Well, we’re back from our summer vacation and ready to start
year 2 out of our 2 year contract. Shannon and I had an incredible trip and
while it wasn’t exactly restful, we were able to see many of our family and
friends. It was excellent but I will let the story of the summer be Shannon’s
to write. I’ll pick up with the journey home.
The journey home starts with the ever difficult process of
getting Howie to travel with us. I didn’t want to go through the hassle of leaving
him in Florida for two months again and then the expense of going back to get
him. It was too much money, time, and hassle on me and Shannon’s family. So Shannon
and I resolved to bring him back with us and fly in August. If you remember
anything about the post from earlier in the year that meant we needed to have
weather under 85 degrees (in August in Florida) and take care of the paperwork.
The school booked our trips for the summer for us so we kind
of just had to deal with what they signed us up for. We ended up having a 4pm return
flight out of Miami. After realizing that the weather would be impossible to
counter that time of year and day in Miami, I arranged to switch our flights to
a midnight departure redeye hoping the weather would cooperate. The change only
cost us about $300.
Well the day came and after getting all of Howie’s paperwork
taken care of and saying our goodbyes, we piled into the minivan we rented that
would fit the luggage and Howie and made our way down to Miami. I have
personally sworn to myself never to own a minivan but this thing was less
minivan and more road yacht. This behemoth contained glorious leather captain’s
chairs, 431 cup holders, tvs, velvet roped off VIP areas, and bottle service.
(Don’t worry it was water, we were driving after all)
We hit the road and we were promptly smacked in the face with
thunderstorms and gale force winds that blew sawgrass into our road yacht’s
windshield throughout our four hour drive from Orlando to Miami that were meant
to remind us via living postcard what Florida had to offer. When we finally got
to the airport we managed struggled flailed around with our Howie
and his crate and 6 suit cases full of new clothing and exclusively U.S.
sauces, M&Ms, and Shannon’s beauty products. I imagine the scene we were
portraying is exactly what you’d see if you were a 19th century prairie
dweller and we were making our way up the Oregon Trail, but without the covered
wagon to keep us organized.
When we got to the actual airport, we were told
that our check in gate was on the far end of the airport and we would have to
walk our prairie equipment approximately 14 miles until we got there. At one
point, the luggage that was precariously perched on Howie’s crate caused his
crate to slide off of the luggage cart and send him and his crate slowly
tipping over. I dove to catch him from what would have probably been a near
fatal 9 inch fall to the ground and balanced the crate, luggage, and my temper
as if I were the blind Lady of Justice, Themis, balancing her scales of
righteousness.
When we got him to the gate and checked in, we walked him
over to the TSA check in and 80% of the airline staff came over to pet him,
fawn over him, and coo over his existence. I imagine this made the 20+ people
still waiting in line behind us a little frustrated but whatever.
After the check-in we had a relatively uneventful flight
with the only inconvenience being the sharp kneecap of a 6 year old girl
stabbing into my lower back as if performing some sort of rudimentary Andean acupuncture.
When we landed we took a few cabs home and slept through the
rest of the morning only to wake up to hear that the volcano Cotopaxi had
erupted that morning. So we landed and about an hour later a volcano explodes
to welcome us home. Well to be more accurate, it was a plume of ash that shot 2
miles in the air. No lava at the time. It’s still in a precarious state but
here we are three days later with not too much happening since. (Furiously
knocking on wood) However, even though it hasn't been too bad so far the country is in a state of emergency as a result of the eruption and there are concerns about the volcano's snow capped mountains melting due to magma flow and causing mud slides. Let's hope for the best for everyone in Ecuador and the towns directly surrounding the volcano.
The next day we got in our car to load up on groceries to
see that our battery had died in our car as a result of no driving it for 2+
months. We called around and eventually found some jumper cables. After talking
to a few people, this exact thing happened to 5 people while they were gone.
I feel bad for the new teachers. They usually arrive a week
before the rest of the staff for orientation and during their orientation week
they had school canceled one day due to protests in the city, and canceled
another day due to the volcano, and canceled a third day in anticipation of the
Quitonian Zombie Apocalypse. Only one of those things is fake. Imagine that
being your first week in a new country!
We go back to work tomorrow and in the meantime we’re
settling in and meeting up with some of our friends. While living in another
country poses omnipresent difficulties, we are anticipating and hoping to have
a smoother transition this year. We won’t have to find our way around town via
taxi, buy a car, find an apartment, dry our hair by space heater, do laundry in
the sink, or boil water for hot showers. We’ve figured out a lot of that stuff
and we’re at a point where we can simply live a somewhat normal life aboard. Here’s
to another good year in Quito and hopefully another year worth of good times to
experience and stories to write.
