Wednesday.

Today is Wednesday and although it has been productive, it has been pretty boring.  However, traveling on a Wednesday is pretty much impossible because of classes--even though I have class on Tuesday and Thursday, Wednesday I have decided to set aside as a day for homework.  I have a lot of reading to do along with other assignments.

Ah, I didn't even mention that I started classes yesterday!  My teachers are really great and the school is the most relaxed place that I have ever been.  The buildings feel a little like high school because I am back go being in normal classrooms, not lecture halls that are meant to fit nearly 300 students every class period.  Someone told me there are around 7,000 students total at my university.  That's practically one undergrad class at OU, but it's cool.  All of my classes are taught in Spanish, so at the end of the day and being in class for over five hours, my brain is practically mush.  I took public transportation yesterday with a new friend I made that lives down the street from me; she's an exchange student from Virginia Tech!  Taking public transportation with a friend is a lot less scary than taking it alone.  In the mornings, the buses are overpopulated and the traffic is low key SCARY.  The afternoons aren't so bad to take the bus and I took the bus home with another new friend I made from class.  I feel like a freshman again.

Speaking of feeling like a freshman, I luckily made a friend named Rose from Michigan State who I have my first 3 of 4 classes with on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  She rocks, along with Laura from Virginia Tech.  They're going adventuring with me this weekend and I'm so pumped.

On another note, working against the typical chronological order of my posts, I went to a birthday party for my host sister in Cumbayá on Saturday.  Ecuadoreans sure do know how to party.  It was 80's themed and so cute, with over 80 people packed into a small downstairs area of a condo where EVERYONE was dancing.  Although it was supposed to begin at 8, people began arriving around 9:30 and it went on until 4 in the morning!  I took a cab home around 12:30 because I was completely wiped out, but my host mom didn't return home until around 4.  It was a blast, but I definitely couldn't keep up with the dancing and drinking and carrying on--for the first time in my life, I felt old.  

The day before, I went to Centro Histórico with Grace and it was a blast.  We explored, ate new foods, wandered around the Plaza, and hiked to the top of the spire in la Basílica del Voto Nacional.  Afterwards, we went and ate some sort of pancake-like food that had eggs in it with a mora (blackberry) sort of topping.  Talk about delicious.  Afterwards, we tried finding a cab to bring us back and ended up getting poured on.  Followed by hail.  So as you can tell, I am nothing short of Oklahoma weather here.

It's warm during the days, unless it's clouded over or raining.  At night, it gets chilly and a jacket is necessary.  I've been to the mall Quicentro at least five times just to get miscellaneous things, including an ice cream cone from Crepes & Waffles...on multiple occasions.  The weirdest things here are expensive, others cheap.  Clothes are not among the cheap and Burts Bees hand lotion runs around $22 a bottle.  I guess paying the $100 overweight fee for my toiletries wasn't such a bad idea.

Among the many things that have happened in my first 8 days in Quito?

I've been hailed on. Twice.

I've eaten pizza...and liked it. (For anyone who knows me, THIS IS BIG)

I attended an Ecuadorean birthday party and learned that even the men here absolutely love to dance.

I've gotten lost on the Ecovía, which is the public transit bus.  Just when I thought public transit couldn't get more confusing than the MetroBus in D.C...life got me again.

I've been to MEGAMAXI!  These are comparable to a Super Target or Sam's Club.

I've been called a gringita on multiple occasions, most of the time by someone on the street that I don't even know.

Finally, I have suffered the side effects from altitude sickness.  From migraines, to exhaustion, and the feeling of not being able to catch my breath...even when I'm just sitting down and minding my own business.

Despite my many new challenges, learning the Spanish hasn't been hard but getting used to "Ecuadorean time" is definitely a change.  By that, I mean if you make plans to go somewhere at 1, I hope you're okay with going around 3.  It's just how things are here.  

That's about all I have time for because of the amount of homework I have, but hopefully there will be another post up this weekend about my trip to Otavalo!  I'll leave y'all with some pictures to entertain you.

Suerte.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

-Albert Einstein