Its a good SATURday

Watching people watch tv is sometimes more fun than watching tv itself. Just a random thought. Because I'm watching some people watching tv right now. And its entertaining.

Also, I love lazy saturdays. Saturdays where I can make crepes (Thanks for the recipe ZOE!!!) after waking up at 10:30 (despite an 8:30 alarm of my neighbors asking to borrow a storybook).

Saturdays where after lunch, I teach my 4-year old neighbor Kendy how to wash dishes, and he gets so excited about it that after dinner, he comes up to me and says "Hey! It's time to wash dishes!" and proceeds to wash every dish in the house.

Saturdays where I can do my laundry, dry my laundry, and collect my laundry without smelling dank damp clothes inside throughout the next week.

Saturdays where I can clean my room, and fold my clothes, organize my life, and recharge the batteries on my phone, nook, and camera.

Saturdays where I can skype with my parents, sister, emotional twin, and still get 8 hours of sleep.

Saturdays where I can watch a chick flick featuring Colin Firth.

Saturdays where I am content.

Ahhh.

2o de Basica Cheesy Pie

Grate White Cheddar cheese into the bottom of a baked pie crust.

In a separate bowl, mix eggs, ahí, and Carrs macaroni and cheese. Pour mixture into the pie crust. 

Sprinkle tuna fish and bread crumbs over the top, bake. Serve hot with a cup of milk and iceburg-lettuce salad. Ketchup optional.

I Miss My Emotional Twin Pie

So, I am halfway through watching The Waitress. And despite a mediocre, predictable plot, Nathan Fillion stars in it, and the main character (that girl from August Rush) spends her life making and inventing pies. And I really like that idea. Sadly, I have neither the resources or the time to create a new pie every day. But I can invent one, and on nights when I can't sleep, I can make miniature versions out of clay and record the recipes here for when I have an industrial-sized kitchen with gleaming stainless steel countertops and knives that will actually cut through a fruit. And here is the first pie:

I Miss My Emotional Twin Pie

First you take equal parts strawberries, mora, and blueberries, but they have to just be ripe, so that they're still sour. Mix those up and simmer with sugar and a liberal amount of lemon juice. Put the berries in a crust but leave some of the juice out.

Mix cream cheese, caramel, and egg whites to make a cream to go on top, but it should still be runny enough to fill the pie plate around the fruit. Drizzle the juice over the top.

Add a lattice crust and sprinkle with lemon zest. Brush with egg white before you put it in the oven.

 

 

 

Elika, I miss you.

Ode to Jugo De Mora

Okay, so this isn't a fruit (It's actually a fruit derivative, to you calculus fans) and it isn't a mystery. But it is DELISH DELISH DELISH. It probably just became my favorite drink--even on top of chocolate milk.

Here is the experience of Jugo de Mora:

 

 

 

YUM

 

 

 

Yeah, I know. It looks like a third-world blood donor bag. But they don't really use cups here, at least not when you buy things at a tienda. Instead, juice, milk, and yoghurt come in plastic bags. And I'm not going to lie, it was pretty difficult getting used to ripping a hole in the corner of a bag and sucking out the juice like some type of fruitarian vampire.  But now I really like it. And mora, or blackberries, are so delicious. Whoever decided to start eating this fruit is my hero, and Ecuadorians are my hero for having jugo de mora, yogur de mora, and fresh mora everywhere. Hooray for mora!

A sporadic photo booth moment

Hey! New socks!

In other news, I love ebooks, especially ones called Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, who is probably my literary hero.

In even other news, I was forced to buy bubble gum (they don't accept credit cards if the purchase is less than 10 dollars) at the supermarket, and have I mentioned how much I love bubbles?

Trials and Victories

Today was one of the best days of Colegio I've had this year. I've had a more fun day (like the time we played frisbee with Maryam's class, or the time we just played Save the Fox the whole time). But today, it was just a regular English class. I mean, we actually did work. But my students paid attention. They actually seemed to be enjoying it, in an infinitesimally small way. They listened during the listening section, they spoke when I asked them questions, and only one of them asked to go to the bathroom once. When they didn't know an answer, it wasn't because they hadn't been listening 5 seconds ago when I said the answer three times. Everyone had at least attempted to do their homework, and one of the students who always copies his homework, didn't. And one of the girls who I was pretty sure hated me actually made eye contact and smiled. Yes, people, this is a victory.

Lets back up. Lets back up to here, a few months ago. Where it was a struggle to have them actually acknowledge me coming into the class. Where I saw having them make fun of my Spanish accent as a success because it meant they were engaging with me. And we could back up to here, where a student cheated on my test, and compromised it, so everyone had to retake it, which I wasn't even as bummed as I should've been about it because over half the class failed it anyways.

And then this trimester? Tamia doubled her test score. Everyone improved (except, not ironically, the one who cheated). My students will say "hi" to me in passing--or "hola," rather, they still refuse to use English outside of class. I think the idea of staying in class during class, and not taking 15 minute "bathroom breaks" has finally been fixed in their consciousness enough so they only ask me once or twice a class, instead of the 15, arm-tugging, whining times of last semester.

I attribute this success to divine confirmations, my family, and me not losing hope. My mom and dad have both shared a bunch of tips, of which some of the most useful have been written expectations and warm-ups before class. (a thank you as well to some very generous Alaskans who enabled me to buy each student a warm-up notebook, which was the first 100% participation assignment I'd had!) Maryam, too, supports me an amazing amount--I'm lucky to have someone who is going through very similar challenges as I am.

I still feel exhausted after every colegio day. I still feel like a fish swimming upstream, fighting against a school culture of Minimum Effort and a Bureau of Education that says a 55-65% is an "average" student. It still bothers me that a huge majority of the students, a huge majority of the time, do not "Have their Learn On". But this is an improvement, and so I am happy.

THE BEST WIDGET EVER

Firstly: Widgets are fabulous. Just the name widget is worth paying attention to. And then the widgets themselves are very cool. Such as the countdown widget that tells me exactly how long until my amazing friends , other amazing friends, and sister come visit me. Or the fish widget that is like those old tamagachi toys except you don't have to clean up their poop.

Secondly: Maps are fabulous. Mercator, Projection, Political, Physical, any type of map is kind of amazing. Especially of the world, because things look so close together. Even Ecuador and Alaska are only a hand span apart...even the distance between Alaska and South Africa can be traversed in a quick spin. And maps are informative, without throwing information at you in the face. They have keys, little treasure maps to knowledge that will tell you everything you need to know with out understanding textbook definitions. They're colorful, and real.

Thirdly: When you put together two fabulous things (See: Firstly and Secondly) you get this widget (lovingly shown to me by Emily):



ITS AMAZING. Click on it if you want one. And how could you not? Its like blogger stats, but 3D-ified and instantaneous. Its brilliant. I feel like Joey Lucas on Election day. LOVE LOVE LOVE.