Skype Night

Tonight was Skype night with both sets of grandparents. Bahamas and Canada, the possibilites are quite amazing. Maya was entirely silly throughout the conversations, as if she was performing. She played her violin through the internet, I am not sure how it sounded, but it was fun to hear her play her new and untried piece and her performance piece. We will be 'wired' in Ecuador, and will be able to skype and email and facebook and send photos and movies and be present the lives of family and friends as much as we wish. So different from when I left home and called weekly and wrote infrequently. I wonder how much my parents missed me. Perhaps they were happy to be free of my teenage irritability and were willing to give me the space to grow up and toward them again. Tara and I have made skype appointments for her year away. I am still reeling from the anticipation of a year away from her with little likelihood of seeing her. Skype and email will have to do for us.

I think my year in Ecuador will be a year of getting to know my Macbook computer. I took a seminar at the apple store to find out about the basics ( all new to me after six months with this laptop and seven years with an iMac. Ordinarily I just ask Eric to do anything I cannot do, and I never bother to learn new skills because I have Eric to help me. It is time I learned to do it on my own. That is one of my goals this year; learning how to use these incomprehensible machines. i took a workshop on making iMovies and using my iPhoto. I am eager to learn more, and I have been directed to online tutorials, which I will finally have time to review.

May and I joined the library yesterday, primarily so that I can get online and download books. I have been stressing about where to find books to read. Eric suggests I read in Spanish, and of course there will be books galore in Spanish when we live in Ecuador. but I do want to read in English too. One of my goals for the year is to catch up on classics. Barnes and Nobles has eBooks to download, the classics being free. The library appears to have a user friendly way to find books to read. I will have to read on my computer, which is not quite like turning the pages of a musty old book, but it will have to do. I decided against kindle mostly because I have so much technology with me, I wonder if I have too much. How will I keep track of my laptop and camera and lenses and iphone and the cellphone I will have and Maya's violin and more. Too much to keep track of! And the kindle does not work in Ecuador.

We are off early tomorrow morning for Miami. We arrive around noon and wander through the airport until our flight at 9 PM. We fly through Guayaquil and arrive at 1:30 AM in Quito. Erika will pick us up and bring us to her home and we will fall into bed exhausted and wake up in our new city, Quito, and our adventure will begin.