"Consumidor final!"

One of hundreds of receipts your average consumer saves.

Ecuador has this interesting tax reduction opportunity where when you pay your annual taxes you can reduce what you owe if you can itemize all your purchases including meals at restaurants, ice cream cones, groceries, you name it.

However, at the time of the sale you have to have the seller record your name and address, and the seller has to keep track of this information presumably so the government can double check that you aren’t cheating on your itemized tax returns.

Needless to say this takes a lot of work and time for the seller. So the seller always asks do you want to provide your name and address.  Actually I have no idea what question they ask you because they say it so fast, all I know is I need to say "consumidor final". I’ll bet I even say "consumidor final" even when they aren’t asking me the question.

The consumer then saves all these receipts and once a month they organize all these receipts so that they can itemize them on their taxes. What an amazing consumption of time!

Upcoming adventure

Bruce Hoeneisen - At the tiller of his sailboat

If things go right, I’ll be sailing in the Pacific on 29 September.  Professor of Physics Bruce Hoeneisen (and original founder of USFQ) just bought a bigger sailboat in Salinas and needs to sail it up the coast of Ecuador to Bahía where he has place.

Bruce invited me to go along and "yes" was coming out of my mouth before he finished his invitation.

Sailing from Salinas to Bahía

Today, we bought plane tickets for a flight to take us to Guayaquil on next Thursday (28 September). From there we take a 2.5 hour taxi ride to Salinas.

On Friday, Bruce has to finalize the paper work for the purchase. During the paper work part I hope to be on the beach in front of the hotel Chipipe.

I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures for a future post. Keep your fingers crossed that the paperwork all goes through and we hit the seven seas!

Busy week giving presentations

UIDE - presentation on assessment

This week has been another busy one.  I gave a presentation on assessment of learning at Universidad Internacional del Ecuador (UIDE) on Tuesday (18 September).  I met the Dean of the school of social science and communication at my host's house (the dean is her brother-in-law) on Thursday (13 September) and before I knew it, he said we would be interested in having you give a talk on assessment.  There were 15 or so present at the talk including many other deans and the rector.  It went well.

Presentation on course management software

Then yesterday, I gave a presentation to the officials from the Ministry of Culture and other ministries that are working one of the four new universities being created.  They are working on the University for the Arts which is set to open in March 2013.

Before the presentation on course management software

I gave a presentation on course management software and how it is a tool to facilitate online collaboration and communication among students and the instructor.

Don’t drink the water ...

I carry this just about everywhere

It is dry here, and this particular summer and late summer has been even drier from what the locals tell me.  In an earlier post I wrote about the wildfires, which are still a daily occurrence.   No one locally can ever remember having wildfires.  In fact a helicopter just flew over carrying this large sack-like container going to get water from a local reservoir in order to help put out a wildfire.




All this dryness makes you thirsty.  I drink at least 2 of these 750ml CamelBaks a day and probably more, and that’s not counting the coffee, juice, milk, and occasional Coca Light.




But you can’t drink the water!  However, you can use water out of the tap to wash your dishes.

What that means is that you have to drink bottled water, unless you install a filtration system in your house.

Water dispenser at my host's house

So here’s where the water comes from.  It comes from this dispenser.











You might think that you would keep a spare one of these water jugs available for your dispenser.  That way when you ran out you’d have one ready to go.  But you'd be wrong.

Water & gas delivery - on demand, all the time

You make a phone call and this truck (or one of dozens I've seen) delivers the water (top row of jugs) within an hour.  And the truck driver does the installation.

This truck also delivers bottled gas (bottom row), which is for another blog post.

And here's the truck driver doing a reload at Cecelia's house

For all you skeptics ...

Explaining some deep concept I'm sure!

Just in case your skeptical about the fact that I'm working while here in Quito, here are some shots of me in action on the USFQ campus.

Class meets Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 10 a.m. and lasts 55 minutes.  It is a 4 credit hour course.  I'm used to 4 credit hours meaning that you have 4 contact hours/week.  So this class meets just less that 3 hours/week.

I'm already feeling the time pinch, it feels like I'm already a week behind schedule.



I just finished my first round of grading.  So far the students seem to be in just about the same place in their curriculum as an IU Southeast student would be.

I'm using in-class active learning - which eats time

In this picture (below) you'll notice that the three seated students all have on a jersey.  On that day the Ecuadorian national fútbol team was playing Boliva.  The current round of games determines which teams go to the next World Cup.  You know there's a game that day because many wear jerseys, drivers are hurrying more (to get to a TV), and students are distracted.

Ecuador 1, Boliva 0     ¡Viva la Selección!

USFQ and 7 Places to Eat

USFQ's campus has about 7,000 students and there is no on-campus housing.  What's amazing is that they have seven places to eat.  I've eaten at two, but I plan on trying many of the others.

The buffet line - $4 for a full lunch

I bought a 10-pack card for the buffet-style restaurant.  It cost $40, so each lunch is $4.  At this restaurant everyday you get: soup, salad, rice, entree, dessert, bread, and drink.  I have to ask for small portions.

Many of the professors eat their, and this is a way for me to listen in on their conversations which are all in Spanish.

The other restaurants include a sandwich shop (kind of like Subway), spaghetti and pizza (with a beer if you'd like), a place that makes sandwiches using crepes, a sushi stand (it's outside), a fast-food asian restaurant, and an outdoors cafe.

The campus has a department that teaches cooking, and these restaurants are a way for the students to get practice.

I'm still not used to ...

2nd Floor Maxwell Hall bathroom at USFQ

I've seen this in more than one place here in Ecuador, so I think it's a fairly normal procedure.  The custodial service is in the bathrooms while the public is using the bathrooms.  What catches my attention every time is that the custodial service employees (women) are in the men's bathroom cleaning while the men are using the bathroom.

