GREETINGS FROM QUITO, ECUADOR (SORT OF)!

Admittedly, the greeting is a bit delayed since I'm now back in DC, but greetings none the less!  I had the opportunity to spend two weeks in an immersion program in Quito last month as part of my Spanish training, and it was fantastic!  

First of all, it was a much-welcomed change of scenery.  DC is great and all, but after having the same routine since the end of March, I was ready to change it up a bit.  

Some of the much-welcomed new sights in Quito.

Second, I got to celebrate by birthday in Ecuador!  A very nice birthday gift to myself, I must say.  

Celebrating my birthday with my host family - and the spectacular birthday cake they made for me!

And lastly, Quito was lovely!  It's located in a valley way up in the Andes at about 10,000 feet.  Trust me, I felt every inch of that altitude as I climbed three flights of stairs to my classroom every day.  The city is surrounded by volcanoes that provided some amazing scenery.  One afternoon, I took a gondola partway up the nearest volcano, Pichincha, and had a birdseye view of the city as well as some other neighboring volcanoes, including Cotopaxi (19,400') which is active and even let out a puff of steam while we were watching.  

The view from the top of the gondola.

That's Cotopaxi in the back on the left, pre-puff of smoke.

The city itself is very busy.  Outside of the historic, preserved old city (a UNESCO world heritage site), there is a ton of traffic and lots of new high-rise buildings under construction everywhere.  

Guards outside the presidential building (above) at the historic town square (below).

The Basilica - one of the many amazing old churches in the historic city center.

If you look closely, the "gargoyles" are turtles and other animals! 

Views of the historic city from the top of the Basilica tower.

High rises - and a food cart pod! - outside of the historic city center.

But there is also a huge park in the center of the city - Parque La Carolina - that provides open space and no shortage of outdoor activities (paddle boats, a skateboard park, a BMX dirt bike track, a par course, a botanical garden, miles of paved bike paths, tennis courts... and a dog park complete with agility course) to get out of the hustle and bustle.  

Some of the activities in Parque Carolina. 

Skateboard park, complete with cool graffiti.

One of the coolest dog parks ever!

I also got out of the frenzy by spending the weekend in Mindo - a little town in the cloud forest about two hours northwest of Quito.  I stayed at a local resort on about 800 acres that offered guided hikes each day, and I saw some amazing hummingbirds and other tropical birds.  (Bird nerd warning: Many photos below.)

So many hummingbirds!

Blue and black tanager!

Mountain toucan!

The scenery wasn't too shabby either.

There was also a huge UN-sponsored conference going on in Quito while I was there that included a "festival of lights" for several nights in the historic center.  It was an incredible production in which many of the ancient churches were illuminated with amazing images and light displays.  Hard to describe, and I didn't take my camera that evening to capture the event, but you can see a great 2-minute video clip showing some of the scenes if you click here.

Oh, and I also studied Spanish.  A lot.  It was a quick trip, so not enough time to get to the Galapagos... but someday...  In the meantime, I'm back in DC and back to the usual routine through December.  We're currently scheduled to head to Belize a few days after Christmas, but if I've learned anything from my time here so far, it's that things could change.  So stay tuned for the next installment!

FALL IS IN THE AIR?

Labor Day is behind us and I guess that means autumn is coming… but you wouldn’t know it.  It is still HOT here.  And I’m still a couple weeks shy of the halfway point in my Spanish training, so there’s nothing different about my daily routine.  But the days are noticeably shorter – it gets light later and the sun sets sooner, so I can tell a big change is coming.  I will miss the long hours of sunlight, but I will not miss the heat and humidity.  So bring on the fall!

We spent Labor Day at Mount Vernon.  It had been a trip we’d been planning to do at some point, but had been waiting until the throngs of summer tourists had departed.  Labor Day was a great day to go!  It wasn’t too busy and we had great weather for it.  It’s only about half an hour from our place in Arlington, so it was a great destination for a day trip.  The grounds are beautiful and the buildings are well preserved (or recreated, in a few instances).  Here are some pics from our outing:

The main house and the great lawn

Casa de Jorge Washington

The veranda at the main house

View of the Potomac from the veranda

The (rebuilt) greenhouse and gardens

They also had some "heritage" livestock on the grounds

Andrew made a new friend.  Why the long face?

Next up, Andrew heads back to Portland for a week later this month, and then maybe we’ll get a little trip or two in during one of the holiday weekends we have coming up.  But for the most part, our current routine will continue unchanged – I’ll be learning Spanish and Andrew will be working from the apartment.  The only thing that will be changing anytime soon is the color of the leaves outside.  Happy fall everyone!

MÁS QUE ESPAÑOL

I’ve been learning (or trying to learn) Spanish for over a month now.  I think it’s going ok – I have good days and bad days – but I’ll have an “evaluation” next week to see if I’m on track.  It’s a bit nerve-wracking to know that I have a deadline to learn a new language.  To get my mind off that fact for a bit, I’m going to use this opportunity to write a blog post about all the fun stuff I’ve been doing this month BESIDES learning Spanish.

First up… Pink Martini in concert at Wolf Trap.  Andrew and I got a wave of nostalgia seeing this Portland band.  Wolf Trap is (oddly) a National Park that also serves as an indoor/outdoor music venue just west of DC.  There is lawn seating, but there is also a two-story covered area that seats 7,000 people.  The band sounded great and played to a full house… all during one of the hottest, most humid nights I have ever experienced.  The band went on at 8:30 and temperatures were still in the mid-90s.  Storm Large (the lead singer for this show) said it felt like she was singing inside someone’s mouth.  Not a bad analogy.

