Hola! Estoy segura en Quito y me encántala! For those of you who do not speak Spanish, that means that I am safe en Quito and I love it. After a 24 hour flight delay, thanks to Alex the hurricane, and another hour delay that almost cause Shantala and I to spend the night in Houston, we finally arrived in Quito. The second we got off the plane we felt like we were put on parade but I finally found my host family and they are just as nice as I thought they would be. Mi madre, Marcela, no hable ingles. !Nada! My mother speaks no English! NONE! It is very difficult to understand her because she talks so fast but I think I am getting the hang of it. I have one sister name Paula and she is my age and is ten times prettier than me. She is stunning. She tries to talk to me but I can see it in her face that she thinks I am an idiot.
My living situation is on the lower end of what most Ole Miss students have received so far. William and I are the only students that don’t have internet in our houses which is extremely frustrating when trying to plan things. I have my own room with a whole wall of windows and a view of urban Quito. I have a bed, a huge closet, and a desk. In my bathroom, there is no hot water and the sink doesn’t drain. It is extremely hard to sleep at night because there is so much going on outside my window. I can see planes flying at almost eye level. There is always music playing. Shantala told her host sister that in the US someone would have called the police for a noise complaint and her sister was shocked. She said, “We just want everyone to have fun.” There are also about a million mangy dogs running around barking their heads off. Surprisingly, though, they all look fairly well fed. So the living arrangements so far are awkward and uncomfortable but I’m making the best out of the situation that I am in. My family is nice and I live in a good neighborhood close to the plazas. I have a McDonalds. :) And I am super close to the Olympic Stadium where they play futbol!
My first full day in Ecuador was very interesting. Today 17 of us from Ole Miss went on a tour of the center of the city. This is where all the government buildings are located along with about a million Catholic Churches. They churches were absolutely the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen but after about the 5th church I was about ready to call it quits. Not to mention that the entire tour was in Spanish. Talk about spacing out… Gee. I took so many pictures but unfortunately it was prohibited to take picture inside of a church so you’ll have to take my word for it that the papel de oro (gold paper) that covered the walls ceiling to floor was gorgeous. We also visited the Museum of the city (en español- La Mvsevo de la civdad- they used v’s for u’s). We also saw a huge statue of la Pichincha. We walked the entire city and my legs are so fatigued from running through the airport to scaling the city. We drank a hot drink called canelazo de naranjillos that contained a good bit of alcohol in about a two ounce cup. With the altitude so bad it didn’t take much for Shantala to feel her arms tingling and after climbing a hill I thought I was about to die. After the tour I met my mother and went to her sister’s house to feed her dog while she is out of the country. She has a yellow lab named Melbot. It was so sweet- yes Allen, I admit that they are sweet. Labrador is the same word in Spanish and English and she asked me about my dogs. They knew right away what a weimeraner was and when I told her I had a cocker spaniel she told me she didn’t like “cockers.” Well excuse me! What was interesting about this whole experience was that they spoke to the dog in Spanish. They said things like siéntete (sit) and bajo (down). It was so weird to think that the dog thought in Spanish. That he was a Spanish-hearing dog. I kept wanting to says hey there wittle puppy dawg! But would he understand me? Weird huh? After that I told my mother that I’d really like to go to the Plaza de las Americas to celebrate our day of independence with my friend Meghan. I waited for Meghan to pick me up in a cab and we went to McDonald’s and had good ole American food for the 4th of July. I hate that I missed all my friends at ReReMaskeeskee’s house. I love you all and I know you had a blast. I can just see the firework show that Allen has engineered with a ballin’ finale. After we ate McDonald’s, Meghan and I caught another taxi to la Mariscal. This is basically the equivalent of the Oxford square in Quito. We sat at the Coffee Tree for over another talking about the day over drinks. When we left Meghan proceeded to get in an argument with the cab driver about how her house was not far from mine and that 6 dollars was way too much. It was hysterical. Then I got home and tried to explain to my mother that all my friends were meeting up at 9 to go to school together and she told me no, she would take me at 8. OK? Guess I’ll see you guys there! Orientation is tomorrow. Buenos noches!
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