UNTETHERED: Tethering

Kerry and I have been trying to tether down a little bit while we are here. The first week was a bit tough trying to figure out where we are in Quito and which neighborhoods are safe and which are not so safe. It was also a little tough to fall into a rhythm, which we are working on now.

In an effort to get some structure into our lives we have begun our Spanish lessons. Last week Monday we decided we'd better get going on the lessons and get some structure in our lives or we wouldn't do it. So with some trepidation we made our way down to the Spanish school that we chose mainly because it was close to our place and we could find it. We had another school picked out but we couldn't find it.

The lessons cost $8.00 per hour. To ramp up, we chose to have two days of two hour lessons the first week, which is a long time to speak only Spanish. My lessons are focused on direct object pronouns, past tense (two types), future tense, reflexive verbs and conversation. I am also doing some reading comprehension and summarizing the readings verbally.

Next week we have lessons all week from 10:30 - 12:30. This represents a lot more Spanish than I have ever taken. I hope I don't run out of things to talk about with my teacher. Depending on how long we are here, we might have lessons for yet another week after this coming week. In total we might have around 12-14 days of lessons for 2 hours a day. That should help me out immensely when I get to school and on the island.

In addition to getting the Spanish lessons going, we also have begun hiking again. I say hiking because Quito is high up in the Andes. Unlike the flatness of Cajamarca, Quito has a bunch of extreme hills in the city, which is just like hiking up a paved mountain. The term Urban Hiking has been used in the past with my friend Joel and now I can officially say I am Urban Hiking here in Quito.

This week Kerry an I hiked around the town quite a bit. The hiking is helping us keep in shape after almost four months of being unstructured. Our hikes included walks around the area we are staying in - Mariscal Foch, a hike to the main square, and a hike to a park called Carolina Park with a beautiful Botanical garden in it. I'm not one for botanical gardens, but I do go to them in all of the cities we travel. I get this wonderful opportunity because Kerry loves them. This one was truly exceptional and we will probably visit it again before we leave and I will like it.

This weekend we will be walking in a park above the city and will also go to an art museum that we wanted to get to the last time we were here. We try to do one thing a day in addition to the lessons. Some picture of our last week follow:

Enclosure in the gardens..

I got Kerry out of the scary Carnivorous exhibition. They have to have all those man eating plants locked in an enclosure! It took me a little bit to get Kerry calmed down after her close escape.