Hey I'm doing alright

So I have yet to start this for fear of sounding absolutely ridiculous and because Emily told me that if I didn’t want to embarrass myself, I shouldn’t have told any of my friends I was keeping a blog. BUT it has been almost a full week and I have experienced a little of everything and can no longer keep this impending doom at bay.

I arrived here in Quito around 11:30 the night of January 1^st and right away fell in love with the family I’m staying with. Raul and Laura are my parents (to save us confusion I am now always referred to as “Laurita”), I have two older brothers that I have yet to get to know really, and a 25-year-old sister, Maria Fernanda, who goes by Mafe and who attends the same university that I do here (Universidad de San Francisco Quito = USFQ), which has been a life-saver.Anyways, when we got back to the house they showed me to my room and told me I could sleep for two days if necessary, and I almost took them up on it. I was so tired I could barely think in English, let alone speak and respond to questions in Spanish, so I was more than grateful.

My first real day here I got a feel for the neighborhood by taking a walk through a nearby park with Mafe and then going to get coffee with Laura, Mafe, and her boyfriend Andres at nightfall in a spot overlooking all of Quito.

Amanda treated us to "Espumilla," a traditional Ecuadorian dessert which roughly translates to "foam"

Since then there has been a lot of introductory things for the 11 of us here from BC. With Amanda, the director of our program, we’ve taken a tour of Colonial Quito, which is just as gorgeous as I remember it, as well as La Casa de Cultura, a museum filled with artifacts and art from pre-colonial Ecuador, and La Capilla del Hombre, another museum created and filled with art by the Ecuadorian painter/sculptor/jewelry-maker extraordinaire, Oswaldo Guyasamin.Spending time with the group is great but walking through museums listening to rapid-fire Spanish while trying your absolute best not to yawn is really hard when the days are so long and we haven’t exactly adjusted to the altitude yet.

Matt, Sarah, and Nghiem were really into it.

That being said, I was never happier nor more nervous to start classes yesterday. After catching the bus and arriving perfectly, one of the other BC kids, Matt, and I were on top of the world until we entered our classroom with complete confidence until the professor looked up from what we thought was him taking the initial attendance to ask us “Que paso?” We excused ourselves quickly and tried not to turn red as we realized that we had come 10 minutes too early and he was just finishing another class. Needless to say, the gringos definitely stand out.

Other than that the day went smoothly with my Gender and Society, Latin American Issues Poli-Sci class as well as the Literature class I’m taking. Today I had soccer for the first time which was far easier than expected. After locating the field and waiting around 10 minutes with the 6 or so other girls who are playing the coach showed up, told us that he didn’t have the list of students, and asked us to meet him there again on Tuesday. Easiest class thus far. My Anthropology class seems like it will be fine as well so I’m happy about all that.

Highlights of the week:

• Splitting an ice cream with Mafe while walking through La Carolina
• Lunch that lasted 3 hours with Amanda and the rest of the group at ‘The Cactus’ outside USFQ
• Watching the sunset over Quito as the lights came on all over the city
• Feeling winded after walking up any and every flight of stairs.
• Hearing about Emily’s Singapore Meltdown

Jungen, Amanda and Emily en La Capilla del Hombre

The ceiling's being restored, but La Iglesia de San Francisco is amazing

¡Hasta Pronto!