Who Says You Can't Go Back?

    The title is an allusion to a country song with the same title.  I don't think I've heard anyone say that...?  But then again, I forget many, many things.

Anywho, I HAVE come back, and in fact have been here more than a month now!  Here are some photos I've collected during that time, to give you a little taste of life here.

This morning I participated in the annual newby Amazing Race event that the school puts on for the new faculty and staff.  We had a great time scavenger-hunting around the Old Town area and wrapped up with lunch at an AH-freaking-DORABLE pizza place/local ministry house to street kiddos.  The person sitting across the table from me took this picture with the famous (in Quito) Panecillo (big, random, rounded volcanic hill in the middle of the city, with the angel statue (the Virgin of the Panecillo) sticking up into the beautiful blue sky.

This little pod thingy with a cross in the middle is shed by the plentiful eucalyptus trees around town.  I thought the cross shape was intriguing and unique.  Incidentally, I found this while on my first long walk with my friend, Beth.  Together again!  <3

I decided to make my own granola.  This is how much was stuck to the pan after I had chisled as much as possible out with a spatula and then a spoon (in spite of spraying said pan, as directed).  In the end, I shamelessly threw the pan away and am on the lookout for something similar to replace it with.  

In general, I'm finding preparing food here to be as challenging as I remember.  Between ingredients I can't find; those that are available but expensive; those that have a local alternative but are...um...not the same; and finding the energy to get home from a full day of school and start cooking, it's been a slow learning curve.

LOOK at this stinkin' adorable stuffed mushroom that I found at the produce section of my grocery store last week!!!!  He was so cute that I had to buy him.  I have named him Champ, because the Spanish word for mushroom is "champiñon".

This is a picture of my current favorite snack.  The default pop option here is sugar-free.  In fact, you pay MORE for regular pop.  To accompany the pop is a bag of the local potato chips that are ubiquitous here, and always sells for $1.  Together, this snack, which I bought from the kiosk stand across the street from the school entrance, was $1.50.  This is extra-tempting because lunch here is at 12:15- a full hour after my lunch started last year, so I'm good and hungry by the end of 4th period (and still a period away from lunch).  A bit dangerous?  Indeed.

[editor's note: the chips always come with a packet of ketchup.  I always throw it away.]

I am making a class playlist for each period, and one of the request papers came back as you see below.  I love that the kid is an MJ fan, even if they're struggling with the titles of the songs.  <3

This was my team for The Amazing Race this morning.  I insisted that we pose in the entrance to the metro station, where there was this GIANT box of KFC onion rings.  I mean, who can pass up an onion ring?  Not Miss Foster!  

Kate, who made up 100% of our team's competitive spirit (I'll let you guess which one she is), had just shouted, "Look tough!!" before the shot was taken.  Clara and I were laughing about how we're not going to look tough.  In the background, you can see just a part of a beautiful panoramic photo of the city.  Have I mentioned that Quito is beautiful?  Cause it is.

If there's a beautiful or unusual door, I am going to take a picture of it.  Isn't this one lovely?  Solid wood and (I'm confident) hand-carved back in the long-long ago.  I can't help but think of all the people who've passed through there.

While visiting the Basilica (my favorite church in Old Town), I had to take a selfie of this- it's the actual Pope-mobile from when Pope John Paul II visited Quito in 1985.  (it's not the actual Pope John Paul II in the back, though)

As we were walking to lunch after the race finished, we saw this woman with A CAT IN A BACKPACK!!  It seemed worthy of a photo.  The cat seemed to be living its best life.