mostly transportation...

My house has sort of alternating layers, so there are technically 5 floors, but it's really more like 3 stories. I live on the top floor, where I have a nice view of the street and a car repair place in the front and buildings and houses in the back. As far as I can tell, Quito doesn't have any "neighborhoods" where there are just houses like American cities do. Houses and buisinesses and restaurants are all intermixed, and they are all behind walls and fences. Every business I've seen at least has a sort of garage door a/o bars that can cover the windows and doors, and all houses have walls and gates. I have it pretty easy; I can open my gate without a key, my first metal decorative door without a key, and then the main front door with only one key. Some of my friends here have 4 keys to get into their houses (apartment complex gate, building door, two deadbolts, etc...) We do have an alarm system which I haven't quite gotten the hang of yet; I can set it during the day if I'm the only person coming or going, but the night setting is much more complicated, and often includes a phone call. I have no idea why; I didn't understand that part of Laly's explaination haha. The house alarms here all make this really loud noise when you turn them on or off so that (I'm assuming) potential theifs know there is an alarm and the shouldn't try to break in. Of course, when you turn on/off the night alarm this wakes everyone up if they're already sleeping (I've been guilty of this) but there's no other option.
Quito is a really noisy city in general; I wake up multiple times every morning because there are cars honking, people shouting, dogs barking and more throughout the entire day. The cars honking reminds me to mention the style of driving here... it is certainly one of the most terrifying things I've ever experiences. Lanes in the road seem to be more of a suggestion than anything else, so drivers constantly jump around, nosing their way into a different lane, and if they're in the wrong lane to turn, they turn anyway. Seatbelts are a rare luxury; my family has two cars with seatbelts, but buses and taxis don't have them. Crosswalks are a joke; Quitenos (people who live in Quito) are pro j-walkers. They'll time their crossing to be literally a foot behind a moving vehicle, and if traffic is stopped at a light people walk through the cars as though there were no cars at all. (I tend to take the "look-both-ways,-it's moderately-clear,-SPRINT" apprach). It is also highly recommended that you look both ways on one-way streets because there is no garuntee that the cars will only go one way.
This all being said, I have extreme cofindence in the taxi drivers' or my parents' ability to get to where they need to go; drivers are pushy but effective. And, everyone knows that this is how driving works here, so it's scary, but it works.
There are also lots of buses, which cost a wonderful 25 cents per ride, and trolleys, which are buses with their own lane, which also cost 25 cents. The buses are hard to use because instead of having one route with a number like we do, they have 4 or 5 signs in the window with 15 names of some of the major streets that they go on. Trolleys are easier; they only have one pathway.
Commercial buses are super cheap too; for me to ride the greyhound from seattle to bellingham, it cost about $30 or 35, and last weekend, for me to go to Mindo, I paid $5 (both are two hours one way).

Lunch time, more later...