Mi español no es bueno.

My last moments in The States...

• Went to lunch with my mom and dad. They both had work, but took time off to be with me. Aw.
• Went shopping with my mom.
• Watched Mr. Bean's Holiday with the family. Perfect way to get in the mood for traveling.
• Left the house at 4 in the morning. Eeek!
• I actually left on a jet plane. And I really don't know when I'll be back again. Coooool
• Flew to LA and switched terminals. It's a jungle out there.
• Sat next to a really nice man from Colombia on the plane. He barely spoke English and my Spanish speaking skills need a lot of work, but we figured it out eventually. What would've been a 20 minute conversation in English ended up being an hour long!
• Switched planes in Bogota, Colombia. Met a really nice family of a mother and two daughters. The eldest daughter spoke English really well, so we chatted and ended up exchanging information. Her mom invited me to come stay at her house and eat her food in Quito! I like this place.

My first moments in Ecuador...

• Conoci a Valerie y Jorge en el aeropuerto de Quito.
• We drove and finally arrived in Otavalo at 2AM.
• Slept in (kinda) and went to the main square market area with Valerie. First thing I ran into was an alpaca blanket thing with LLAMAS on it. Then continued to find multiple llama-themed things. Long live Emperor Kuzco
• We also went to the Baha'i center and the Baha'i radio station. Pretty, pretty!
• We ran into a Baha'i family and joined them for some helado (ice cream). Well. It ends up that Ecuador's version of helado is quite different from mine. Seriously, it was fit for a queen. The helado was a scoop of whipped cream with this raspberry gnash. It came with cut up pieces of mango, watermelon, bananas, apples, pineapples, strawberries, and grapes. Seriously? Seriously.
• After the ice cream feast, we met up with Jorge and his family to go shopping for supplies for the week at this outside/inside mall. Parking was atrocious
• Then we went to the school. I met Gloria. She spoke so fast I barely understood a word, but she basically told me that she is my mother here and that if I need anything I must come to her. Sweetest lady in the world.
• For dinner we had el pollo con arroz y las papas fritas (chicken with rice and fries). That seems to be a favorite around here.
• Tomorrow is the first day of school. I'm going to go brush up on my school vocab.
• Just a side note.. my ears are having a paaaaartaaaay over here with the constant altitude change. I live in the mountains, so driving around is hard on my ears with the pressure drops/increases. But the cool part is that I feel like I could reach up and grab some cloud! So tight