Life in Quito and Other Adventures

Quito Ecuador

What´s up everyone? Ready for a new installation of Moe´s adventures in Ecuador? Well, lets see…where did we leave off last? I believe that I was leaving the Spanish-colonial town of Cuenca and was on the way to the beach. Since school let out in June, I had only two harried days to get ready for the boat, one extremely busy and crazy week off, and five days to get ready for Ecuador. Besides those very few days, I worked twelve hours a day or more on the boat. So when I made it to the beach town of Montanita, I decided that I had some well deserved r and r coming to me. It was five days of intense hammock swinging, trying of the local cervezas and laying on the beach. It was lovely.

Finally, however, it was time to head back to Quito to start school. I took the night bus back, which I'm told is dangerous, but at least the inherent danger is unseen. Back in Quito, I met my fellow students for the next year. There are only ten of us, two (myself included) from Evergreen State, seven from the UW, and one from Western Washington. The first night that they were in Quito, we all went out and did some bonding (drinking) and I could not be happier with everyone. So far everybody likes to have a good time, and there's been no drama whatsoever. The next day we met our families and had our first day of school. We go to school Monday through Thursday, about 4 to 6 hours a day. Three or four hours a day of class time in spent in intense spanish study, with the other time devoted to various projects and field trips, also in spanish. I figure that after all our time in school, communicating with our host families, and living day to day in Ecuador, I should be fluent in Spanish by next Tuesday. My family is really nice. My host padre is a high school gym teacher, my madre works in insurance, and I have an 18 year old sister who goes to college. We also have a maid who cleans my room and my bathroom for me, so I'm a little spoiled. The Mom is cute, she is constantly scurrying about, and it seems that her major preoccupation in life is that I have enough to eat (like I'm going to starve).

Back in school, during our first week, we took a four day field trip to visit some small commuities north of Quito, highlighted by visiting a couple of marketplaces and schools. During once such visit to a school, after our little cultural exchange, there was an impromptu soccer game, between us and several kids range eight to twelve. We were going easy on them, until we figured out that they were going easy on us and were kicking our butt. With ball control like Pele, and shots like Ronaldo, they proceeded to make us look like a bunch of silly gringos. It was okay, because it only took a couple of hip checks and hard slide tackles to take those grins off their faces. A good time was had by all. So now we're back in Quito delving into escuela. I'm still getting used to the whole breathing situation here, in Quito. Imagine fresh mountain air, filtered through thousands of diesel engines, and on top of that, at eight thousand feet the air is a lot thinner anyway. Just getting out of bed feels like a marathon, but I'm adjusting. Alrighty, I hope this message finds everybody happy, healthy, and terrific, I'll talk to you later. Moe