Spanish school and family stay

We´ve been in school for a couple weeks. We´re living with a 60 year-old woman to enhance the learning experience. We both like our teachers and usually like the food that our host mother prepares. The ¨rules¨ of the house make us chuckle. ¨When the lights go on in one room they go off in another, don´t eat on the beds, don´t put suitcases on the bed, dirty clothes get washed in a washer once every 8 days. (We hang it on the line.) Last week it took 4 days for them to dry because it was overcast and rainy. This week it only took 3 days. Next week we´ll go to a laundry mat that has a dryer. One of the other novelties of the house is that we have to ask her to turn on the water heater when we want a shower or to wash our face and it doesn´t stay on long after we´re done. We like her a lot. For 3 meals\day and laundry once a week it´s a good deal for $36\day.

The food

The food so far has been less than spectacular. In fact, it hasn't been very good. But today we had an exceptional meal - it was Lebanese.

Spanish school, homestay and volcano

Today we signed up for Spanish school.

Tomorrow we'll move from our very comfortable hotel to live with the Herrera family

Sunday we'll climb part of volcano Cotopaxi. It's about 1.5 hours south of Quito. Tungurahua volcano, the one that erupted on Fri (5/28) morning, is yet another 1.5 hours south of Cotopaxi.

All is well

Pandy

We're grateful

Patricia and I are grateful to the handful of people who helped us pack our 4 bedroom home and the more than a dozen friends who helped us move boxes and furniture into a 10x25 storage unit with a special thanks to 4 year-old Julia who brought joy to the process. We're also grateful to the friends who fed, housed and transported us after our stuff had been stored.

We have arrived in Quito after 16 hours of travel and are very content to have time to rest. Tomorrow we'll explore the city more, visit Spanish schools and try to find a game of ultimate frisbee at over 10,000 ft.

Andy and Patricia

Kitty found a home and the home found a renter

Our cat, Mio is being fostered by a dear friend and our house is officially rented. Those were the two big things that we really wanted settled before we left and now they are. Now all we have to do is get our stuff into storage. Sat we'll move most of our belongings to a 10'x25' storage unit. We're curious to see how much space we'll have left over.

Dinner with Matt, Susan, Isabella and Julia

A good time was had by all.

Kitty wants a home and our home wants a renter

One of the hardest things about preparing for this trip is saying goodbye to Mio, our cat and packing our house.

Mio We're looking for a foster family or for someone to adopt him. He's an 11-year old short- haired neutered male. He's a very lovable, affectionate indoor-outdoor cat. Email (fourney@gmail.com) or call (916-541-4188) if you want to meet him or know of someone who might.



Our home is for rent: It's on craigslist at the link below http://sacramento.craigslist.org/apa/1729950279.html.

Boxes everywhere

There's so much to do and so many boxes that it seems hard to believe we'll get it all done. Moving day is Saturday May 22nd. You're invited to come by at 9:30 and help for an hour or so.