Todos los días de mi vida

  Yo, Matthew Philip Lane, te recibo a ti Cinthya Fernanda Orellana Sanchez, como esposa y me entrego a ti, y prometo serte fiel en la prosperidad y en la adversidad, en la salud y en la enfermedad, todos los días de mi vida.

So, after months of planning, Cinthya and I finally got married on the 28th February 2015. I am going to show you some of the photos and explain a little bit about the process that we went through. It was the busiest time of our lives: with planning the wedding, finishing our jobs before our annual vacations, having my family arrive and also opening our institute. We don’t know how we coped, but we did and we are both very much enjoying getting back to normality.

Civil wedding 

To get married in the Ecuadorian version of the registry office we just had to: pay $70, pick a date that suited us, bring a copy of our ID cards and select two witnesses. We both worked in the morning, but left at lunchtime and then got ready together at home. Then Cinthya’s family came and picked us up. The ceremony only really lasted for about 20 minutes and we deliberately didn’t take it too seriously as the church wedding was to be the main event. But to get married in the church first of all you have to marry at the registry office. Even the registrar said at the end of the service, here is your certificate now when you’re ready you can get married in the church. What if we didn’t want to get married in the church?! It’s all a bit snobby, fellow couples from our pre-matrimonial course deliberately wore their work clothes and didn’t invite their parents to the civil ceremony. The best way I can describe it, is to compare it to a stereotypical Las Vegas wedding, as long as you’ve got your two witnesses, your ID cards and you’ve paid. If you went in the morning you can be married by the afternoon. After we were finished we then went out for dinner with Cinthya’s family and our two witnesses. I footed the bill and it was suspiciously cheap, so I was even happier and left the restaurant as quickly as possible.

On the way

Before the ceremony

Finalising the deal! 😉

Photo session.

The weekend after the civil service was the photo session. (I can’t express how many photos we had taken over the course of the wedding But,I do know that the photographers and photos cost a bloody fortune.) This happens before the wedding in Ecuador, instead of during the wedding day.  At this point I had yet to see Cinthya in her wedding dress, so she went to the photo shoot first and took pictures with the bridesmaids. Then she changed into a second dress as I arrived and we took some photos as well. Everyone was telling me how amazing she looked and it made me even more excited for the wedding.  I’m not a huge fan of taking photos so I did find it a bit testing, but I know Cinthya really enjoyed it. And see for yourself I really like a lot of the photos.

Just in case we forget our names when we’re old

She insisted on it being this long

My favourite photo of Cinthya

Favourite photo of us

I like this one, it reminds me of a book cover

Pre- Matrimonial Course

This was a compulsory course held at the church that we had to take prior to the religious ceremony. The course was 6.30pm to 8.30pm, Monday to Friday  and lasted for one week. Each session there was a different speaker. There was a missionary, a priest, a lawyer, a Catholic teacher and finally a psychologist. There were about eight other couples. A real mix, including a couple that had been married by the civil wedding for 20 years, a couple which had been together for just 2 months, couples with children and other young couples like us. I felt so weird being there as an ‘outsider’. The things I heard were absolutely shocking. Adam and Eve were mentioned a great deal. But I don’t want to be too negative and the priest who married us was very good to us.

Dance Choreography

Dancing is a huge part of the culture here. But I dance like a blindfolded drunk panda who’s wearing a roller-skate on one foot and an ice skate on the other. So that limited our options somewhat. Therefore, we decided on going to a dance choreographer and taking classes for a week to practice. We chose the song ‘Ella y Él’ which is song about an American falling in love with a Cuban girl. It somewhat mirrors our story. Everyone laughed when it came on and it’s a fun song to dance to. It paid off in the end, we kept it simple and I think I done well. We had the whole wedding recorded, but it’s not ready yet, so I guess I will have to wait to see how I really did. Cinthya and her bridesmaids also did a surprise dance, they practised it a lot and it went down really well.

White men can dance

Was glad to be sitting down finally

Family arriving

Six days before our wedding my family arrived. My parents and my sister came over. I have lived in Ecuador for just over two years and having them here was insane. I couldn’t get my head around it. They all really enjoyed it and liked seeing where I worked, lived, bought food etc and of course meeting my wife; who they absolutely adored. They enjoyed were they visited, liked the diversity of the food and got eaten alive by mosquitos. All of the things we got upto and their impressions of Ecuador really deserves a post of its own. Cinthya and I really enjoyed having them here, and their presence really made the wedding. And most importantly, they bought us over lots of Cadbury’s chocolate.

Waiting for my family to arrive

Arriving from Amsterdam

Inside of a mine in Zaruma

All looking in different directions and photo-bombed by Jesus.

Church

On the day of the wedding I arrived early to the hotel where we would be staying that night. I spent the whole day there by myself, and it was lovely. I got KFC and ate copious amounts of fried chicken, watched reruns of Two and a Half Men and had a little nap. I got myself ready, and got a taxi straight to the church. I hate fuss, waiting etc. So I loved having the day to myself. I got to the church 20 minutes early as I was told to, exactly 10 minutes before Cinthya was SUPPOSED to get there. The priest said the day before that no matter what happened he would be starting on time. So of course Cinthya was twenty minutes late, and as my family were arriving with her, they were late as well. The priest was making jokes in the church about her not showing up… But finally she made it, apparently she couldn’t find her shoes and earrings, there is always a reason right Cinthya? 😉

I will never forget seeing her walking up the aisle. Her dress was handmade, and the process had taken months. And to finally see her, my Cinthya walking up towards me, that memory will always stay with me. The priest was so kind and generous to us, not just in allowing us to marry but during the service. He also said to the collected audience who were also there to receive mass ‘Matthew is not a Catholic, he’s from England, and his family are here with us as well.’ He then gave a microphone to Cinthya and asked her to translate a message to them, he said. ‘Here in Ecuador, we are all one big family. We welcome you to Ecuador, and we welcome you to the Catholic Church, and we hope you enjoy your stay in Ecuador.’ That was so kind him.

