Ecuador Thus Far

I apologize for the tardiness in starting this blog; after long busy days, short Facebook comments and statuses are much easier than typing out essays on my tiny (but wonderful) netbook keyboard. But, I will try to be more diligent in updating; I want to let you all know what I've been up to!

First, an introduction. I'm planning on majoring in Civil/Environmental engineering but the program is pretty rigid and fitting in study abroad once you're in the department is rather challenging. So, I decided to spend winter and spring quarters of this year studying abroad in Quito, Ecuador and spring in Ioannina, Greece. The Quito trip is through the Spanish department, so I'm taking Spanish 203, 301, and 322 (language, language and culture, respectively), as well as a 2 credit service learning component. Right now we're only taking 203, which means we're compressing a 10 week class into 4 weeks, and I have a midterm this Friday, after essentially 6 days of class. Service learning also starts this week; I'll be volunteering at a children's school for 3-5 year olds. Here they don't have pre-school, per se; instead they have jardins (gardens, in English) for all kids this age. I'll just be with the class, playing with the kids, and teaching them some simple English, like colors and songs such as Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

Now, as to my actual experience thus far :)
I arrived here on the night Jan 2 at about 10:15 pm. Autumn was fortunately on my flight, so we were able to be really scared about getting off the plane and being in a place where we knew no one together. I hadn't really appreciate the magnitude of the decision to go live in another country with people I've never met before I got here. It turns out that for the first few days, that's actually rather significant, but I adjusted quickely and I really do love it here :)
Past customs and baggage claim was a huge crowd of people holding signs with names of people. The largest sign by far was welcoming the ACLAS students (that was us). I was introduced to my host mom Laly (LAA-lee) who immediately made me feel like I was welcome and part of the family. She's so friendly, as are all the people here. She always calls me "mi hija", which means "my daughter". She uses this for all of her actual kids as well, and also plenty of family friends. My host dad, Gonzalo, is much less talkative but he's wonderful also. They have four grown, married kids who all live in Quito as well and all have kids of their own. There are 8 grandkids, ranging in ages from 1-17, I think. I've met them all, in addition to several of the extremely-extended family members (such as their son-in-law's mom and sister). Families here are much closer; Laly probably makes/recieves 20 phone calls a day, most of which are with family members. Gonzalo and I laugh every time she gets a phone call. Frequently she'll be on the home phone and then get a cell phone call and have to choose. We find this entertaining also. Using cell phones all the time here seem to be considered much less rude; people don't use the vibrate mode as often and people answer calls all the time, even if they're in the middle of a meal or a conversation. (Disclaimer: almost all of my observations on Ecuadorian culture, home life and family are based on my family alone, and I don't know how typical they are, but they'll give you an idea of what I'm experiencing).

I'm absolutely exhausted; I went to Mindo this weekend, which is an adorable little town with incredibly lush vegetation and lots of entertaining tourist things to do, so I'm off to bed but I'll write more tomorrow. I'll also work on uploading pictures; either the internet or my laptop or both are rather successfully fighting against my picture-uploading efforts, but I have some up on Facebook and I think I'll try the computers at school and see if they are any faster.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=10734840&ref=ts#/photo.php?pid=4943487&id=594976487
should get to the first picture in the album with about half of the photos I took of my house. (Again, thank you disfunctional uploading capabilities...)

love alex