una ciudad excelente

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Oh my God. I´m here. In Quito. And I love it already.

First things first: I have a different homestay and, thus, different address than the one I posted. My original homestay family had a crisis and couldn´t take me in, so Rosita Ferry, also known as perhaps the nicest lady in the world, agreed to do it at the last minute. She kept apologizing for “not being ready” (her apartment was absolutely lovely) and “for the place being dirty” (it was spotless) and has already offered to teach me how to cook and to take me to the indigenous markets so that I´ll be able to get a better price. So, clearly, I´m not really missing out on anything.

My new address:

Adrienne Langlois

Carlos Tobar 155 y Eloy Alfaro

Quito, Ecuador

2546 646

I have been surprised by how easily I have been able to communicate thus far here. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that Ecuadorian Spanish is not very heavily accented at all and isn´t spoken as rapidly as in other areas, and with the fact that most people expect me to make a few mistakes and can decipher the false cognates I sometimes create accidentally. Sra Rosita said I was a pretty good speaker, even, and the only things I had a hard time understanding were her directions on how to get hot water in the shower, and I was even able to prevail on that front through trial in error. Score one for hot showers!

In fact, I´ve learned that the easiest way to understand what´s going on is to calm down. I got in pretty late last night, and my brain was quite fried from travel. While waiting in line for immigration, I was alternating between feelings of “this is so cool!” and “what have I gotten myself into oh god oh god oh god” while filling out the customs form. In between these increadibly spastic emotions, I looked at the customs form and suddenly realized that I could read it perfectly. I was even able to speak Spanish to the immigration agent !

I have so much more to write about already, but I´m dog tired from walking up in the Old Town (beautiful colonial architecture-yes, I about died from happiness) with another volunteer and riding the breakneck Trole system. Spanish class begins tomorrow at 2, so I´ll hopefully have time in the morning to explore and/or write about my adventures thus far. By the end of the summer, I know I will have so much creative nonfiction material, it´s not even funny.

Miss you all!

Besos y abrazos,

Adriene

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Tags: en ecuador!, speaking spanish