| Oct 14, 2005 - Cedei, my school in Cuenca
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 | My classroom & 2nd teacher, Leonor
| | another view
| | My cooking class teacher
| | Steaming the leaf-wrapped potato mix
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 | My cooking classroom
| | Make that, eating class
| | Exterior of Cedei
| | Inner courtyard of Cedei
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 | Center of Cedei complex, computers above in background
| | Center of Cedei complex, other direction
| | Open air computer lab
| | Dance class, the teacher
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 | The other 3 students, I`m in the mirror
| | More of the class
| | Working those hips
| | Dance class
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 | More dance class, thats Melissa and I
| | Teacher and the mirror again
| | The whole group
| | The students
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 | | | Close up of 2
| | Havin a good time with it
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| CEDEI (Centro de Estudias Interamericanos):
Cedei is the name of a very large educational institution that offers courses and programs in just about anything you can imagine, all of which I am still not aware of, and most of which take place at a big compound in the middle of Cuenca. They have local Ecuadorians who come here to take English classes for both children and adults. They have international college students who are doing their "Semester In The Andes" program. They have a school of the arts, a technology program, some sort of medical training program, a TEFL course, and an entire pre/elementary school in another part of town. They have an individual program for international volunteers who want to be in Cuenca for an extended period of time. I am taking another of the individual programs, which is called the Full Immersion Spanish Program. I am living with a host family in the south of Cuenca, on the other side of the Tomebamba river which divides the "new" part of town from the central "old" part of town where Cedei is located. My typical schedule will be as follows: wake up at 7am, have a breakfast of some tea/coffee, juice, and croissants/rolls. Take the #16 bus (25 cents, 20 minutes) to school. Or I can walk a more scenic 30-minutes through town. I have a one-on-one class from 10-12 with one teacher, a 20 minute break, then another one-on-one class from 10:20-12:20 with a different teacher. I think this variety in personalities and teaching styles can only help my Spanish learning. I have some time to myself, and then return home between 1-2 for lunch with my host mother, and usually my brother if he gets back at the same time. Lunch always starts with a soup (and a prayer), and then the main course of rice, some sort of vegetable, and usually some meat with sauce. Lunch is a much bigger and more important meal here than dinner, and is where I get most of my food for the day.
After this my day is pretty open. On many days Cedei offers electives for its international students in the afternoon/evening such as a cooking class, a dance class (merengue), a latin-american movie, a music class, and an "outing" into town for all the students. However, I am not too sure how much this will all actually happen. I've been here one week and all of these have been cancelled or postponed except for the cooking and dance class, which are the two I am most excited for anyway.
Then I usually will be back home by about 8pm for dinner. The thing is, as I said, dinner is not so important. Actually , my host mother and sister don't even eat anything at night, they just have tea or coffee, and my brother usually gets home too late from school/work to eat with me. So I am the only one eating, and my mother and sister (if she is there) just politely watch me eat. Luckily it is a quick meal, an example from one night being just some white rice, a fried egg, and a slice of ham. Actually, its less awkward than it sounds, at least now that I've gotten used to it.
And that's about it. I have a lot of freedom with this schedule though, and can eat out for any meal if I choose to and will not be offending my family. I can also come and go as I please, and have my own keys to the house. There is also a free computer lab at Cedei open from 8am-8pm, which is why I have such easy and frequent internet access here. So far, its all going very well at school. My first morning class is much more grammar and textbook dominated, which can get a little boring at times. The second session is almost all conversation-based and I am gaining a lot more from this one, although I guess both are necessary. For example, today in the second session my teacher taught me the verbs and phrases to bargain with street vendors, made sure I knew the names of the vegetables and fruits, and then brought me to the local market and made me do some shoppng for her. It worked, and it was very fun. I'm sure the locals got a kick out of the gringo trying to haggle the price of some platanos too. |
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