The First Few Days

I knew that coming to a foreign country and diving head first into speaking Spanish 24.7 would be difficult, but nothing can prepare you for the mental strain that full immersion brings.
Where to begin....

I arrived in Ecuador on Saturday night without any major travel hiccups.  There was a driver waiting for me at the airport to take me to my hotel.  I was exhausted when I go to the little hostel in Quito but made an effort to chat with the three American basketball players that I met in the lobby.  All three have been living in South America on and off for years and have traveled all over the continet.  One of them was kind enough to escort me to get some food down the street, where I got a miniscule taste of Quito's night life.

The next morning, I woke up at 6am to drive back to the airport for my flight to Cuenca.  All seemed to be going well until I arrived in Cuenca with 150 other passengers and ZERO pieces of luggage.  Apparently, the airline decided that our plane was too heavy and removed all of the bags from the plane without telling anyone.  Ahhhh, the joys of flying overseas.

Luckily, my program coordinator in Cuenca, Jessica, was able to confirm with the airline that my bags were, in fact, on their way to Cuenca the next day, which turned out to be the day after that, but enough about my lost luggage.


Jessica drove me to my family's house where I met Eulalia (Mama}, Victor (Papa}, Monica {Big Sister}, and Estefania {Younger Sister}.  I immediately felt lucky to have such a warm and welcoming family.  Mama is adorable and already calls me "hija" {daughter}.  Victor is the spitting image of a latino Dustin Hoffman {I haven't had a chance to take his picture yet, but I promise to include one in my next post}.  Monica and Estefania both speak a little English, so they have the great pleasure of acting as my translators when I can't get a word out. 

This is a picture of my family's house in Cuenca.

My first day with the family was full of surprises {mostly because I only understood about 40% of what they were telling me}.  Upon arrival, I wanted to send out a few emails, so I told my family that I was going across the street to the internet cafe.  About 15 minutes later, I looked out the window and saw them all sitting in the car, apparently waiting for something {or someone}.  I quickly realized that I was the one they were waiting for, so I got up and ran out to the car, apologizing profusely for my tardiness.  I heard one of the sisters say something about "pan" {bread}, so I assumed we were going to the supermarket and that they wanted to show me around town.  I was right, sort of, we did go to the supermarket but I was told to wait in the car. Monica returned with a loaf of bread and we sped off to destinations unknown.  Surprise #1!  We are at grandma and grandpa's house for lunch!  That's right, I was invited to a 3-generation mid-day gathering, which I'm sure they told me about, but I couldn't understand.  Victor senior {grandpa} is, seriously, the cutest old man I've ever met.  He kept talking really slow to me, like an infant, to make sure I understood what he was saying.  I wanted to give him a big hug as were leaving but I restrained myself. 

Surprise #2!  Into the car and back to the house {or so I think}.  Nope, wrong, we are in the car driving off into the suburbs of Cuenca.  Why?  I don't know.  Perhaps another quick tour...

Nope, wrong again.  We arrive at a row of houses, which, for Ecuador standards, are mansions with 8-foot high walls and barbed wires.  We are now at Victor's sister and brother-in-laws' house.  I heard Victor mention something about a brother who works in Afghanistan for the American Embassy...apparently they were bringing me to meet him.  James, the brother-in-law is an American who came down to Ecuador 30 years ago to join the Peace Corps and never returned to the states.  Apparently, he spends about 20 days per year in Ecuador with his wife and son and the rest of the time working for some super secret branch of the State Department.  I couldn't really get a read on James.  He never seemed to make eye contact with anyone and was very shifty...I guess that's what living and working in a war zone does to a person.

Surprise #3....Later that night we returned to the house where I met Christa...the OTHER American girl living at the house.  Again, I'm sure this was explained to me earlier in the day, but I was definitely startled to see a tall blond girl walk by my room as I was preparing to go to bed.  Christa is from Maryland and is studying here at another school.  Her Spanish is way better than mine, which, at first, gave me a bit of an inferiority complex, but I'm over it now.

I just finished my third day of Spanish classes here at Simon Bolivar.  My lessons are going well and I like my teacher, Monica {different Monica} a lot.  This afternoon I am meeting up with my former boss' cousin, Paul, who lives here in Cuenca.  It will be nice to go out and have a drink with someone and see some parts of Cuenca that I haven't been to yet. 


Cuence is beautiful, a bit more grimey than the pictures on the internet suggest, but it gives the city a certain charm.  On Tuesday afternoon, I walked through some of the historic district and had my first beer at a lovely bar near one of the city's rivers.  I haven't done as much exploring as I would like, but I'm sure that will change.

Crazy Story of the Week- On the way to school this morning, Christa told me the most bizarre story.  There is an old school under rennovation about two blocks from Simon Bolivar, which used to be a Catholic school for orphans.  Apparently, when construction workers began excavating the site, they found a bunch of small skeletons buried in the dirt foundation.  After some investigating, the city now believes that they are the remains of orphans that the nuns secretly buried after inadvertently killing them.  CRAZY!

Side note- It takes about 5 minutes to upload a single photo on this computer, so I will post pictures over the next few days.  Stay tuned for more stories...