I wanted to buy a pineapple today, but the woman was going to charge me 60 cents instead of 50. I refused.

It all started innocently enough. I asked Marlene, the female half of our landlord couple, if there was a peluqueria nearby. She nodded and gestured “up La Gasca.” She said there were several, one of which was owned by two “gays.” So I walked up the hill. Soon enough, I came across a “Unisex” salon de belleza. I saw a woman sitting on a chair inside, so I tentatively approached. Through the glass front of the place, I could see a small TV mounted high in the corner. She was facing the opposite way, toward the mirrors, but her head was resting on her arm. I thought maybe she was asleep. But when I tapped lightly on the glass, she whirled around quickly.

I asked if she could give me a haircut. She said, “claro!” (of course). So I sat down and she adorned me with various towels and capes. Half-jokingly, I showed her my WorldTeach id and my censo. The WorldTeach id featured a very short-haired Tim, circa July; the censo picture was taken in early October. I pointed to the short-haired Tim and said, “not this. I can do this in my house. This is too short.” Then I pointed to the other and said, “this, more or less.”

When she started, I was actually wondering if she would take enough off. But as time progressed, it was clear that she was taking “enough” off. She kinda kept taking enough off, especially from the sides. She began coming the top of my head from front to back, and just when I started thinking she would cut it and make me look more or less like my WorldTeach id again, she stopped. She added some sort of “product,” as they say, and charged me $2.50.

Here I am.

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In the coppermine “home scenes” album.

Yesterday we had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast: we are so thankful for everything and all the wonderful people we know. Our worldteach family is wonderful.

Preparations: I’ve been daydreaming about having thanksgiving since late September. Everyone helped plan food and logistics and everyone brought lots of food. Bill helped me make the pumpkin pies the night before. Saturday morning Tim and I went to buy some last-minute purchases for the day. We got avocado for guacamole and on the walk home the bag broke and they rolled on the ground. Thank goodness they were just going to be peeled and mashed anyway.

The turkey according to tim: a little dry, but not bad.

The turkey according to Kristi (our subdirector): better than her mom’s

The meat thermometer: useless. It said the turkey was done in 2 hours

The apple pies, ala master baker Steph: Our landlord loved them so much they asked to take home a few slices

The pumpkin pies: Tim loves to quote Garrison Keilor: “The best pumpkin pie you ever ate wasn’t that much better than the worst.” So does it even matter?

The amount of food: true to thanksgiving tradition we had way too much food. It was great: turkey, stuffing, gravy, green beans, corn, applesauce, mashed potatoes, salad, fruit salad, egg and potato dish, homemade salsa, chips, fresh vegetables and dip, cheese, crackers, guacamole, bread, pies, applecrisp, mora bread, cookies, sangria, wine, soda, after-dinner drinks.

Space: We all squeezed into our first floor, it was standing-room only. Nice and cozy.

Clean-up: Everyone pitched in and helped do dishes and clean up. We had four big garbage bags of trash when all was said and done.

The day after: Some people came over and helped us eat some leftovers and we made fresh-squeezed orange juice and pancakes. We also listened to Christmas music.

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve blogged. I have lots of excuses, but no one likes to hear excuses so I’ll spare you. My last few weeks have been pretty up and down. I was fairly sick (I’ve never experienced vertigo like that before and I’m SO glad it’s over). Tim took good care of me and my wonderful worldteach co-teachers at the cec subbed for some of my classes. Last week I had a fantastic birthday. My students were amazing: both of my classes brought in a cake and my morning class also had a beautiful traditional Ecuadorian shirt as a gift for me.

I can’t believe we’ll be home in less than 4 weeks. The time is flying. We are thoroughly excited to see all of you back in Wisconsin.

Happy (late) birthdays to Angie Storm and Eva Payne. Congrats to Rob and Emily! We heard it was a beautiful wedding. We can’t wait to see pics and wish you well in person.

To all the lightweight crew ladies out there: sorry I never got a chance to say congrats on kicking some Princeton butt earlier this month. Keep up the good work. I think about you guys when I’m at the gym on the bike.

“the girl”
So our landlords are great. We’ve been invited for Sunday lunch twice. They’ve taken us fishing, given us rides various places, answered any questions we’ve had and overall been very kind to us. They have two kids: David is 12 and the girl is 16. And of course, Bella is the family dog: pretty cool for a “two-biter” little white yippy dog. About a month ago, the girl knocked on our door with some English homework questions. Before this she was very quiet: she barely said two words to us. So I invited her inside and sat down to help her. I’m fairly certain she has a learning disability, and to make things even more difficult her English text book was WAY too advanced for her level. Anyhow, we struggled through the book and afterward she hung out to talk a bit. At first it was nice. But she is very difficult to understand, definitely the hardest of the family. She speaks very fast and doesn’t rephrase when you ask a question. So anyway she was here for about 2 and a half hours. When she finally left she said in Spanish, “so we’ll do this tomorrow.” (We’ll do this tomorrow???? AAAHHHHH). I told her that maybe every once in awhile I can help her out, but I don’t have time everyday. I felt bad but I couldn’t bear the thought of daily sessions like that one. She and David have come a few times and Tim has also done his part tutoring, but I think his patience ran out Sunday.

PS: we called her “the girl” because we didn’t catch her name when we first moved in and no one ever referred to her by name. So yesterday Tim was working on spelling out English letters with her and he asked her to spell her name. Very clever boy. So at least now we don’t have to call her “the girl.” Her name: Mireya.