A Room With A View

Things have been pretty much the same here this week. Class went well even though I told the kids that there were 50 stars on the American flag because there were 50 places to play soccer in the US (I used estadios instead of Estados). Things at the High School were good too. We harvested some lettuce/beets and got a bunch of land ready to plant next week. The funny thing was that on Thursday I showed up at 7:30 AM and the Teacher wasn´t there. The Principal told me the class (15 boys) was mine. I had no idea what they were supposed to be doing, so we just weeded the garden for an hour and a half and then played some soccer.

The teachers at the High School have been very nice, so I invited them to lunch at my house on Tuesday. Only three showed up (four couldn´t make it). but that turned out to be a good thing because I barely had enough food for them. I made tuna fish sandwiches (which they liked) and had apples and peanut butter (which they hated) on the side. I also made pancakes on Saturday for the family I live with. The previous PCV had made pancakes for them and they wanted me to do the same. I had a recipe for buttermilk pancakes (Did You Know: You can make buttermilk by putting 1 TBS vinegar into 1 Cup of milk and letting it sit?!) They turned out OK, but the family immediately said, "That´s not how Mike made them" and shook their heads. I can´t win.

The weather has been on a roller coaster this week. Wed - Fri it was bad (violent storms on Thursday and Friday knocked out the power all day) and when I woke up on Saturday, we didn´t have running water (this lasted until 7:00PM).

At the beginning of the week though, it was beautiful. During the day, I was able to see farther than I had before. I was able to get my first good view of Cotopaxi. This spurred me to do some research. Here are the interesting facts that I found out. From my backyard, I can see...the Volcano Cotopaxi (19,350 feet) [Note:Depending on your source, this is the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd tallest "active" volcano in the world. The last time it erupted was in the late 17th century and it destroyed the city of Latacunga, which is a lot farter away than I am. Let´s hope Cotopaxi stays inactively active.], the Volcano Iliniza Sur (17,217 ft), the Volcano Iliniza Norte (16,800 ft), Sincholagua (16,069 fy), El Corazon (15,708 fy), and the Volcano Rumiñahui (15,406 ft). There are probably a couple of other Mountains/Volcanoes that I can see that are this high, but those are all pretty far away. The interesting thing is that all these are taller than any mountain in the Continental US. Mt. Whitney in California is the tallest at 14,494 feet. The smallest of my mountains has this beat by 1,000 feet. Mt Hood in Oregon at 11,200 feet is right about at the elevation my HOUSE is (no wonder I can´t breath). To give a little more perspective, if you took Pike´s Peak (14,110 feet) and added 8 1/2 Gateway Arches on top, you would just about be as tall as Cotopaxi. Also, Cotopaxi is taller than any mountain in Africa, Europe, Antarctica, and Australia/Oceania. The beauty, the majesty, the grandeur of one of the World´s tallest volcanoes and I can see it all from my bathroom window (site of some other large eruptions).

At night since there were no clouds I also got the chance to see the Constellation of the Southern Hemispheres. Being at the Equator, I can see pretty much the whole sky. Look to the North and I can see the Big Dipper and the Belt of Orion. look to the South and I can see the Southern Cross (This is the most famous Southern Hemisphere Constellation and can be found on the flags of New Zealand http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagen:Flag_of_New_Zealand.svg, Australia http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagen:Flag_of_Australia.svg, and Brazil http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagen:Flag_of_Brazil.svg ). It was a beautiful night, so I sat outside and looked at the stars and though how crazy it was that most historical figures had never been this far south. When you are in the States, you are looking at the same sky the Julius Caesar saw, but down here I get to see things that Moses and George Washington never had the chance to. Kind of nuts.

Also, this week I looked out my window and saw some stray doge alternately humping and fighting in my yard and a seven year old girl peeing in the street (twice!). This is definitely an interesting country.

Jay

P.S. - As I finished writing this outside my house, I looked up and saw a circular rainbow around the sun. I´ve seen this before in San Diego, but I think they are pretty rare. Just add that to the list.