Quito, Ecuador!

Hola amigos!

This semester I will be studying abroad at Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. I have decided that blogging about my time here would be the best way to share my experiences with everyone back home! Hope you enjoy (:

Tuesday August 16 - My flight from Cincinnati left at 12:00pm to Houston. I arrived in Houston and had lunch, called my bank (which I forgot to do earlier) and hopped on the plane to Panama. Both of these flights were simple and I had no problems - we were even given dinner, chicken sandwiches! While I was getting off the plane, I found a few other students who were also going to Quito to study at USFQ this semester! This was a major relief. It was great to be able to talk to other students and have a few new friends in a city where I thought I would be alone for a few days at least. There were six of us in total, and I'm excited to see them at orientation tomorrow! We finally bored the plane from Panama City to Quito and I had the pleasure of sitting in front of three children who looooved kicking the back of my seat. Thank goodness this was the shortest flight of the day. We made it to Quito around 11:30pm and went through Immigration, waited quite a long time for our bags, and finally went through Customs. The next part was very intimidating. I had to walk through what seemed to be hundreds of people and try to find my host family. There were so many people waiting to pick up students/friends/family. I finally found a USFQ employee and we found Gina and drove home! The apartment, or should I say "penthouse" is more than I could have ever hoped for. I have my own room and it's very spacious. After we did a small tour, I went right to sleep!

Wednesday - I woke up and had breakfast with Gina (mi madre), Santi (mi hermano), y Betty. After breakfast I decided to unpack my bags. Everything fits fairly well and I was happy to have little pieces of home all around me (: We had lunch around 2pm and Gina explained some of the house rules to me. I should really say "tried to explain" because I don't understand everything she is saying. The family is trying to help me understand them better and I appreciate their efforts. I hope this gets easier very soon! In the afternoon I just hung around and we had a very light dinner around 7pm. I spent the rest of the evening relaxing!

Today, I went down to breakfast (my room is on the second floor, along with one other bedroom) around nine and had an egg and bacon mixture along with fresh fruit. Gina then asked me if I wanted to go to the pool with her. I said of course, what else do I have to do, right? So we gathered up our swimsuits and towels and drove to the pool. It was about a 7 minute drive and this was not just a pool. She called it the "club" and it was that indeed. First we layed out for 30ish minutes, she said something about me being too white, and then we went inside to the sauna. After the sauna we stayed in the hot tub for awhile before swimming in another pool that was inside. It was a lovely spa day! I asked mi madre how often she comes to the club - 3 times a week. Hopefully I can come back! While we were driving to our next destination I noticed that there are lots of people selling things on the street. You can buy lots of fruit (12 oranges for $1) , sunglasses, coloring books, kitchen towels, and many other things! There are also street jugglers and clowns! ahh! After Gina finished her errands we came back to the apartment for lunch with the familia (madre, padre, y hermanos) and ate corn (literally cob slices) and potato soup, tuna salad, and peas. Interesting! It almost felt like something they would have at UDH so no big deal! Right now it's storming in Quito but hopefully it stops soon, I want to walk around a bit tonight before having to find my way to school tomorrow!

Orientation at USFQ starts at 730am! Gina said we needed to leave at 7 in order to catch the bus and make it on time. Goals for tomorrow - buy a bus pass, not get lost, make plans to do something this weekend with my new classmates!

I should also say that even though I'm getting the opportunity to experience a lot of new things, this is hardest thing I have ever done and I think it's going to take me awhile to get used to living in South America. I hope you enjoy reading about my journey and a big thank you to my friends and family who have supported me so far!