¡Las Aventuras en Ecuador!: 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!