Settling In :)

Well, well, well…. Finally getting settled in.

So it’s 8:40pm…. I just finished dinner: calabazo soup, then this little patty of potato and cheese with a fried egg on top, a little lettuce, and beets. It was really tasty minus the beets. We also had mora juice (a mix between cranberry and cherry- it was straight up homemade).

So, I have made it to Quito and have been here for exactly one week. It has been quite the week! My host family rocks! I have two brothers (20 and 22 years old). Alvaro, the 22 year old, likes to joke around a lot, which does not bode well for someone who does not know the language super great. He told me that his brother wants to be a priest, that his friend has a fake, plastic leg, and that the music we were listening to on his ipod was his band. All untrue! Needless to say, he’s hilarious. My host mom is sooo super cool…. or chevre as they would say here.

Right now I am living with my host grandparents, who also have a study abroad student, Hannah. She is one of the 3 other girls here that goes to IU. It’s been super fun experiencing everything with her and nice to have a partner in crime. When we ate some crazy mystery food the other night, it was nice to have someone to look at and make sure that I wasn’t crazy for not liking it. She’s super hilarious and awesome!!

Basically thus far, we have been going to a bagillion orientation meetings, regarding classes, safety in the city (they have drilled this into our heads and I won’t go into too many details in effort to not scare my parents!), information about Quito in general and a host of other things. I’m about orientation-ed out. Classes start on Monday, which will be a nice change of pace.

I thought I would just copy a little of what I wrote in my journal so far. Here goes:

“So, mi abuelita (my host grandma who I am living with for the time being) just asked me to do something simple and I’m pretty sure I shanked the whole thing. She wanted me to bring her the kettle of boiled water that was on the stove upstairs to their bedroom in a few minutes, but instead I poured it into a cup and brought it up and she tried explaining it again… so I brought up the water in this big glass jar/pitcher, which again was the wrong thing she wanted. At that point she gave up. Hilarious.

…..

I had some seriously different food today. With lunch I had “tomate de un arbol” (tomato from a tree) juice. Then with dinner we had apple juice, but it was more like a smoothie. Kind of funky, but okay.”

A few things that are different (literally everything is different here, but here are a few):

1. We have soup before every meal.
2. We also normally have some type of crazy juice, smoothie type drink with our meals.
3. The two popular beers are Pilsner and Club. I prefer Club.
4. Eggs and milk are not refrigerated.
5. We have to turn on the water heater 20 minutes before we want to take a shower.

Hasta luego,
Em

Photos on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2757362&id=6803468&l=595e49a254