Author Archives: eileen

Yesterday I taught my last normal class. After class I went home and ate a quick lunch so that I would have as much time as possible in the afternoon. I had decided I would go up the telef�rico on Tuesday because although I was gonna have to go alone, it would probably be my last free chunk of time while I�m here. So around noon I headed up to the telef�rico grounds. The telef�rico is a ski lift (except not for skiing), up Pichincha. At the bottom of the lift is an amusement park, and tons of stores and restaurants. It�s the kind of commerical stuff that I usually aviod. I waited in line for a lift ticket up the volcano for about 2 hours. Then I had my ticket but I couldn�t get in line to actually go up for an hour or so. So I spent more time than I would have liked in the lower section. I passed the time by finding some grass and sun bathing the Eileen way (in 70 degree weather, wearing long sleeves and pants). When I finally got in line to go up, I found myself between about 4 little kids who were VERY excited and about 6 high school boys who were trying very hard to attract some other girls� attention. I wasn�t sure which group I was routing for to go up with. I ended up with the boys and a father. They weren�t that bad. And the view was more amazing than I had imagined. When we arrived at the top I was happy I had brought my fleece cuz it was windy and cold. I have lots of pictures of what it was like up there that I�ll post later, but I�m sure it won�t do it justice. There are lots of trails you can hike and I walked around for about two hours before I headed back down. Quito is at a pretty high altitude of about 9000 ft, but you are up so high on Pichincha that I had to take it pretty slow and I felt the change even though I�ve acclimated to Quito. All in all it was completely worth waiting in line for so long and I�d do it again if I ever had the opportunity.

Wednesday morning I had a review session with both of my classes. Tomorrow is their written exam and Friday is their oral exam. I can�t believe it�s almost over. Tomorrow I�m going out to lunch with my second class. They are mostly my age and possibly one of my favorite classes I�ve had, so I�m looking forward to being with them tomorrow.

I taught my last monday class today! I had pretty pathetic attendance (about half the class came), but the last monday class is over. It only gets better from here.

Tember came home from camp yesterday. She called me from my parents house and said that camp is fun and that Tim took her to our house and it is kinda strange. She also tried to wiggle accross the phone but it�s hard to phone a wiggle.

Yesterday afternoon I was walking home from Supermaxi up the hill. The weather has been nice here the last few days so it was a pleasant walk. I was deep in thought about what to do this weekend when a loud crash jolted me awake. A car turning onto a side street had rammed into another car, pushing it onto the median, taking out a tree and smashing a few car windows. It all happened literally across the street from me. The car at fault immediately took off and the people in the badly damaged car started to get out. It didn�t look like anyone was hurt. When the people got out the car the started yelling up the street “follow them” I followed the direction of their shouts and saw about 3 police men just standing there. After enough prodding one of them hopped in a cab (not his police motorcycle) apparently to try and intersect the other car at the bottom of the hill. I have to say I won�t miss the crazy dangerous drivers here.