Mark's Casa

Who doesn't like to be treated to a home cooked restaurant quality meal??? I definitely do and was so lucky to get a special invite to one. Mark, who is pretty much responsible for me meeting the man I shall marry had me for a delicious pesto vegetable filled meal last night. I am so lucky to be able to have lived in some special places and share meals with equally special people. I think here is where I should add a hash tag, but as totally do not understand hash tagging yet will have to make do with an old school thank you and mention on my small time blog. Thanks Mark and friends for as always a lovely evening.

And also a big thank you for introducing me to a new tasty white wine!

La Luna and Fuya Fuya

We woke up to a beautiful morning to start our hike up Fuya Fuya. Although La Luna was a bit slow on the uptake for breakfast, we did get some food before heading to the base of our hike. I must mention that La Luna is a beautiful place to stay, the rooms were so cozy, food good and spectacular views. And I also think a night in a hostel/cottage/b&b for under 40 dollars which included our dinner, room and breakfast is pretty good.

We had such a lovely mini escape from the city. Although I think the dogs enjoyed it most, Lola slept till today.

Mountain Weekend

Finally Friday and me, Betsy and the dogs have run to the mountains. Staying in a place I have wanted to for ages, La Luna in Otavalo. Tomorrow we will be up early to hike a nearby mountain. I have only seen the place in the dark but so far it is pretty fabulous.

Having a little dinner now and then some wine, and then bed.

Back in Highschool

I like to pretend it is because they could not survive without me, that the highschool was falling a part, a mess but funny enough that was not the case. The highschool got over subscribed and as I am actually the only one who has taught Maths studies I got my grade 12's back. And although I want to help the school, taking them back gave me a little more work and I lost my grade 6's. The first week was tough, with a few teething issues, but with such a wonderful principal and supportive colleagues, I may just survive this year.

My middle school principal (the best administrator I have ever worked for), gave me these flowers to thank me for helping out. I was having a particularly hard day and this just made all the difference. Amazing what feeling valued does to oneself.

Mindo Memories

How time flies! In one way I cannot believe I have known Luis a year and in other ways I feel like I have known him forever. But officially it was a year ago in Mindo that we met, so we thought that there was no better place to celebrate the occasion than there.
It is no secret that Mindo is one of my favourite places in Ecuador (independent of Luis), and it has just gone from strength to strength. The town has had a face lift and looks great, there are also more and more restaurants catering to not only veggies but vegans as well. Additionally, they now have a pretty cool dance club, which was actually nice and we had a great time at.

 Celebration matching t-shirts!

 Waterfall hike :)

Another great weekend in Mindo, celebrating a big first year and a lifetime more to come.

Busy Times

It is funny how you can go from one week feeling totally bored to the next where I  feel there is not a second to spare. With getting back my high school grade 12 class (a whole other blog), to a bowling rematch, quiz and salsa. But busy is good so no complaints here, although I think I could do with a quiet night tonight.

Sadly no pictures of the bowling and salsa.  It was a great week and now I need a break!

Family Lunch

Another beautiful day, for what I hope was a yummy Sunday lunch for my soon to be new family.
I feel pressure whenever cooking, but this day I was especially nervous. Mostly because every meal I have had there has been delicious. Luckily my sous chef, Jamie Oliver was close by (iPad) to give me a helping hand.

Now on two months of no clouds in Quito.

Fish pie with pea mash.
Apparently Luis prefers the one I made with no peas. However, I think I am more of a pea girl.

Three Weeks in

Only a few weeks into work and think we forget how hard it can be at times.  Yesterday was the day that got me, some changes at work had me slightly stressed out.  However, I have amazing people that I work with and we do work in a pretty great country. I think the best way to relax after a tough week are Friday happy hours. Like last year, Kristi and Desiree kicked off the year, unlike last year I was not ill, so could enjoy it.

A pretty great, long over due, friday night xxx

Ecuador's Troubles

Yesterday I was driving home and saw in front of me another huge human lite fire burning away, one of a few lately. This beautiful country is sure facing some troubled times and watching this fire I sat wondering what the future will hold for Ecuador. The low oil prices has caused serious problems (unpopular taxes, rain forest selling) and who knows what will happen with the prices next. Now there is the huge rumblings of Cotopaxi, that will explode (but who knows when) causing major devastation, and all everyone can do is watch and wait. And let's not forget El Niño and the destruction it will cause this fall, ruining crops, floods, disease..
I guess all we can do is watch and wait and be prepared as possible. I just hope nature is not so hard on this country as it is predicted to be.

There have been many fires of recent, and although some have been purposely started it has not helped that is very very dry right now.  And that smoking volcano is worrying too!

Warm up Bowling

I am not sure how Luis ever thought last night was really a match, clearly first time bowling night is a warm up night. So currently he is basking in his glory, but that will not last long as now I am all warmed up!
Last night we had a great night bowling in Quito, $2.50 a game, what a bargain for hours of entertainment. And even though Luis did manage a slight victory, I kept calm and competitive Amanda did not come out in full sulking force. And I am confident next time he will not be so lucky.
To be fair, they were all men sized finger balls!  And not to poke at the victory, but they also did not have shoes that fit me and sure socks only affected my score.

Not Sure of a Title

I have no idea what to call this, as to be honest it is fairly immature, but who is kidding who a bit funny.
I have no idea why drawing penises in text books is funny, but I can tell you almost all text books I have ever given to boys ends up with them all over. Not the girls books, really just the boys.  And I really do not why this is, but loads of male teachers have given me some theories.
Soooooo... today in a friends science class he got the kiddies to paint science pictures on the wall and the most innocent 11 year old girl painted her picture. She drew two hands pouring into a test tube and this was her masterpiece..

This image has been altered from original (as lost it), this is one after the teacher tried to make it better.

Now, it is very innocent and should not be taken of anything else but of course the older boys thought it hilarious. So now this teacher has to tell her in a very smart way why she needs more details, fingers or something. It just cracked me up and was one of these funny teaching moments that just makes my job so entertaining.

Weekend Antics

I had some sort of strange illness Friday and Saturday, not really sure what, but definitely not feeling my best. I managed to make it out for an hour for the Guapalo festival, but not so fun when you are feeling sick. From all accounts, everyone had a great time, I hate missing out!
Luckily I feel much better today and made it to a big Sunday brunch, with all the slightly hung over people from night before.

I better be one hundred percent for next weekend!

Maths Geeks

This year I am trying to help bridge the middle school/high school gap in the Maths department. It always seems crazy to me when sections of a school are on the same campus and do not talk. In fact they often have no idea what the other is doing, this is crazy. Often all three campuses (primary, middle and secondary) run totally different curriculum and programs without ever seeing how the other section does it.  It is no different here, but I am going to change this, one it is the right thing to do and two I miss the high school!
So to do this I thought the best way to start was with a Maths Geeks dinner. So we geeked it out at mine, over a Mexican and banana bread.  You may wonder why only middle and high school are represented, but most schools do not have primary maths specialists, which in itself is ridiculous (going to have to try and rectify this too, but walk before you can run and all that).
We are going to make a killer Maths department by Christmas or put on a lot of weight trying!