Visit to the Half of the World! (La Mitad del Mundo)

Over the weekend, my family took me to "La Mitad del Mundo" which means "The Half of the World". This means that we went to the equator line. In Spanish, "Ecuador" means "Ecuator". There is a lot of touristy things at this spot of course such as a huge monument, a yellow line painted over where the equator is, many shops, restaurants, and a stage with a canopy where people preform traditional Ecuadorian dances. My host mom thought it would be fun and a good experience for me and some other girls from the U.S. to get on stage and dance tradition dances with the older men on stage leading the crowd of hundreds of people...I did not enjoy this so much but the people watching in the crowd sure did get a kick out of it!

I had my second day of classes today. I am loving it so far! We have class Monday-Thursday from 8:30-3:30. We have Spanish grammar classes and Ecuadorian culture classes. My professors are great! I love being taught by only native speakers. I am also really enjoying having all my classes with only the 8 students in our program.  The culture classes are fascinating! Tomorrow we are taking an all day trip to an indigenous community about an hour north of Quito. We are going to observe and participate in a celebration called "Raymi" which is a celebration of the summer sun (or something like that). I will find out more tomorrow! We are going to participate in the fiesta, which sounds like it is some kind of dance in the street all day! We even had to buy special shirts to wear so that we are dressed similar to the people of the indigenous community. People in the indigenous communities here speak a native language called "Quitchua". I am excited to learn more about the indigenous communities here in Ecuador!

Tomorrow, when I return from the Raymi festival, I am going to go to the orphanage where I will be volunteering in the fall to visit for the first time! The director of the orphanage called me yesterday and said she wants me to come to the orphanage to meet a current volunteer who will be leaving in a few days. She wants the new volunteer to "show me the ropes" of being a volunteer at this orphanage. I am so excited to see the orphanage and learn about how things work there!

Cooked guinea pig anyone?

Traditional dances of Ecuador

Me next to the big "Mitad del Mundo" monument, marking the  0' 0' 0'  latitude line

School Orientation and Settling in With My Host Family

Yesterday I moved in with my Ecuadorian host family! I will be living with this host family until my study abroad program ends on August 19^th. My family consists of a mom named Katyhuska and a 20 year old daughter named Dianita. My mom is extremely sweet and kind. She is also a great cook! She own a little store where she makes sweaters and scarfs and gives people knitting lessons. Her store is right across the street from out apartment. My sister is studying at a college here in Quito. We live in a cute little apartment that is about a 25 minute walk away from my school. I will probably take the city bus to school most days. Today, my sister and I took the bus to the market and she showed me around Quito a little bit. Since I have been here in Quito for about a week now, I am started to become a little bit familiar with the city….well, kind of. Quito is a huge city but I at least feel like I am getting to know it a little bit!

My mom and sister eating lunch in our apartment

My sister and I in front of the shop where my mom works

My Ecuadorian mom and sister!

Yesterday I also had my school orientation. My school is called CIMAS and it is a school just for students in the CIMAS study abroad program. For the summer program that I am in, there are 8 students total. We all got to meet each other yesterday and everyone seems nice. The orientation went well. I am excited to start classes and improve on my Spanish grammar! From living in Mexico and learning Spanish through speaking it, I can speak pretty well, but my grammar needs a lot of improving. Since I learned it through speaking it, I don’t know the formal rules to the language well and my grammar just needs a lot of improving overall. It seems like I am the best Spanish speaker out of all the students in my program, but I am sure that they all have better grammar than I do and that they know the formal rules to the language much better. I am really hoping to improve learning proper Spanish grammar through this program!

The view from the window of my room

Another view from my room.

The apartment where I live with my host family

Pre Study Abroad Adventures Traveling in Ecuador!

Abby and I were so happy to be reunited after 3 months!

The four of us girls at the base of the Pichincha hike

I arrived into Quito on June 9^th. I met up with one of my best friends, Abby, who has been studying abroad here in Quito for the past few months (I am studying abroad with the same program that Abby studied with). We made plans to meet up in Quito and travel together in between the time that her study abroad program ended and mine began. It was so wonderful to finally see her after three months of missing her! We would also be traveling with two other girls from the U.S. One of the girls was someone that Abby had met through her study abroad program named Raine, and a friend of Raine’s from back home named Mallory. We stayed in a hostel in Quito for the next two nights (for only $6 per night!). The day after my arrival, we hiked up to a peak called Pichincha. The guidebook that we had warned against doing this hike during your first week in Quito due to the high altitude. The elevation within the city of Quito is about 10,000 feet and the Pichincha hike takes you up to about 14,000 at the minimum. We were sure that I would be fine so we tackled it anyway. There was a gondola ride that takes you to the base of Pichincha. There were stunning views of Quito from the gondola ride and the base of Pichincha. I was amazed! It was a great welcome to Quito for me and a way for me to comprehend how large of a city Quito is. The hike was beautiful and fun, but the altitude definitely made it very challenging. We never made it to the top of Pichincha because we didn’t have enough time and also because I started to feel a bit drunk due to a lack of oxygen to the brain. It was interesting!

The few of Quito from Pichincha. Beautiful!

