Not the newest member of the family anymore...welcome Gina the Beagle puppy!

Hola a todos,

Week two in Quito has been a blast! I have been settling into my family, life in Quito, and long hours of WorldTeach orientation everyday.

Kate, Maggie, and Steph, our wonderful WorldTeach Staff have been truly amazing. All throughout this process of Orientation I wonder in awe at how they do it all. Kate is a superstar and is always on top of everything. She is super outgoing and positive and I would like to say that she is equipping me with the tools to be a good teacher and I am excited about it! She seems to have endless energy and is truly a blessing.They have successfully worked in fun events into our days. On Monday we split up into groups and went on the Amazing Race Quito edition! It was somewhat of a scavenger hunt and even though my team, the Conquistadors was intense, I had a total blast! To all my teammates out there, I loved running around Quito with you going to different famous spots. Fitting into a taxi with 6 people plus the cab driver was truly a feat along with the EcoVia and so much more. And, we totally won the competition and had the best f%$·!"$ chocolate cake in Quito according to Kate. It was pretty damn good I must say.

Last week all the WorldTeach volunteers had a picnic with our families up at Parque Metropolitano. It is this beautiful park above the city with an amazing view. When my family left we walked a short way to the bus stop and then got on the bus. Shortly after that however, we got off the bus and started walking. And walking, and walking some more. I would estimate that we walked approximately 3 miles from the lowest point in Quito to the highest. Man, could I feel the altitude then. It was insane. Mariana, our little grandma was in the best shape out of all of us. I think I can justify saying that I climbed up the side of the Andes Mountains! It was quite the work out, but it was also a blast. It was a ton of fun to meet everyone´s families and just have a nice afternoon in the park.

Orientation has been long but good this week. One of the highlights was having a WorldTeach volunteer come in and lead a session completely in Hebrew. The point of the lesson was to show us what it is like to be students in a foreign language classroom, an it was such a cool activity. We ended up playing Simon Says and learning directions enough to lead someone blind folded through an obstacle course using the directions we had learned. It was awesome.

My friend Claire was the first victim of being robbed. She was on the EcoVia which is a huge bus that crams tons of people on it. Someone slit her purse and took her wallet and camera. It was a major bummer. She seems to be doing alright now, but that is never fun. They told us that we would all be robbed at least once while we are here...not looking forward to that!

On Wednesday I stayed out and watched the first half of a futbol game at a bar with a bunch of Ecuadorians. It was muy divertido! But what was even more fun was when I came home early and was greeted by a new Beagle puppy named Gina! She is 2 months old and cute as can be. I will have pictures up soon! Whenever I am home I am playing with her, cuddling with her, or petting her. She is about the cutest thing I have ever seen and the dog that I always wanted growing up! It isn´t just a calendar, but a real dog! (haha, mom. thanks for all the calendars throughout the years when I asked for dogs!)

On Thursday we went to a famous Ecuadorian Artist´s home, Oswaldo Guaysamin. His work was beautiful and he was incredibly talented. I appreciated his inspiration and admired his work to the indigenous population here in Ecuador and throughout central and South America. Today we were given our practice teaching assignments for the next two weeks and given time to prep for our lessons. I am teaching Advanced 1 with my friends Annie and Heather. We have a pretty good grasp and will figure it out for sure. I also found out a little bit more about Ambato today and am super pumped. I am excited to start my year there for sure. I spend the evening with 3 other lovely ladies walking around La Ronda in the historic district of Quito. Man, is it beautiful there! And tomorrow I am going to Otavalo the huge market a couple hours away with my family.That is my week summed up for all of you. Hope you enjoy reading this!

Sending love from Quito!

Caitlin

Quito!!!

Hi everybody!

I made it safe and sound to Quito this past Tuesday. When we first flew in, I looked out the window and saw the Andes that surround the area. There are 10 active volcanoes that surround Quito. It is a beautiful city with many old Spanish style buildings incorporated with the indigenous culture from the 1600s. Today we took a tour of the historic downtown area and man, was it beautiful. There are tons of old buildings with statues in the middle of the square and 7 churches within several miles of each other. One of the churches had gargoyles outside, but instead of the dragons that you normally see, the gargoyles represented animals of the Galapagos including iguanas, birds, condors, etc. The interior of one of the churches was a lot of gold and statues. I am still in awe at how beautiful it was.

Our group has started orientation in downtown Quito at a hotel. I am getting used to the bus system and have successfully made it back to my host familys house two times now! Go me! It is also really nice because my host mom is the daughter of another volunteer´s host mom so we live a block away from each other and ride in together. Tonight we are going to go downtown and hang out with the group for a couple of drinks. My host family is so sweet. My mom is 35, and her name is Zhelya. She helped me get my luggage from the airport and has shown me nothing but kindness. Her son Luis Miguel or Luismi is such a nice boy. Mariana is too cute and is going to teach me how to cook ecuadorian food!

Orientaiton has been interesting. The last couple of days we have learned about a lot of crime in Quito and how to protect ourself. We had a man from the US embassy come and give a talk. His job is to find missing people so if I go missing he will get me back safely and that is really comforting. We also had someone from the US consulate come too.

I have been so impressed with this program and am really loving it! The people are great and Quito is really cool. I have to go eat dinner now! Thanks for keeping up with me! Another update soon.

Love to you all,

Caitlin

Sitting in the Portland Airport, ready to go!

Well, it has all come down to this. I am currently sitting in the Portland Airport waiting for my flight to Minneapolis before I catch a connecting flight to Miami. Man, I have to say that this whole process has been totally surreal. I can't believe or even begin to fathom that I am going to be gone for a whole year. I don't think it will really hit me until I am in Ecuador. For those of you who don't know, I am going to be spending a year abroad teaching English in Ambato, Ecuador. It is a pretty big sitting that sits at approximately 8,500 feet in elevation. I am getting excited!

It all started with a book, Half the Sky. I hadn't even heard of WorldTeach until I picked up this inspirational book about women in third world countries who have overcome any bad situation by earning an education. This is what stemmed this upcoming year with WorldTeach in Ecuador. I checked the website, applied, and got into the program. I was hooked and had to make this happen. This summer was trialing. I wasn't sure what I was going to be doing Americorps? Job? and then I stumbled across this.

After this past week, it is easy to see how fortunate and blessed I am. I count my blessings everyday but this past week especially. I am surrounded by love everywhere I turn. There are so many people I would love to thank individually, and I feel truly blessed. Consider this a shout out to all of you out there. You have helped form me into the person I am today and who I want to be in the future. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I'm off!

Caitlin