Bienvenidos a Ecuador!

BIENVENIDOS A ECUADOR!

Where the bus/metro system is crazier than Washington, D.C. and you can't put toilet paper down 99.9% of the toilets.  Don't carry your iPhone in plain sight and you should expect to eat lots of fresh fruit, drink plenty of fruit juices, and consume a diet that consists solely of soup and rice with the occasional meat (usually pork, which I love anyway).

Yes people, I am learning to try new things and eat better so be proud.

My host family is so cool.  My host mom is older and has two daughters in their late twenties; one of them has kids and the other has been helping me a ton with my Spanish so I couldn't be happier where I am.  My most mom only speaks Spanish, with a LITTTTTLE bit of English so I am being fully immersed--nonetheless, it's been great but kind of tough.  I'm slowly realizing that trying to speak Spanish has been comparable to test-taking.  You know, where you study all week and know every inch of the test  but then you get to the test and open up the test booklet and all you can think is "HOLY SHIT"...yeah, that's me.  I live in the middle of Quito where there is lots of city traffic and the sun shines in my room at six AM, but the mall (Quicentro) and MegaMaxi (like Sam's or Costco) are both super close.  The sun shining in my window hasn't been bad because it will force me to get up on a schedule.  When I look out my window in the mornings, I see a super busy street with lots of street vendors & people wandering around & mountains.  I have never lived anywhere where you can see mountains, so it's pretty cool.

Side note: someone from back home told me yesterday that I am "as subtle as a shotgun", so there's that.  I suppose subtlety has never been my strong suit, but I try.

Anyways, we had orientation today and I LOVE USFQ already.  Oh my gosh, Cumbaya, the town that USFQ is in, is beautiful.  Everyone dresses pretty decent to class so that will be an adjustment, but that's fine too.  Learning to ride the buses was the hardest thing I've done so far and many people only carry change.  By change, I mean quarters or less--cash is inconvenient and a rarity here.  This morning, I had my first ever papaya and first fresh mango.  It was wonderful.

Other than that, I have been adjusting to the altitude, which isn't as easy as you think.  You're constantly out of breath and I've been getting headaches like crazy, but luckily I have not been nauseous.  My host mom cooks every day--breakfast, lunch, and dinner and it rocks.  Last night, we stopped by a street vendor and bought Colombian arepas.  Seriously y'all, that's the best thing that I have ever tried.  It's comparable to a corn tortilla, except it's thick like Texas toast.  It's smothered in butter and the corn tortilla part is also mixed with a little bit of cheese.  Talk about heaven in a snack! Ay dios mio.  Anyway, I haven't done much sightseeing but I think I am off to start an adventure tomorrow.  I only have classes scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday so that will leave a lot of room for exploring and whatnot.  

To those of you who have reached out to me since I've been here, thanks a ton!  It's appreciated.  Being in a foreign country where there is even just a very small language barrier is super tough, but I'm loving it so far.  

I know most of you don't check Facebook, so I'll attach a few pictures from my trip onto here for now!  I should have some more interesting stuff to add as the trip continues; I think we are going to explore Old Town Quito tomorrow!  

Good night & good luck to all.

"Wherever you go, go with all your heart."

-Confucius