Primeros Días

Our first few days have started off with a bang. Yesterday we had our first lesson at Spanish school; each of us has our own professor and we spend half the four hours with our professor and the other half doing group activities, which involved some gringo dancing. Today we spent all four hours with our professors, which was draining, but certainly good for practice; tomorrow we are going on a walking city tour with the professors. The school is about a fifteen minute walk from our hostel, involving lots of dodging of traffic and avoiding tripping over uneven sidewalks, or often lack of sidewalks at all.

View of Quito; our hostal is about two blocks to the right from here

Today we left the hostel at six for a 2ish mile jog around El Parque Carolina, two blocks walking. My legs felt like they were a thousand pounds at the end of the run, but I managed not to walk at all. I can see why Olympic athletes train here. The park was full of people at 6 am- lots of joggers, speed walkers, dog walkers, etc. We headed back to the hostel with worries of who was going to get the hot water- yesterday only one of our group was lucky enough to get a full hot shower; my shower involved me standing outside of it and leaning my head in to wash my hair. Luckily, we all had hot showers today- a superb reward for our efforts. Lauren, Katie, and I searched out somewhere that didn't have instant coffee- the breakfast at the hostal involves a cup of hot leche for Nescafé, two scrambled eggs, a croissant, and some sort of juice. We found a little bakery that had passable coffee today, necessary for functioning in school. The juice yesterday was rather like drinking a canteloupe; and as much as I love cantaloupe, I would much rather have it still on the rind with a spoon in my hand than in my glass. Today we had naranjilla, a type of fruit that doesn't really have a translation in English, but the taste was delicious, something tangy but sweet al mismo tiempo. 

 So far we've had two meetings with agricultural officials; yesterday was with the director of agriculture for Ecuador, who talked for about thirty minutes straight about a variety of things, including advice about our digestion and heart rates while we are adjusting to the elevation. Today we went to the US embassy and met with a USAID official with projects mainly in the north part of Ecuador, who discussed his projects and goals, namely to improve the productivity of the cash crops such as cafe y cacao, and to form connections between producers and what he called "anchor" vendors in the markets in the cities. Security was tight; what was interesting was the contrast between the buildings. The INIAP building (where we met the Ecuadorian director) was grand on the outside, but the dividers between the offices inside were thin and rather cheap. The US embassy was this grand fortress type structure, completely finished inside with what I supposed was stone from nearby and modern projection, etc.

US Embassy above, Ecuadorian governmental building with INIAP below

Also in our explorations we've been to the mall twice, just a block away, and been laughed at as we all lugged giant 6 liter bottles of water back to the hostel. A few things about living in Quito: we can't drink the water; toilet paper belongs in a bin, not in the toilet; not much of anyone has change for bills greater than a ten, Sacagawea coins are legit currency (we figure they all end up here); the sun burns, fast; crosswalks are optional; pillows are less than pouffy (and my bed also has a distinct slope, which could be the mattress, but could also be the floor...); and we stick out whereever we go. ¡Pero está bien, estamos felizes y listos para un día nuevo!