Friday, October 1, 2010

Around Ecuador

Below are some photos of our life around Ecuador!

\
Pete and Joseph watching a parade in downtown Guayaquil. The parade was for celebrating Simon Bolivar, the man who helped liberate South America from Spanish control.

Some of our condo-mates sharing a meal together on the patio. Left to right: Valerie from Brazil (originally from the US), me, Pete, Joseph, Rory and Jo from South Africa and Lena from Brazil. Everyone is so great and we are enjoying the community-feel of our new neighbors!!

The Malecon 2000 in downtown Guayaquil. This is a long walkway along the river with shops, restaurants, an IMAX theatre, a botanical garden, a petting zoo and other fun things to do.

Another example of the houses in our neighborhood. Pretty fancy. I love the blue sky!
 One of the houses in our gated community, Puerto Azul. Notice the foothills of the Andes mountains!
One of the parks in our neighborhood.

 This is a lunch we enjoyed today at the school, made for the new teachers. Yummy! We had delicious Ecuadorian cookies for dessert.

A very cool tree that we saw downtown on the Malecon 2000.  
Awwww - the most awesome, fun couple from South Africa - Rory and Joann Brown. Rory (or Mr. B) teaches P.E. and Joann (Jo) teaches 2nd grade. They are so fun and I am thoroughly enjoying their South African accent and vocabulary for certain words. I hope they are not getting sick of me laughing at their language! For example, a grocery cart is a "trolley", the school office mailboxes are "pigeon holes", a car horn is a "hooter" and a barbeque is a "barbie" or "brie" (pronounced "bry"). I love it!!!! :) They are so fun!!

One of the many beautiful palm trees here. I really like this "fan" one!

I love the orange wall! WOW! Let's see - from left to right...Valerie, the new music teacher who taught in Madagascar (her husband is from Brazil - she has lived in the US - mostly the Northwest), Gary and Matthew with their mom Gali - they are from Columbia and have lived in St. Louis...
and of course, Pete and Joseph!

Some pictures of school

Here are some photos of the school where we are teaching.

This building holds the library and the elementary classrooms.



T
The yellow building holds some of the high school classes, including
Pete's science classes and chemistry lab.

Yeah - what a great playground!

Some of the musical instruments in the music room.

The school's swimming pool!

Iguanas are a normal presence here. Kind-of
like squarrels in the U.S.

\
Joseph and his new bike. We ride our bikes to and from school every day.


                                                     Joseph's teacher, Mr. Mathis.

                                                      Me in front of my classroom!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

The First Few Days...

Here are some photos of our first few days in Ecuador.
Pete, Joseph and I on the campus of InterAmerican Academy.
There are lots of palm trees, birds and lush tropical flora.
It reminds me of "Fantasy Island!"
Dr. Jim O'Hara, the man who hired us back in February
at the University of Northern Iowa international
teaching job fair. Thanks Jim!

The patio outside our condo. We share this space with the other teachers in the
apartment complex. A great place for  relaxing, chatting and sharing meals. 
The swimming pool outside our patio. So nice to swim and
cool down on a hot day. The hottest days are yet to come!