My trip went great. On the first long flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta I
sat next to Christian. Christian was a very talkative retired biologist
who was headed home to New Mexico after a trip to Turkey and north of
Iraq. He was on the trip because of his love for photography. Interesting guy who made the flight a bit faster - the movies also helped a bit ;)
On the next flight I sat next to Sofie from Wisconsin. We talked for hours about many different subjects. After three hours we found out that she knew the owner of the appartment, that I was going to live in - so weird!
Anyway, I came to Quito airport, got my backpack and got hustled by a cab driver. I had to pay 10$ to get to the appartment. I knew this was almost double the normal price, but I was too tired and didn´t bother to bargain or to find another one of the official cabs. I got a nice welcoming from Robert (the owner of the appartment) and Lauren (My friends friend who got me the appartment and lives in it as well).
The appartment is on the 6th floor in the mariscal area (touristic area) and we have a beautiful view over the northern part of the city. When someone showers, the light dims in all of the appartment :)
A few days after i moved in, two american girls moved in. We are now 7 people living here. Robert (the owner), Lauren (the girl from USA who got me the room), Louisa and Bianca (the american girls), Hannah and Claudio (a couple. He is from Colombia and she´s from France) and I. The 4 rooms are divided between us guests and Robert now sleeps on a mattress in the livingroom.
My room is a perfect size and it contains everything I need - a chair, a bed and a bedside table with drawers :)
I am studying spanish from 8:30-12:30 monday-friday. I have private classes, a great teacher and the school is walking distance from where I live. Every day there is a break with free coffee, tea and some cookies. The people working at the school are all very nice and helps me practicing my spanish. Some days it is a bit hard to stay focused. It is 4 hours of a foreign language. It takes a lot of energy to focused for that long (it is 1 on 1 classes, so you can´t just daydream like in highschool ;) ). Sometimes my diabetes also makes me a bit tired, but luckily I have both my insulin and the cookies from the school which makes it easy to control my blood sugar level.
After school this friday, I went home and made tea. Robert came into my room and told me that he was working on a bar tonight and i should go. In the evening i was invited to warm up with Robert and his ecuadorian friends in the livingroom.
We were 7 people drinking Ecuadorian beer and talking. It was really nice even though I didn´t understand most of what they talked about ;) When they left, Robert and I went to the bar.
At first he tried to introduce me to different people, but it was a bit hard since i didn´t have much spanish and everyone was there with a friend. After a while of just sitting by the bar and looking on people dancing, I spotted two girls - a blonde and a brunette. They did not look very local.
I very often think "Hey, you got nothing to lose, give it a shot!" but it is very rare that i actually act on this thought. This time I did!
I went down to their table and asked if they spoke english, luckily they did. The blonde was Cecilie. Cecilie is from Sweden and have been in Quito for a month, studying spanish and volunteering. She had one week left before she was going to the Galapagos islands to volunteer. The brunette was Stephanie from Washington. She was studying abroad for one year in Quito. Later on some of Stephanie´s friends joined us and we all talked and danced while Robert was providing me with free drinks throughout the night. Not a bad first night out :)
Today i met up with one of the girls in the city for a cup of coffee and a good talk. I will update again soon about hiking "Rucu Pichincha", being at a private party with Ecuadorians and visiting Mitad del Mundo which is where the Equator line is.
On the next flight I sat next to Sofie from Wisconsin. We talked for hours about many different subjects. After three hours we found out that she knew the owner of the appartment, that I was going to live in - so weird!
Anyway, I came to Quito airport, got my backpack and got hustled by a cab driver. I had to pay 10$ to get to the appartment. I knew this was almost double the normal price, but I was too tired and didn´t bother to bargain or to find another one of the official cabs. I got a nice welcoming from Robert (the owner of the appartment) and Lauren (My friends friend who got me the appartment and lives in it as well).
The appartment is on the 6th floor in the mariscal area (touristic area) and we have a beautiful view over the northern part of the city. When someone showers, the light dims in all of the appartment :)
A few days after i moved in, two american girls moved in. We are now 7 people living here. Robert (the owner), Lauren (the girl from USA who got me the room), Louisa and Bianca (the american girls), Hannah and Claudio (a couple. He is from Colombia and she´s from France) and I. The 4 rooms are divided between us guests and Robert now sleeps on a mattress in the livingroom.
My room is a perfect size and it contains everything I need - a chair, a bed and a bedside table with drawers :)
I am studying spanish from 8:30-12:30 monday-friday. I have private classes, a great teacher and the school is walking distance from where I live. Every day there is a break with free coffee, tea and some cookies. The people working at the school are all very nice and helps me practicing my spanish. Some days it is a bit hard to stay focused. It is 4 hours of a foreign language. It takes a lot of energy to focused for that long (it is 1 on 1 classes, so you can´t just daydream like in highschool ;) ). Sometimes my diabetes also makes me a bit tired, but luckily I have both my insulin and the cookies from the school which makes it easy to control my blood sugar level.
After school this friday, I went home and made tea. Robert came into my room and told me that he was working on a bar tonight and i should go. In the evening i was invited to warm up with Robert and his ecuadorian friends in the livingroom.
We were 7 people drinking Ecuadorian beer and talking. It was really nice even though I didn´t understand most of what they talked about ;) When they left, Robert and I went to the bar.
At first he tried to introduce me to different people, but it was a bit hard since i didn´t have much spanish and everyone was there with a friend. After a while of just sitting by the bar and looking on people dancing, I spotted two girls - a blonde and a brunette. They did not look very local.
I very often think "Hey, you got nothing to lose, give it a shot!" but it is very rare that i actually act on this thought. This time I did!
I went down to their table and asked if they spoke english, luckily they did. The blonde was Cecilie. Cecilie is from Sweden and have been in Quito for a month, studying spanish and volunteering. She had one week left before she was going to the Galapagos islands to volunteer. The brunette was Stephanie from Washington. She was studying abroad for one year in Quito. Later on some of Stephanie´s friends joined us and we all talked and danced while Robert was providing me with free drinks throughout the night. Not a bad first night out :)
Today i met up with one of the girls in the city for a cup of coffee and a good talk. I will update again soon about hiking "Rucu Pichincha", being at a private party with Ecuadorians and visiting Mitad del Mundo which is where the Equator line is.
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