The Beginning

When I left Raleigh on January 2nd, it was freezing. Literally. A cold front had come through and it was no more than 25 degrees (which I know is downright balmy compared to the weather elsewhere, but still.) So needless to say I was pretty excited about heading south.

At the airport, my backpack weighed in at 49.5 lbs; half a pound under the 50lb limit…I could actually be a professional packer. There were a few tears at the airport but nothing unusual for the emotional family that we are, and then I was off. It was cool because the flight to Quito was basically filled with college students clearly headed down for the semester—I even met a few going to USFQ and it turns out the girl I sat next to lives with a host family right across the street.

I got into Quito around midnight and my host family was there to pick me up with a big pink balloon with my name on it. My host mom’s name is Tania, and she has 4 kids. The youngest, Maria Jose, still lives with her, so it was Tania, Maria Jose, and Maria Jose’s boyfriend Daniel at the airport waiting for me. As a side note, Maria Jose was super excited that I caught on immediately and didn’t think it was weird that she had a double name…girl, I’m from North Carolina, try living with a Mary Southgate :)

The next morning I unpacked (and yes Mom and Dad, everything fit perfectly into my room…), and then Maria Jose and Daniel invited me to come to a “club” with them. Now a “club” can be a number of things so I asked what kind and she told me “ohh, theres a pool, lots of sports for exercising, etc”, so I’m thinking like a YMCA type of thing. I go back to my room, put on some running shorts, and shoes and an underarmor top thinking we’re headed to a Y. I threw a bathing suit in my bag at the last minute just to be safe and thank god I did.

This “club” was located about 45 minutes south of Quito in a valley and it was literally a Pullen Park, Emerald Point Water park, sports complex, and much more all combined and put on steroids. There were 3 pools, water slides, basketball, tennis and volleyball courts, soccer fields, oversized board games, playgrounds, a discoteca, like 3 restaurants, a bar, and an indoor skating rink…some “club”. Anyway, we ended up hanging out by the pools for most of the afternoon because it was warm and sunny, a far cry from the freezing, overcast weather I had been in less than 24 hours before. However, my complete lack of preparation for the day’s outing left me burnt to a crisp when we finally headed home.

That night, we got back and had to go back out to the pharmacy to get Tania some medicine. I forgot to say that she had been sick since before my arrival from some food poisoning on New Year’s eve. This left us on our own for dinner, and to all of you who I bragged to about my host mother being a caterer, get this: my first dinner in Ecuador was KFC. But not even actual KFC (which they do have on practically every street corner), the “woulda-woulda” Ecuadorian chain which is almost as common. So now I’ll pause for a minute and let you all have a laugh picturing me eating a fried chicken drumstick and french fries for my first meal. (for those of you who don’t know I started eating meat over break again so I don’t miss out on anything delicious here, like KFC.)

Okay, anyway, the next day was orientation at USFQ, which is a beautiful campus in a valley called Cumbaya about 30 minutes from the apartment. Quito is a really cool city because its high in the Andes, and most of the “suburbs” are in valleys around it. I’ll usually take the bus there but for the first day Tania gave me a ride. They briefed us on health, safety, culture, and the recent Ecuadorian political scene which is FASCINATING. Seriously, I encourage anyone interested in politics to look into it…in short: 8 presidents in 11 years, a race between protestors and a decoy helicopter to the airport to stop one of the overthrown presidents from leaving the country while he hides out in the Brazilian embassy, and tons and tons of corruption—stuff made for Hollywood. Now its relatively more stable though so don’t freak out yet, mom.

Today we have the day off, and classes start tomorrow. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by my spanish thus far but I feel like classes could be another story.
Anyway, wow that was a lot but thanks for reading and hopefully they’ll be shorter in the future. HAPPY NEW YEARS!