Welcome to Ecuador! Time to start Spanish Classes

We are in Cuenca Ecuador, where we will spend the majority of our time studying Spanish. Because most of our adventures are going to school and doing homework, our blogging may slow down until there is enough "good stuff" to share. Flying into Quito was an adventure, the plane was feet above the ground when suddenly we went back up again (very fast I may add), as high winds were making landing very difficult. That was an adventure - but we didn't die, so that was nice. Then we caught our connection to Cuenca where we were picked up and met our host family. I don't have a picture of the family yet, I'll have to get one before the next post. Our host is a wonderful widow, her employee who helps with the cooking, and the employees daughter who is 6 and now Emma's best friend. We have an amazing view of the city from our window:

View from our window

Spanish lessons have begun for all of us. We are already wrapping up our first of three weeks and it has been great. The kids continue to learn fast, Nicole is working on Subjunctive tense, and Tyler is cover specific grammar rules (not his favorite, but still important). Below are our teachers:

Emma with teacher Evelyn

Nicole with teacher Rosa

Josiah with teacher Carmen 

Tyler with teacher Patricia

We have had some great adventures exploring the town and taking pictures of a few landmarks. We are a 20 minute walk from downtown and several fun parks, museums, and shopping! 

Welcome to Cuenca Ecuador!

Us at the town square

Bigger picture of town square, can you see us in the letters?

The New Cathedral, finished in 1975

View from the top of the Cathedral

Us at the top of the Cathedral

Another view of Cuenca from the Cathedral

While shopping the kids found this.

Josiah playing the flute

Emma's took a turn as well

The school provides several evening activities for us to do. The best one so far has been salsa lessons! The kids really got into it. Josiah can't wait to do it again next week!

Tyler and Emma dancing Salsa

Nicole and Josiah dancing Salsa

I have not done well this week taking pictures of food. Sorry! This weekend we hope to do some playing in the town at parks and seeing the sites. Hopefully we will get another blog up soon!