Saving Energy for Happiness

"I could hear myself say in a lazy voice, 'I believe they all experienced happiness more than we do. Even Emma, who never made love. Because happiness comes only when you can experience things deeply. And she experienced so much that it was shining in her eyes. I could see that. We only bum around in the world, talking about where we'll go tomorrow or what we did yesterday... Once in a while, when we get drunk or make love, it seems to us for a moment that right then we should stop, because we are really experiencing something. Maybe we live as we do because we are saving our energy for happiness, making sure that when it comes it will last. But Emma did not save it.'" - Milan, in "Year of the Frog" by Martin Simecka

spirit week

Me & Chris...

Mixmatch day

Twin Day 1

Twin Day 2

Twin day 3

Holla! Holla! LA and ATL!!!

Teacher twins

Anonymity, of course

"Home"

Home
by Bruce Weigl
I didn't know I was grateful for such late-autumn bent-up cornfields yellow in the after-harvest sun before the cold plow turns it all over into never. I didn't know I would enter this music that translates the world back into dirt fields that have always called to me as if I were a thing come from the dirt, like a tuber, or like a needful boy. End Lonely days, I believe. End the exiled and unraveling strangeness.

Rain

I love rain. Pouring down, thunder that makes you jump... lightening that distracts you out the corner of your eye. This Ecuador thing could easily become 2 years. I do miss, really miss, the leaves changing in Georgia and the relief that the weather change brings. Here it will always be the same, though colder when it rains. I learned how to pack food for catering today. I watched a student put a green ball-shaped pencil sharpener in her mouth, and managed to mail my Master´s application off to the states for $4.25. My laptop should be ready tomorrow... only for another $95. And, hopefully, I´ll get my Ecua-debit card. Hehe. Kinda cool to live on little ¨moolah¨...

Rain on the teacher bus (yes, it leaks!) Hah

the 3 little pigs (deconstructed for 6 graders)

Other teacher buses (sorry!!! can´t get them to stand up straight)

Viva la revolucion

The cops decided to go on strike ´cause they don´t like the prez... kids freakin´out, parents pickin´ ´em up... we only worked a half day Thursday and Friday was off! Sweet. Still had Master´s classes, but it wasn´t so bad. My laptop´s been in the shop but my roommate´s letting me use hers for now. Highlights below:

Me & Tara during her visit

 

Road Scenes during our bus trip

Road Scenes

Otavalo



Che is popular here. During the "coup" we saw kids driving by with Ecua/Che flags 

Te Amo, Shorty :)

Our Hostel in Otavalo

Otovalo Hostel

Downtown Otavalo

Remains of the religious parade

CRIPsy chicken

With Tina at the Italian Restaurant

Eating in Otavalo

In the rain at the soccer game in Quito



Liga Soccer Stadium

My dream (tree!) house in Mindo



The French coffee farmer of Mindo

Butterfly Garden

Our room in Mindo

View from our Hostel in Mindo

Downtown Mindo.