Altitude's a bitch. Excuse my less than elegant language, but it really is all I can come up with to describe what it feels like to be at 9895 feet above sea level after having lived for 19 years at roughly 127 feet above sea level. I have a constant head ache here that makes me feel both extremely light-headed and as if one thousand anvils are trying to escape from the confines of my skull. The nausea and dizziness are fun too! Remind me to invest in some cocaine tea.
Despite my crippled physical state, I am so happy to be here in Quito! My apartment is definitely a far cry from the sparse simplicity of the jungle house. I am living with Gabo and Karla, a young couple who own a papeleria, or papergoods store. Karla's cousin, Gabby, who is 25, also lives with us. We also live in close close proximity to many of Karla's other family members. So, while technically only 4 of us live in the apartment, there are usually always some other family members dropping by unannounced. It sometimes seems as if 70% of our time here is spent bopping from one relative's home to another having cafecitos, which is basically just a little get together to eat some nice pastries, coffee, and lemonade. Everyone in the family has been really welcoming and eager to get to know me. I'm SO glad I've had the last couple of weeks to warm-up the old Spanish, because I am definitely using it. Most people I talk to seem really excited that I'm willing to speak so much to them, because I think the exchange students they have had in the past were a bit more timid. Sometimes the last thing I want to do is think of some chatty bit of small talk (which is tiresome in English), but I'm trying to force myself to speak Spanish as much as I can.
So I arrived on Thursday night to the apartment, which is located in a really nice part of Quito. I took a taxi from the bus station, in which I was offered a job! The driver and I were chatting for a bit and it turns out Cesar is really just a part-time driver, and his real job is as a tour guide. He does trips for groups all over Quito and it seems like they go to some really cool places. Anyways, I guess his English-speaking partner just left him, so he was looking for someone else to take his place. I suppose I was the first English speaking candidate that crossed his path, so I was offered the job! It would be a pretty awesome way to see Ecuador...if only my visa didn't prevent me from working in Ecuador. Don't want to risk deportation... When we got to the corner that the apartment was located on, I was a bit confused because all I had been told was that the house was on the corner of 2 streets. The thing about that is that when 2 streets intersect, there are 4 corners to choose from. Cesar wouldn't let me leave the taxi until I was absolutely sure about which house it was, but because I didn't have a cell phone, this was difficult. He let me use his, then carried all of my luggage to the front door of the apartment building. I have been so lucky with meeting really nice people in my time here in Ecuador!
Friday was my first day of orientation. When I woke up, I was treated to my first glass of what would be many, many, many glasses of juice. Ecuadorians love their juice. Every meal includes AT LEAST one type of freshly made fruit juice, and it is treated with the reverence due to a side dish rather than a lowly beverage. Then, it was time for school! To get there, we had to take not one, but two different cross- and out-of-city buses. Since we all know that one could train a giant squid to find it's way to 5 destinations more easily than one could train me to find my way to 1 destination, you will not be surprised to know that I did not have the faintest idea where we were going. I am going to be devoting roughly 98% of my brainpower to finding my way to school every day.
Once we finally got there (after about an hour of travel) I was delighted to see how pretty the campus was. It's not residential, so is fairly small, but the buildings all have really interesting architectural styles, and the landscaping includes a lot of tropical plants, a lagoon, and waterfall. Things were good, until we attended an orientation in which a startling amount of comparisons were made between Quito and the fair city of Bagdhad. Not exactly the "two truths and a lie"-driven orientation of Midd! Despite being terrified by the safety speeches, which included phrases such as "smash and grab", "kidnapping express", "guess which taxi driver is illegitimate...ALL of them!" , and "after 2 months you might find worms in your intestines", orientation was interesting and gave me chance to connect with some other gringos. Very excited to start school on Monday!
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