First Days

Arrived in Houston… almost died of excitement and ran the wrong way on the moving walkway when I saw Nora and Allie. On the plane, Nora and I met Maria, a young women from Quito. She basically told us her life story and through tears explained that her fiancé lives in San Diego and she is trying to go through the immigration process to move to the U.S. She described leaving the city she loves, her family and friends for the unknown and her fiancé.

The descent into Quito was spectacular with shimmering lights and the Andes Mountains surrounding the city. We spent our first night in the tourist district in a hostel before the orientation. Around midnight most of the group went for a walk and we entered a karaoke bar. Hearing “Hotel California” was definitely a strange experience. Back at the hostel, I ended up staying up until 3 am talking with another girl on the program, Angelica, who had just spent a month in Colombia.

People from CIMAS (our school) were supposed to pick us up at 9:00, but showed up at 10:30 or so…The orientation was long and we had to stand up in front of everyone (students and staff) and introduce ourselves in Spanish. I went last because I was honestly so nervous and I was not feeling too well. When it was time to meet our host families, my host mom was the only one who was late. Mi madre, Maria Paz finally came and she is really nice and works as a real estate agent. On the way home we stopped at a small produce market and there were all sorts of intriguing fruits I had never seen. She bought so much produce and it came to around six dollars. I met her two kids, Maria Gracia (13) and Pedro (7) as well as her mother who lives in a connecting apartment. I have Pedro’s room and he is adorable, although I cannot understand most of what he says because he talks so fast! I gave the kids small California license plates with their names on it, and they loved it! Then we played Uno and cards before I went to sleep completely exhausted at 9:00.

We were running late in the morning and drove to school, but it is close and in the future I will be able to walk. At school we had to take a Spanish assessment test followed by a very tedious biology lecture. Nora and I walked to a panderia for lunch and all of the rolls and fresh bread were 10 cents. The afternoon classes were more interesting and we discussed an upcoming trip and places to visit within the country.

Nora’s host brother, Victor, is 19 and super nice. My host mother had an obligation and he and Nora walked me home and got to see where I live! After they left, I had a great conversation with my abuela and she told me that Maria Gracia is stubborn “como un burro.” MG surprised me by sitting with me while we had dinner and tried to explain the novella, or TV show that she was watching. The soup had quinoa and was incredible…