Author: ncardinale@gmail.com

My Ecuador Higher Education/K-12 Leadership Study Abroad Trip: Thursday June 2nd, 2016

We all woke up early the next day to report to breakfast at our bed/breakfast locale. Here is a picture of the breakfast table.

Our Breakfast Table

Our Breakfast Table

We got to eat all types of fresh native fruits and juices. They was delicious. Farmers in Ecuador do not use pesticides. Personally, I found that the fruits were juicier and sweeter than the same fruits available in the US. I had been warned not to eat any fruits there before I left unless I could peel them or risk getting digestive problems. Nevertheless, I did eat a pear and an apple and did not have not have any digestive problems at all.

We spent the rest of the morning until noon, presenting to each other for the purpose of getting to know each other using a Pecha Kucha style of presentation. You can learn more about this type of presentation on this webpage: http://www.pechakucha.org/ . There is a great YOUTUBE tutorial on how to create this type of presentation using PowerPoint on this page. If the video does not show below this paragraph, just refresh this webpage.

After the presentations, we all went to a local restaurant for lunch, which was located in the colonial style area of Quito. Here we are at the restaurant and this is what I ordered. It was a coconut shrimp dinner with rice, plantains and native Ecuadorian fruit.

RestaurantSecondDayFoodSecondDay

We decided to spend the rest of the evening until 5:00 pm exploring the many Cathedrals  located in this area. Here is a picture of one of the amazing cathedrals that we visited. The name of the place is, “Iglesia de la Compañía de Quito”. Here is a picture of the outside of the church. Nevertheless, visitors are not allowed to take pictures inside this church.

Iglesia de la Compañía

Additionally, we also visited Quito’s Presidential Palace known as, “Carondelet Palace”. Here is a picture of part of the outside of the palace and  another picture of me posing next to one of the live guards outside the palace.

PalaceGuardPalace

Finally, we returned to Bed/Breakfast location, where we were also having dinner. As part of the dinner, a local attorney name Leonardo Sempertegui  who represents the main accreditation agency in Quito came to speak to us about the Current Issues and Laws regarding how colleges/universities in Ecuador earn accreditation status. This session lasted until 8:30 pm.

Here is a picture of my study abroad group posing with attorney Leonardo Sempertegui .

PictureGroup

My Ecuador Higher Education/K-12 Leadership Study Abroad Trip: Wednesday June 1st, 2016

I have been dreaming about this study abroad trip ever since I found out about the trip and signed up for it.  I was on Facebook on April 3rd when I noticed the following announcement about the trip on the public group,”LatinX in Students Affairs.

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I quickly posted that I was interested in attending and then sent it to my friend, Rosa. She responded to the post stating that the trip sounded amazing. Additionally, she posted  that she had other tentative plans but in the case that they fell though, that she would love to attend. On April 13th, I was elated to learn that Rosa had purchased her plane tickets and would be attending.

Before leaving, we were informed by our study abroad professor, who the other participants would be. Therefore, we set up a GROUPME account so we could all keep in touch. Additionally, we also friended each other on Facebook, created a Facebook group page and connected on Linkeln.

Fast forward to June 1st at 1:00 pm when I boarded my first plane from Orlando to Houston. Five of out of six study abroad students were supposed to board a United Airlines 5:30 PM flight to Quito,Ecuador at the Houston airport. I was the first person to get to the airport. Rosa was the second person to arrive. It was my first time at this airport. I found it enormous, hard to navigate and very disappointing. There was no place to get a nice meal and drink. Rosa and I had previously planned to get a meal, dessert and alcoholic drink.

Sadly, we had no choice but to eat at Wendys. I only had a Chocolate Frosty and Rosa had a Jalapeno Fresco Sandwich and coffee from Starbucks. She would also have eaten a sandwich from Starbucks, but to our shock we were were informed that this particular Starbucks location did not have a microwave oven to heat up the sandwiches.

FB_IMG_1465102816166Picture taken by Rosa Hanco rugal99.wordpress.com

Slowly others started to arrive. Lauren was the next one to arrive. She recognized us and quickly introduced herself. Valerie arrived next and did the same. Meanwhile, our Quito flight got delayed due to bad weather. Most of the groups initial flights were also delayed for the same reason. The Quito flight soon started boarding and our group of four participants started to panic. Our fifth participant had just sent us a message on GROUPME stating that her plane had just landed.  Nevertheless, the passengers on her flight were still not getting off the plane and her arrival terminal was very far away from the Quito flight departure terminal. To fast forward, she missed the flight. She took another flight to Bogota, Columbia and from there another flight to Quito and arrived the next morning at 10:00 am without her luggage. The airline promised to send the luggage directly to the Bed/Breakfast location where we were staying. In the meantime, the four  of us arrived in Quito at 2:30 AM in the morning and were picked our group leader, Dr. Raul Leon and driven to the hotel.

Here is a picture of our favorite flight attendant on the Quito Flight.