Wedding vows

I got really in to it

Novios chiquitos

Cinthya translating for the priest

After Party

Then finally came the after party! I had written a few words, and I had been practising it a lot. I was so nervous about delivering my speech. But I have done of a lot of public speaking in Spanish at the university so I thought it’d be OK. It was not. I couldn’t believe how many people were there and before I even I realised what was going on it was time for my speech. I had it written down, and I literally had to read it aloud. But after each paragraph I translated it into English for my family, and kept making jokes about how bad I was doing. And the few other English speakers found it really funny.  The wedding was lovely, everyone was so kind and generous. My favourite moment was when a Charro singer surprised us and sang us a song while we danced.

Couldn’t have gone worse

Nearly lost my eyebrows

Small singing Mexican man

I don’t play snooker

Cinthya’s beautiful speech

🙂

I’d had a few drinks by this point

Running away with the money. See you soon Cuba 😉

  Hasta luego

Getting closer

My fiancé identifies as a Catholic, but she doesn’t by any means follow ‘the rules’ so as to say. She doesn’t adhere to any catholic teachings on homosexuality, going to confession, pre-matrimonial sex (phew!) and contraception.  But, her family are very Catholic and even a couple of her aunts are nuns. For that reason a church wedding is really a must for her. Whereas, I tend to refer to myself an atheist: I don’t believe in gods or have a religion. I am very secular person; I don’t believe in luck, destiny and I am not even slightly spiritual (I have been known to light the odd incense candle every now and again but it really doesn’t go much further.)  The idea of being baptised a Catholic is almost impossible to comprehend. It’s there with supporting UKIP, taking heroin or joining ISIS; It’s something I would never do.  So that left us with a bit of a predicament. If the decision was only mine to take, we wouldn’t be getting married in a church. But, getting married in the registry office here isn’t like what it is in England. First, you have to go to a boring plain government building, there are people everywhere, they keep you waiting and then it’s a fifteen minutes in and out affair. It would be like trying to have a romantic meal at McDonald’s. For that reason I said I would get married in a church. To make her family happy and for the ceremony to feel more like a wedding.

So there, they said I would have to take course to become a Catholic. The course can take up to two years or just six months if I took the ‘intensive’ course. And this would result in me having to be baptised, first communion, confession etc.  I was assured I wouldn’t have to confirm I believe in God. Just to demonstrate I am aware of the teachings, rules and then demonstrate it. Then I would be a fully-fledged Catholic. Crazy what life gives you, I couldn’t believe I agreed but I was more than willing to make the sacrifice. But thankfully, an alternative priest said he would marry us without me taking the course. He said he would complete a ‘mixed wedding’. As long as I would allow it that our children are raised as Catholics. I said yes, and  I’m sure I wasn’t the first or the last person to lie to that priest…

How it goes here is that two weeks before the church you go the civil registry and get married. You then have the ceremony in the church, followed by a reception. That is exactly what we’re going to do. February 28^th! So very close indeed, we have almost everything ready. Ecuadorian weddings are very similar to an English wedding except for; they traditionally involve a choreographed dancing between the bridge and groom. I cannot dance to save my life and honestly I hate it with a passion. So the deal was made, I will do or say whatever it takes for us to able to be married in a church, but I will not make a fool out of myself at the wedding by dancing like a wally, so just the waltz.

Marriage isn’t the be all and end all. Nothing really changes afterwards. Let’s say you’re not truly happy with your partner or you always argue. A marriage doesn’t solve that. Being officially man and wife doesn’t actually elevate you. To me a marriage is a statement, one that says: to yourself, to your partner and to everyone else, that you’re planning to be together forever. That you both feel that everything life has to offer is better when you’re experiencing or sharing it with that other person. That the sacrifices you make for the commitment to one another, are minuscule in comparison to the benefits you receive for being together. I am ready and I want to get married. Therefore, I am not even slightly nervous or apprehensive. It’s just one day, the rest of for ever begins afterwards the same as we were before. Just with a ring on my finger, and a significantly lighter wallet.

One thing that does make me nervous though is that my parents and my sister are coming to the wedding. All of them have limited experience of travelling abroad and I’m not sure how they will take to Ecuador. It’s a lit bit different to say, a resort in Tenerife, like they’re used to. I am sure they will find it beautiful and exciting, it will be a bit of ‘walk on the wide side’ for them. They will stay with us and we’ll take them on trips to show them round. I will bring them to my work, introduce them to some friends, show them some Iguanas and make them try the local cuisine (my family are the world’s fussiest eaters and I’ve got a feeling we’ll be eating at Chili’s every night). I’m feeling the pressure, I love it here and I don’t know how I would feel if they don’t like it. But hey, they’re British if they just the see the sun they’ll be happy.

Hasta luego

P.s. An old school friend (don’t worry I won’t embarrass you by mentioning you by name) messaged me, saying how she enjoyed reading my blogs and seeing what I am up to. It was amazing getting that feedback, so thanks. I share my new posts on my twitter but I never imagine someone I know reading it.

Feliz Año Nuevo

 

 

Happy New Years to you all. I have had the best part of two weeks holiday off from work. It was the first time I have had a real break since May and I have really enjoyed it. 2014 was an important year for us. In fact, last Sunday (07/01/14) marked the one year anniversary that my fiancé and I moved in together. We have spent every one of those days and nights with each other. It was also the year that I got the job at the university. The year I finally gained my confidence with Spanish. The year I started to write this blog, the year we got Spikeysorus and I am sure many more important things I have forgotten to mention. But I’m going to look ahead to 2015 with this post, and for my first post of the New Year I have news about something special I am hoping to achieve.

We (as in my fiancé, some friends and I) are going to be opening our very own language institute! It is called Windsor Languages, and although primarily we will be focusing on English very soon we will be offering classes in French. We have the capacity for seven classrooms and have been planning every detail for months. There are several language institutes already here in Machala, and the truth is that some of them have a few very good teachers. But, the sad reality is that there just isn’t a quality language institute here. And the few good teachers there are only work within institutes that are very badly ran and that lack the proper resources. On top of that, these teachers are underpaid and undervalued. Add to that not all of the teachers are good, for example I worked at one of these institutes where my fellow non-native teachers didn’t have a sufficient English level for teaching and the English native speakers didn’t have the relevant experience or training. These institutes, as with so many others are run under the facade of education. Lying to students and parents about course structure and outcomes. What makes me so angry is that continue to get away with it.

