Estamos en Ecuador!!

We arrived in Quito around 5:45 in the afternoon after a 6 am flight from Philadelphia, a 6 hour layover in Miami, and a four hour flight to our Latin American destination. Miami was a really cool place... Even though we didn't leave the airport, you could definitely get a sense of things. I almost felt like I was in a different country (Samantha and I weren't sure if we were should speak Spanish or English). It seemed like more people were speaking Spanish than English even though we were still in the USA. I pretty much expected that from Miami I guess.
I think I was most nervous the night before I left and the day of our flight. Part of that is probably due to the fact that I read the State Department report the night before... Probably a bad idea... Once I was actually on my way, I felt a lot calmer.

Everything went well with the flights, and the most amazing part was flying over the Andes. It was a cloudy day, but as we descended, we could see the snow-capped mountains peaking through.

When we finally landed, we got in line for customs... which was fairly long (probably about a half hour). Thankfully, I was allowed to pass through with no problems.

Our country coordinator, Pablo, met us on the other side of customs. From there he drove us to our homestay which is in a neighborhood called La Floresta. It is in a great location in the north part of Quito, and it is off one of the major roads (6 de dicimbre).

Our apartment is on the 3rd floor and it's really nice. It's also about 5x larger than my apartment in Spain. Samantha and I share a room with 2 beds, a tv, and a large closet. We also have another apartment mate. Her name is Sarah and she's from North Carolina.

Our host parents are sooo nice. Their names are Marta and Alejandro. Alejandro owns his own restaurant downstairs in our building. They have two daughters who are both older and don't live at home. Each daughter also has a son. Emilio Jose and Diego Martin. We were very tired from our flight and the elevation change, so we just sat around chatting with Marta and Alejandro for a while before going to bed.

This morning I woke up around 6, showered, and ate breakfast before heading out around 8:30 with Pablo. Pablo drove us around the city a little bit and showed us how to get to the building where we will have private Spanish lessons 3 days a week. We met the language class coordinator, Nancy. It was here where Pablo gave us a brief orientation about the city, safety, etc. He told us we were not allowed to have pets in our homestay. Samantha and I started laughing, and he was like... "I know that seems ridiculous, but some girl brought a chicken to her homestay one time. She then proceeded to leave town for a week and expected her host mom to take care of it." WOW. He told us about some of the trips we will be going on (Octavalo, Mindo, Cotopaxi, and an excursion to the colonial part of Quito). We were supposed to have a trip to Banos, but apparently there's been some volcanic activity there recently...

After our orientation, we walked to the public school where we will be volunteering (Quiteno Sanchez). We walked in the door and we were greated by about 300 squealing children during their recess. We met the director of the school and a few of the teachers. We will be teaching English. Tomorrow I start with the 6th graders. I must admit that I find the kindergarten kids the cutest, but 6 graders are cute too. I'll probably be with the younger kids next week. I will also be helping with the music taller (workshop). Samantha, Sarah, and I had to choose which taller we would help with. Some of the options were music, cooking, English club, sports, art, and writing. They heard I played the flute and immediately decided I would be helping with music. I haven't played my flute in about 4 years, but hey.

The director walked us around the school, showing us all the classrooms (19 in total). At one point, we walk by some kids who were sent to the bathroom to wash their hands after finger painting. We walked a little further and saw that apparently the kids had taken a little detour to the bathroom and were painting the walls with their hands! The director wasn't too happy about that.

After visiting the school, Marta #2 (Paco's sister) showed us how to walk home. The school is about 15 minutes away from our homestay. I'm a little nervous about crossing the streets... cars don't really seem to stop for people... Also, the ecovia (a kind of bus system) is sooo packed (as Hannah indicated).

We went to Alejandro's restuarant for lunch (as we will be doing everyday). It was very simple, but cute. We were served tomato soup, popcorn, curry chicken, fries, corn bread, and cole slaw. I spent most of the lunch watching the really cute nino sitting at the table next to us with his father.

We are still trying to take it easy while adjusting to the elevation, so after lunch we just went back to our apartment to rest. Tonight we are going out to dinner with Paco somewhere near Plaza Foch.

I'm also really excited for our group salsa lesson tomorrow! I'm also planning on taking private lessons while I'm here. Paco also says he's going to a salsa party on Thursday and that I'm welcome to go with him.

In general, I feel safe here so far. It's obvious that people are less wealthy here, and we most definitely stick out, but I'm happy that the three of us will always be together. I'm also happy that our program seems to be so well organized, and that we are in such a nice area.

Ok. I think that's about it for now.

Katie