Classes, Ladies Night, Atacames

Hey all!

Classes started this week. I am taking three international student classes, and those are Introduccion a la Cultura Ecuatoriana, Espanol Intermedio and Conversacion. I am also taking yoga and a normal class that Ecuadorian students can take, it is Etnohistoria. It's really hard to understand. I absolutely love my yoga class though. I can pretty much understand everything in my other classes so it's not so bad. But school is school. I ended up dropping my scuba diving class, because everyone has already been scuba diving and I couldn't understand the teacher at all. Anyway, I'm sure I'll enjoy my classes and everything.

Wednesday night is ladies night! So a couple of my friends and I went out to La Mariscal again and got some  martinis. It's so nice to just relax and have a drink, it's going to be weird going back to the U.S. when I'll have to wait an awkward two months before I turn twenty one.

The girl on the left is friends with Cari (coral colored shirt) and has been here in Quito for a couple months with another program. All four of us go to Oregon. And randomly, her and her friends were on the same bus with us to Atacames. It takes about seven hours to get to the beach from Quito, and a bus ticket is only eleven dollars one way. Cari, Alex and I bought the last three tickets at seven pm and then we left at 11 pm thursday night. We got there about 6 in the morning and were exhausted. The three of us and the seven other kids all stayed in the same hostel. It was such a nice hostel! They made us food at every meal. It was delicious too. We laid out on the beach during the day, and went out at night. We went whale watching for ten dollars, and saw them extremely close up! The batteries in my camera died, so my pictures aren't that good. We ate ceviche, shrimp and octopus. We made some great friends and had an awesome weekend. I got back today at about six pm and have had to do homework this whole time. 

Our room :)

Cari and I

Whales!

Vamos a la playa

99% of the time, I forget I'm in Ecuador. It still hasn't hit me yet. Weird, right? I can't wait to watch the Duck Football game, I'm not going on facebook on September 3rd because I'm going to stream the game. Anyway, this weekend was amazing but very tiresome, and so I think I am headed to bed now. Hope you all enjoy the post. I wish I could bring you all here. 

Much love,

Audrey

USFQ, La Mariscal, Quito

Hola!

These past few days have been great! On Friday we had orientation at La Universidad San Francisco. It's a beautiful campus. It's pretty small, and that's because it is a private school. Orientation lasted from 9 am to 2 pm. So. Long. A man from the U.S. Embassy spoke about how dangerous and unsafe Quito is for over two hours. He told us about this drug called scopolamine, and people put it on paper or blow the powder in your face to make you black out so they can take all your money. This actually happened to my host dad on a bus once. Usually it's a person who just wants you to help them read a piece of paper, and then once you touch the paper, you're out in ten seconds. So scary. So this U.S. Embassy man freaked out all the international students. Afterwards, the Ecuadorians said Quito isn't that bad and this stuff hardly ever happens. Still, I'm not touching any paper. After that long tedious talk, we had a quick tour around campus. I didn't get any pictures because it was indeed a very short tour. But classes start tomorrow, and I'll have to learn everything quick!

Friday night some international students, Ecuadorians, and I went out. First we went to a very nice apartment and had a couple beers. The view was incredible.

Then we went to La Mariscal, the part of Quito were all the clubs and bars are. It only cost five dollars to get in. It was packed in there, but all of us had so much fun. I got an extremely strong vodka cran for only $2.50. Can you believe that? Everything is so cheap here! I'm definitely going there again. 

Today, from 9 am to 4 pm, we toured Old Town Quito. It's beautiful. It was a gorgeous day also. Already got my first sunburn! We went to four different churches and saw a couple plazas. We went out to lunch also. I forgot to take pictures of my food but it was so good! I had potato soup, a chicken sandwich, this drink that had strawberries, pineapple and orange juice in it, and ice cream with a waffle cone! It was delicious. I'm so sorry I forgot to take a picture of the ice cream. But here are pictures of Quito. :)

This is La Iglesia de Basilica

The group :)

View from the top of the church

Well, that's about it! I hope you all enjoy my posts! Wish me luck at school tomorrow. I will post again soon!

Audrey

I MADE IT :)

Hola mis amigos!

I made it, finally! I am so happy. My flight to Houston went really well. I met up with OUS students who were on the same flight as me. On the flight, I sat next to an older couple on the plane and the wife and I started talking. I told how excited I was to go on this trip. She noticed my sweatshirt and told me her and her husband went to U of O also! She actually grew up in Eugene, and her husband grew up in Portland. They lived in Houston for a few years and so they were returning to visit friends. We talked for a very long time about how important going abroad is. We live in a bubble in the United States, and it's good to get a new perspective.

We had a three hour lay over in Houston. Me and two other OUS students ate lunch together, and then we waited at the gate where more OUS students met up with us. The flight to Quito was about five hours long. I sat next to an Ecuadorian about my age. He told me I'm going to love it and have a great time. His English was very good. I hope my Spanish becomes as good as his English! My host parents and an uncle were there at the airport to pick me up. They were so kind and made me feel very welcome. The father and uncle speak English so I was very comfortable. As I went to put my seat belt, they were like "Oh, you don't have to wear it if you don't want to. It's not a law. In Quito it is illegal to drive over 50 km per hour." (50 km is about 30 mph). So, I didn't wear my seat belt (sorry mom and dad). We got home at around midnight. My host mom made me tea and showed me my room. I slept so well last night. I'm so happy to be here. It's now 1 pm my time, and for the past hour my host sister and I (Sofi, seven years old) have been watching Spongebob and playing chess and checkers. She is so sweet and laughs at everything. Andres, my host brother who is twelve, was very helpful and kept looking things up in the dictionary to talk to me. This morning I had a scrambled egg with blackberry juice, it was so delicious.

Today in a couple hours, the international students are meeting up for coffee. I'm excited to see what the other families are like!

Love,
Audrey