A papya al día mantiene alejado al médico ...or atleast I hope it does.

Ok. So to start off, I must admit... I thought I would be better at this blogging thing. Montana proved that wrong, but Montana also proved that Internet is not important in any way, shape or form. I felt as if I was off the grid for the past 6 months but honestly loved it. But I don't know, I felt that if people really wanted to know how I was doing, they would have sent me a message of some sort to ask. However, now that I am in the Southern Part of the Americas I suppose I will try and keep people updated on my new life for the next couple months.

So put your seat backs and tray tables are in their upright and locked position as we get ready for literary takeoff.

Ecuador, the land of 10,000 lakes... wait. no. Ecuador, the lost underwater city... errr.. Ok. So I don't exactly know the slogan of this place yet, but hey give a gringa a break, I have only been here now for two days. BUT what a wonderful two days it has been.

I was greeted at the airport by the lovely Elina, the woman I am staying with, her son Diego and the ever so wonderful Adriana. Elina even had a sign with my full name on it! (how cute right?) Once we get to my new home, I am showed where my room is and once I put my stuff down, we sit around the table, speaking choppy English trying to understand each other until everyone is tired enough since now it is around 2:00 in the morning.

My first actual day in Quito is filled with eating a fresh papaya for breakfast*, getting an Ecuadorian cell phone number, and going to a birthday party. The party was the highlight of my day because I got to share a meal with family and felt like I was getting a peek into what my future holds for me. (Which is obviously to host parties where you can only speak in Spanish, while eating delicious food...)

The best part thus far is the fact that everyone has been so nice to me trying to speak as much enlgish as they know while I sit back and try and comprehend their Spanish. If it is one thing I know about myself is the fact that I get very frustrated when I am not good at something. Now, I am not saying that I am an all-star at everything, but I am not used to being so bad and out of the loop on something as simple as understanding people. This however will give me the motivation I need to pick up Spanish a lot faster than I would have back home in the states.

With that being said. I am proud to announce that I have picked a Spanish School that I will be starting first thing Monday morning. I looked up a couple different schools online and today I went and looked at the top two on my list. The first one I looked at I liked right away, but it was more expensive than the other, so I had to at least go take a look at my other option. Upon struggling to find it, once I got there, I knew right away that the first school was the school for me. I decided that I am willing to pay the extra 1.35/hour to be in a place that I will really like vs. a place that I only kind of enjoy.
The other great thing about this place is the fact that most of the profits they make go towards helping developing communities in the area that they work directly with. I have the opportunity to volunteer with these places too, if I so choose.

I am not going to lie though, I am rather nervous to start only because I have been out of a school setting for almost one year now. What if I forget a pencil on the first day of school, or the other kids don't want to get lunch with me? OR I am not as good as Spanish as them so they make fun of me in Spanish, but I don't actually know what they are saying, so I laugh too. Goodness gracious, I hope I don't have nightmares before my first day.

OK. Enough rambling for one day. This girl needs some supper.





*I have fallen in love with papayas. Today I bought five huge ones for TWO DOLLARS. I feel like in the states, you can't even buy one papaya for two dollars. I have a feeling fruit will be my Kryptonite while down here.