New Apartment

Okay. Back in Ecuador after a brief week in the States (drove through Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and back to Virginia to catch a plane at 6:30 in the morning). I'm now in a new apartment that has (get this!) wireless internet access. This means that I can waste massive amounts of time mucking about on Facebook or reading the news or just following brainless links. Life is good.

It also means that I can post pictures of my new apartment. This place is great. It is less than I was paying before, it is about four blocks from where I work, and everything is included (gas, electricity, water, cable, internet). Oh! It even has an oven and HOT WATER. Yes, life is good.


The apartment is on the top floor of a building--There are three floors beneath us. I think the apartment was a later addition built onto the roof. We have to climb a staircase, exit the building, then we get to our front door.


This is the view from our balcony/entranceway. As you can plainly see, there is a very nice looking church just a few blocks south of us. And you can't see it in this picture (Quito weather has been pretty nasty lately), but just to the left of the church is the Angel of Quito atop the Panecillo. A little to the left of the church (just out of this picture) is the planetarium, again, clearly visible from our apartment in good weather. Further to the right are mountains (including Mount Pichincha), and further to the left is Amazonas Street (which I can see from my window).


This is what my room looks like after I have spent a week teaching (and feeling sick). Right after I took the picture, I cleaned my room. I don't know why I didn't take another picture. Oh, right. I was on the internet looking at a story about Michael Jackson's body double.


Here is our kitchen. I LOVE this kitchen. Well, yeah, there are some strange things about it. For example, we might just possibly have the world's smallest kitchen sink. There is also no room for the dish rack next to the sink (kinda poor planning, if you ask me, but...). Sh*t, I can't complain. I have both an oven AND hot water AND a microwave AND a sandwich maker. I feel so spoiled.

Right behind the barrier is the little sink where I can do my laundry. It is a bit too small for jeans and sweaters, but for tops and underwear and socks, it is just perfect.


This is the living and dining area. Nice TV with a cable box AND a DVD player. I would have liked to have had a couch, but again, who am I to complain? I have a luxury apartment.

So, I used the pronoun "we" in describing my apartment. My roommate is another teacher. She is from Canada, from (get this) Metcalf. I KNOW! She was amazed that I had ever even heard of it, let alone been there.

So, this cycle I'm only teaching four hours a day, instead of my usual six. It means less money, but I'm such a tight-wad that I think I have enough money saved from teaching to make it the next two months. After that--well, we shall see what happens. I'm currently taking six hour of private Spanish classes a week, plus the hour a day conversation class at my school. That adds up to about eleven hours of Spanish a week. I also joined a gym a couple of months ago (it is one block south of my school and it is AMAZING. Well, when the machines don't break on you). I'm also still trading Tai Chi for Balintawak lessons (though we didn't do anything last week because I was sick).

Well, I'm hungry (as usual). So I'm going to rummage through the fridge and see what I can find...