Brace yourselves for a SUPER long update :D
These past four days have been so hectic that I still haven't been used to the fact that I'm here Ecuador. It doesn't feel as though I'm going to be spending the next three and a half months here. As I entered the country, I was super nervous and anxious. I met the group at the airport right next to this cute flower booth (that sold balloons with "Feliz cumpleaños!" stuck on with sticker letters) just before the automatic exit doors. We took what seemed like an hour-long bus ride to Alston Inn Hotel in Mariscal, Quito. I didn't get to see much on the way because it was around 7pm and completely dark, but I did get to see some parts of the city. It surprised me because I came thinking that I'd be riding in one of those pickup trucks rattling down a dirt path. No. Quito is a very developed, bustling city - perhaps as busy as downtown Chicago. You may also be wondering why it was so dark at such an early time since Ecuador is supposed to always be warm and sunny. Apparently, since it's on the equator, it gets equal amounts of sunlight and darkness; this means that the sun always rises around 6am and sets around 6pm. Cool!!! Hehe
Bustling city of Quito
The hotel we stayed at was pretty large and quite nice. But there are no elevators, so my roommate Lisa and i had to lug all our luggage (no pun intended) four flights of stairs to our room, which was really spacious with three beds. The beds were really comfortable and the bathroom was really clean. Hot water worked fine, thank God. Basically it was the same as many of the 3-star hotels in America. Oh, and there was free Wifi, but my computer wasn't working so I was kind of bummed out.. And for future references, the Alston is considered our home base-type place because we move around a lot. I'll put up a schedule sooner or later :D
Fast forward all the boring introduction stuff and on to our first day of orientation. Let me just stop to comment on how much food they gave us for breakfast: fruits with yogurt & granola, coffee and eggs and thin spam-looking ham, pancakes, and this amazing freshly squeezed juice. Amazing. As in never had anything better to drink. The food here is so great. We left for Rancho Alegre, a hostel, in La Mitad del Mundo (literally "the middle of the world") in the San Antonio region. As the name suggests, we're currently on or very near the equator. There's actually a monument fifteen minutes away where you can straddle the actual line. We haven't done it yet, but I hope we can during our free time tomorrow. It's a quaint town with not too many people, but this hostel we're at is so awesome. It's very cozy and cute, and everything is pretty much made of wood. There's also this cool hammock chair/swing outside on the main porch. It's so "tranquilo" - or relaxing/calm - to just sit there and breathe in the crisp air. Ecuadorians say that a lot, and it's a really high form of praise if one is "tranquilo." The food here is also amazing. Holy crap they will not stop feeding us. I really wanted to lose weight during my stay here, but now I'm highly doubting that possibility at all. During orientation, we have breakfast then break (half a sandwich) then lunch, then break (some sweet breads) then dinner. I am going to get fat. But the food is so delicious, "muy rico" as they say in Ecuador, that I just can't say no... It's all good.
Small road in front of Rancho Alegre in San Antonio
Our first night in San Antonio was amazing because we had a salsa lesson right before dinner!! At first, I was super hesitant because I don't really like dancing, especially in front of people that I just met. But it was so much fun. And I can now dance the basic salsa. If you ask me, I'll teach whoever when I get back :) Awesome fun. And later than night we all just got up into the loft in my and my two other roommate's room and talked for hours. How our room is set up is that there are two beds as you walk in, and then a small staircase to the loft where there are three beds. So I stayed downstairs because it's cooler, and Laura and kara stayed in the loft because it was warmer. So after dinner, we clambered up and spread out on the three beds and talked about almost every single topic possible.
Our group dancing salsa with partners
My groupmates are amazing people and have wonderful personalities/experiences. I already mentioned Lisa, Laura, and Kara, but there are also Sophie, Abby, Andréa, Keely, another Laura, and the lone guy Dan. I feel as though I've known these people for years because we just talked so much about ourselves in such a short time. We stayed up waiting for two more people whose flights were delayed due to Hurricane Irene: Chris and Joi, who are both really nice and funny. We're also waiting on one more person, Lucy, who is supposed to be arriving tonight. So 13 of us in total. Remember their names because i'll probably be talking about them a lot. :)
Being in Ecuador so far is really surreal. There are mountains as soon as I walk out the door, and the air smells so fresh and crisp. No such thing as humidity in the Sierra, which is the middle area of the country with a lot of mountains and dry-ish lands. On average, we'll always be at an altitude of 10,000 feet above sea level. So it's a little harder to breathe up here since our lungs have to work that much harder. Even walking around the block makes us all lose our breath sometimes. But we will get used to it, and by the time we go home, we'll have a hard time adjusting to sea level air. Haha just kidding, probably not. The weather is really interesting. It's usually warm for the most part, but it has been getting chilly/cold after 3pm these days. It's also apparently not strange for many places to be really sunny and warm, then get a bunch of rain, and then strong cool winds, and then be really hot and sunny again. Strange... So I never know how to dress. And I definitely didn't bring enough sweaters haha
Orientation is long but useful, and pretty scary. The culture is so different here than in the States. There are just so many things we need to be aware of as foreigners regarding our safety and security. There are to many to discuss right now, but maybe I'll bring them up one by one later on. Right now there's just so much info in this post that I feel no one made it to the end.... And if you have, thanks so much!! I'll try and update as often as I can so there isn't always this much writing in one post. And I wish I could take a bunch of pictures to post, but I probably can't/shouldn't for two reasons: 1. If Ecuadorians see me carrying a nice camera.... They'll think I have a lot of money and want to steal or attack me for money. True story people. 2. My memory card can only hold 2G because I am stupid and forgot to buy a bigger one before I left. Oh well. I wish I could get in a decent amount of photos though :) So far everything is going great and I do miss everyone back at home. I can access Internet pretty frequently because there are NetCafes everywhere and it's really cheap. I also might have Wifi at my homestay house. But it's not very helpful for my immersion into the culture... I'll probably be on at least once a day or every two to three days. I shall update again soon :)
From San Antonio, Ecuador with love,
Gina
