Love at first sight/smell/taste, etc...

¡Bienvenidos a Quito!


[La estatua de Independencia, 10 Augusto, 1809 en el centro de La Plaza de la Independencia, Quito - old town]

After getting out of the hour-long line to check my passport/visa and finally meeting my family at Quito´s airport, among the first words out of their mouths were "Hace frio! Hace frio!, ¿No?" and I was like "Are you kidding me? ¡Soy de Chicago!" Haha. It couldn´t have been any less than 60 degrees in Quito. Perhaps cool weather for them, but what a warm greeting for me.

Miriam and Said are entirely nice. They asked me if I wanted anything to eat and if I was exhausted, and under normal conditions I probably would´ve been, but I had no appetite and could´ve stayed awake for hours exploring the city right then. I kept myself halfway sane and opted to stay inside the new apartment and arreglar mis cosas, as it was about midnight by the time we reached what is now my home for the next 5 or so months.

Miriam and Said live in a more upscale apartment in Quito. I have internet access in the apartment (uncommon) which conveniently allows me to keep up my posts, and all the pictures you see are ones I have taken; and we have a maid, Yolanda. One of their sons, Gabriel, 20, will return from Guayaquil (on the coast) on Wednesday and the other, Said also, 26, will return from his 7-year move to New Jersey in March. Their two nephews, Freedie and Carlos, both in their twenties, live in the apartment just downstairs with Yolanda, where we go to eat our meals. It´s nice to have people my age around and everyone is so hospitable and welcoming. I am the 8th student Miriam and Said have hosted, so I´m sure everyone is used to it by now. They said I have an advantage because my Spanish is more advanced than the students they usually host (who knew?) and I´ve had no troubles communicating with them or anyone else yet. I just need to improve my gringa accent, and my verb tenses have been a bit off, but hey, it´s only been four days. The other day I couldn´t even fall asleep for my siesta because I was continuously and very involuntarily translating all of my thouhgts and songs in my head into Spanish. Miriam made fun of me about this...

I´ve spent the last few days figuring out the public transportation (buses, taxis) and getting accustomed with the layout of the city. It´s so large, and because the height of the buildings is nothing compared with those in Chicago, it seems that much larger, because especially when at a high point, I can literally see houses and shops go on for what seems like forever. Fantastic.

When I woke up the morning after my arrival, I thought I´d check out the view from my pretty huge bedroom window - a view prohibited by the darkness of the previous night. I opened the blinds completely and wham!
Breathtaking. A direct view of Pichinca, the main mountain to the East of Quito. I was so wowed that - typical tourist, and only in the apartment! argh... - I grabbed my camera to capture the view. Miriam made fun of me about this all day, which I was totally fine with, because if my new family hesitated to make fun of me, we would have a very, very awkward relationship. Haha.

On my first full day I had the pleasure of visiting one of their friends´properties in Tumbaco, a city in the valley just about 30 minutes from Quito and next to Cumbaya - where I will be going to school. He has a nice patch of land up on a hill where he resides and grows all kinds of trees and fresh fruits when he´s not at work in the city. Very chill. I´m jealous. And a spectacular view, but so does everywhere I´ve been - every minute I turn around there are the greenest hills, mountains, a volano or two, trees, and flowers galore. So much greenery. So much life.

I had my first orientation at the La Universidad San Francisco de Quito on Friday. It´s so much more beautiful than the University of Illinois, and all the buildings are much closer. Then again, these buildings are only 10-15 years old and there are only about 2500 students, of which 200 are international. There are 14 in my group from the Illinois program; the majority (10) are chicas, and 4 are from other schools who are joining us through the Illinois program (Rice, 2 from Penn State, and University of Oregon). Everyone seems pretty outgoing and so far we all get along with each other very well...no snobs, thank god :)

Yesterday we took a tour of the old town Quito (I live in the new town, to the North) in which we toured all of the very well preserved Colonial architecture. Iglesias, plazas, estatuas, el Centro Cultural Metropolitano (some great digital photography of the volcanoes, the amazon)
- so much to take in. The highlight for me was la estatua de La Virgen del Panecillo (Panecillo is the hill on which this statue was constructed), a 134.5´ statue visible from most of southern Quito. It is constructed on this hill and is so large such that its silhouette is ever-present and remarkable in contrast to the sky behind it. Mesmerizing.

And today is Sunday, my day of rest. So I get a chance to work on this little blog and watch some Simpsons and Saved by the Bell (The College Years) en Español. Haha. The altitude is quite high in Quito (avg. 2850 m, or 9350 ft), so my body is taking some time to adjust (shortness of breath, sometimes I feel a little faint), but other than that I´m faring well. The food is delicious! Fruit all the time. The juice here is literally made by putting, for example, a mango in the blender with a little bit (and I mean a little bit) of water and sugar, and then, bam! there´s a mango in your cup (err...with a little bit of water and sugar). Lots of exotic fruits, lots of veggies, lots of seafood - love it all. And everywhere has its house version of "aji" (pronounced "ah-HEE"), a spicy sauce that usually includes oil, onions, garlic, and hot pepper. Could I ask for more?

Such is Quito. International student orientations en la Universidad are tomorrow and Tuesday. Voy a descansarme un poquinto más, porque, pues, es Domingo, ¿no? Ya me encanta Ecuador.