Where has time gone?

Wow, time has gone by so fast...

Moca Cafe Bar

WORKING AT MOCA CAFE BAR
These last few weeks have been busy. Starting November 1st we opened Moca Cafe Bar in the mornings and have been running it Mon-Fri ever since. We're enjoying are mornings there together and our siestas in the afternoon. I guess I can't say I am bored anymore. I, more than Steve have been having a difficult time getting motivated in the morning. Steve's been so great, he lets me stay home some mornings to try to sleep in which I am not able to do. I usually get up and surf the world wide web hoping to see one of my children online. I still miss them very much and I don't think it will get easier, but I know their safe and that even if I were living in the states I may not be seeing them either. Life is busy.

Steve and I have made some new friends through Moca. Bob and Stefani they are brand new to Cuenca. We talked with them and decided to show them how to ride the bus and take a trip to Feria Libre Mercado on a Saturday, one of the busiests days at the mercado. It was an adventure for them. Stefani isn't too fond of the busses and I am not sure she will ride it again, but she knows how if needed. We all went to Puerto Grill on Gran Colombia for her birthday, and enjoyed some great margaritas :). We met George and Monica and their beautiful daughter. They have plans to open a Thai restaurant. Also, we met Matt and Diana from Wu Wei We Go blog who have 2 children that go to Santana where our son Nick goes. Matt comes by Moca and takes advantage of the FREE wifi and gets some work done, if we aren't picking his brain. They will be leaving to head back to the USA soon. Last week we met Jeff,  he was here visiting Cuenca to see if this is where he and his wife would like to retire. He heard that we had a mall so we showed him how to get there via bus. It has been so exciting meeting all these great people in Cuenca. Almost everyday we meet someone new at Moca. I hope we continue to meet such great people.


NICK'S SCHOOL (SANTANA)

We recently received Nick's report card and saw that he is passing everything. How can that be? He isn't that great with the language yet and when we talk to Nick he says he doesn't do anything but sit in the class all day. We were really hoping that Santana would be the place for Nick and we know that it is going to take time because of the language barrier, but we don't feel as if he is even being challenged. He has had homework twice since he started yet our friend Trish's son in a lower grade then Nick has two hours of homework a day. How can this be? Nick says he doens't know when he has homework and he tries to ask his friends but they don't give him a straight answer and the teachers never have time so he says.
We had a meeting with some of the staff to see what we can do to help Nick. The staff were all so very nice and helpful and tried to reassure us that all will fall into place as he learns more spanish. We came up with a plan that Nick was to write the homework in his agenda and the teachers would initial it to show that he wrote the right stuff. This has not been done...
Steve and I worry that we are just paying for an expensive daycare. We are considering taking him out the rest of the year and doing some online classes and working on his spanish then try a new school next year. We have spoken to a few Cuencanos that say that Santana is more of a place for kids in the upperclass to go to socialize and network. When I went there last week with Josh, Nick's spanish tutor for a meeting I saw kids walking around campus with there Blackberries out and headphones on texting and listening to music and it was during a class period NOT break time.
We have started researching more schools to find a more challenging one for Nick. I worry about him not socializing with kids his age so I really worry about taking him out of school but I am paying a little too much for him to socialize. We will put him back into a futbol league to have some interaction with kids his age and hopefully Nick will stay in contact with the friends he has made at Santana.
Well that's enough for now. Hopefully it won't be so long before the next post.