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ok i have like two minutes to post this before i have to disconnect. here are entries from my first few days in quito. sorry it's a lot! only read if you want.
June 5
Hi to everyone. Well I am safe and sound here in Quito after 24 hours of travel, more or less, a lost debit card (very very bad me), and a few instances where I wanted to do serious harm to certain airport personnel. But overall it was an uneventful trip and I am taking in my first day in Ecuador. We arrived late last night and were greeted with many hugs and much excitement from our host families. I was, as I always am, sort of taken aback by the amount of Spanish I actually know, and fully embarrassed by simple words that I once knew but could no longer remember for anything. But the communication has been pretty easy and I am very glad. My family is absolutely wonderful. Alicia, my host mother, is very dynamic and very loud. I find her extremely funny and compassionate, and very educated in social action and politics. Fernando is my host-father; I have only met him once so far but he seems kind. Also living with us are Alicia's daughter Sofia and her three-year-old son Daniel. She has a husband Andres who I have met but he does not stay here at night. I haven't quite yet figured out why they are here so much without Andres. i am once again, as I was in Spain, struck by the kindness of strangers in letting me into their home and their lives. The complete openness of Alicia astounds me; tonight I was invited into her room to watch an Argentian guitarist and we sat on the bed and talked. I make no unkind remarks of Antonia, my host mother in Spain, but I never was allowed in her room, nor her kitchen, except to watch her cook paella. Speaking of kitchens, the food here is delicious. It is very light by Spain's and the U.S4's standards. Today for lunch we had a soup of potatoes and chunks of scrambled egg, then a plate of rice and black bean salad with peppers, onions, and a wonderful cilantro dressing. (I'm back to eating onions again, it is too much to ask Alicia to cook not only vegetarian meals for me, but those not containing onions.) And the drink of choice here is jugo, which means juice but is actually more like a smoothie made with pulverized fruit and water or milk, and a bit of sugar. It is marvelous; I have had one at every meal so far. You would not believe the fruit here; it is crazy tropical. Today I had a mellon jugo, but not from any mellon I'd ever seen before. My vice here is definitely going to be a Cafe Baramba, which I had at a small cafe near my internship site. It is simply a double shot of espresso with a bar of white chocolate left in the bottom to melt, sort of like our white mochas but much, much stronger and better. And for only a dollar seventy-five.
That is another thing, the prices. It is nearly impossible to get change for a twenty dollar bill here. In case of robbery, we are warned not to carry more than five dollars on us at a time. That and we are warned not to eat on the street, which I was prone to do to excess in Spain. This is why I am less worried now about my debit card going missing because everything is so cheap. I pay 90 dollars for a taxi service for the month that drives me at least three times a day to various places around Quito. I am told that one can buy a dozen roses for a dollar twenty-five in florist shops. As one more example, tonight we went to a very nice restaurant called El Pobre Diablo for a welcome dinner. The most expensive item on the menu was pork chops for six ninety-nine! With prices so low, though, it is easy for gringos to get robbed by people who assume we don't know better, which frankly, I don't. After going to a museum today, we almost paid 5 dollars for a taxi ride to the cafe. We had to be admonished by our guide, a student and native Quiteno named Cristina, because we should only have to pay three dollars. In my mind, I thought, five dollars is nothing, I don't care, but I guess it is the principle of the thing.
I have been feeling fine so far, except for tiredness and almost a constant headache. I think it is because we are so high in elivation. I have heard we are from six thousand to nine thousand feet above sea level, but I will have to check on the exact number. The climate is very mild. I stereotypically assumed it would be steamy hot, but it isn't at all. In fact at night it is downright chilly. We have much reading to do already, an incredible amount of work for the month ahead. I am ready and excited for it though and to make the most of my time in this beautiful city. I will have more on my internship when it is a little more set in stone. Peace to everyone and take care. Hasta pronto.
Ok only one copied right. More later!
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mom
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food
I always love to read about the food you eat and how much you enjoy it. Thank your host family for us-we appreciate their hospitality as well. We are so proud of you, baby.