Jenny's Birthday Celebration!

Aw, we had our second birthday that we celebrated this past Friday!  Jenny’s birthday was actually on Saturday, November 6^th but we celebrated it on Friday, November 5^th.  She is the last birthday that we have while we are here in Ecuador!  I made sure to sing to her a lot throughout the day…which she thoroughly enjoyed!

On Friday, we taught classes and had dance class later in the afternoon as usual.  Teaching went well this week, but each week we have to teach one more lesson than the previous week.  As a result our schedules continue to fill up quickly.  I am still adjusting to teaching here; only because it is so different than what I am used to in the United States.  By the time that we head back home, I feel like it will be another adjustment teaching back in Franklin.  The philosophies of education are very different at each of the schools that I am completing my final semester of student teaching at.  It’s a great experience though because I am learning how to use a variety of teaching techniques.  It has definitely been opening my eyes to new ways of teaching and has allowed me to grow in various ways.

Dance class this week was more intense than usual!  We took everything that we’re learned over the past few weeks and put it together and oh my, did we start moving fast.  It finally looked like we actually knew what we were doing!  It was a fun class and a nice way to end the week.  After dance class we went out to dinner for Jenny’s birthday!

Bill & Elaine!

She chose to invite Bill, one of our professors, and his wife Elaine.  They are the sweetest couple and we thought it would be nice to include them.  Bill is our professor for our Cross-Culture class (I think that I mentioned this before), but he does a lot for us out of class as well.  His wife Elaine just arrived in Ecuador a couple of weeks ago.  She will also be teaching a class for the remainder of this semester.  They accepted the offer and came out with us for dinner!

We went to a bar/restaurant that is just a few blocks from CEDEI School where we take our classes.  The place where we ate is called Chiplote.  We have eaten here one other time and loved the food.  I’m guessing that we liked it so much because it gave us a little taste of the food at home.  Jenny made a great choice by choosing this place…we were all super pumped to go there again.  It’s kind of funny because the name of this restaurant reminds us of the Mexican restaurant Chipolte at home, but the food selection is a little bit different…haha!  We ended up having a fun dinner with lots of laughs!  



The birthday girl and I! <3

  

Above are some pictures of the actual restaurant.  On the left is the cute little menu with lots of cheap prices!  The center picture is the upper seating area and the picture all the way to the right was taken form the upper seating area.  The bar is located on the first level along with a small section of regular seating!

Our whole group!!

Jenny and I ended up getting two different meals and sharing them!  She chose the nachos and I chose a chicken wrap.  We knew that we liked the nachos because we had them the first time that we went to this place.  I talked Jenny into sharing something new this time!  Both of the meals were delicious!  Haha and yes of course we took pictures of the food…we take pictures of everything!  Oh yeah and all of the food here is pretty cheap.  Both of our meals were $3.75…I think that’s a great price for how much you get.  I’m going to be the cheapest person when I come home because everything here costs so much less than back in the states! 

Nachos...mmmm!

Chicken wrap...delicious!!

After dinner we went over to our house and hung out for a bit!  Earlier in the day we bought Jenny a cake, so we brought that out once our stomachs had rested a little bit.  We all sang “Happy Birthday” in our BEST voices and made Jenny blow out pretend candles! Haha!  The cake was yummy!  The rest of the night was pretty laid back.  We just had a little dance party with us ladies!  

Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Jenny, Happy birthday to you!!

Even though we celebrated Jenny’s birthday a day early, I think she still had a lot of fun!  On Saturday we headed out on a weekend trip, to a city called Saraguro, with the fall students.  I have a lot to write about the weekend, so I will be sure to make that the next blog that I write!  Oh yeah and I finally took pictures of our host family and house so I will have to get that blog up soon as well!  Lots to tell you all about!  I hope that you’re all having a wonderful week! 

Love,

Aim