The first day!!

I made it safely to Ecuador! I flew to Atlanta all by myself without anything going wrong! When reaching Atlanta, I met up with the rest of my group and proceeded with a three hour layover. So here’s the thing. Everything was going smoothly as we sat in the airport… That was until we looked out the window. Gray skies. Thunder. Lightning. Rain. It was horrible. But our flight was still scheduled to leave on time so we weren’t too worried.

The view of the skies
halfway through the flight

We boarded the plane when scheduled and we were all ready to go at 5:30. BUT we didn’t leave the concourse until 7:50. Yes, 7:50. We sat in our plane for almost 2.5 hours before actually leaving the ground. During that time, we got to know a lot of the people around us and were able to talk in Spanish. I also got to know one of my classmates, Ahnya, a little more. Ahnya and I will be leading the professional development session on special education in two weeks.

Once we reached the airport in Quito, we waited for all of our luggage to arrive and be checked. From there, a bus dropped us all off to our individual host families. All of us live about two hours from the airport, so we had a chance to take naps. My roommate Samantha and I didn’t get to our host family until 3:00 am! We did some brief introductions and headed straight to bed.

I'm in two hemispheres
at once!

The next morning/afternoon, Mama Lola fed us some breakfast- tostada con mantequilla y ensalada de fruta. Translation: Toast with butter and fruit salad. She also made us a drink, jugo de naranjilla, which is made from a fruit that looks like an orange-tomato but it’s sweet. After breakfast, we set off for El Mitad del Mundo or the Middle of the World.

I ate an empanada de morocho!

At the Middle of the World, we took a tour of the museum located there and learned more about the people who live in the different regions of Ecuador- the highlands, the coasts, near the Galapagos Islands, near the rainforest, Esmeraldas, etc. It was interesting to see the similarities and differences between the people and their cultures. Besides walking around the museum, we were able to take pictures at the equator and shop at the stands in the area.

Overall, it was a great experience. I mean, how many people can say they’ve been in two hemispheres at once?!

Mama Lola with her kids.

We ended the night eating dinner with our host family and meeting some of Mama Lola’s children. Dinner in Ecuador means drinking tea, coffee, or milk with cheese or toast. It’s definitely different from what we consider to be dinner in the States. We spent a few hours chatting at the dinner table and learning more about Ecuadorian culture.

Tomorrow is my first day at America Latina school. I’ll be observing the teacher whose classroom Alex and I will be in for the rest of the week. I hope it all goes well!!