Miscellaneous

– Eileen started new classes this past Monday. She has Basic 2 and Intermediate 2, both of which are classes she hasn’t taught before. She was surprisingly nonchalant about her fate last weekend, but she’s pretty annoyed now. It’s definitely more work.
– Eileen won one of the three awards at her school for having the best teacher evaluations for the past cycle. $100! Way to go, Eileen
– Tim was a little too obsessed with learning Flash last week. He spent a lot of time on the computer, and didn’t make much progress, but he put some questions out there in forums on the internet, and the projects are slowly progressing.
– Tim’s brother Will has been taking intensive Spanish classes for the past few days. Four hours of Spanish only. He says he’s not sure yet if it’s helping at all.
– The director of SECAP called WorldTeach because Tim took vacation last week and didn’t tell students and he’s now going to cheat them out of a full week of class. (Actually, Tim told the students on three consecuetive days, but apparently, not all of them were listening to his careful explanation or looking at the calendar on the board or attending class or coming to class fewer than 40 minutes late, so they remained clueless. And of course, Tim’s not gonna cheat them out of a week. The real problem is that the director of SECAP is dum.)
– Tim’s sister Angie gets back today from her Peru trip.
– Now that our internet time is more consistent and free, we’re once again web junkies. Some of our most recent favorites:
boingboing.net: the best blog out there
dooce.com: a hilarious and sometimes gross mother blogs about her life
daily dose of imagery: our favorite photoblog
go fug yourself: very funny couple of women critique celebrities. Doesn’t seem like something we’d like, but it’s really funny.
commonbits.org: great collection of alternative and independent media
– Ecuadorian politics remain unstable. Next Wednesday is the “Paro Nacional.” For a while there, it looked like the various cities and provinces weren’t going to agree on a date, but now they have. This is huge. It means that people are uniting against Lucio. His chances of being ousted are greater.
– Will and Tim watched a soccer game on TV the other night between Liga, Quito’s favorite home team, and Santos, a Brazilian team. Liga got absolutely schooled. There’s a player for Santos named Robinho (pronounced row-bin-yo) who some are saying is the next Pele. For any soccer fans out there, keep your eye on that kid. He was incredible.
– Tim’s reading regiment has been successful, meaning he’s been sticking with all the deadline he’s set for himself. He just finished Plainsong by Kent Haruf, and before that, Lullaby by Chuch Palunhiuk (that’s gotta be spelled wrong), Oracle Night by Paul Auster, Kavalier and Clay, Wicked, Blankets, and Devil in the White City.
– Will and Angie brought the Wal-Mart TV for our landlords, just so everyone knows.
– More Galapagos pics posted in the coppermine.