Estoy Aqui! ( I am here!) The flight here went by so fast… I had vast ambitions to finish all my pre-departure readings on the 5 hour flight from Atlanta but who knew they had TVs on the back of every seat … you could even watch new releases! But by far my favorite was the option to watch where the plane was on the map… to see a strip of land and know it was Panama was amazing! Unfortuantly both my flight into and out of Quito are at 11:30… so I can only see small patches of light surrounded by the darknesss of the mountains. Anyways lets get to the good stuff, ECUADOR! There is so much to say and unforunatly I will proably will only update this in chunks because I only have wireless at school but taking a computer on a bus is very bad idea… vamos a ver.
The first night we stayed in a “hotel” I would call it more of a hostel but somehow I was one of the only ones that had a room to myself which was problay good because the plane food made my stomach hurt so bad that I could not sleep and finally decided to just watch the news (in Spanish!) from 5:30-9:ooam when we headed off to CIMAS my esculea. The day was long and full of Spanish but the building I have class in is BEAUTIFUL with an incredible view of Quito, which is in the valley of the Andes mountains. We had to decide on our tracks today and please everyone be proud I made a descion and stuck with it! I was debating the public health track or the micro finance and after LITTLE delibriation I decdied on the microfinance track.
Mike from the emabassy came and scared us all out of minds for about 2 hours about the rising crime in Ecuador. (Mom, don´t read the next sentence) Ecuador is currently at a critical level for crime (the highest on the scales the U.S. embassies use.) But he gave us some insightful tips to make us let targets than our light skin, hair and eyes already gives away. Basically what I learned is never take more than your willing to part with. Chances are, a good amount of the 36 (31 of which are woman) will be victims of crimes in the coming months. So I guesss that means not that many picutres... it would be hard to part with my camera.
After an amazing lunch and some more talks of which I really understood only parts of it was time to meet or families! I was so nevous as the flood of Ecuadorians poured into our classroom I felt like I was at some sort adoption auction but then mi mamita found me! And she had four roses for me! She is so cute!
I live in a duplex with my madre Sylvia y mi pardre Ferenado, mi hermana Estefania(18), mi hermano Esteban (23). Not only is my family incredible, I lucked out because their aunt and uncle live below and another girl from my program is staying there! I think we are the only two that live so close! My family speakes NO English. And my Spanish is just as bad (possibly worse) than I thought. It is a stuggle just to have a normal converstation and I feel so bad when I make them repeat over and over again. But like the sermon on Sunday said, I have been laughing a lot at myself. When I can’t think of what to say I just start laughing.
When I got to my house they had the picture of my family I sent framed and with their family pictures, it was really cute. I don’t even remember wriring it but my host mom knew I was a vegtarain and said that it was not a problem, even though I told her I would try anything. We had a nice family dinner with two dessets! My type of family! Right now I am eating banichos (dried green banana potatoe chips and watching tennis with with Esteben, Estfenia is completleing here excel project on the only computer in the house which is in Esteben’s room.
chao!
erin
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