As well as continuing to work at the university, every evening and weekend I will be at Windsor. No business is guaranteed success, but I can’t help but feel optimistic. Machala is crying out for this institute. A growing number of students are making six hour round trips every weekend to study English in different cities; as the level of teaching here is so poor. That has to change! This is has been a long term goal of mine for quite some time and I feel very passionate about it as I’ve seen with my own eyes students being taken advantage of. I want to make an institute that puts the quality of its teaching above all us. An institute ran by language teaching professionals. An institute that only hires the best teachers who have international recognised certifications in English. An institute that is open and accountable. Where students will have to pass independent exams in order to progress through our course and will graduate with international and domestically certified qualifications. I want to give Machala the English institute it needs and deserves.

This is my aim for 2015. For Windsor Languages to become successful here in Machala. I feel kind of excited sharing it with you. I want it to be known as the institute to go to if you want to seriously learn a language. We want to with time and when we have the appropriate resources bring native speakers from other countries to teach at our institute. We also want to offer language exchange programs, where by our students can spend time in English native speaking countries, all of this we have in the pipeline. 2015 is potentially going to be the busiest year of my life, but hopefully the most successful. I really look forward to keep you updated with its progress.

Hasta luego

P.s. I read and write more in Spanish than I do in English. Add to that also I have no advanced classes at the moment! It’s lovely writing in English, it feels like walking after having worn roller-skates. But: I; am, -out _ of¡ practice. With “ punctuation! So apologies for that.

Christmas time, mistletoe and tamarindo…

So Christmas is well and truly on the way. It never feels like Christmas here for me. We don’t make that much of deal of it here; you’re not bombarded with it at every turn like in England. I definitely prefer it this way, but at the same time I miss the cold! It doesn’t feel like Christmas unless it’s cold and dark and I’m inside in the warm, reading a book by the fire and eating mince pies and general other stuffing my face activities. That I really do miss; therefore in order to tackle missing a Christmas like this, I decided to spend last Christmas at the beach. I always wanted to try the ‘Australian Christmas’ of having a BBQ and relaxing on the beach. It was awesome. But didn’t feel like a Christmas to me.

So, I recently spoke on Skype with a friend who I hadn’t spoken to face-to-face since I came here almost two years ago. Naturally we asked each other a lot of questions; he told me he enjoyed my blog. I decided to put some of his questions here and my answers. I hope you’ll find them enjoyable and I haven’t really touched on those topics here. What follows is a selection of those questions:

Do you miss England?

I miss catching the train in the rain and seeing the droplets run down the window. I miss go for runs in the cold. I miss real bacon. I miss concerts. I miss my friends. I miss not having to download Doctor Who. I miss ordering online from Amazon. I miss typical things like that but I don’t actually miss the English lifestyle or country in itself. I am happier here than I ever was in England. But, that has nothing to do with me not being in England and now being in Ecuador. It’s just that the situation I am in now, partner, job etc. makes me happier than before, it just happens I found all of this here in Ecuador. I just wish England and Ecuador were closer so I could visit more often and it not be so expensive to travel.

What do you like most about Ecuador? 

The people! They are so laid back and welcoming. As soon as you meet someone they are quickly your friend. At work every morning we greet each other as if we’re old friends that have been apart for too long. Nothing is ever an issue or a problem. People lend each other anything. Who in England lets someone borrow their car? Or their laptop? Here all the time. In England if I wore purple trousers, yellow shoes and a green top hat everyone would stare at me, even make fun of me and laugh. Here no one would care what you were wearing. They don’t judge, they accept you. Bullying is almost non-existent here.

What’s the biggest difference between England and Ecuador?

The weather. Where I am in the coast of Ecuador it is never cold. You could wear shorts and a t-shirt every day of year and it would never ever be an issue. It doesn’t really rain here either. Today is an average day here and according to my phone it’s 27°C and it will get a lot hotter than that from January through to March.

What are you long term aims while you’re in Ecuador?

I want to progress as far as I can here at the university. We are in a period of great change here and I am working with some dedicated people who are relentlessly trying to improve the standards here at the university. I want to study for a PhD and work my way up here. Also, I am involved in a very special project that with any luck will begin in February next year (keep coming back for an updates on that). I am planning to take the DELE (The Diplomas in Spanish as a Foreign Language) B2 Spanish exam to coincide with my two years here in Ecuador. But, at this point that is more than achievable. I want to push myself further, maybe publish an article that I will write in Spanish or in the coming year take the DELE C1.

 Why are you so fat?

Two things. I no longer exercise and I now drink cola. If I exercise and stop drinking cola then everything will be ok again. I have been saying I will stop drinking cola and exercise for about a year and six months now…. Those that know me from university will remember me as a fitness freak.  I will start running in the evenings so I’m not chubby for the wedding photos. Love has made me fat. It’s not my fault. Also, there is no squash here. What am I supposed to drink if not copious amounts of cola?

What is it like speaking another language?

The fact that I have been here for nearly two years is the why I speak Spanish. It’s not impressive it obvious that I do. Learning a language from living in a country is not an achievement. If you have self-taught yourself a language from your home country, I respect that. But,  what I have done is not really an achievement. As I live here it doesn’t feel anything different. It just feels likes speaking. People who don’t speak other languages often say they wish they could just jump into another language, but I really don’t think they would feel any different if they could.

 Do you stand out in Ecuador?

I stand out a lot here. I look a bit different to everyone else. The majority of people know just from my face that I am not Latino. More often than not people guess with Spanish or a I’m some crazy Mormon Jehovah ‘Jesus was your uncle’ American missionary person.

If you had to go back to England tomorrow what would you miss most about Ecuador?

Not including the people… I would go for food. Some of the seafood and plantain based dishes are incredibly good. You just can’t get that in England. I do miss a lot of restaurants from England that aren’t here in Ecuador but I can pretty much cook anything I miss from England. Whereas cooking those Ecuadorian dishes in England would be almost impossible.

What’s Ecuadorian music and TV like?

There really isn’t a distinct type of Ecuadorian music, they listen to music from all other the world. Ecuadorian TV is really not my cup of tea. It’s like continuous daytime TV, and there is a lot of reality TV. The only things I like are the crazy Brazilian soap operas and the news; the news is only important stuff I like that.

Is it dangerous there?

