¡Bienvenidos a Quito!

Day 1

I’m in Quito, safe and sound! It still hasn’t hit me yet. When I arrived on Wednesday night, my host parents were at the airport to greet me, along with an IES representative. They gave me a brief tour on the way home, making sure to point out the hot spots of “gringolandia” – that’s what they call Mariscal Sucre, which is where all of the “gringos” hang out. In Ecuador, the word gringo is not meant to be offensive in any way—they simply use it to refer to all foreigners. This area is fairly close to where they live, as is the Catholic university where I’ll be taking some classes. The home is like a combination between a house and an apartment. It has three or four floors, and I think a different family lives on each one. We’re on the top floor. It’s very pretty and homey inside, with four bedrooms, two sitting rooms, a kitchen, and two bathrooms.

My family is extremely friendly and welcoming. The parents, Bruno and Diana, are doing everything possible to help me acclimate and feel like part of the family. I’m the sixth student they’ve hosted, which I’m sure makes the process easier for them. They have twin 18-year-old daughters—Cristina and Carolina—in their first year at the Catholic university studying sociology! I might even have a class with them! Their son, Bruno David, is 21, and I believe he is studying to be an engineer like his father. Their oldest son is currently studying in Spain. The daughters are on vacation so I’ve met a couple of their friends who’ve been hanging out here. I’ve already played cards and watched a movie with them. They all seem like the type of kids I could easily be friends with and hang out with, which is great.

The first day of orientation involved going over a lot of tedious information, but we got to walk around the nearby park (La Parque Carolina) and go to a nice restaurant for lunch. So far the food seems to be delicious! Everything is very natural here, so hopefully I won’t have a hard time adjusting. We all signed a pledge to speak only in Spanish when in the IES center and at IES events, and I was surprisingly able to hold conversations in Spanish all day long! I talked to a bunch of other students in the program and they all seem really nice. I sat with another girl at lunch who sings in an a cappella group and spent the fall semester in Quito with another study abroad program, so she already knows a lot! All in all things are starting off very well.

Day 2

The second day we went over some important things such as security, health issues, and course registration. In the afternoon we left for the Historic Center of Quito, which is further to the south. We had a tour bus all to ourselves with a very animated tour guide. Though I was quite enthralled by the sites and wanted to take pictures through the window, I realized that’s it’s still quite difficult for me to multitask while trying to comprehend Spanish. After driving into the historic center and up the hilly and windy cobblestone streets, we got off the bus and entered La Merced, which is one of the main churches. Thanks to our tour guide’s special connection, we were able to climb to the roof of the church, where we could see the entire historic center and more. We climbed all the way to the top of the bell tower. Afterwards we walked through the city, stopping at a couple of other churches. We tried a famous Ecuadorian hot drink called Candelaza, which is kind of like hot apple cider, but a little bit thicker with an orangey flavor. After a few hours of wandering, we got back on the bus and headed to a very nice restaurant for our welcome dinner. It was another delicious meal consisting of an appetizer much like mini egg rolls, a main course of chicken with a delicious yellow sauce, rice, and salad, followed by strawberry ice cream and fried plantains (I think?) for dessert.

Weather: So far we’ve been lucky with the weather – we haven’t gotten much rain yet! However, I learned that city runs on hydroelectricity and because there hasn’t been much rain they have to turn the power off in parts of the city for two hours at a time. The variation in temperature here is amazing. During the middle of the day when the sun is out, I’m pretty warm in my jeans and t-shirt. Then if the sun goes behind a cloud, I need to put my cardigan on. Last night, by the time I got home, I was wearing my cardigan and my fleece, and I was still a little bit cold.

Transportation: I have yet to use the bus system, as most host parents drive their students for the first several days. The layout of the city still confuses me, but hopefully I’ll get it down soon. I live very close to the Catholic university, where I’ll probably be taking one or two classes, so I’ll be able to walk to and from those.

Communication: It might take a little while to figure out a system of communication. Since my host mom has been driving me to and from the IES center, I haven’t had that much time to use the computers there. There is internet on the laptop in my sisters’ room, but the keyboard is different and I’ve had a bit of difficulty using it. They also use the computer a lot, so I don’t want to interrupt their activities. I brought my laptop to the IES center today, but I couldn’t connect to the wireless for some reason. As I write this I’m trying to figure out when and how I’ll be able to post this message and my pictures on the blog!

Health: So far I’ve been a little tired, but other than that I’m feeling good! The altitude (9,800 feet) isn’t affecting me much and so far I’m not having a hard time adjusting to the food. My family also has a filter on the kitchen sink, so we don’t have to worry about boiling water, which is great!