Welcome to Ecuador!

After almost three days of waiting in airports, and sleeping on planes I made it to Ecuador. It is a miracle that my host family was wiling to take me in...when I met them I was wearing the same clothes I had been for three days, I hadn't showered, and I was definitely not ready for the switch to Spanish. Soledad, my host mom, and her son, Pedro, pretended that I didn't smell, and when I couldn't find the right words they just changed the subject. Great people. Pedro is 7, and he is great. He has so much energy, and he is really funny. Soledad is amazing too- she gave me such a warm welcome, is so much fun to talk to, and she makes great food. I am really happy with the program I chose. Most of the host families have participated before, and in effect they al know each other and like to hang out. Soledad has a business with one of the other moms making cakes and candied- again I love my host family.

I have been here a week, and I getting settled in, and I have already done some really neat things. All week long we had orientation. It started to feel like the same things over and over, but I guess better safe than sorry. It was probably good that they told us the same things so many times because it really takes a lot of concentration to understand what is going on when it is all in Spanish. If I zone out for even a minute I am lost in conversations or lectures... On Thursday we went on a short tour of Quito with the rest of the international students. We went to the centro historico and visited one of the presidential houses in Ecuador. It was beautiful. There was an awesome tile mural in the entry way, and then all the rooms were colorful, yet classy. After that we went to the equator. It is in a part of the city called La Mitad del Mundo. They have a huge monument built with a museum inside, and around that there are lots of shops and places to eat. As cool as I thought it was, it lost some points when I found out that the real equator was 200 meters over. When they built the monument they made a mistake, and now there is a much smaller place next door where you can see an egg stand up right on a pin when it is perfectly on the equator line. They also have a sinks on both sides of the equator line where you can see it swirl different directions. I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I didn't actually go to the real equator, but I hear those things are fun to see : )

I walked with Soledad and Pedro around the centro historico on Sunday, and started to realize just how beautiful the city is here. Most of the buildings have a spanish colonial feel, and there are more churches (catholic-haha mom) than you could think possible in one city. But the architecture of the churches is beautiful, and really adds to the character of the city (in my opinion, which might change after 4 months). I went into a few of the churches, and the gold molding, and ornate murals are muy hermosa.

This is a picture of Pedro and I on one of streets in the centro historico


Here are some pictures from the Equator!

Tour, RUSHHHHH

Wow, I just finished a week and a half of traveling around China. I went to Hungzhou, where they are famous for the Westlake, among other things. It was incredibly beautiful. i saw a show while I was there that was directed by the same man that put together the opening ceremonies for the olympics. He is incredible. The lights, the synchronization, and the creativy was spectacular. Then our group went to Nanjing. Also some neat things here, but sad as well. In the 1930's China had a huge conflict with the Japanese in which Millions of Chinese people were killed. We visited a memorial in Nanjing where 300,000 people had died. It was extremely sad, as you might imagine. From Nanjing we went to Suzhou. in Suzhou we visited some famous gardens, including the Humble Administrator's Garden. In all three of these cities we went on long tours that lasted as long as 10 hours. It was amazing to be able to see sites that were thousands of years old, and visit stunning temples, amazing how much you can see in a day. There was also so much shopping. Everywhere I went there were more shops, and more things to buy. I was in awe that so many little shops could stay in business when a lot of what they were selling was the same.
After that week long tour of a day long tour, a day of traveling, I went to Shanghai with just a few other girls. Shanghai has something like 13 million people, and just seeing a city with that many people was shocking. Everywhere I went there seemed to be more people. The Subway there at rush hour is crazy. People pushing people to get on, the doors beeping, and people still rushing to get in. You have to be pushy or you have no chance for survival.

Here is a picture of me in Hungzhou




Here are some pictures from the Nanjing area




Pictures from the Humble administrators Garden



Picture from Shanghai
the first one is from the top of some building we wandered into, and the second one is me eating my new favorite dessert. They are candied plums, and they are so goood




I just go to Ecuador! more on that to come!