ecuador and sisters

my sister is 23 years old and is a brand-new teacher. she graduated from college last spring with a degree in Elementary Education and Spanish. she had done her student teaching in honduras and was interested in teaching overseas. she ended up at the alliance academy in quito, ecuador. she is teaching kindergarten and elementary music. she teaches in english, but being that the kids are just learning english for the first time, she has to use quite a bit of spanish as well. she has quickly assimilated into the ecuadorian culture and is really enjoying teaching.

i love to travel, so i was more than willing to volunteer to visit over thanksgiving. i know it was extremely self-sacrificing of me! quito has an altitude of over 9,000 ft. i didn't really notice it unless i was really active. we relied on public transportation the entire time, as christy doesn't have a car. we went to banos where they have natural hotsprings. we went mountain biking which was pretty fun. we went on a hike as well.

christy had to work for a day, so i gallivanted around quito by myself. i don't know more than 15 words in spanish and it was quite easy to get around (granted, i have done a lot of travelling). i got some great freshly squeezed juice too! yum!

i went to her classroom and they dressed up like the pilgrims. the kids are adorable, but it would certainly take a lot of energy to interact with them every day! christy does an incredible job with them. i was so impressed! we went to the equator and took the famous picture straddling the northern and southern hemisphere.

we went to a bull fight which definitely was a cultural experience. i won't post any pictures about that. for me, it was a one time experience. it is like going to a huge baseball game in the USA.

we went to guayquil (another major city in ecuador) for the weekend. it was a nice relaxing time. it allowed christy to get out of her environment so she felt like she got a little break too. it has a very nice coastal region and they had the neatest iguana park. there are over 200 iguanas that live in this one square block. i'm honestly not sure why i liked it so much. as many of you know, i'm not a big animal person----although i think i have more of an affinity to reptiles and amphibians than most women do!

that is just a very brief overview of the trip. it was just so nice to be with my sister---and to want to be with her. i am so blessed.