My first month in Quito

Hola! Greetings from Ecuador!

So, I´ve been in Ecuador for one month as of today, and i realized that i hadn´t updated this in a really long time, so i thought I´d inform you of my first month in Ecuador´s events!

First, I´m going to tell you about my Spanish School. Today was the last day, and i realized i hadn´t even told you i was IN Spanish school! I didn´t realize until today that i actually did like it. I learned a lot from it and i loved hanging out with all of the other exchange students! The class was all in Spanish, so it got confusing at some points, but it really helped my spanish alot! i´m understanding more and more every day. I´m getting a lot better at speaking the language too! Today, the last day in my spanish class, each group (the class was split into groups based on our levels of Spanish) had to perform something, using the Spanish they had learned. My group put on a fashion show! it was so much fun! We all wore different styles of clothing. I was dressed for sports, in my PE uniform from school! I had a great time! and although, my class is over, i´m going to see all the exchange students again in 3 weeks because that´s when our first rotary trip is! we´re going to the beach, which is, i believe, 5 hours from Quito. We´re taking buses to get there and i´m so excited!

Okay, so the next thing, is my real school! it´s called La Colegio de America. It´s all girls, so it´s taken some getting used to, but I actually really like it! Everyone is so friendly and welcoming. i had absolutely no trouble making friends, which is really good, because that´s one of the things i was worried about. I´m taking sooo many classes, and they´re really tough for me since i can´t speak the language that well yet! i don´t understand anything the teachers say, but they´re really nice and help me alot. So do the other kids. I have PE on mondays and Fridays, which i dont like very much because up here, with the altitude and everything, i get out of breath really fast, so PE is actually really hard for me here! but i´ll get used to it.

Now for the places in Quito that i´ve been. This could be really long, so i´ll just give a brief description of each of them and if you want to know more, you can email me any time!

Okay, so first for Basilica. It´s a huuuuuuge church, and it is so gorgeous! All of the churches here are big and gorgeous, but this one was my favorite! This church was sooo tall. Me and my friends went all the way to the top, which scared me to death since i´m scared of heights! But once we got up there, i was so glad that I´d climbed all the way up because the view was amazing! It was just breathtaking and absolutely gorgeous. I loved it!

Another really cool place i went was the historical center of Quito. It has all of these old houses and churches. It also contains, i dont know what to call it...the capital building, i guess. That was really cool to see. There were also lots of cool historical museums and shops. I had so much fun looking around!

I also got to stand on both sides of the world at once! That was so cool! It was really exciting. There was a big monument there too and lots of museums, which i really enjoyed visiting.

Oh, this is silly, but one of my favorite places that i went was the zoo with my sister. I love zoos and this one was particularly neat because it contained animals that only live in Ecuador. It had other animals too, like lions and kangaroos. I especiallly loved all of the different kinds of monkeys. This was really cool because i live so far away from the amazonia, so i won´t be able to go there for awhile! Actually, ill be going there in February for the next rotary trip, so i´m pretty excited about that. i love animals and am so psyched to see all the wild animals in Ecuador!

Okay, so there´s probably more, but i´m tired and can´t think of anything else...but if i think of anything, i´ll add it!

Chao for now!

I´m loving Ecuador soooo much!

i love it here. it´s soooo amazing and gorgeous! i love my family. they are all so kind to me! and they are very helpful too. My spanish is not very good. actually, it´s really bad. But everyone is very helpful and they are helping me to learn. Even my 6 year old cousin Sarai is helping me. So i am learning more and more eveyr day.

my first full day here was packed. we drove to this town an hour away from Quito. We went to this place where there was an amazing view of the mountains. they´re so beautiful! There were llamas there! i pet them. Their fluffy fur wasn´t so fluffy, but it was so exciting and i loved it! Then we went to this place that was a kind of jungly-waterfall place. it was so gorgeous! i loved it there. Then we went to get hot chocolate because it was so cold! That was delicious. and they put cheese in their hot chocolate! Es muy bien! mmmm. We also had this delicious bread stuff with it. its called bescotchi. i dont know if i spelled that right, but it was soooo good.

Yesterday, we went to my aunt Sonia´s house. She has such an amazingly beautiful house! aww, that was fun. we had some delicious food there too. i´m not really sure what any of it was called. but it was good! and they have THE most delicious fruits EVER here! aw, i just love everything here! its all so wonderful and different. and i love the people most of all!

i love it here and i am so excited for this year! my school starts a week from today, and i´m so nervous about that! but i´m excited at the same time. it is an all girls school and goes from 7 am to 1 pm. that will be nice and i am excited to find out what school here is like!

Nervous excitement!!!

I'm leaving in a couple of days you guys! only 2 more days left in Houghton, MI! and 4 days left in the U.S.! My whole family is heading down to Madison, WI [which is where I'm flying out of] on Thursday. I'm flying out of the Madison airport at 9:53 on Friday. Nick [the other kid from my rotary district that is going to Ecuador] is flying with me, the whole way. I'm soooo excited for that, because i don't have to fly by myself EVER, which I was actually kind of scared about. We're flying from Madison to Cincinnati to Atlanta to Quito!

The packing is in progress. We've weighed both of my suitcases and they're both under 50 lbs! Of course, not all of my stuff's in them yet...but I'm sure we'll manage to make them under the weight limit! We're going to Marquette tomorrow to get any last minute things I might need.

I'm getting so excited you guys! The next couple of days are jam-packed full of stuff that I have to do, so time will go so fast. Before I know it, it's going to be Friday and I'll be on my way to Ecuador! I'm excited, but I'm also starting to get kind of nervous. I think my excitement outweighs the nervousness though.

I'm going to miss everyone so much, but this year's going to go by so fast. It's going to be soooo fun too! We'll keep in touch, so don't worry!

If anyone wants to write to me, that doesn't already have my address in Quito, email my mom or me and we'll give you the address! I'd love to hear from you guys!