I have lived here for nearly two years and I have never been the victim of crime. It’s similar to if you lived in New York or Chicago in the US. It is not as safe as some European  cities. But, I have never been concerned about it.

So yeah, that’s the most of it. As always I hope you enjoyed reading. If anyone has any other questions feel free to let me know via the comments, our you could tweet me @matthew1ane and I will answer you in a upcoming post. In other news…

I want you all to meet Spikey (a.k.a. Spikeysito, Spikeysorus) the new addition to the family. He is super cute and crazy. He is the best and the only bilingual dog in Ecuador.

Hasta luego

The secret to a successful blog is frequent posts…

As I mentioned briefly before I am working at a university. A typical degree course here lasts for five years. Four years with classes and then one year to complete a thesis. Students go through two parciales (partials/term) a year and with each new parcial they go up a ‘level’. So that’s two levels a year. So if you met say a ‘third year’ student, as in someone who had been studying for three calendar years, they wouldn’t refer to themselves in that way. They would either be a level six or a level seven student depending in what parcial of the year they are in. Each academic year is referred to as a semester. They go from levels one through to eight. So with the very first semester,  in the first parcial the student is a level one student and a student in the fourth semester in the second parcial would be a… eighth level student. Complicated I know and in truth I don’t fully understand the other complexities of it.

Now, in England you apply to university just once. When you’re offered a place, as long as you don’t fail you have a place to the end of course. Here, you have to re-enrol at the end of the every parcial. So that means a student will have to apply eight times to university throughout the course of their degree! There are two exams in each parcial, those being a mid-way exam and then a final exam and if they fail in a given subject they cannot reapply to move on to the next subject. Here all over courses follow on from each other (very similar to the format of North American universities.)

Students enrolling

Where it takes place

Busier than mustard trying to ketchup…

Here lies the reason for my lack of posts. Currently, I have just finished a ‘parcial’ and that is an unbelievably busy time, particularly when you bear in mind that I have 156 students, in five separate courses. All within a couple of weeks you have create exams, grade the exams, grade all of their work, upload the grades, help students that didn’t pass, give them newly written exams, write the syllabuses for my new classes, write reports on your past classes, two weeks of seminars/training, I also had to give a series of seminars totalling 16 hours and then I had to write a report on these seminars. Add to that during this time, I am continuously practising to perfect my Spanish and I am still adapting to the processes at the university. In addition, to all of this we were looking for new places to live and we have just found an amazing house and this very weekend we are starting to move in. Busy times indeed.

So, why are we are looking for a new place to live? We are moving because we are getting married this February! February 28th.  I am really excited, I know it’s not cool for the man to be excited but dammit I am.  Invitations are yet to go out so give it a couple of months if you’re expecting yours. My family, as in my mum, dad and sister are coming to Ecuador for two weeks, to come to the wedding. So they will be staying with us during this time, so we need a bigger place. That’s why we are moving. It’s a sad time as well as we really like the area we live in now and I have lived here for so long everyone knows us and we know them. But, that said the new house is a great improvement on our current apartment.  The new house is in a gated community, it has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a front and back garden (I am very green fingered) and a swimming pool just in front of our house.

New house

Swimming pool

Blank canvas

So there, a bit of a update for you. I have many more busy times to come! But, also fun and more happy times too. As I am now back to my normal routine at the uni I can find time to write the odd post here and there, as I really enjoy doing these. I actually had to write an article on education for something work related, I would really like to share the main points of it here next time maybe. I find it really interesting exploring the differences from England to here and I hope that you will too.

Hasta luego

Bonus pic. If you want a receipt here you have to give your tax information and your address. Unless I mention it they always put my address as ‘Reino Unido’, which is United Kingdom. This was from a hardware store. Maybe they think I flew over here just to by a tube for a shower?

Matt y Mateo

My Spanish level.

When it comes to my Spanish, I used to be a big fish in a little pond. This was when I was working in a language institute. I was working with two teachers from England of who had just started to learn Spanish. I was translating and helping with the basics for living and working in a Spanish-speaking country. As I really only had beginners to compare myself to, I had a distorted view of my abilities.   I came here with no level in Spanish and there I was translating and explaining things to two people who are at same situation I found myself in when I got here. I took that to mean I had a great level in Spanish. In addition, the students there all tended to have a communicable level of English so what questions they had in Spanish I could easily answer and I could use English to help me if I got stuck. When with my fiancé and her family, we were communicating in Spanish all day long. It tends to be the case, when you know somebody well, speaking in a different language is infinitely easier than speaking with a stranger.  Add to that, everyone that surrounded me tended to have known me since I first arrived when I spoke no Spanish. So there was a never-ending stream of complimentary comments. ¨Wow Matt just understood when I asked something in Spanish, well done Matt!¨… for example.

Then came my new job at the university; where I entered a new and considerably bigger pond. I became a very little fish very quickly. No one would need me to translate, no one needed my advice. It’s me that needs advice and if I want it I will have to ask for it in Spanish. Worried that if I didn’t understand people would think my Spanish was bad and maybe that I was not able to cope with working at the university. Very few people speak English here so it wasn’t a case of speaking Spanish when the situation arose like before. Now it was a case of having to speak Spanish all of the time. Honestly, my confidence took a bit of a knock at first.  So although I speak in English while teaching, students at the university only speak to me in Spanish. Not very many of them have a sufficient level in English. So, if I have to explain something important, I have to do so in Spanish. Having to stand up in front of thirty-five to forty students and then speak Spanish was nerve-racking. Everything for me now is in Spanish, all the meetings, emails, conversations etc. The experience has been incredible and my Spanish level has improved more in the space of a few months than it did in the first year I was here in Ecuador. I can’t stress this enough, at the point where someone is close to being fully immersed in a language, this is when you actually start to learn in a way that  just can’t be replicated through over methods.

Now I think it is fair to say to my Spanish has reached an advanced level and I am more than comfortable in saying that I speak Spanish. I am a not completely fluent but at this point I would say I’d need another year here to reach that. Another year as I am now speaking Spanish more than I do English. Speaking with different people every day; having to adjust to their accents, their vocabulary and their understanding.  It’s not an easy process, and it never really ends. For example, I have learnt so many in new English words from reading the George RR Martin’s ‘A song of Ice and Fire’ series. In truth, they are uncommon words but they are words nevertheless that I have added to my vocabulary.  It shows that if we never stop learning our native language than learning a second language is an extended process.

