which has over 3,000 lagoons like this one in it! It was beautiful and we lucked out by finding some other tourists who shared their truck with us and let us tag along for free!

 

Julie, Julia, CeCe, and I at the park

 Lunch at the Taj Mahal restaurant...nom nom

 On our second day in Cuenca, we took a bus ride to some Incan ruins that were really cool.

 Cuenca is also world famous for inventing Panama Hats! We took a tour of their factory and learned that this misnomer came about because the hats were often shipped to Europe through Panama so they get the credit.

 Alison wearing her birthday crown as we studied "Celebrations" in English class (:

 Jenny displaying her "5 senses" book in English class.

 The girls with their birthday cakes and candles...make a wish!

 This was toooo cute! One day while I was setting up before English class, Karen, Patti, Evellyn, and Marisol took the instruments from the Church and made a marching band singing the Days of the Week song I taught them!

 Cotto Girls Program took a field trip to the park last Friday and the girls brought things to have a picnic!

 All they wanted to do was play in the fountain but the park security guards told them they couldn't....

 they couldn't until the police man came up to me, told me they were still not allowed to swim, but that he was going to take a five minute walk & then he winked and left (: They had so much fun splashing around!

 Julie with our two Manuelas in Adult Ed. They are learning how to read!!!

 Kristin with Maria Juana and Maria Eloisa in Adult Ed. They are our special students so they know about 5 letters now and we are working on patterns and money too.

 Me with 10 braids in my hair after some serious craft time when I visited Damaris' house (:

 Her turn...haha

 Adrian, their neighbor, is a new Center kid too!

 These are my new business girls! They are freshman and they have spent the whole year studying business, sewing, bakery, and beauty school. Then they pick the specialty area they want to continue studying and just focus on that for the next two years. I love the girls who picked business and they all have really outgoing social personalities which is awesome for sales but a little more tricky for classroom management haha

Melanie & I