Week 1: 17-23 May

First Five Day Update!
Hello, again! I guess I'll organize my first week by day:

Friday, 17 May
So, once I landed in Quito, I found my driver and her took me to my host family. The airport is about 40 minutes away from the city, so I got to observe the city at night. However, there was fog coming to the city, so it was hard even harder to see in the dark. I made chit-chat with the driver in Spanish because he did not speak any English. Talking made me way less nervous! Anyway, when I arrived at my host home, I met my host mother Maria Dolores. She greeted me in the Latin America style of kissing the right cheek (it is really just pressing your right cheeks together and making the kiss sound quickly). She showed my what keys opened what doors and then showed me my room. I have my own room with my own bathroom and it is really nice and cozy. After I set my stuff down in my room, I had pastelito (a little slice of cake) an conversed with Maria and her son (my host brother) David. When I finally went to bed after calling my family, it was about 2am. And I still had to wake up at 8am the next morning for breakfast! To make matters worse, it took me a long time to fall asleep since I had slept on the plane; however, that was my only bad experience of the day.

Saturday, 18 May

Picture I took from the window of my host home

This day I woke up at 7:45am to eat breakfast at 8am. While I ate, I chatted with Maria and we learned more about each other. Her personality and nature remind me a lot of my aunts from Mexico, so I felt--and do feel--comfortable in her presence. After breakfast, my host mother went to work and I stayed home to unpack my belongings in to the closet. There's something about not having to live out of a carry on suitcase that feels relaxing. I am here for 3 weeks, so I have time to get comfortable! I chilled at the house for a while before I decided I should get up to get food to eat for lunch. I walked to the little mall that is near where I am staying. I got a burrito from Tako Express;  thought eating some Mexican food would make me feel more comfortable because my family is from Mexico. The food did not meet my expectations, however, I should not have put the bar so high since it is mall food court food. Once I finished eating, I put my trash on my tray to go throw it in the trash--I felt stares but I ignored it thinking it was just my paranoia. However, when I approached the trash, the cleaning lady look surprised and said, "Gracias! Muy amable!", which translates to "Thank you! (How) very kind (of you)!" I guess people here leave their trash on the table for the cleaning service to take care of--but I am not the kind of person to leave my mess laying around in a space that is not mine.
I then walked around the mall to familiarize myself a bit; I also did it because I was having trouble finding the store that I needed to go to to find shampoo and other personal items that i did not bring with me. Honestly, the culture shock has not hit me that much, but that may just be because the culture is so similar to my Mexican culture. The food court interaction was the only sentiment of shock that I felt. I then left home to relax some more.

Sunday, 19 May
I ate breakfast at 8am and then got ready to go to the public pool with my host mother. It was a relaxing day. After we left the pool, she took me to that same mall so I can grab lunch to eat later because she needed to pick someone, who lives farther away, up and take him to the doctor. I chilled at home, and then at about 2pm, I heated up that lunch. David was in the kitchen, so I talked with him a bit, but we were both watching Netflix while eating! Like I said, this day was a pretty relaxing day!

Monday, 20 May
Orientation Day
Today was my first official day of exploring Ecuador. I went to the school of Latinoamerica Schools (the Academia), where I attended orientation. I rode the bus to the school with my host mother and, dang, was that crazy! We literally had to jump on and off the bus 😭. The public transportation here is nothing like what I am used to in Phoenix; I'm used to buses stopping and opening the doors only at the bus stops, where the machine takes your fare. However, here, you have to wave down the bus and essentially jump on and off; there are designated stops, but those are hardly used--they're just for reference. There's also a person on the bus who takes your fare and gives you change in necessary; the think I do like about this system is that I can pay my 25 cent fare with nickles, dimes, and pennies rather than only a quarter (Oh, I forgot to mention that the currency in Ecuador is the same as the US, so it was easy to take money from the bank and not have to exchange it).