At the moment I really struggle when I have to listen extensively. My mind switches off, and it’s not like with a native language. Unless you’re trying to listen, your brain doesn’t really pick it up. For example if the TV is playing in the background while I’m talking, it could literally be saying that the Ecuadorian government wants to export me to Mongolia and I wouldn’t pick up a single word.  Also, when I’m tired, Spanish and I fall out.  It literally pains me having to speak it. Here classes start at 7 am. in the morning. At 7 am in the morning having to think and speak in Spanish. It is like having to take a cold shower as soon as you wake-up. I could if had to but I don’t want to it’s not an enjoyable experience. I need to sort of warm up before I speak Spanish in my normal manner.  But, a part from little things like that, I am well on my way to fluency. And that’s my target, I want to speak perfectly.

Matt y Mateo

‘With learning a new language, comes a new soul.’  Allegedly this comes from an old Czech proverb. The first time I saw it, it was as a quote in an English text-book, which I was teaching from at the time, and it really hit home with me. As I was thinking on how different I felt when speaking in Spanish to how I do in English.  I believe this feeling is due to a language not just being words, but the culture that comes along with it. For example, in a given situation when speaking Spanish I am not saying exactly what I would be if I was speaking English. I am thinking in Spanish and I am saying things that I wouldn’t say with the same significance in English. I jokingly say in England I am Matt and here in Ecuador I am Mateo.  But it’s so true, I really am a different person.  It’s similar to when you take a long journey, you don’t remember every part and minute, sometimes your mind just blurs and you’re at your destination. That’s how I am with Spanish, someone will ask me something. Matt doesn’t think what to say, Mateo just blurts something out in Spanish. Matt doesn’t have a clue from where the sentence originated from within his head but it happened. Mateo says ‘Buenos dias, como estas, todo bien’ (Good morning, how are you? Everything is fine?) when he sees you. With Matt you’re lucky if I nod my head in acknowledgement.

The rule

The rule is this. (Please feel to write this down, share with everyone you know. Let’s make Mateo’s life better.) If you are speaking with someone, you should speak in the language that allows you to communicate most efficiently through selecting the language that conveys the greatest level of mutual understanding. For example, if the person I am speaking with happens to know more English than I know Spanish, we should naturally speak in English. But, if I know more Spanish than they know English then we should speak in Spanish. For example, if you’re Russian, your family are Russian and you all only speak Russian, naturally you’re not going to try to speak Portuguese right? I feel this to be very commonsensical and this happens more often than not but sadly for me it’s not always the case.

Obviously, I take no real issue if somebody attempts to speak to me in English. It doesn’t cause me to suffer. But, when someone repeatedly doesn’t abide to ‘the rule’ above it annoys me. It’s a pet peeve of mine. For example, I am from Cambridge. This city is very popular with tourists and before I went to university I worked there for just under a year.  I used to like to eat my lunch outside of King’s College. It was nice to clear my head from the office and there was a wall that was very comfortable to sit on. But, it’s during the summer months, when tourists were at their highest level and I would almost on daily basis be asked to take photos. Whether that be when I was sitting eating my lunch, or when walking through the city. Obviously if this was a weekly occurrence it wouldn’t have been an issue. Nonetheless, the sheer frequency got to me. I had to politely say no to taking pictures or I would always have to walk with earphones in. This is the exact same situation I am in here. It’s not taking pictures any longer; the issue is people who speak less English than I speak Spanish frequently attempting to speak to me in English.

I am not being arrogant, I don’t think that my Spanish is so superior that how dare anyone try to speak to me in my native tongue, of course not. But, what people don’t realise is that I live here. I am just going about my daily basis. I feel just as I did being pestered for photos in Cambridge. It makes zero sense to have a conversion in a certain language that means we will not understand each other as much as if we spoke in another. When I go to buy shoes and the assistant knows some colours and size numbers, I don’t need that in English. This happened the other week, they kept getting the numbers wrong it was a nightmare. There are people, who literally pretend I am not there and that I speak Spanish, then they ask my fiancé to translate a question and they ask it to me in English. To what avail? You don’t learn a language by badly repeating the twenty or so words you know to native speaker. Who isn’t going to reply to your English and you wouldn’t understand even if they did.  Learning the language isn’t like your phone number, you don’t learn it by repeating it and it’s badly repeating it at that.

There are two reasons as to why this happens. Firstly, people wrongly think this improves their English in some way. Surely if this method works, I could have learnt twenty Spanish phrases and just repeated them to everyone around over and over again, while everyone ignored me and I would have learnt Spanish… Clearly that doesn’t work.

Secondly, speaking English here is not very common, less common are foreigners. So when people get the opportunity to speak to a native, social protocol goes out of the window and they go for it.  If you saw  Lionel Messi, would you grab the nearest football and show him your skills? No. Why if you see a native speaker of a different language, why would you repeat to them all the words you know in English? What do you want a well done sticker? It doesn’t bother me when someone at a restaurant says thank you or goodbye. The odd word, I can cope with. But stick to the rule. I have some colleagues at work; I would say honestly their English levels vary from 5 to 10%. Although I would say my Spanish is at no more than 70%, common sense still dictates we would speak in Spanish surely? No. They literally refuse to speak to me in Spanish.  When you are speaking with someone whose entire English vocabulary is composed of yes, no, thank you, sometimes and Manchester United, the conversation can really only go so far.

Escupe por favor

It is difficult living in a country that has a different primary language to your own. I recall many awkward moments and misunderstandings. In truth, when I first got here, I actually made no effort to learn Spanish. I only planned to stay for 6 months and I didn’t see the point going above the basics.  Mainly because English and Spanish are very different. It is very difficult learning any language but more so learning a language that has few similarities bar the sharing the same alphabet.  I have made so many silly mistakes on the way to where I am now. For example, I always used to pronounce the  word ‘disculpe’ which means excuse me as ‘escupe ’ which means spit or spit out.  So I would walk up to someone and say ‘spit’… I would also used to confuse ‘caballo’ which means horse and ‘cabello’ which means hair.  I also, sadly on more than one occasion, confused ‘año’ which means year and ‘ano’ which means anus… not words one wants to confuse.

