I think we should have all weighed in at the beginning of the festive eating weekend and at then end. I am quite sure the combined increase in weight would be fairly significant. Not complaining, I feel very lucky to have been invited to two fantastic dinners. In fact, last night I left Jessica's in pain from total over eating. And I am not sure I will require food again till Wednesday.
I had a lovely weekend, and feel very grateful for some pretty great friends here.
Macaroni and Cheese Pizza..
First event, Ashley and Adrian's
Hair of the dog after Chiva the night before
Sunday Jessica and Jimmy's
My girl
Sunday's gang. A great weekend and the next month will be a lot of the same, the holiday season has truly kicked off.
First a big huge Happy birthday to Mark Russo, the man that made this event happen. He also actually happens to me the man that helped me come to Ecuador, and so in some way I have him to thank for my upcoming wedding. To celebrate his birthday he hired a Chiva. What is a Chiva you may ask? Well it is only the funniest night you could possibly ever have, like ever. A truck blaring with great dancing tunes, driving you through the streets of Quito serving an Ecuadorian cocktail, it was fantastic. It was so good in fact, that when it finished, I had the whole Chiva back to mine.
We first headed to this mans flat for the pre-party
All the ladies fought over who got to cut the cake and give this man a kiss.
Then the real party began.
No one wanted the party to end, so all back to mine to continue the dancing. This is the first night I have been properly out in Quito (not to someones house), this entire school year I think. It was really such a great night, going to miss this bunch next year!
Happy Thanksgiving to all my wonderful American friends!! I am blessed to have all of them in my life and happy to celebrate with them over the next few days.
The celebrations were kicked off last night with wine cocktail night. Shannon, again, pulled off an amazing night and may I add she looked amazing!
Love these ladies, and looking forward to weekend a head celebrating with them!
Well Lola's birthday sure took a lot out of me, almost a week and no post. I have thought about ranting about people's ignorance when it comes to Syrian refugees and well many other things but decided against it. I love Facebook as a tool to keep in touch but boy does it show how ignorant people can be. Anyways, I decided against the rant so will stop now!
I had a very nice weekend, a very rare date night on Friday, a relaxing movie day Saturday and a big family roast on Sunday. It was slightly ambitious having only made one for two last week, but I pulled it off. I think his family was just so relieved to see me cook chicken for Luis that it did not matter that the veggies could have been warmer. In all seriousness, I usually insult my cooking, but it did go exceptionally well. Even my Yorkshire puddings were near perfect.
I am amazingly lucky and thankful to have such a wonderful in-law family. They are all excited for the wedding and I cannot wait for them to meet my family. Dad, I have bigged up your Spanish, so you better keep practising!
Poor Lola was forced to have a tenth birthday party last night. Her idea of a celebration would just be lying on her bed with a big piece of meat. But my idea of a celebration is a little different, lots of people, food, drinks, dancing.. And to be honest I think Lola enjoyed herself, she certainly liked her presents and seemed pretty excited about the cake. I was happy to be hostess again, as it seems like ages since I have had people over. Unfortunately, I think my food was pretty awful, forgot a key ingredient in my lasagna but people were polite and ate it anyways!
She really loved her cake, look how excited she is getting ready for all to sing. She was also spoiled rotten with new toys, bones and even a shiny new collar. Again, a happy happy tenth birthday to my gal.
In my attempts to save money, for the event that seems to look more and more expensive each day (wedding), I am trying to see how little money I can spend. I must say in November I have done very well, spending very little cash. This weekend was no exception. Friday we had a happy hour provided by work, Saturday I attended a friends child's birthday party and Sunday I pretty much cooked all day. I have promised Luis a Sunday roast for ages, and actually cannot quite believe I have not had one since moving here, some of my favourite days in UK and Basel. Well I should have done it sooner, it was a huge success and Luis loved it. He thought the Yorkshire puddings were fabulous and I must say my Jamie roast veggies and gravy were brilliant. It is a bit of a put off to do another though, after three hours of cooking resulted in 15-20 minutes of eating.
beginning of my Roast dinner
Oh and how could I forget, we baby sat River yesterday afternoon. We had a nice walk and some play time in the park. What a good baby!
We decided to have Lola's big birthday party on Monday and just have a mini celebration last night. As football is more like a religion here, we thought it better to give Lola her own special party another day. So a few people came over to watch the game and toast Lola's ten years. We had a great night, celebrating Ecuador as their team went top of the table. It was great to watch in the comfort of our patio and still be able to hear all the cheers and celebrations from the nearby stadium. Lola was also very happy with her first birthday present and wore it with pride.
Lola on the run, River on the chase
No doubt he is from Ecuador
We love this little guy
Two very handsome men!
