Lo que pasó ayer

Yesterday morning orientation started at USFQ and I was still asleep. I wasn’t planning on going until later in the morning though. When I was finally ready to go, Patricia showed me how to get to the bus station. It was about a 10-15 minute walk. The neighborhood seems pretty safe but I would never walk there alone after dusk. This semester I only have to take the green bus to the university which saves me both time and money. When I got to USFQ, it was full of Ecuadorian freshman but I was able to find the international students in the auditorium where we had our orientation last semester. I made it there for the last 20 minutes of the talk on culture shock and then it was lunchtime. It was the second time I ate in the USFQ cafeteria. (The first time was during orientation in January.) It’s really good food but I’d be scared to know how much it costs. We were never told. While waiting, a girl came up to me and asked if I went to FVL for high school. Amazingly, there is another FVL alumnus here this semester. Who would have ever thought that I would run into one in Ecuador? After lunch, we had a campus tour. I actually did learn some new factoids about USFQ and I got to talk to some of the new international students, so it was worth my time. After that we found an open computer lab to use the internet. I met a girl on the bus from Virginia. Her bus stop is the same one I had last semester so I got off there with her and made sure she got on the right bus. I remember how confusing and difficult it can be the first couple of days here.

When I got home, Myriam, my host mom, taught me how to get in the house with keys. It sounded kind of dumb but they have four locks and an alarm so I have four keys (which are numbered thankfully) and an alarm code. We had a snack of cheese empanadas, which are kind of like mini calzones with only cheese in the middle and then fried. To make things healthy, we put sugar on top. It’s been so fun eating good Ecuadorian food again. Tomato de arbol (tree tomato, a fruit we don’t have) juice for breakfast, aji for lunch… Mmmmm I unpacked my suitcases. I have lots of closet space and drawers here which is very nice. Then we had supper: cream of carrot soup, rice (of course) with aji, French fries and chicken. After supper I went upstairs and watched some TV with Myriam and Gabi. They have lots of cable channels so they get some in English. We watched Friends and part of the OC. Then Myriam decided she wanted to watch her favorite decorating and cooking channel. I learned that I will never eat paella, a dish from Spain. It’s all meats and seafood mixed with rice. Seafood good, rice good but random kinds of meat gross. After that, I finished organizing my room and putzed on Tierney’s/my computer. I went to bed early because I did get up for orientation on time this morning.