aqui
i have been in Ecuador now for 5 days. we spend 3 in Quito, the capital, one day in Baños, a town right near Cuenca, and then came to Cuenca. instead of the usual drive down from Quito to Cuenca, we had to fly because of the roadblocks. apparently in the US press there has been attention put on the ¨state of emergency¨in Ecuador and also there was a plane crash in the Cuenca airport. the state of emergency is only for 4 provinces and doesn´t affect us at all. the plane crash actually happened about 2 hours after we left the airport-it was a company we would not be riding with and it was because the plane didn´t get enough air. surrounded by mountains, it´s a difficult airport.
ok, after that, my impressions: so far i like almost everything. it´s different, for sure. it´s absolutely beautiful, the food is great. what i love: the fruit juice. oh man this is not like Dole. i´m in love with it. it´s basically like a rich smoothie. and it´s so good. also my family. i have a bother, 27, who works in some computer company i think, a sister, 22 who is studying biochemistry and farmacy. and another sister who is somehwere in the 20´s and i don´t really know what she does. and of course, mom and dad. all the kids live at home. my house is sort of large, very open, all hardwoord floors and has a very upper class look, to me. i love my family although they are very quiet. when they are talking amongst themselves, i can´t really understand them. when they talk to me, it´s louder and clearer and i might need repeating once. but i feel like i haven´t talked in a long time. the group was separated yesterday at noon when we met our families (nervewracking). i´m timid around them but we´ve had some good laughs so far. trying to speak a language is fun. i was pretty nervous but i have found daily communication much easier than i thought and the whole thing is going smoother that i would have expected.
i went to mass with the women today. it was very similar to mass at home but because it was in a huge cathedral, there was an echo and i couldn´t understand very well. the priest was very passionate though, that i got. later we took a ride to a small town outside Cuenca. we crossed a river (on foot) on one of those bridges that don´t look safe but it was fine really. a fun experience. and it was so beautiful.
along the road, you can see lots of barbecues, mainly chicken. we stopped at one and had a delicious lunch. i´ve been eating vegetarian but i had a little chicken.
i still feel uncomfortable in the house. this is normal i think. for the past two days, ive had absolutely nothing to do, so i don´t really know what to do with myself around the house. but they invite me everywhere, or rather, insist that i go (not in a bad way, i like it).
i kind of miss the group. i love them all and we have a lot of fun together. actually the first several days were rather rough because i was missing greece a whole lot. i felt like i was reliving the trip, only with different people and in a different place. and everything is new now, but i could think back to greece and remember every step of the way and i missed it so much. it´s a little better now that we´ve stopped traveling and i´m with my family.
i think this is a little long. tomorrow i start classes, for which i´m very excited. thanks for reading, bye.
posted by leah v @ 2:24 PM
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