So I arrived to the Academia and found myself with this young woman from Utah named Jenn, who is volunteering in a medical internship. Jenn is only in Quito for a week and a half before she leaves to another Ecuadorian city.  Another young woman appeared, Hilary, who is from France; Hil just arrived from Peru, where she was volunteering for 3 months and where she learned Spanish through immersion. I can speak to Hil in only Spanish, which is difficult since she's a beginner--however, she spoke the language very well for only having started three months ago. After a short introduction to the Academia, the volunteers were separated from the students who were here only for Spanish classes/travel. Another girl from France appeared, named Baya, who speaks Spanish very well since she had been studying it for years and her fiance is Mexican/Honduran. Since I have been trying to step out of my comfort zone, I asked for the girls' numbers so that we can keep in contact through WhatsApp--I wanted friends that I can travel with since it is risky to go alone. They agreed and were actually happy that I asked! Sometimes I should just take the risk, I guess!

After the long, dreadful orientation video, we were taken on a tour of the city surrounding the Academia. Which was fun, however, it was not really useful to me since I won't be at or near the Academia because the school I am interning at is all the way on the other side of the city. Here's a photo I took on the tour:

After the tour, the Academia took us to lunch at the restaurant next door, called "La Ronda." There, I ate traditional Ecuadorian food--which I don't recall the name. But the first course was a soup called locro de papa, which was just potato soup--it's typically with fish, but I do not like fish so I got the potato option. Then it was the main course, which consisted of chorizo sausage, fried eggs, beets, potato tortilla/cakes, and lettuce. It was good, however, the sausage was very greasy, so I didn't eat it all. The potato cakes, though, were so good! They eat a lot of potato, soup, and egg here! I'm glad I tried something new. And I will continue to eat traditional foods here if I can!

After lunch, I met with Karina--the internship coordinator of the Academia--to finalize everything for my internship, like dates and hours. She emailed the school principal of Academia USA (USA Academy and provided him with my resume and letter of intent (again) and we had a meeting set up for the next day at 7:30, where I can start immediately after!

Tuesday, 21 May
Karina and I tried taking the bus from my home to USA, but there were some difficulties with getting the bus to stop since we did not know where the official bus stop was, so we took a taxi. I got to the school, very astounded by everything I was looking at--it was odd to see students of every age, from 3 to 18, in uniforms. I had my meeting with the principal, Carlos, about how many hours I would be working, where I can eat on schoolgrounds, etc. I then was introduced to the three teachers: Angela, Moises, and Suany. Oh, another thing: although the school is very formal with the students that are respectful and disciplined, the teachers go by first names, so I was introduced as Teacher Kiara. For the first class I was placed in for the second half of the two-hour block, I was with Moises. Right off the bat, he made me start teaching by continuing the lesson he was doing. I was so overwhelmed because I had absolutely no time to prepare! I am incredibly comfortable being in the front of the class and lecturing and guiding students, but I am most comfortable when I am prepared! It wasn't that bad because I was just guiding the students through the exercises in their student book. Moises later told me that my biggest issue was giving the students too much time to complete the exercises, causing them to zone out. He suggested that I give them a certain amount of time to complete each exercise so that you can always have the students on task. Moises was also very respectful with his criticism and I did not feel discouraged at all! I spent the rest of the day with Teacher Angela, and she teaches science and social studies, so that was a different environment for me since it was not in a formal English classroom. After that, it was normal for the rest of the day. After school, the teachers stay after for meetings and to prepare--so it was nice getting that experience. But the teachers all gathered around the machine nearing 4:00pm so that they can clock out and run to the bus nearby.

Wednesday, 22 May was normal. I'm with Angela for the rest of the week, so it was normal. The only out of the ordinary thing is that Angela switches from room to room to teach her classes. The students stay in their homeroom and only move to their English class, where Teacher Moises and Suany stay in their classrooms. Thursday, 23 May was also normal, however, this day was going by a Friday schedule because Friday is a holiday in Ecuador, which celebrates The Battle of Pichincha that took place on the 24th of May in 1822, on the slopes of the Pichincha volcano, right next to the city of Quito. I really love the weather here; every morning here is this beautiful fog that I enjoy seeing engulf the city. The picture I included (right) is from the 4th floor of a building during lunch time, so the fog wasn't as full as it is in the morning. When I got home, I organized the last minute plans for the weekend trip with the two girls I met (Baya and Hilary). I got the hostel and Baya's host father is going to take us to the bus station in the south of the city to take a 3-hour bus ride to the city of Baños de Agua Santa.