Todd's Adventure in Ecuador: The thrills derived from routine!

The past few days I have been pondering what to write about here on my little stage. I like to write about wild things that I am doing, eating, or experiencing here in South America. Since coming back from Belize I haven't really had anything interesting or out of the ordinary happen to me. Between co-teaching, co-planning, afternoon teacher classes, the university class and English club I haven't really gotten out of work mode. Things have gone relatively smoothly and nothing really new happened over the past 3 weeks. Just plain ole work.

When thinking about this post and what I would write I got kind of bummed. Then it hit me. I am accustomed to working and living in Ecuador. The fact that things seem normal is in of itself something abnormal.

I have posted how I have become accustomed to living here with all the eccentricities of the culture and food but now I feel like even the job has become normal and routine. In the past this has been a problem. I like my life to be fun and interesting and when things get monotonous I like to change, even if the next option is uncertain. I guess you could say I am more comfortable when I am uncomfortable. Luckily, I realize how short my time here really is and this malady of the past should not present a problem in the present. Im’a be just fine living out my last ten months here.

Now, if you made me really dig I could tell you three cool things that have happened.

-A man who owns a small store near my house greets me every day but we had never spoken more than a few seconds. The other day I went into his store for some apples and after hearing my Spanish he made a comment that he knew I wasn’t from here. I admitted I was not. Being completely serious, he responded that he had never met a Cuban in real life.

-I took the GRE in Quito. I knew that I needed to take it and start at least THINKING about my future but kept putting it off. Then I came back from Belize and looked online for test dates. I assumed I would schedule it for a month or so away in order fully prepare myself. There was only one test date and it was in five days. I threw caution to the wind and dropped the two hundred bucks to register.

The test was challenging but I did well. It was excited to be mentally challenged again. Is that the best way to say that? Oh well, at least I had the fortune of speaking English as my first language. All the other test takers that day were Ecuadorian and were really sweating it during our break. A few were ready to throw in the towel during after the verbal reasoning section. I cannot imagine being in competition with native Spanish speakers on a logical reasoning exam in Spanish. No gracias…

-A local gymnasium sponsors inexpensive day trips to areas of natural beauty. The idea is to get the people of Latacugna moving and outdoors. This sounds strikingly similar to my nature club, wonder where I got the idea…

The mud from a certain rock was a natural bug repellent. Cute huh?

This weekend we went to the Amazon rainforest. We hiked for hours and ended up at two different waterfalls. They, along with the views of the rainforest, were spectacular. The second waterfall required that you swim upstream to it. The guide kindly shuttled our cameras for us so we could devote our hands to swimming. There was a felled tree that you could climb and jump from into the pool below the waterfall. I was just like a five year old again, hold the jokes please, climbing and diving over and over again, much more than most of the Ecuadorians.

Look out point

Not the Giving Tree....the Jumping Tree

That night at dinner a woman asked if my head and shoulders felt okay. I responded I was fine but was curious why she might think my head might hurt. She and her friend both said that after all that “falling” I did off the tree I was sure to be sore in the morning. I would like to think that my diving doesn’t look as if I am simply falling off things… At any rate I am a sophisticated faller.