Aventuras de Andi: First Few Days

As some of you may know, my laptop betrayed me and died the day before I left for Ecuador. This slightly limits my access to computers, but might force me to get out of my room more. This way it also is less likely to be stolen.

Currently I´m on the computer in my house. I´ve been so busy though, this is the first time i´ve been on a computer for more than 5 minutes since i got here.

(btw this computer doesn´t have English spell check, so now everyone gets to see how bad my spelling is...although i could blame it on this weird keyboard.)

Friday

The flight to Ecuador went smoothly. I met about 8 other girls from my program in Houston on the same flight as me. (There is a 22 to 2 girl to guy ratio in my program.)
I made some goals on the airplane:
1. Practice Spanish
2. Make Native Friends
3. Understand the culture here
4. Learn about the environment here
5. Learn latino dances
6. Learn a bit about indigenious cultures
7. Be sure to exercise

When I got to the airport my familywisked me away. In the airport parking lot another car back into us (turns out it was the family of another exhçchange student). Then there was a lot of traffic in this area called ¨La Mariscal¨where there are a lot of Bars, Discotecas, Restaurantes, etc. It´s also known as Gringolandìa because there are many gringos (Americans) that go to the bars there. Other then that, the trip was kinda awkwardly quiet.

Their house is amazing. I¨m staying on like a lower level and have my own sitting room, bathroom, bedroom, and open space room. The view out the window overlooks >The Old Town of Quito and has the grand Andes mountains past that. Its incredible, I´ll try and post a picture when i figure out how.

"When the sun hits that ridge just right, these hills sing"

(I will buy a llama shirt for the first person to identify that quote)

This is more or less the view from my house. I dont understand how to photoshop on PCs so I cant make them fit together nicely. Anyone who wants to photoshop them for me...feel free.

The rest of the house is above me. Their living room has a whole side made out of glass to exhibit the amazing view of Quito´s historical, colonial part of the city (The Old Town). The bedrooms are above this floor.
The house is also right next to a park that overlooks the entire city of Quito. The park has a completely glass Cultural Center that was designed by the same guy that designed the Eiffel Tower. There are flowers inside the glass building and all over the park. My (host) mom said she would take me running there.