Ok. I’m obsessed and it’s been less than a week. I’ve literally gotten up at 6:30 and gotten home after 8pm and been absolutely exhausted but it’s been so awesome. We got in to Miami on Monday night and had fake orientation aka get to know you games and just hung out.. instantly knew the group was perfect so I started getting to know everyone then but now we’re all bffs so it’s awesome.
After an extreme day of traveling we finally made it in.. we only slept like 3 hours at the hotel so I was passed out on the plane and woke up when we were getting ready to land and literally had to think about it to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.. the scenery is so gorgeous here; we flew in over rolling hills that were super green with snow capped mountains in the background and then flew over the entire city of Quito. It’s massive by the way and looks like somebody threw a bajillion houses on a mountain range and made a giant city where one shouldn’t be because it’s surrounded by extreme mountains but it’s so so cool. We got to our hostel and met our directors and went out for dinner.. to a Mongolian barbeque (super random considering were in Ecuador) but got to try Club, one of the three kinds of Ecuadorian beers (many more to come I’m sure). Everyone was dead and we went to bed at like 10pm and started orientation at 9am on Wednesday.
Summer camp style get to know you games (despite how lame the games always are everyone is hilarious in the group so even the boring stuff is super fun). The first thing we learned about was how to protect ourselves from being victims of crime.. basically just telling us how we’ll most likely get robbed this year.. but just so everyone knows, they’re like literally all crimes of poverty so people will steal your stuff without you knowing it or don’t want to hurt you and will just scare you and take your stuff and let you keep money to take the bus home. There is a lot of crime here, especially in Quito, but we literally spent 5 hours on ways to stay safe and not lose our gear and protect ourselves so I promise (all the moms out there) that I’ll be very very careful.
On Wednesday night I finally got to meet my host family for the night; I’m living with one other WorldTeach volunteer whose name is Sara and she’s really nice and it’s been great to be with someone else. My host family is so great.. my mom’s name is Cecilia and she’s probably 4’9 and calls us ‘Sarita’ and ‘Kristita’ (little Sara and little Krista) and loves cooking and is a really good painter. Her daughter is 30 and she came with Cecilia and her husband to pick us up. Minor setback leaving with all our gear though; car wouldn’t start and we spent two hours in the parking lot trying to fix it. Sara and I literally helped push the car and it finally started (ps, we’re starving and were sitting together in the back seat with all of my gear for 45 minutes before we realized that we were going to be there forever). Finally made it to the house though which is in on a big hill in the Southern part of Quito. Our house is one level and has one bathroom but four bedrooms and has more trinkets than I’ve ever seen in my life and is adorable. We’re about a 45 minute bus ride away from the main downtown and it costs a quarter to ride any of the buses as long as you want, I heart public transportation.
Thursday we had more orientation and my host brother Daniel who was in Peru for the last week came to pick us up to help us make sure we got on the right bus back home. He’s really awesome and 26 and so excited that we’re here. He loves extreme sports and has his own club where they all go climb mountains and go whitewater rafting and mountain biking and stuff.. he showed me pictures and it’s literally insane but so cool.
Friday we took a bus tour of Quito, aka rode a bus to the historic square and walked around. The Incas used to live in Quito and the Spanish came in the 1400s (approx.. I’m not for sure still need to figure out the history) and redid everything downtown in colonial Spanish style so it’s all a bunch of really cool buildings. There are a ton of churches and there’s one where everything inside is literally covered in gold plating. So crazy awesome. We saw what would be the white house of Ecuador and saw the center square and stuff which was really cool. After training we ate dinner then Daniel took us up to this huge statue called the Virgin de Quito that’s like the statue of liberty of Ecuador.. it’s massive and something like 90 feet tall and a huge statue of the virgin mary with wings. Then he took us back to the historic district where we were earlier but at night it’s a really fun place to walk around and have a few drinks. We met some of his friends (seemed like they were best friends but he hadn’t seen them for five years.. have to get used to everyone loving everyone all the time again) and they showed us around and it was really fun now that I’m not so nervous to speak Spanish. We tried this hot wine stuff that’s kind of like apple pie shots but stronger than tequila but is super good. It was great to finally actually see the city rather than just sit in a conference room with a bunch of Americans and speak English so I’m really glad that Daniel is here to show us around.
Today we finally started working on learning how to teach which is really exciting and getting me pumped to have my own class (terrified, but I think I’ll be a lot better prepared after the next three weeks). After class we had salsa lessons, so much fun! There’s one girl who’s lived here for 7 months before and another who was a professional dancer so they’re awesome and everyone else was pretty bad but my Dominican dance lessons definitely helped and I could do all the steps just had a difficult time overcoming my being a white girl. Maybe this year it’ll happen (doubt it, super rubia, pero espero que si). Tonight we’re going out downtown with the WT kids to a salsa club and I’m so excited to pretend to dance and to finally be out in real bars in a real city (no offense Roscoes).
Ok that’s already way too much info.. but tomorrow is our first day off so I’ll probably add more stuff that I forgot. It’s crazy busy but I absolutely love my life right now and I’m so excited I get to be here for the year with this group of people. Miss everyone so much and I’ll write soon. LOVE YOU!
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