3 weeks in

So Johnny and I have been here for about three weeks now. We are going to try and recap some of the more interesting things that happened:
1. We found an apartment in Guapulo that costs $390 a month. It came furnished but has a funky smell from the old tenants. It is at the bottom of the complex and has an amazing view. The other day we saw the glaciated peak of Cayambe. We have two resident cats...Michi and one that John named Jingle Fluff. They are pretty clean cats but we only allow them on the patio. Every morning there is a different giant bug on our door step. Yesterday morning it was a zoo...we had a slug (4 inches), a beetle, a moth and a mini tarantula. Also, there is a cow down the hill in front of the house that will moo at you when you moo at it.
2.  We walk to work everyday (147 steps up a hill and then 1.5 miles). I hope that we get used to it soon. Work starts for John around 8:30. He is working on maps for Mario and the summer program as well as GPS projects with Cesar. I am trying to learn everything that has to be done in the lab and it is kind of frustrating...especially with my lack of Spanish. Everyday we walk to get lunch. It is $2.50 and includes: soup, juice, a main dish (meat and rice) and a dessert. We have not had anything too weird except for yesterday at lunch we each had a chicken foot in our soup. I am still tyring to not eat meat but it is very hard here.
3. We survived our first earthquake on February 8th. It happened around 6:00 am. John thought it was just me moving around in bed and I slept though the whole thing. Nothing moved in the house at all. We put up a windchime next to the bed so that we can hopefully know the next one is going on.
4. Laundry...it stinks. We had our first experience washing all of our clothes by hand last weekend. We started by filling up a tub with hot water and soap. Then we both sat in the shower and took turns hand washing everything. The water was such a gross color by the time we finished. Then John hung up some random wire on the terrace so that the clothes could dry...We looked like real Ecuadorians from the outside. The clothes ended up taking about 2 hours to wash and 2 days to dry. This week we walked up the hill and paid $7.10 to have them washed and dried.
5. Last Sunday Johnny climbed Volcan Corazon. It was the highest peak he has ever climbed...around 15,780 ft. He left around 6:30 in the morning with a group of about 40 people and returned to the house around 7:30 at night. He said that the whole hike was in the clouds and that at the top he couldnt see much more than 100 ft. He had a fun time and wants to climb more of the peaks in the area.

Interesting fact:  Every college seems to have its own invasive species...some have squirrels or rabbits...our University here has mourning doves. They are pretty cute but poop everywhere.

That is all for now. More to come later...hopefully pictures too. Hope everyone is doing well.