Cuenca Updates: Monday June 4, 2012

Monday June 4/12 update

By trhe way, I forgot to compliment Bella for making tourtieres (meat pies) yesterday. Even though we were late getting home for supper, Juan and I really enjoyed her fancy potato soup and the pies. Mmmmm good!

I was frankly quite shocked that I slept from 11 until 4 and manage to doze until 8, with very few aches and pains evident from yesterday’s two-hour soccer marathon. Maybe I am not as out of shape as I had thought? Don't answer that!

I was a little early for the 10:30am Spanish class so naturally the camera is at work on a beautiful sunny morning along the Tomebamba. This time I crossed the Parque De La Madre bridge but went left to check out this gorgeous white mansion. It turns out it is a Museo Bibliotequa (Library Museum) and it was open but I guess I didn’t go far enough to the upstairs to actually see some books. See the photos below to see some of the magnificent artworks in the lower floor of this place. There is just so much we have yet to see here.

The Madrigal Spanish class was led by Martha Mays today before she heads to the US next week. Then Christine Magee (No, it is not the lady from the Brick commercials) will take over, and she is twice as fluent as Martha and very nice. I think I will actually learn something useful in this class. I did find it interesting though that even Christine referred to my small dictionary several times. Also interesting was the use of words in the material by the teachers that weren’t in the dictionary!

This class concentrates on a lot of words we already know, as they are the same as words in English (or French) called cognates, just with an added syllable or two, such as El Presidente es excellente. Anybody can translate that, as long as you remember to translate the E’s to a long A sound. Trying to get the hang of how they pronounce things is a real challenge. The I is pronounced as a long E. H is mostly silent. G is mostly an H. V is mostly a B. W is almost non-existent. They pronounce virtually every vowel. I might actually do some homework for this class, and enjoy it!

On the way home I caught the #15 but decided that it was too nice a day to be riding in a bus so I got out at the Cemetario, above our old rental place, and walked. In front of me was a reminder of why we love the Cuencano children. A brother was leading his sister home by the hand and she wanted to touch everything along the sidewalk. He had a good grip on her and was gently steering her up the sidewalk as she tried to tug to the fences. No harsh words, tantrums, nothing from either one. He was just quietly but firmly pulling her along and she was complying. They are so very well behaved and they look after each other always. We could learn so much from these wonderful people.

I had to replenish my feeder because Tom was turning up his nose at the old nectar. While he was feeding the first time I could see so clearly why they are called the Sparkling VioletEar. His ear tufts of feathers were extended, and they sure are violet and sparkling. I took a video hoping you could get a real close-up of my little friend in action. I honestly have no idea why he looks so large in photos and video when he is really not much bigger than my thumb. You can tell by the video that I am literally less than a foot away while filming.

http://youtu.be/JI0r88qJoi8

Enjoy the pics and videos. That was today’s excitement. Hugs to all.