La playita

Last weekend I finally got out of Quito for a bit and went to the beach! It was such an awesome break to totally get away for the weekend. Albeit a little crazy, five of us decided to actually go...leaving Friday night after classes at 12AM for a 6 hours bus ride to Atacames and arriving back Monday morning at 6AM ready to teach at 8AM! You're only young once, right!?!

The beach was an awesome time to connect more with some of the volunteers and just have fun exploring together. We were definitely an active group, which I loved. I took a bunch of long walks up and down the beach, went whale watching on this crazy little boat, drank AMAZING batidos, and danced all night long (despite no sleep), even finishing up dancing on the beach to the music from the ocean side bars! What a great escape! Only effects I'm still feeling are my sunburned chest and legs - and I even reapplied and it was cloudy the whole time.

Well now I'm back in Quito, but things are starting to fall into place. I feel like I am slightly catching on to this teaching thing a bit more, but still there is quite a bit of room for improvement! It's better as I am getting to know my classes better though and understanding their levels and speeds for learning. The first weeks are hard to gauge.

My best story this week was tonight's adult class. It was only our 3rd real class for adults, but it was already one of our (Adam and I) student's birthday. We definitely wanted to celebrate, but still keep the class going and getting into a routine. Adam and I decided to buy a cake from the bakery and a big thing of Pepsi for the party. I got the soda and cake and Adam went and got the cups, napkins, and plates. Super cute: Adam kind of did a typical guy thing, but so thoughtful. He wanted to get party plates so he looked at the options and picked out one with people dancing, because it looked like a party. Well, they were actually wedding plates and they said "Nuestro Matrimonio" (nuestro matrimonio). We all laughed in class; knowing it was super thoughtful.

Anyway, we started the class learning a little basic English (please, thank you, my name is), then some math review from the day before, and read The Giving Tree (in Spanish) and asked some reading comprehension questions. Then with about 20 minutes left in class, we said we wanted to teach them a couple more English words. I wrote Happy Birthday on the board and asked if anyone knew what it said. One lady knew happy was feliz, but then no one knew what birthday meant. So I asked Luz (the birthday girl) if she perhaps had any idea. Finally someone said "tal vez cumpleanos"....and I of course wrote that on the board "Feliz Cumpleanos Luz." We took out the cake and soda and sang to Luz. She almost cried...it was so sweet! Definitely a success!

God continues to bless me with the most sincere hugs and kisses on the cheek here! I don't know how I would be getting through without them, but still get just as excited and feel just as loved by every one of them! I pray that each of you receive (and possibly even initiate) one of these agape hugs this week! Love you! Taylor