ECUADOR IS AMAZING!
Hola!
I have been in Ecuador for almost a month, and I am enjoying myself so much!
I arrived in Quito on August 21 and spent the night with my host family in my host brother´s apartment. The next morning I was whisked away to the province of Esmeraldas, to a small town called Rio Verde. We stayed in a beautiful white beach house called a ¨finca¨ which belonged to some family friends. The catch was that the house had no electricity or running water! We got water about three hours a day, and when it got dark, we would light candles and lanterns. We would spend the day swimming in the ocean, reading, playing cards, and eating seafood. It was very relaxing! After staying there for about 5 days, we drove an hour to a more well-known beach city called Atacames. There we stayed with some family friends who had two girls my age, who I became friends with. Luckily, this house had electricity and hot water! We stayed in Atacames for about 6 days, watching movies, eating ¨ceviche¨, and buying jewelry at the markets. After our stay in Atacames, we drove the 5 hours back to Quito where I met even more family friends and also my host mom´s sister. We stayed in Quito for a couple of days and then finally drove to Riobamba!
Riobamba is a beatiful city surrounded by impressive mountains. Although the city is the size of Salem in terms of population, it is a lot more condensed and not as developed. There are a lot of indigenous people and there is a big market every wednesday and saturday.
My host family is amazing! We get along great. My host mom, Pachi, works with biomagnetism and other natural medicines, and my host dad, Felipe, works with ceramics. They have completely accepted me as a part of their family and make sure that I am content and have everything I need. I have three host brothers: Sebastian, Pancho, and Alejandro.
Last monda, I started school at Colegio Jefferson, and it was great! People in Ecuador are very friendly and in the first hour of school, 5 people had already invited me to sit with them at lunch! I am in a different grade than the other exchange students at Jefferson, which I think is a good thing because that way I will actually become friends with students from Ecuador and not always stay with the other exchange students. School in Ecuador is a lot more relaxed than school in the United States. The students spend lots of time talking, and teachers aren´t really seen as authority figures, but more as friends.
I got to miss school for five days because of a spanish camp for the exchange students in Quito. I made so many new friends and had so much fun with all of the exchange students.
I am having an amazing time here, and I am so glad I know the language, because I haven´t had any culture shock and not that much homesickness.
Ciao,
Alex