Smiling - and sweating - at Wolf Trap. 

The national symphony joined Pink Martini for this concert.  It was fantastic!

That’s not the only concert we’ve been to this summer.  The military bands play free evening concerts every week, and we saw the Navy band play big band music on the steps of the US Capitol and the Air Force band play jazz at the US Air Force Memorial.  We also went to see a Cirque du Soleil production (Kurios) this past weekend.    

The Air Force jazz band at the USAF monument.

Looking up at the USAF monument...

...and looking out at the view of DC from the USAF monument.  That's the Washington monument on the left, the Pentagon in the foreground on the right, and the US Capitol in the distance.

Next up… get togethers with my colleagues.  The group that went through orientation together was a great bunch of folks, and several of us all live in the same apartment building.  We’ve taken advantage of our proximity to have lots of happy hours, poolside barbecues, dinners, Olympics opening ceremony viewing parties, and any other excuses for shindigs we can think of.  

A happy hour in our apartment...

... and a poolside barbecue with lots of my new colleagues and their partners.

A handful of us decided to expand our social activities to include a visit to see the “corpse flower” at the National Botanic Garden.  It only blooms once every 4-5 years, and the bloom only lasts for one day.  The blooming of this corpse flower was big news in DC, and the botanic garden stayed open until 11pm the night it started blooming to accommodate everyone who wanted to see it.  When we got to the botanic garden around 8pm last Tuesday night, the line wrapped around the block – and these are not little residential blocks, people!  This line was probably at least ½ mile long and we waited in it for 1½ hours.  Who knew there were so many “budding” botanists here!  (Insert drum rim shot and groan here.)

Worth the wait!

It's called a "corpse flower" because of the smell... but apparently we missed the peak smell because it was only every-so-slightly gross.

The month was capped off with receiving my Presidential commission officially appointing me to the foreign service.  A pretty cool souvenir from my time in DC to date!

A thoughtful gift from the President and Secretary Kerry!

Andrew left today to head back to Australia for a few weeks to visit friends and family and to attend his XXth [REDACTED] high school reunion.  But even though he'll be away for most of it, August promises to bring many more extracurricular activities – Olympics to watch, museums to check out, visits from Portland friends, and shindigs with new friends.  Even though my focus is on learning Spanish, necesito hacer más que español!

SUMMER IS IN FULL SWING

Summer is definitely upon us here in DC and has brought with it heat, humidity, and frequent “severe thunderstorm warnings.”  I don’t think I’ve ever experienced as many emergency broadcast system alerts in my life as I have since the summer began here.  Even this afternoon, the 90+-degree heat was interrupted mid-afternoon by lightning and dumping rain… and the accompanying alert sound on the TV.

Heat and torrential downpours aside, we have done our part to explore DC.  We’ve explored lots of the museums and public buildings in DC, including the Capitol (and found more yet references to William Jennings Bryan – he’s everywhere!), Museum of Natural History, National Portrait Gallery, and National Archives.  We’ve also enjoyed the great outdoors and explored the National Arboretum and National Zoo, and listened to the US Navy Band play big band jazz standards on the west steps of the Capitol.  Have I mentioned that everything in this town is FREE???  A miser’s paradise!

Pandas at the National Zoo!

My great- great-grandpappy in Statuary Hall at the Capitol

This past weekend, we opted for a change of scenery and headed to Delaware in search of a beach and cooler weather (we hoped).  What we mainly found in Delaware were corn fields.  They are definitely giving Iowa a run for the money as far as growing corn goes.  We did find a nice beach at Cape Henlopan State Park… but we did not find cooler temperatures.  It was just as hot... and it was swarming with like-minded folk looking for relief from the heat.  We hung out for a little bit, but with no shade in sight, we had to give up. 

The beach - and the overheated masses - at Cape Henlopan

In lieu of the beach, we went to nearby Lewes for lunch and then to Dover Downs, a huge hotel/casino/horse track/race car track and, as best we could tell, really the only thing to do in Dover.  No races were going on but we did our best to fully absorb the full experience by playing penny slots while drinking Bud Light.

A little park in Lewes.  The town has a volunteer task force of gardeners to look after all the flowers in town.

The next day, on our way back to DC, we stopped in Annapolis, did a super quick tour of the visitor center at the Naval Academy, and walked along the waterfront.  Annapolis proved to be a highlight of the weekend – it’s a cute little town with lots of really well-preserved historic buildings.  It’s only about an hour from DC, so I sense there will be another day trip there soon to do a bit more exploring.

Downtown Annapolis

Our lunchtime vantage point in Annapolis

Lastly, despite what this post may imply, we haven’t just been playing tourists here.  Andrew has been able to continue working for his company and has been periodically away on various work trips to St. Louis, Houston, and this week, New York.  And I am in the next phase of my training.  This is week #3 of a 24-week Spanish program.  The brief Spanish studies I’ve done over the last couple of years have definitely given me a bit of a head start, but I still have so much to learn.  I have a small group class for four hours a day, private meetings with a teacher and a “learning consultant” a couple times a week, and in between, lots of lessons in a language lab and practice on my own.  It’s a full time school dedicated to just one subject… so let’s hope I finally am able to learn it!