The First Two Weeks

¡Hola!

So, yes, here in Cuenca it's 19:47, I've grabbed the computadora from Sebas's (my host bro) clutches and am now sitting alone in my room blogging after a rather successful Skype session - you can speak to, and see, people on the otherside of the world for FREE! Mental.

Yep, so been here for 4 days now: 2 of work and 2 of CARNIVAL! (a 5 day weekend where everyone soaks EVERYONE with water and eats whole pigs). I work in Eugenio Espejo school (the shrewd of you may notice that I was going to be working at Remigio Romero, but nope, Lattitude changed this without telling me) in the morning from 7:30 - 12:30 and Perpetuo Socorro ('perpetual aid') nursery from 2:30 - 5. It's a long day.

On my second day at EE, we (Rachael and I) had a rather abupt introduction to Carnival - we were calmly observing a class of littleun's when they all sprayed the teacher with soapy foamy stuff out of cans which they call Karrioke. I was shocked to my core at the impertinance. After a second in the playground it became apparent that as unknown gringos (foreigners, in particular white ones) we were pretty much IDEAL targets, just had to embrace it in the end. Our class then had injections, the trauma of which I did not enjoy. They were practically all in tears, and the fact they had to help open the needles probably didn't help.

After some dubiety, the teachers invited us along to their equivilent of an Inset Day. We meet at the school at 8, drove in a school bus to a field owned by one of the teachers, played volleyball, listened to the same few regaton songs on a loop, watched the rather complex process of cooking and eating a whole pig, were soaked head-to-toe by a hose 3 times. The last time, we were picked out as newbies for a kind of inciation ceremony which involved sitting on a chair, drinking a kind of spirit they make which smells distinctly of olives and being soaked. I felt rather proud, although happy not to be the new teacher who had to wear pig intestines around his neck and drink its blood.

Oh my, there's more to write but as you can probably guess from the length of two days worth, it would take me ages and be too long for anyone to want to read. To summarise: My family here is very nice. I have mum, a dad and a little brother (Sebas, 14) and sister (Mica, 9). Sebas is sweet but a tad surly, as is absolutely correct for a 14 year old and Mica is a dddaaaarrrlling. I stayed in Quito with Ana Maria and her daughter, Emiliana for 10 days and had lots of fun doing touristy things, getting to know the city along with some lovely people and learning a tiny-weeny-little bit of Spanish. I have told a fair few people (although I'm learning to keep it to myself as much as possible) that I'm a vegetarian and have yet to be greeted with anything but horror; in the words of Ana Maria 'for you, vegetarianism; for me, a problem'. However, I am yet to be presented with a dish I haven't liked. I have adapted rather well to having a maid. And I have learnt to my disgust that an A-level is worth very very little and will only admit under direct questioning that I've studied Spanish for 7 years to the highest level the English education system permits an 18 year old and recieved the highest grades at GCSE and A-level. Allow.

Now, I must see if I can stream The West Wing. TTFN!