A List

So it was Sunday again and what do you know, I was watching Ecuador Tiene Talento again. I think it might become a weekly thing. I mean there’s not really any way around it.

As of two days ago I’ve been here a week. In other words, Saturday evening a week ago I was falling asleep in a van while trying to look out the window getting ready to be bombarded by beautiful families. And I think it’s been a pretty good week. It’s been busy and boring and invigorating all at the same time. It’s been a week of waking up at 6am to take two buses to University San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) for an 8:30am, four-hour intensive Spanish class followed by orientations, trips to the embassy, falling asleep in the grass, exploring the interconnected campus, and meandering around Cumbaya (the city surrounding USFQ). One thing I realized I was in dire need of as soon as I began needing to be places at a certain time is a watch. We’ve all gone on a watch hunt. Most are at least $30 and the size of practically my head. Others are really ugly and $70. Then others are really pretty and &124. The cheapest we’ve found were $16 children’s watches. So I might go home with a colorful rubber watch that has Avengers characters on it. That would probably be really cool.

This week has been kind of a blur, and I know I’ve done cool things, but I can’t really remember them—especially the details of them. So I decided to make a list of the things I can remember, cool or not. My mom likes lists.

A list of things I did this week:

TURTLE!
(ps. I borrowed this photo from one of my beautiful Kalamazoo buddies)
(aka photocred to the awesome Nadia Torres )

- Saw USFQ for the first time. Guess what? It has turtles. Like, Kalamazoo has squirrels jumping out of garbage cans and USFQ has turtles posing on stones in the middle of a lake.

(also borrowed this beauty of USFQ)
(again, photocred Nadia Torres) 

- Drank apple juice (which is usually gross) and it tasted almost pretty great because it was fresh and tasted like apple sauce.

- Basically used all my muscles to hold myself up while standing on the bus—the ride is a bit joltier than I’m used to and there are a lot of bends.

- Am basically becoming a professional at standing on the bus—but not really.

- Stared at the mountains. They are everywhere, surrounding us, as if protecting the city. Sometimes I forget they are there, then I see them and I have to just stop and stare for a second. 

I'm not sure how to take a picture that even begins
to show what these mountains actually are.
But I'll keep trying.

- Bought coffee at the USFQ cafeteria. We’re cool college kids.

- Did a ten-minute Spanish presentation about traditional Ecuadorian medicine for a five-day class that has a grade that counts toward nothing that I know of. But now I can answer some questions about traditional Ecuadorian medicine.

- Ate way too much lunch. But everyday eating way too much lunch becomes easier…

Food!

No more food because I ate it

 - Really had to pee but didn’t for like three hours because I was in an orientation and thought I'd miss something important (I didn't). Then I really really had to pee. 

- Drank warm milk with sugar.

- Fell asleep in the sun.

- Got on the wrong bus.

- Met my host-mother’s (mamagramma’s) bother! He helped me choose what to eat at the mall: I had arroz con camarones and it was delicious. (Fun fact: this mall is called “El Jardín” and there’s another one called “El Bosque” so that’s cool).

- Meandered around Cumbaya with my awesome group of Kalamazoo gals. We sat on giant people statues.

Also not my photo but I love it.
(photocred Kyra Walenga!)

- Woke up before the sun.

- Watched a sunrise.

- Watched telenovelas with my mamagramma. They have fantastically dramatic music.

- Walked home instead of taking the bus. It took an hour and was beautiful. I wish I had a photo.