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Picture taken by Rosa Hanco rugal99.wordpress.com

Throwback Story: My Bad Hair Days and the Story Behind Them My Bad Hair Days and the Story Behind Them

When both of my sons were little, I noticed that the texture of my hair seemed to have changed overnight. Regardless of what shampoo/conditioner combo I bought, how many times I blow dried it and how many haircuts I got, I could not seem to control the unruliness of my hair.
The only time my hair looked good was after a beauty salon haircut and blow dry. This pattern continued shampoo after shampoo for around eight months. Needless to say, I was very distressed about this problem and thought that perhaps becoming a mom had changed the chemistry composition of my hair and that I was probably stuck with the new texture forever.
To make a long story short, this pattern stopped abruptly one day when I walked into one of my restrooms and noticed that my oldest son was pouring liquid hand soap into my shampoo bottle.
Me: What in the world are you doing?
Son: I was just doing an experiment.
Me: Why would you be using my shampoo bottle to do experiments?
Son: Well, my teacher at school mixes all type of liquids during science class, your shampoo bottle was handy and I wanted to try it myself.
Me: (Suddenly making a connection between my different hair texture and these experiments) How long have you been doing this?
Son: Since the new school year started.
Me: (Trying to remain calm) What else has you been mixing?
Son: Well, every time I take a bath, I mix things into your shampoo.
Me: What kind of things?
Son: Things like dishwashing liquid, mouth wash, hand lotion, toothpaste, laundry detergent, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide ext
Me: (Getting very agitated) Don’t you realize that I wash my hair with the shampoo and lately my hair has been looking like crap?
Son: Yes, I noticed that your hair looked messed up lately.
Me: (Trying to control my Puerto Rican temper) Well, if you noticed, didn’t it occur to you that you should stop this behavior?
Son: Well, I wanted to see how different your hair looked when I poured different liquids into the shampoo.
Me: Don’t you realize that I have a job and want my hair to look decent when I report to work?
Son: Well, mom, I did not think of that. I am so sorry.
Me: Omg, you better be sorry and stop this behavior immediately.
Son: I will and again I am sorry, but I really was hoping to find the magic ingredient that would make your hair look great.
Me: I appreciate the idea behind it, but perhaps you can use your own shampoo bottle to do these types of experiments.
Well, my son was grounded from playing video games for a week and as far as I know, stopped this behavior and never tried the same experiments using his own shampoo bottle. Gee, so much for quantitative style research. smile emoticon
So the moral of this story is that if you are a young mom and your hair starts responding differently to your shampoo, question your kids as I cannot believe that I am the only young mom that has had this experience. I can laugh about it now, but it really was not fun having unnecessary bad hair days.

Here is a picture of me and my kids on one of those bad hair days.
NellKids

Public Service Announcement for my Florida peeps. Wish I had known.

I wanted to share an incident that happened in my home last week involving an animal, which is not native to Florida. After my husband came home from work, I was sitting in my bedroom talking to him. I finished the conversation and stood up to leave. All of a sudden, I happened to see something moving on the floor near the foot of our bed, it was gray and looked like a mouse at first. It was approximately five inches long.

Me: Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God… screaming at the top of my lungs..not really believing what I was seeing. (At this point, the animal starts hopping and hops towards my clothing hamper, hiding behind it.)

Husband: What, what?

Me: (still screaming) I can’t believe it, it is a frog, a bug, I don’t really know…LOOK… as I pointed to the nearby clothing hamper.

Husband: What, where, I do not see anything.

Oldest son: (who came running into the bedroom holding a plastic disposable cup, he usually does this whenever I see a Lizard inside my home for the purpose of catching it and removing it from my home). What is it, Mom?

Me: Oh, my God (nearly hyperventilating), Oh, my God, THERE (pointing behind the hamper) it is a bug, frog, really do not know, please catch it…

Oldest Son: Sure (moves the hamper and catches the frog in the cup), wow, this frog is a big one.

Husband: Oh my God, it really is a frog. Man, it is really big and I have never seen one of those in this state at all. I wonder how it got into the house? ( he is a Florida native).

Me: (Starting to calm down and speaking to my oldest son) Thanks so much, you saved the day. Please take it outside NOW.

Youngest son: (who now walks into the same bedroom) Mom, it is just a harmless frog, you really did not have to scream so much.

Me: There is no way I will be convinced that the frog is harmless. Regardless of whether he is harmless, I do not want it in my home.

Later that night:

Husband: Wow, you made my day today.

Me: How?

Husband: Well, my day had been a boring one until you started screaming.

Me: (Smiling) Well, the frog scared me to death.

We then had company over for the Fourth of July and put the incident aside. However, today I finally did some Internet research to get some more information about the frog. I found a great web page on the University of Florida website, which addresses this type of frog and has some good pictures. I also looked at other websites.

http://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/cuban_treefrog_inFL.shtml

http://solutionsforyourlife.ufl.edu/hot_topics/environment/cuban_treefrogs.shtml

This is the scoop. What I saw is called a, “Cuban Tree Frog”. It eats Florida native tree frogs, as well as lizards and many invertebrates. They seem to have migrated to Florida by boat. They may cause electrical short circuits and clog drains. Some electricity companies have paid up to $10,000 to repair damage caused by these frogs.

These frogs also secrete an irritating substance and therefore should not be handled with bare hands. They can grow more that six inches. Florida residents who see one of these, should report the incident to the University of Florida, where researchers are trying map the migration of these frogs.

Nevertheless, the most shocking advice on the University of Florida website is that if Florida homeowners see one of these, they should euthanize them. The page explains how to humanely do this. However, this is something that I could never do.

Almost forgot, the scariest fact about the frogs is that their favorite hangout in Florida homes is inside toilets. Well, from now on, I am really going to inspect toilets carefully before sitting down on one. Hope that this story has been informative for my other Florida peeps. I have been living in this state since 1975 and I have never heard of this type of incident before, nor did I know what a Cuban tree frog was until now.

I really wish I had taken a picture of this frog, but I was really too upset to think of doing this. In any case, here is a picture of what the frog looked like.

Cuban Tree Frog