A fellow teacher, made the mistake between ‘ajo’ meaning garlic and ‘ojo’ meaning eye. So when he went to a shop and asked for eyes instead of garlic the shopkeeper was a little confused by this, as you can imagine. Oh how I laughed, yet a month or so later I made the exact same mistake. In the exact same shop to the very same person. This same teacher revered to his girlfriend as ‘chica loca’ so often that I took it to mean girlfriend. When in reality it means ‘crazy girl’. So when people asked if I had a girlfriend, I would say a girlfriend as in a ‘chica loca’? I didn’t understand the strange looks I’d get. One other humorous moment, was when another fellow teacher, was helping me teach a level one class who had no level of English. He wanted to ask the student if they understood, he meant to ask ‘¿no entiendes?’ But he said ‘no entiendo’ which means, ‘I don’t understand’. So he just kept repeating to the student ‘I don’t understand’. Thinking the student misheard him. Not the usual response you look for when asking your teacher for help. But things like this are all part of the adventure of learning a language while living in a foreign country.

Duolingo

Duolingo has helped me so much I have to mention it here. Duolingo is a completely free web-based program for learning languages. Other programs such as Rosetta Stone tend to be 80% studying and 20% practical usage. In comparison, Duolingo is 100% practical usage; you can’t use it and not learn something, it’s simply not possible.  The two teachers, a couple which I mentioned at the beginning both studied extensively with Duolingo when they arrived. In reality, they learnt more Spanish in the two months that they spent here than I honestly learnt in my first six months here. One time my fiancé, them and I all went on a short trip along the lower coast of Ecuador. And on one occasion we shared a room and in the morning we split up to eat breakfast. We were late getting back to the hotel room and I had the key.  So they were locked out. But they were able to in Spanish, tell the hotelier that we were away eating, and asked if they could have spare key. This was only after 6 weeks here and this was also their first time learning Spanish. I find that incredible, I was nowhere near to that level of Spanish at that time. I’d recommend Duolingo to anyone who is learning another language.

Not quite Condorito,

So, here I am, on my way to Spanish fluency. I need to practice more but finding the time is difficult. It is also challenging trying to find the motivation to practice when you have been speaking Spanish all day, it feels redundant but I know it helps so much. For example, learning a new phrase or conjugation and then practically using it is the secret to making it part of your vocabulary.  I actually have two friends who both also live in Ecuador and who are not native here.  One is an Italian working at my university and the other is Moroccan, with the native languages of Italian and French/Arabic, respectively. I am blown away when I hear them speak Spanish, dare I say at times it surpasses the level that some native Spanish speakers have here. It shows me how far I have to go and the improvements I need to make. But, I will make it, both Matt and Mateo.

Hasta luego

Comida ecuatoriana

 

 

It always frustrates me when foreigners criticise Ecuadorian food. It’s unjustifiable to compare it to Europe or North America. You have to bear in mind the cultural and economic challenges that Ecuador continues to face. Cooked properly with care and proper ingredients the food is fantastic and very diverse. Comparing Ecuadorian cuisine to other South American countries is fairer. Food here is in fact very well-regarded, particularly amongst people who have travelled the area. Restaurants are generally very cheap and it’s for that reason that people eat out here very often. You can buy lunch from $2-$3 which includes soup, a main meal and a drink. Occasionally that’s very close to if not cheaper than the cost of preparing the meal yourself. The restaurants tend to only open for lunch and have a different menu everyday; offering on average two soups with four or so main meal dishes  (Look at the picture to your right). There is no menu, they write what they have that day outside on a board. I eat out everyday for breakfast and lunch, just eating dinner at home. That’s a huge difference to how I ate in England. It would simply be too expensive to do the same there.

Now for me personally, Ecuadorian food was difficult to get used to. I suffered from traveller’s sickness for three whole months… yes three months. Not to get too graphic, but it was a very discomforting phase. Sanitation in the coastal region of Ecuador is an issue. The water is not safe to drink, it’s dirty and there aren’t sufficient plumbing infrastructures to aptly deliver treated water to homes. Add to that there isn’t any hot water here; neither in kitchens or in bathrooms. So even if the food is stored appropriately, prepared and cook properly. The problem is that the kitchen, plates and cutlery were cleaned with contaminated water. For the sake of propriety I continued to eat out, and with time I got used to the food. Now I only very rarely have any sort of problems. In truth no more frequently than in England.

In addition to the sickness, another issue I faced was rice. 80% of the food consumed here in Ecuador is accompanied by rice. Usually just plain white rice, maybe cooked with salt if you’re lucky. It is not uncommon for some people here to eat rice three times a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s cheap and filling, there lies its popularity. But now I love rice, I get cravings for rice if I haven’t eaten it for a couple of days. When I first got here I ordered a lasagne for lunch, when it came I couldn’t believe it came with rice. Now if I ordered a lasagne and it didn’t come with rice I would be annoyed. It’s got to the point now where by if I haven’t eaten rice with a meal, I feel like I haven’t eaten properly. I am still deciding if this is a good or bad thing…

Once I overcame the issues above, now more often than not I really enjoy the food here. I now know what to eat and where to eat. Both of these things are crucial and are of course difficult for those new to the country. I will never forget the first time (it was also the last time) I ordered ‘Sopa de Pata’ which is made from cow’s feet and stomach. It has zero flavour and is, not surprisingly, best described as ‘chewy’. Or the first time I ordered another soup that just so happened to  come with several chickens’ feet in it… just looking at it was enough. In this area of the world people tend to eat parts of animals that are usually discarded in other countries (Well, first they discard it but then they blend it, soak it in ammonia and then put in to children’s school lunches…). At this point I am still not eating chicken feet but I now eat the kidneys, the liver, the neck and I enjoy them all.  They all in fact come in my favourite soup ‘Aguadito de pollo’. I always remove the feet before I eat, but the sight alone has no effect on me, nor the knowledge that they cooked and served it in the same dish I am about to eat. In Bolivia they even eat cow eyes in the soup. Not overly looking forward to that when I travel that way next year.

