estamos tratando de aprender español...

hey!

sorry it´s been a while since the last post, but we have been busy busy busy! on monday we started taking the bus into quito for 4 hour intensive spanish lessons. its going really well! scott had taken a lot of spanish in school but lost a lot of it from disuse, and i hadnt taken spanish since like, i dont know, 2001? but we are both doing well now, scott is picking it back up fast and its been a little easier for me to learn i think because of my french. the first few days were frustrating because every time i would try to say something in spanish it would come out french...but i think my brain is starting to switch over. finally saying "porque" instead of sounding like a jerk and saying "parce-que."  anyways. studying a language this intensely is physically exhausting, but very effective. we are both very grateful for the opportunity to immerse ourselves completely in  spanish and dedicate all of our energy to it. 

the busride into quito is pretty fun, if crowded. its pretty much like the L train at rush hour, if the L train was a bus, and if you had to hang out the doors if you couldnt quite fit all the way in. we usually get seats after about 20 minutes...the trick is to stand in the aisle next to some seats containing middle schoolers in uniforms, because they are guaranteed to get off in tumbaco. the bus costs 55 cents and winds through some pretty spectacular valleys on its way up to quito, so if we can see out the windows its quite pleasant. i dont actually mind commutes anyway as long as im not driving...

quito is a cool city with a lot to look at. the "new town" is full of tall modernist concrete buildings and has a really nice huge park. our school is located in the backpacker part of town, which is nice but way more expensive than everywhere else and also really full of middle aged germans on birdwatching trips in ripstop 3-part zipoff pants and intense hiking boots. there are lots of cute cafes and restaurants though, and its very central.

the old part of quito is my favorite. the hills are really steep and its full of old colonial buildings, gothic revival churches, a 16th century monastery with a beautiful church with an interior totally covered in intricate dark wood carving, another old church whose interior is completely plastered in gold, old plazas and squares, narrow streets lined with tiny stores that sell anything from gutters to plastic pipe to candy, etc. there is also a cablecar that goes up to the top of a nearby mountain, from which you can supposedly see the whole city. (quito is a long skinny city in a super high valley, i think it´s at like 10,500 feet or something, so the mountains around it are REALLY tall) we havent gone up in said cablecar because by the time we get out of class its usually cloudy. but soon!

in other news, matt´s dog argo is very pregnant and should be having puppies pretty soon. im obviously super excited because i love baby anythings! so, more updates on that later. also later today we are going to go pick out some new baby chicks because all the chickens keep "going on vacation to cuba with their friend the weasel." 

not much else to report! just studying spanish, riding the bus, playing scrabble and waiting for the puppies, really! two more weeks of spanish (and possibly a third if we feel like it) and then we are off to the coast for some sun!

xoxo.

z.

ps, you can click on any of these pics to make them bigger, if you´re into that sort of thing!