We’re all still safe, holed up in the Fairfield Inn Mariot. The hurricane hasn’t been too strong here and we’re hoping it will hurry up and move on so we can fly out of here soon. Right now Tim and I are in a group scheduled to leave on a flight on Monday evening so hopefully that will pan out. We’re still bonding with the fellow volunteers, but we’re ready to get to Quito. take care.
Our trip to Ecuador has started off quite excitingly. Yesterday, our flights from Milwaukee and Chicago went resonably smoothly. We had an hour-long delay coming into Miami, but made it there with plenty of time to make our connection to Quito. Unfortuantely, Frances scared the bejeebus out of the airlines and our flight was canceled. It isn’t abundantly clear why our flight was canceled, since there was another flight to Ecuador that successfully left within a half and hour of our flight and the weather is just now (11:46am) starting to deterriorate. But at any rate, it looks like we will be bonding in Miami with the other WorldTeach volunteers for a few days. We’re set up in a hotel in west Miami and according to the weather channel, we shouldn’t be in the hard-hit zone. As far as flights out of Miami, currently we’re scheduled to leave on Sunday, but it’s hard to know when the airport will begin functioning again. So, we’re trying to make the most of it. And Tim and I feel pretty lucky, first of all to be safe, and second to have all of our luggage! Unfortunately, quite a few of the volunteers are missing some of their baggage. We’ll try to keep this blog up to date as long as we have hotel internet… Hopefully we’ll soon be writing from Ecuador!!!
We miss all of you already
Tim has done some last minute work on the website check it out and let us know what you think.
We are leaving Madison tonight. We’ll drive down to Mequon, WI to stay with Tim’s mom tonight and tomorrow. Our flight leaves at a painfully early hour on Thursday morning. Flying from Milwaukee to Chicago to Miami and finally to Quito, we’ll get in to Quito pretty late Thursday night. The first night we are going to stay in a hotel and then Friday we’ll move in with our host family.
Tim and I are excited to finally be on our way. We’ve been planning for this year for so long it’s weird to think we’ll actually be on the plane in two days.
Tim and I will be living and working in Quito, Ecuador. I’ll be working at a larger school which specializes in English instruction. For those of you with some Spanish language the school homepage is Centro de Estudios para la Comunidad. Tim is working at more of a community center/MATC type school. His school is more affordable than mine, so no fancy webpage for them. We will both be working with a mix of ages from teenagers to professionals. Our living arrangements are with a host family in Quito. Our hosts are Victor and Mercedes, a retired couple in their mid-seventies. We’re told that Mercedes is a former soap opera star who cooks wonderful meals. At the very least, it doesn’t sound boring!
We’re starting to take care of all the last-minute preparations, it hasn’t really sunk in for me that we’re leaving in a week…
hey lightweights. I’ve got only one more week with the computer to burn the dvds… so, if you want one and haven’t ordered it yet, let me know by wednesday, august 11th so I can burn one for you.