Hola Amigos! I am now in Ecuador and everything (for the most part) is wonderful. The plane landed at around 11:00 PM in Quito, and Maritza (mi madre) and Maritza (mi hermana) were there to pick me up. They even had a pink heart-shaped balloon for me that said “¡Bienvenida Anna¡”. From the airport, we took a taxi to their apartment and there I met my other sister named Paola. Both Maritza y Paola attend school and have jobs. Maritza (my host mom) is a teacher and is on vacation now, but will start again next week. The first shock of coming to Ecuador was my room. Before opening the door I expected a small, cozy space with maybe one window, but instead I found a huge room complete with four big windows (great views of the city and mountains), my own bathroom, Jacuzzi and sofa. Despite the initial feeling of euphoria, I was pretty wiped out the next morning and a little sad. It felt really lonely to wake up in that gigantic room in this gigantic city knowing that I didn’t really know anyone. This feeling, however, passed quickly the moment I got out of bed and walked to the kitchen to find Maritza making me a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, bread and coffee. My host family is amazing and Maritza is an excellent cook! I hope to learn a thing or two from her considering the lack of opportunity I had throughout my upbringing… Today for example, she fried up some corn kernels and sprinkled a little salt on them! ¡Simple y delicioso también! I also eat a lot of chicken, soups, rice, potatoes and fruits. On Sunday I took my first trip by Trolebús and bus to USFQ (La Universidad de San Francisco Quito). The nephew of Maritza (José) showed me how to get to school, which takes about an hour depending on the day and time I leave. I have to take three buses and it costs fifty cents each way. José is also one of the assistant directors for the Oregon program so it was really nice to meet him before classes started. At USFQ the Oregon group talked a little bit about life in Quito and what we should expect. The next two days (Monday and Tuesday) were all orientation. There are roughly 250 international students at USFQ and the vast majority of them are from the United States, but some are from Canada and I also met a girl form Germany. The friends I’ve made go to school in Oregon and Wisconsin. Their names are Angela and Julie and they both live really close to me (about ten blocks) so we’ve taken the buses together a couple of times and also went to the mall here called el jardín so Julie could buy a phone from Movistar (the main phone company in Quito). The primary supermarket in Quito is called SuperMaxi, but I have yet to go there unfortunately. Quito in general is a pretty cool city. It’s located at a little more than 9,000 feet and sits in the middle of the Andes. There are a couple of big parks located around the city and I’m close to the biggest one that’s called La Carolina. It’s fun to just walk around and people-watch. The only downside of Quito is that it’s extremely polluted. The altitude hasn’t really given me any problems except that I wake up WAY too early on a regular basis. As for USFQ, it’s a beautiful campus but hard to navigate. I got lost multiple times today trying to find classes because all the buildings are connected but have different names. Orientation was predictably boring but helpful in some ways. We were lectured for hours about safety, health and other things in a hot gym with no water and the sound of planes flying very closely overhead. There was one good speech, however, about Ecuadorian politics in the last ten years that was hilarious and I wish I were taking a class with the professor who gave it! Right now I’m signed up for five classes but am definitely going to drop at least one and maybe even two in order to add another that’s more interesting. It’s hard to think about school with the weekend coming up! On Friday I’m probably going to go out with my host sisters and friends from USFQ to dance and on Saturday I’m having a barbeque at my house and that night I’ll probably be running in a 10K called “Correr de las iglesias” (Run of the churches). It’s a race where the historical district in Quito is lit up and the route goes from church to church. There should be around 2,000 runners/walkers in all so I’m getting pretty pumped for that and hope to finish (considering I haven’t worked out in forever and especially not at this altitude)! I think that’s all for now! The picture is the view out one of my windows. I love you all and miss you very much! Hope all is well in Eugene or wherever you may be!