After the hike, we rested a little bit because it was a Friday and we would be going out that night so that Raine and Abby could introduce me to night life in Quito. There is a district called “La Mariscal” that has many clubs and bars and is well known for its popular and crazy night life. I observed that Friday nights in La Mariscal are definitely crazy. Being a white, young, foreign girl (known here as a “gringa”), you get a lot of attention from men. It is pretty much always unwanted attention from creepy men who make noises and comments at you when you walk down the street. You also get a lot of staring from men and from many people in general when you are in public places. It is very odd and something that will take some getting used to. But don’t worry because Abby and Raine gave me advice on how to be safe and how to avoid the creepy men!

Abby and I on one of the crazy bus rides through the jungle.

The next day, Saturday, we took a bus from Quito to a smaller town on the coast called Montañita. Getting there was quite the experience! It only costs about a dollar an hour to ride the bus in Ecuador to go long distances across the country. While this a very convenient and low price, the bus rides are always very interesting and sometimes can be a bit sketchy. It sure made for some fun bus trips for us! We didn’t make the direct bus from Quito to Montañita, so we had to take a bus to Guayaquil, the biggest city in Ecuador and get to Montañita from there. We left Quito at about 10 am and arrived to Montañita about 15 hours later at one am after many interesting bus rides through many cities, mountains, and jungles. We were not sure if we were even going to make it because one of our buses broke down at one point. Abby and Raine said that it was a good introduction to the ways of traveling around Ecuador.

All of us girls on the beach in Montañita!

We finally made it to Montañita and ended up staying five nights there. We had a great time there and met many fun people! We spent our days hanging out on the beach, meeting and spending time with local Ecuadorians and other tourists from all over the world, shopping in the street markets, and eating delicious Ecuadorian food such as batidos (fruit smoothies), ceviche (a fish dish), and patagones (fried plantains). There was only one day of sunshine while we were in Montañita, but it was still very warm and pleasant every day we were there.  My 21^st birthday was while we were in Montañita and I had a wonderful time! We spent the day at the beach with some awesome guys from Colombia that we met. At night we went out to dinner at night where they made me a birthday dessert, played me a special birthday song, and gave us free drinks. At night, we went to a bonfire on the beach. After spending 5 days in this small beach town, we really felt like we had formed a little community with the locals and all the amazing people that we met. It was hard for us to leave! We met many wonderful people that we plan to keep in touch with.

Some adorable boys that I met on the street.

Abby and I at my 21st birthday dinner!

All of us girls at my birthday dinner!

Next, we traveled to a town in the southern mountain range called Cuenca. This town had a very European feel and look. It reminded me a little bit of Rome.  It was adorable and we enjoyed our time there a lot! Mallory, a girl that we were traveling with got sick and had to spend two days in bed L I am lucky that I have not gotten sick yet! When traveling or living in South America, getting sick from eating something bad seems unavoidable. We spent our days in Cuenca walking around and enjoying the sights of the beautiful town. We explored the night life too and had some interesting experiences.While in Cuenca, I met a really nice guy that I am hoping to see again. He lives in Cuenca, which is a really long bus ride from Quito, but we really want to see each other again so I hope we can make it happen!

On the deck at our hostel in Cuenca

When we left Cuenca, Abby and I had to part ways with Raine and Mallory because they were heading down to travel in Peru and we were heading back up to Quito. Saying goodbye to them was sad because we made such a great travel quad and had such an amazing time together. Abby and I took an overnight bus back to Quito that left Cuenca at 11pm and arrived to Quito at 6 am. Abby and I spent the next two days in Quito together. She showed me the school where my study abroad program is located and she showed me around the neighborhood where my school is. It was so fun to see my school and the neighborhood where I will be spending most of my time! Abby has really shown me the ropes here in Quito, teaching me how to use the bus and giving me so much advice and tips on things that she learned while she was here.

Cuenca is beautiful!

On our last night together.

Abby left Quito last night to fly back to the states L It was very hard to say goodbye to her because she is one of my very best friends and I will not see her until I return to the states in 5 months. We had an amazing time traveling together and I am so thankful that we were able to do that!

My study abroad program starts on Friday. That is also the day that I will be moving in with my Ecuadorian host family! I am currently staying with two very kind men, Bill and Rodolfo. My mom’s client in Portland is good friends with Bill so she connected me with him when my mom told her that I would be moving to Quito. Bill and Rodolfo are so kind and hospitable and they have really let me make myself at home here in their apartment. They have wifi here so it has been nice to be able to be in contact with my loved ones from back home.

I plan to spend the next few days relaxing, and exploring Quito some more. I also have to try and get my student visa registered. Abby and I attempted to do that yesterday and it was very frustrating. Bureaucratic matters here seem extremely unorganized and complicated and nobody seems to know what they are talking about. I was sent to two different places yesterday to get my visa registered and after speaking with several people at both places, who told me that I was in the right place, and waiting in the very crowded waiting areas for my turn to finally make it up to the front desk where I thought I was going to get my visa registered, I was told in both places that I was not in the right place. It was very frustrating! So I am making another attempt at it today. I hope I am successful!

Even though I was traveling with three other girls from the U.S, I feel like my Spanish has already gotten better. I met many locals while traveling and was able to use my Spanish a lot. I am eager for my Spanish to really improve while I am here! I am really looking forward to moving in with my host family, starting my Spanish classes, learning more about the Ecuadorian culture, and getting more accustomed to life here in Quito J

Explore. Dream. Discover.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones that you did do. So throw off the bowlines and sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." 

 -Mark Twain