Quito Week 1

Now, I am in Quito and life is very different than it was three weeks ago.

• I am in a house with four other people – Ana, Rudalfo Sr. and Jr., and Jose Luis.
• I am in class two hours a day, and I am studying for at least two more than that.
• I eat three square meals per day – a mix of fresh fruit with freshly-squeazed orange juice for breakfast, something from the café for lunch, and fun Ecuadorian dishes for dinner. They normally eat a big meal at lunch, but since I’m at school I get to eat a big meal at night when they’re eating bread and tea.
• My daily commute is $.50, 20 minutes long and involves a bus that is 98% of the time jammed packed with people. I have had to squeeze over and under people often to get out at the correct stop.
• I live in a place where most days I wear long sleeves, jeans and a jacket when I leave the house, and maybe I’m not wearing the jacket when I get home, but usually I am. I sleep under two blankets, and that is enough to keep me pretty warm but nowhere near hot.
• I routinely sit at the table for over an hour conversing with my family and friends, and the longest stretch has been more than six hours on a Friday night. We talked about politics and religion… light topics for icebreaker activities.
• Besides my school, house and a few shops and malls, I haven’t seen anything Quito has to offer. I am studying, working in the café connected to my school and working on design projects for the school. Not to mention trying to recreate my entire portfolio, which got completely ruined when my harddrive crashed a few months ago. This weekend is a holiday weekend, let’s hope I get out some.
• I find it a struggle these days to ask for something or figure out how to get where I need to be without sounding like a complete moron. Understanding Spanish isn’t too bad for day-to-day stuff, but speaking it is an entirely different beast. My pronunciation isn’t horrible, but formulating ideas has been a daily brain drain. My family speaks English, what I say is 10% Spanish and 90% English because I know I sound like an idiot and they know my language so much better.

Anyway, in general life is great. I'm off to finish my first project and get some homework done. This weekend I'm gonna go out and see this city!