Below are some typical things that I eat in the course of a normal week. All of the photos have been taken from the time I posted my previous post last weekend. You get a few weird looks taking pictures of your food. (Only I would move to a foreign country and then wait the best part of a year and a half to start taking photos). They are all things that I enjoy, eat regularly and are typical from here. I would recommend them to anyone that travels to Ecuador. Moreover, I honestly think that these dishes would be enjoyed and even marketable in other countries.

Encebollado

This is not just my favourite Ecuadorian food it is really close to being my favourite food in general. By the time I posted my last blog to posting this one here, I will have eaten it four times. It is that  incredible. It’s a typical breakfast food and was the first dish I loved upon my first tasting. I am told that it’s made from a type of tuna fish. Its best summed up as a fish stew, with onions and yuca. Yuca is a type of root which is similar in taste to a boiled potato. I eat it in the local way which is to first eat the fish, onions and yuca. Then I crush the chifles (crisps made the friend plantain) in order to make a cereal of sorts. Encebollado leaves you feeling full for hours.  I literally live above the best encebollado restaurant in Machala. For that reason it would take a lot to get me to move. (Click on the pictures below for an enlarged look. Same goes for all the other photos.)

 

This one is from a restaurant at my university.

From a restaurant in the centre. What makes this one special is the yuca. It’s so soft.

The best part

This is when I got take away from restaurant by my house. It comes in a little tub.

 

 

Tigrillo / Bolon/  Plantain

Tigrillo is made from boiling or frying plantain then mashing it together. It is usually mashed with egg, cheese and with bits of crispy pork called ‘chicharron’. It is a typical breakfast food that originates from the beautiful town of Zaruma. Created by Spanish colonists combining traditional cooking techniques from Spain with the local ingredients from this area.  Bolon is made by the same process but it is rolled up into a ball and slightly fried before serving. This again is very filling, leaving you feeling full for hours.

Plantain is incredible versatile, it best described as tasting a bit like potato. One of my favourite ways is to make patacones. This involves cutting the plantain in to thick slices, frying them till they are golden on each side. Then you take them out and smash them with something hard. Once this is done you fry them one more time and serve with a liberal serving of salt. The ‘smashing’ stage is important there are a few videos up of how to make patacones online and they do it wrong. They ‘squash’ the patacón with a mug or a rolling-pin. The smashing part is what makes the patacón! And ensures the inside is softer than the outside.

Plantain. In it’s raw form. When it’s ripe like this it’s savoury when cooked.

The process of cooking patacones

My very own patacones

How they look when they’re prepared properly…

Tigrillo served with chorizo

Bolon de chicharron. Served with bistec de carne y arrozito. My personal favourite. I’m so Ecuadorian.

A really nice soup called ‘caldo de bola’. Kind of like a dumpling made from green plantain.

Hornado and Fritada.

Slow roasting or frying pork is of course not native to Ecuador but the accompaniments are what make this dish. Hornado is made by roasting the pork and Fritada is made by slowly frying.  It served with mote which is a type of corn grain that is cooked and boiled. It complements the strong flavour of the pork . Typically it is also it is served with a sweet potato smash. The first time I tried the pork it immediately reminded me of England, eating a hog roast at the village fair. A nice bit of crackling as well it’s beautiful. A weekly treat for me and I can’t think of an Englishman alive that wouldn’t happily devour this dish.

The fritada being prepared. I greatly prefer this method to the hornado way.

This is a local shop that is close to my house. At the weekends they cook amazing fritada. The cook is the shop owner, her family and her run the shop which is also an internet café. She speaks Quecha which is one of the main native indigenous languages of this area.

The finished article. Chifles absorb the flavour of the pork. Served on a bed of sweet potato smash. Delicious.

 

Menestra

We now have menestra. There is menestra de frijol which is made from beans and menestra de lenteja which is made from lentils. I love them both, each of them taste similar but I think menestra de frijol just beats it for me. When I am hungry I get a craving for it, it’s great served with BBQ food or with spit roasted chicken. We say in England that a Scotsman’s favourite food is anything served with chips. Here my favourite food is anything that comes with menestra. Here in Ecuador menestra is also a slang term for homosexual. So if you say for example you like menestra and some people start laughing and make silly jokes that will be why.

Menestra de Frijol – made with beans

Menestra de Lenteja. – made with lentils. This is one my favourite restaurants at the university. Deep fried chicken, rice, menestra, pasta salad and chips all for $1.75. Bargain.

 

 

Ceviche

Ecuadorians love ceviche and I love types of it too. My fiancé was with me the first time I tried it. She said if I didn’t like it she would immediately end the relationship. Thankfully I liked it. However, the sheer amount of salt and lime means it takes a bit of time to adjust to. I only like ceviche when its warm, and when it’s served with peppers as well. It can be made from a variety of different seafood such fish, crab, octopus, clams, oysters, squid etc. Traditionally ceviche is a Peruvian dish. When made in the Peruvian way the shrimp or seafood is served raw. It’s only the acidity of lime that ‘cooks’ the shrimp. The Ecuadorian way is the where the shrimp is cooked first before being added. For me I love Ecuadorian ceviche but the Peruvian one is just not my cup of tea. It tastes so limy and salty that you can´t even notice the seafood. I got so sick from eating Peruvian ceviche in Peru that I honestly thought I’d be poisoned. At this point, if a Peruvian was to approach me with anything that even looks half way like a fish there will be consequences. Other foreigners who have travelled the area tend to avoid ceviche for fear of getting sick. Also, it goes fifty-fifty; some people find it too limy to begin with. For that reason, I recommend everyone to try it but for me it’s just not on the same level as Encebollado, Tigrillo, Bolon, Hornado, Fritado or Menestra.

 

Bit of a bad photo but ceviche de camaron

Here is a better example so you can get an idea. This isn’t my photo.”Ceviche ecuador” by Rinaldo Wurglitsch – originally posted to Flickr as Ceviche, Ecuador. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

 

So there you go my short assessment and recommendations on Ecuadorian food. I hope you enjoyed reading, I enjoy sharing my experiences. My next post will be on learning and speaking Spanish. With some of the silly situations I have got myself into as a result. There are so many dishes I haven’t mentioned and if you would like more details about the actual ingredients or if any of you one day you would like to try to make some of the meals yourself check out this incredible website jam-packed with Ecuadorian recipes. http://laylita.com/recipes/ecuadorian-recipes/

Hasta luego

The story I am sick of telling.

