American Teacher in Ecuador

The Christmas Party at my school was quite the event.   The party was to start at 7:30 so we had decided to show up fashionably late, at 8:15.  The doors were just then unlocked at 8:15.  The place was decorated beautifully.  There were speeches, a prince/princess contest, and more speeches.  We sat at our tables patiently. Although the school throws a great party,  there was nothing to eat or drink for 3 hours!  Not even water.  Just before dinner was served at 10:45, we got a glass of wine.  Dinner was fine and I thought we were going home.  But then they brought out the Johnny Walker Red.  We all grabbed one glass, then another, and the whole party changed from a subdued, well-behaved, polite party to a fiendish, crazed, dancing party. We raged on until I think it was 1:30 in the morning?  Suddenly I found myself being whizzed away in a car driven by one of the partygoers. On the way, we stopped in...

The river I cross every day Teaching English in Ecuador is very different here than it was to teach at home.  Where in a public school in the US, you have to know exactly where every student is at every moment. Not so much here.  Absences and tardies are excessive.  When classes start on the hour, I usually have 3 kids.  I can't really do anything for 10 minutes until they start to wander in.  Many are absent 2-3 days a week.  If I ask, my boss, nobody seems to know if a kid has dropped.  If I get a new kid, nobody seems to realize that he's now on my roster.  So I've learned to stop asking and just deal with it. The testing process is freaky.  You have one day for written and listening, and one day for oral tests which are one on one or partners.  Evidently, you can tweak it however you want to fit your needs.  If you do partners, they just copy each other though but most teachers do it that way because it's faster t...

I have officially completed one full week teaching English at in Loja, Ecuador.  It's been interesting, and I can't say I'm thrilled at this point.  The way things are done here is so different than at home, it's hard to go with the flow. I was offered the job by the school's "international recruiter" which was interesting.  There was really no interview, just a conversation about Loja.  I was told I started Monday so I started thinking of a lesson to introduce myself and have students introduce themselves.  My questions about who and when I would be teaching remained unanswered until Monday at 3:00 when I was supposed to meet with one of the managers.  She was out that day.  So I was eventually filled in, told that I'd be teaching teens.  If anyone knows me, this was my biggest nightmare scenario. So I started Tuesday night, from 3-6, one hour each to 3 Teen classes at the same level which is supposed to be Early Intermediate since they'v...

Loja is absolutely gorgeous! It's even prettier than Cuenca, surrounded by green mountains.  There are always big puffy cloud when the sun is out, or it becomes cloudy and drizzly and it's not quite as pretty then. I've been able to find things here -- laundromat, hair salons, post office, market,... My hotel is great -- Hotel Paris, and it's about $16 a night.  It's a huge room, they clean it daily, it's in a great location, and it's fairly quiet.  I think there are only 2 of us on the 5th floor. Even 5 floors up in a city, there is a rooster that starts at 4:15.  I can barely hear him but it's enough to wake me up. Sunday is Market Day.  I walked to one park and bought a lot of things from indigenous women selling jewelry and stuff.  The other market is mostly a vegetable and fruit market but I got a few other things there.  I can't wait to get my apartment and go to the market to buy fresh produce to take home! The town sq...