I was living with 5 other guys during the month of September. Los Liones. Coined by Issac, the name I think described his demeanor more than any of us, but the name stuck regardless. Los Liones: Issac, James, Ethan, Tony, Isaaquino (Isaac dos), and I. We were put up in a maze of a house. Upon our arrival, we were given a tour of the place and I got more than a little turned around. There was the main section of the house, a few porches, the upstairs, and then two other apartments with balconies, kitchens and their own views of the city. It was a really wonderful place to live for the month. Each of us had our own bedroom, some resembling Harry Potter's room under the stairs while mine was much more spacious, with complementary transformers, wooden dinosaurs, every episode of Stargate one could ask for, a beautiful view of the city and warm blankets. 
I think most of all that is was I loved about my room. The houses in Ecuador have no heating or air conditioning, much like the rest of the world, so that at night, at 9000 feet above sea level it tends to become more than a little chilly. But I slip under my covers, heavy fleece blankets, and quietly fall asleep in the warmth that my body and blankets summon. In the morning the sun and roosters usually wake me up, but they wake me up to the intense sun shining on the foot of my bed, warming my toes up, for by that time I have usually messed up a few of the covers so that my feet are chill upon waking up. 
Next to my bedroom are the rooms of Tony and Isaac dos. Good guys for sure. Isaac2 is a historian from Connecticut with interests in Quakers and all things historical. Easy to talk to and quite brave, coming out to Ecuador with nil Spanish skills and heading out to Esmeraldas, which is a town in the Northwest of Ecuador where no English is spoken. Tony is also a good guy to live with. Shares his jump rope, quick to help and to laugh, and is the oldest of us all by 2 years at the ripe age of 27. Ethan, James and Issac all live in another apartment on the far side of the house. They have their own little space over there, to which we would go to hang out together and watch movies.
Los Liones were a force to be reckoned with as the name implies. Isaac was the main connector among the group as far as going to into the city to have a good time. With the lions behind him, the 6 of us as well as usually 15 other WT volunteers would head out into the Mariscal for a good time at whatever discoteque happened to find us. I have done more dancing here than I have done probably in my whole life, and at 9000+ feet in altitude that's a bit of a feat. A couple of time, after some rather spastic moments I felt like collapsing, but managed to regain my breath, though like a boxer after a couple of rounds, had less and less stamina, unless some really good Shakira came on obviously...or "Gett'n Jiggy With It." I don't know if anything else needs to be said about the Mariscal...it's touristy, we danced a ton, some people drank more than they danced, James got drugged, oops, but was carried home before anything serious happened.
That's the thing about Quito, it isn't exactly the safest city on the planet. One thing I never researched about Ecuador was the safety of those traveling there, and apparently, it isn't safe. During our month there, 2 people got their bags stolen, 1 person got her bag slashed open but nothing of value was taken. James was drugged and someone at another time tried to steal his bag, but got nothing but a fist in the face. Our first few days at Orientation in Ecuador was filled with safety sessions given by government workers, nurses and first hand experience from the director of the WT Ecua program. Some stories are too...extreme to tell here, but needless to say, they told us to be wary of certain parts of Edor. However, no need to fear, as long as you take some precautions you don't really have that much to fear. Granted, 75% of us volunteers will probably be robbed or assaulted this year, it isn't that serious, again, as long as you take certain precautions. Don't be out at night in parks, don't take overnight buses, don't carry more than 10$ on your person if you don't need too. Don't carry around credit cards. That way, when you do get held up, you can give the ladones a few dollars and be on your merry way. When most of Edor lives on less than what, 1 a dollar a day, the people just want a few dollars to help them get by, really not so bad. So don't worry mom, I'll be alright.
Actually more than alright. I've been enjoying my stay here. I've made good friends and am learning Spanish, what more do I need ahora? Much of this month I spent with a volunteer named Beth. She had been here for the past 7 months and teaches in Quito, so she was not only a great friend but a great tour guide as well. The first weekend that I was in Quito, the 2 of us climbed up the towers of the basilica in the historic district.
I wish I had taken my camera, but Beth took some photos, so hopefully they will be forthcoming. We climbed staircase after staircase, got up to the top of the church, had to walk across a bridge suspended across the nave of the church, up a steep ladder to reach the outside, and then up a few more ladders positioned at approximately 85 degrees to get up into the bell towers, from which we could see the entire city. It was breathtaking. To the north we could see the newer part of the city and to the south the Panacillo and the old city. The second weekend we hit up the Teleferrico. Which is a gondola that takes you up to about 12 thousand feet or maybe more. The day we went up it happened to be a bit cloudy, but we decided we were going to enjoy ourselves despite the weather conditions, so even though visibility was about 10 feet, we were going to have a good time and walk around the mountain top in the fog. We walked out about 10 minutes when it began to sprinkle, then to rain, then to sleet and hail. The ground turned white and we turned around and hustled back to the bodega where we had some hot chocolate and canelazo, which is a lightly alcoholic spicy cider drink that is popular among Ecuas here. The next weekend was spent celebrating Beth's room-mates 6 year wedding anniversary at Tapas y Vino. We drank a lot of wine and had lots of delicious food. A great place to go if your willing to spend 25 dollars. We then went back to her house and made a fire in her fireplace and made some smores. The last really cool thing we did was go to a restaurant at night overlooking the historic district. Beautiful.
To give a more comprehensive overview of Orientation I should say that we had class from 10 am until noon. Then I had Spanish class for 1 hour each day, then a break for lunch, then class from 3 until 5. The day felt quite full. For we had an hour commute there and an hour commute back, so that we stayed busy from 8am til 6pm every day. We would come home eat and hang out with our family and by that time it would be 10 O'clock and nearly bedtime. Additionally, after the first week passed, we began to teach classes and do observations of other teachers. This made our schedule a bit more hectic and busy but not overwhelming. We each had to teacher 2 days of 2 hour classes. I taught my class on the 28th and 29th, the last 2 days. My lessons went rather well. The students were all adults and all very well behaved. Adults are great. Not as much energy as students but very interested in learning and very easy to get along with.
Teaching English is a lot different than teaching middle school science in many ways but I think I can get used to it. The first thing that hit me was the fact that English classes comprise mostly, almost exclusively of conversation activities. It seemed that all our classes that we volunteers were taking during orientation were centered around teaching us new activities to implement in our classroom. So for my class I filled up the 2 hours with nearly 7-8 activities. Additionally, these classes were very different because they were much longer than I am used to, 2 hours instead of teh standards 45 minutes in the states. However, they did end up going by rather quickly. For the last day of class with the students they took us out to a discoteque...also different than teaching middle school students. And now it's getting late and I can't remember if there is anything else I wanted to discuss. The goal is to add to the blog more than once a month, so hopefully the posts won't continue to be so long and scattered. Until then.
Here's another picture! They forced us to go to hot springs called Papallacta. sigh
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