I've been here for three weeks?!

So I didn't even have any idea how long I have been gone for until adam brought it up last night. Today officially marks the end of week three. Its surreal. I still sometimes don't believe I'm here. You're sitting in a hot sweaty classroom one minute then the next your eating lunch with some of your best friends on a balcony over looking all of cumbaya (suburbia of quito) and the surrounding mountains/volcanoes. I'm loving 5 of my classes right now. The sixth one (art history) is still confusing to me cause i wasn't signed up for it on the first day so i'm still adjusting to that, but the other classes that i signed up for have no issues. Interestingly enough, my two favorite classes aren't even in spanish. Volcanology which happens to be in english is amazingly interesting to me and it makes me want to study geology full time. I read enough geology on my free time to keep that dream on hold... for now at least. Who knows with grad school and whatnot. And my second favorite is Italian. Yeah, I'm learning Italian in Spanish. It's really not as confusing as it sounds, I promise. It even improves my spanish quite a bit. I've gotten one grade back so far and I did really well and way better than the class average. What I miss most about home right now is having a guitar that I can play at any time and knowing people that play tennis. Biggest difference I've noticed thus far? Well to explain this its kind of difficult but I'll  give it a shot. My host mom sat me down on Wednesday I think (sometime this week) and was letting me know about the US Syria relations. Which I've always know about the conflicts but apparently the US is getting more and more serious. She had a sad look on her face and showed a lot of emotion for me but the weirdest thing about this to me is, it feels like the US is always "going to war." So to me this doesn't feel like a big deal. Then I imagined what would her son feel like in the US if Ecuador was having tough relations with another nation and thinking about going to war or whatnot? Then I thought back about the US perspective and realized how desensitized I am to war. Its a bit disheartening and sickening at the same time. So I guess just reacting to certain situations is the biggest difference to me. But on a lighter note, we all went out to dinner last night and went out to the mariscal and i met some pretty cool ecuadorians. It was pretty fun for the most part. This afternoon I'm just hanging out and working on some homework and watching the US open in Spanish. I miss johnny mac commentating and talking about murray's "injuries" but I'm over it. I've been watching a lot of football especially the Ecuadorian and Italian leagues. Here's to hoping federer returns back to his god-like self. And lastly, sorry I know this is the longest post ever. I just wanted to say thanks to all my friends and family back home for supporting me thus far through my journey. Its been an amazing experience and I hate to admit it but my advisers/counselors were right. The good days on study abroad blow any day back home out of the water and the bad days on study abroad feel like the entire weight of the world  is on your shoulders. Thanks to all! Talk to you soon.

So far

Alright so basically I just got over being sick with a sore throat. I'm feeling a bit better now but I'm still just taking it easy. I miss having free pizza at my disposal, oreos and cookies and milk, hot water with water pressure, a car, suburban traffic, no school, guitars, taco bell and not worrying about getting robbed. Things I don't miss include texting nonstop, staying up til 4 am every night, delivering pizza, stress, english, etc. Things I like here: being the minority, being the tallest, always getting looks on the bus like I'm about to be sized up for a fight cause I'm a tall lanky blonde american that some people think has no business in this country (it makes me feel tough), the sun waking me up at a reasonable time, having two too cute dogs, spanish, learning italian in spanish, my friends here, always having something to do, the occasional cerveza with food, cheap food for like three dollars for a full meal, THE MCBACON (so delicious), learned to not hate mayo, doing things i wouldn't dream of trying in the US, walking around downtown and going out with friends, learning about a new culture, eating healthy food that is not processed at all (i'm looking at you american food industries), being careless, seeing an entire city outside of my window, hanging out with friends on top of my roof, seeing mountains wherever you go, going into the mountains with like 45 other kids at a rented house provided by the school and hanging out all day, and lastly the possibilities. You wake up, go to class and have no idea what you're going to learn, eat, do after class, or anything. Someone say hey we're doing this you wanna come or you suggest something random and every body is down. Also, playing football is way more fun than I ever imagined. It's a great place to say the least and I'm loving it here. I'm sure I'll miss home soon but for now I haven't thought too much about it. Hope all is well for anyone back in the states!

Day 13

I hit my head on everything in this country and I am the tallest one on every single bus. That's really all I have to say for now.

So far so good

So basically each day has consisted of the same thing. Wake up around 6 or 7, eat breakfast, shower and then get on a bus to school. Today was the first day I did the whole thing on my own without anyone walking me to the bus stop or anything. I think I've got it down to where my stop to get home is. I've got my phone set up finally and finally went to a store to get shampoo and some other stuff. Class for four hours on top of three hour orientation needs to stop. I'm drained by the time I get home and starting homework already is a drag. I've got a 10 minute presentation tomorrow which I'm putting off right now. Unless your my mom reading this, then of course I just finished it and all my homework is done and I went shopping the very first second I landed... I hope she's buying it. So basically I'm all settled in. We hit up Shwarma everyday which is pretty fun. We watched some of the Ecuador Spain football game today and we met some other international students today. Overall, this place is way more relaxed than the US. I'm loving it minus the lack of any music that I like. Everybody here likes pop and whatnot. I even heard backstreet boys on the radio. I am starting to think in Spanish and start sentences writing in Spanish often times even when talking to friends from back home. Sorry for the scatterbrain. Have a goodnight.

Quito Life

What's up guys? Just landed in Quito last night. I was up from about 8 am to start traveling until around 4 am or so. My host mother is amazing! She's the biggest sweetheart and has welcomed me into her home without any issues thus far. Her name is Marcia and she's treating me like one of her own already and I have barely been here. She has two adorable puppies even though they keep me up with their barking at all hours of the night. It's been a great experience so far and I'm so glad I decided to do this. I still feel slightly out of place but I'm sure that will pass. The view from my room is amazing, the house is huge and the view from the rooftop makes me heart stop. This is the best dream of my life and I'm not waking up anytime soon. I start a Spanish class type thing in the morning with the rest of us from K which will be interesting but I've understood what feels like 80% of the Spanish thus far. In the car to the house from the airport, Camryn and I rode together with out families and her family has these two adorable little girls! They kept making us play games and told us jokes for the entire ride even though I had been awake for around 20 hours but they were too kind to not play along with. I've even felt the altitude once when I had to carry my suitcase up to the top floor of the house. By the time I got there, I was panting and out of breath but I'm starting to get used to it. All in all, this is going to be a great time here no matter how hard it was to say bye to the good-ole Kalamazoo.