Ouch...

This past week was fairly academic and low-key, as I have yet to begin my service learning and still have my mornings free. I did a lot of reading for my literature class, which I’m hoping will get easier as time goes on and my Spanish improves. In class on Wednesday she had us take out a piece of paper and write a 3-paragraph essay about a fairly complicated poem that we read (yikes!). The good news is that I was able to write three paragraphs, although I have no idea if what I said was accurate. We have our first exam in that class the day we get back from the Amazon, which will be interesting. My Service Learning and Environmental Diversity classes haven’t quite officially started yet because both professors were out this week, but my Spanish class and Ceramics class are in full swing and going well!

On Thursday I had my interview at Arteducarte—where I’ll be performing my service—and on Friday from 8-6 and Saturday 9-2 I participated in a workshop with everyone in the organization (teachers, volunteers, artists). Everyone was really nice and the program seems really interesting. Most of the artists do all kinds of arts and crafts projects, but there are a couple that do projects involving theater and literature instead. I’ve been told that I’ll be working with one of the latter, but unfortunately he wasn’t at the workshop. Every project that an artist designs directly pertains to a certain unit in the regular curriculum and is meant to reinforce certain concepts in a different way. Overall it seems to be very effective. Since a lot of the kids work after school, they don’t have time to study or do homework; reinforcing the concepts in a fun way in the classroom seems to be a smart alternative. Although I’m sure it will be overwhelming at first (40+ kids in a classroom), I’m really excited to get started. I was able to cut back on my hours a bit, so I’ll be working in the office on Mondays from 3-5 and in the school on Tuesdays from 7:30 to 1.

Earlier this week I agonized quite a bit over whether or not to join some other students on a trip to one of the beach towns this weekend, which is about a 7 hour bus ride. After much thought I decided I needed to stay in Quito this weekend. I came back from Mindo feeling a bit homesick as I realized how difficult it will be to balance traveling and really feeling comfortable in Quito and spending time with my family. I also wanted to keep my options open in case there was a trip with the Andinismo club (I’m hoping to make some Ecuadorian friends!) We hung out with a bunch of the members after the meeting on Thursday and last night I went out to dinner with a couple other students, one guy from the club, and his friend. He ended up inviting me and a friend to go rock climbing today, which was awesome! I used to love rock walls, but I’ve never been climbing for real. We took two different routes—one fairly easy and the more difficult. I was able to complete the first one and I had a blast! Apparently I did really well for my first time. The second one was a lot harder and couldn’t quite make it half way. They all go climbing at a rock wall close to my house every week, so I’m hoping to start practicing with them and then try again! However, as I woke up today and realized how incredibly sore I am, it dawned on me that I might have to wait until next week to start!