The first time I walked in and saw the custodian, I turned around and walked out, and came back later when she was done.  But as I was turning I saw a few bathroom customers (males) doing their business.  So I figured I had something to learn about local customs.

When I took this picture, our building's custodian happened to be inside cleaning at that very moment.  How do I know?  After taking the picture I went to the bathroom!

José y Claudia Trabajamos

Claudia y José

My IU Southeast colleagues Ray and Kyle  advised me to study español at a language school.

There are many schools in Quito but that's two hours total of riding the bus for each session.

My officemate, Fausto, introduced me to Claudia una profesora de español de la universidad de San Francisco and now she and I are meeting twice a week for 1 hour of one-on-one conversación.

Claudia's spouse teaches math at a high school in Quito - sounds familiar, huh?  She once taught high school Spanish in Minnesota.

We've met twice, and I get to about 45 minutes in the session and my brain wants to shut down.  Claudia says: No hables inglés!  So I don't.  It's tough.  At times the words come out reasonably well, but others it's like my head is hitting a brick wall.  Sometimes you'll be half way through a sentence and get stopped dead.  Then you circle around what you were trying to say and come in from a different angle and wonder, why didn't I do that in the first place.

Quito Views

The valley outside of Quito

This week has been busy with writing papers for a computer science education conference - they're due Friday (7 Sept), but it isn't until March 2013 in Denver.

Not to mention going to Quito to get briefed by Security at the U.S. Embassy about how to stay safe.  And, finalizing the registration of my 12-VIII Ecuadorian visa - I ask the local Fulbright person what it means to register a visa that was issued by the Ecuadorian government, I still don't know.

Anyway I saw this view walking back to my house from campus and it makes up for the hard work and time in government offices.

Quito Wildfires

That's smoke in the sky above Quito

This picture was taken from the campus of San Francisco.

Thank goodness it's not like Colorado Springs this summer, but Quito has had some wildfires.  I don't think there's enough trees and brush for it to be like Colorado Springs.

My host Cecilia says it has been dryer than normal.

How a lot of work gets done here

Hard Work!

There seems to be construction going on in a lot of places around here.  It might have to do with the new Quito airport being built near Cumbayá.

You'll see a Bobcat or a backhoe every once in a while, but more often you'll see a wheelbarrow and a guy with a shovel.

Speaking Spanish - warning dense text and no pictures

At USFQ
The faculty that I have met at USFQ all speak English, so I am not getting a lot of practice at speaking Spanish with them.  It’s just more efficient for them to speak in English with me.

However, at lunch the other day I sat at a table with seven different professors and they all talked in Spanish most of the time.  It didn’t bother me that I couldn’t understand much of what they were saying, because I figure this is one way I can get my ear trained to the speed and accent.

If you get them to speak in Spanish to you, they speak rapidly, and then you say "habla despacio por favor" (speak slower please), and they immediately switch to English.

One-on-one Conversation
On Tuesday (9/4) I have an appointment set up to have a one hour one-on-one conversation with USFQ professor Claudia (a Spanish profesora).  I’m hoping that works into a regular meeting.  Also I just learned of a language school here in Cumbayá.  I’m going to give them a call tomorrow (Monday, 9/3).  Another option is to go to Quito where there are numerous language schools.  I’m just hoping to avoid the two hours in a bus required to go Quito and then come back.  But if that’s what it takes, I’ll probably do it.

Grant
I have a grant from the IU OVPIA (Office of the Vice Present for International Affairs) that will help pay for Spanish lessons while I’m here.  Why would they pay for that?  IU takes international studies seriously, check out their “Factbook” web page.  I plan to take computing students from IU Southeast on Dr. Magdalena's Summer in Ecuador program every other year for next some many years.

Miscommunication because of context?
I’m pretty sure that sometimes the person to whom you are speaking in your broken Spanish just cannot understand you because of context problems.  Here’s an example.  When I first got here (10 days ago or so) I asked Estella (Cecilia’s made) about riding the bus to Quito from Cumbayá.  I knew she rode it, so that was not the problem.  The problem was I was asking (in Spanish of course): How often do the buses go from Cumbayá to Quito?  If you’ve seen my post from the other day you know the answer is about 10 every 10 minutes.  So I think the problem was that this question made absolutely no sense to her because busses go ALL the time, not just once or twice an hour (like I was thinking).

Riding the El Chaquiñan Trail

Snapshot of El Chaquiñan

OK, I’ve done three rides now on the El Chaquiñan trail.  It looks like bike riding is going to work out for me, I’m glad about that.

The first ride was a 10K to see if the bike would work out, and then I should go ahead and buy a helmet.  The answer was “yes”, and I knew right then that I needed gloves because the trail is pretty rough and beats your hands up as well as your backside.

El Chaquiñan - 1st 10K

The second ride was a 20K.  That’s a little less than the 15 mile rides that grew to be short rides for me in the Knobs, but I didn’t know about problems with the altitude.  20K worked out about just right.  When I got back home, I was ready to be back home.



The third ride was to Tumbaco (the next town over from Cumbayá) where I rode around the streets to see what’s there.  I found a shopping center that included a multiplex cinema.  If I ever go to watch a movie, I’ll ride the bus for $0.25.

New helmet and gloves

Next thing to buy is a mirror for my helmet.  I just have to see what’s coming up behind me when I’m riding on the streets.

Here's a link to more images found on the web of El Chaquiñan.

Laundry Day

Estella

On Fridays Estella comes from south Quito.  She is Cecilia’s maid and used to come more frequently when Cecilia’s family was all living at home.  

The good news for me is that it is laundry day.

Clean clothes for the coming week

My $17/day pays for my room, breakfast and dinner on Monday through Friday, and laundry.