You have no power here Disney

I get my haircut in a place called ‘Mickey’ (pictured). Its $3 for a haircut nothing spectacular but most importantly it’s not terrible. Hairdressers here receive no formal training so it’s really hit and miss. Literally hit and miss. You could lose an ear. Anyway, there are twelve hairdressers working there. I have got my hair cut there seven times since I came here. And by pure chance every time I have had a different hairdresser cut my hair.  And every time I have had to repeat my story. Seven times in the same place. I swear they do it to spite me. They surely must all know by now. As soon as I get in there I think, oh here come the questions.

This conversation, is not limited to hairdressers it’s a conversation that I have had at least 500 times here in Ecuador. Below are an example of the plethora of questions I am often asked:

• Where are you from?
• Why did you come to Ecuador?
• What are you doing in Ecuador?
• Where do you work?
• Do you like the food here?
• What do you think of Ecuador?
• What do you dislike about Ecuador?
• How old are you?
• Where do you buy your clothes?
• Have you visited (insert name of town)?
• Say something in English.
• How did you learn Spanish?
• What music do you like?
• When are you going back to England?
• Are you taking your fiancé to England?
• Is it cold in England?
• Do you like the weather here?
• Do you know Wayne Rooney?

I understand the curiosity, I do. I mean I am a tall (just above average height in England, but here in Ecuador I am considerably above average height) , white skinned, blue-eyed English boy in a city that really doesn’t get its fair share of foreigners. English football, Princess Diana, music (especially The Beatles), and other parts of English culture are incredibly well-known here. Moreover, I am often the first English person they have ever met.

But really, there are only so many times one can answer the same questions repeatedly without going slightly insane. These questions are the sole reason as to why I won’t catch a taxi here. Taxi drivers love to chit-chat. I have even told one same taxi driver this story three times; perhaps he likes it that much I guess. But, I feel in order to post further I must share this story with you, my ‘backstory’ so it’s called.  I have never done it before in this format. Maybe in the future I can write this link on a business card or something similar and I can direct people here…

So, my name is Matthew, I am 24 years old, I am English, I am originally from Cambridge and I went to university in Canterbury, Kent. At the time of writing this I have been living and working in Ecuador for one year and five months.  I graduated from university in 2012 and found myself a job in insurance. Not one that I enjoyed but it was a means to an end. As I always had the idea that I would one day like to travel around Asia. I have always been fascinated by Asian culture. So that was my plan: work and save for a year and half, then travel Asia and come back to find something that I would like to do with my life.

But that all changed the day I got an email from my best friend. Who just so happened to be working and teaching in Ecuador. He said come and join him, work and teach here for six months. Shared apartment lined up, a job ready, visa and everything organised. It sounded like fun, and great way to prepare for travelling Asia alone. So, I went and spoke with my boss and he agreed that when I returned I could indeed get my job back. I thought I’d take a six month break from my working and saving to go and explore something new. Ecuador.

And that was that. A couple of months later I found myself on a plane to Ecuador, via Madrid. Surrounded by priests who were coming back from the Vatican as it was around about this time that Pope Francis was selected for the Papacy. Sitting next to a girl who decided naturally when sitting next to someone who speaks none of your language (Spanish) and you speak none of their language (English) the best approach would be to repeatedly and continuously try to speak with them… great idea right?

Then bang Ecuador. First thoughts. Too bloody hot. I hated where I worked. I hated the food. I hated Spanish. I disliked the majority of the people around me. I hated teaching.  I didn’t like the city where I lived. I missed England. It was a culture shock; this was my first time living in a different country. It was difficult. But, I always knew I’d stick it out and that the experience would make it worth it in the end. It was challenging, it put me out of my comfort zone. I am a peculiar man of routine and comforts. Close to bordering on anti-social.  Coming to Ecuador, the city of Machala, meant I had to adapt or go home to the clean and comfortable way of life that the overwhelmingly majority of us experience living in Europe.

But I stuck at it, and I got my reward. My then girlfriend but now fiancé. We met  after only a couple of days but in the following weeks we spent more time together. She is an Ecuadorian native but was also working as an English teacher at the language institute where I first worked. We spent every single minute that we could together. I was always slightly cautious that I was in a new country, and she is one of very few people who actually speaks English.  Was I grasping on to something that reminds me of home? Within time I realised no, I just so happened to have found someone very special. We have gone from that crazy couple always together and always going on adventures to being engaged having our own apartment. Arguing about rinsing dishes and leaving clothes in the washing machine.

When you become so happy so quickly; people often tend to react to it hesitantly or even enviously.  It created tension with others. But, with time people began to accept things. Becoming more understanding and at this point it is not an issue.  In short, I am here for her. I stayed for her and adapted for her. And the reward was and is a priceless experience. Moving in together, leaving the safety of my job at the language institute that specifically hires foreigners. This was when the real adventure began. This is when I fell in love with Ecuador.

Painting from my university.

 

So here I am. I have full permanent Ecuadorian residency. I speak Spanish with a very good level of fluency. I have got a fantastic job, working as a teacher at a university. It’s a dream job, well paid and I’m making a real difference in people’s lives.  I am a lot more open to new things. I am infinitely more laid back. I now love the food. I am often humbled by the culture of generosity here. I continue to explore new things and am becoming a better person. I couldn’t be happier here. There is no where I’d rather be. I will be visiting England in March but Ecuador is my home. A country that gave me everything. I am officially a British expat.

So thank you for reading my first real post. I have about 20 posts already written! I actually enjoy the process of writing a lot more than the sharing and posting aspect. So I will begin by re-editing them slightly and then share them here. I will be expanding on things mentioned above and future topics will include, Machala (the city where I live), learning Spanish, Ecuadorian food, cultural differences, educational reforms, political reforms, Mormon missionaries and much more.

Hasta luego

P.s. No. I don’t know Wayne Rooney.

First post

In short, I have been thinking of doing this for a while. I would like to share some things I encounter in my day-to-day life here. As, I feel it would be interesting to people who haven’t experienced South America.

Ecuador is a fascinating country, that it is modernising, and restructuring. It has changed more in one year, than in the last decade. This is what I want to show.

Also, I would like to share some of my students work on here too. To give them the opportunity, and with time a platform to share their work.

Watch this space…