I have been so excited for today, what a special day, my baby girl is 10!! I cannot express the joy that she has brought me over the last ten years, we have done so much together and just her being around has helped me through some difficult times. Tonight we will be having a small family celebration (not competing with international football games) and next week will be her big party, ten years is a bit land mark it deserves at least two parties!
My beautiful sun worshiper, just like her mummy
My food hider, I love that she buries all her treats to then dig up a few days later
Lola our navigator, always watching where we are going.
Her first picture at 10! She is so excited it is her birthday she would not let me in the picture!
Over the weekend we had lunch with Luis's family, and a conversation got me thinking about perception. One thing, that I really enjoy about teaching is we are constantly having sessions about brain research in order for us to teach in the most effective manner. I have learnt so much and I can say if a lot of this research had been around 100 years ago, half of us would be living on Mars teleporting all through the galaxy. This particular conversation got me thinking about perception, or maybe experiences is a better word. Two people can have had the same experience but come out with totally different feelings or beliefs about that experience. For instance, when I was robbed at the beach with my three friends in May, we had totally different descriptions of the man who robbed us. The police came and I was positive he had black shorts, and something over his face, others said red shorts, no mask, bald, hair, crooked teeth, fine teeth, but none of described the same man. Trauma can do funny things to your mind, we were all positive each one of us had the right description (brings into question eye witnesses). We use this sort of thought process in class, as it is amazing how different the students experiences are with the same teacher and same lesson. Some will come out raving about an amazing lesson and others will think it was a disaster. Neither student is wrong of course, their experience of the same thing is different.
ANYWAYS, this all stemmed for a conversation about crime. His family were so surprise that us foreigners feel a little fearful in Quito and that a good percentage of us had been robbed. This is probably for many reasons one possibly is that crime is under reported, a lady was robbed outside my flat on Thursday (5pm) the cops were called and they never came (this is common). Also because they know the city, where to go where not too, they look like Ecuadorians (probably as they are) and maybe therefore are not as targeted. It was just so surprising to me how we have totally different real opinions and experiences about the state of crime here. And also a good reminder of how different people can see the same thing or event.
It was a lovely lunch as usual, they always have a delicious spread. I really need to work on my Spanish, but must say my understanding is coming along, slowly slowly, but coming along.
I am totally addicted to weather and weather forecasts. I am also totally affected by weather, it really can have dramatic effects on my mood and humour on any given day. And to torture myself, I do check the weather of every place I have ever lived on a daily basis (now this is clearly a no win situation as only once or twice a year am I better off then Barbados). For instance I know that Basel is having some crazy heat wave and it was 25 degrees yesterday, in November! This was particularly painful as yesterday was the coldest rainiest day I have seen here for a very long time. You could never imagine that I live a few km's away from the equator on days like yesterday. I saw locals wearing wooly hats, scarves and big winter coats, this may have seemed a bit over dramatic to some of the other immigrants here in Quito, but boy did I wish I had mine with me. And today I have woken up to a beautiful, stunning day where it is clear that the equator is just around the corner. I wish I had taken photos to show the contrast, but anyways you will have to suffer through my pretty ones instead.
These days are definitely less common this time of year, so I plan to take full advantage. Me and Lola already had a long walk in the park and suspect we will have another one in the near future.
I am currently sitting in a hammock playing a ridiculous sentence game with team Montanita 2015. The last night of a great long weekend of laughs, food, a little sun and a lot of rum. Our little Ecua family, have again managed a brilliant weekend together.
We are now on our way to cocktail alley, the name says it all. I have had a great time but must say I am missing the L's in my life like crazy so looking forward to getting home too.
This year has been so busy, I have not seen these people properly at all. A moment here a moment there, but not nearly enough time. Time seems to be flying by and I know that these times may be some of our last altogether. I am not trying to be my over dramatic self, it is just the reality of being an international teacher. I think Basel was a bit different, most of my teacher friends are still there. It is kinda a place you go to settle. But here, two or three years is normal before moving on to explore a new place. However, I am not complaining, I know it is a great profession and way to see the world. Also, hopefully everyone who is moving on will go to some amazing places so I can visit them! In the mean time, I better move on from this sappy moment and enjoy my long weekend with these special people.
I do love Montanita. Really has a Thailand feel to it, and I love Thailand. Now what I need is the sun to come out properly, two over cast days on the beach is simply not ok!
Macaroni and Cheese Pizza..
First event, Ashley and Adrian's
Hair of the dog after Chiva the night before
Sunday Jessica and Jimmy's
My girl
Sunday's gang. A great weekend and the next month will be a lot of the same, the holiday season has truly kicked off.
