After arriving in Quito I was greeted at the airport by the two program leaders, Sarah and Daniela. They were graduate students at Ohio State and would be looking after our group during the 10 week stay. Sarah and Daniela would prove to be great resources during our stay in Ecuador; they would sit in on classes, lead our group trips, and check in with us periodically to make sure everything was going smoothly with our host families. Although I had not met them until that point it was comforting to see two fellow OSU students waiting for me at the airport and to know they would be there to help if I needed anything.
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| Quito is in north-central Ecuador, in the Andes mountains |
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Ecuador is bordered by Peru to the south and east,
Colombia to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west |
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| Mariscal Sucre Airport, Quito |
Sarah and Daniela led me outside to meet my host mother, a middle aged woman who pulled up in an old Chevy Bronco-esque truck to pick me up. After a brief introduction from Daniela and Sarah I loaded up my luggage and hopped in. I was nervous to be sure - not so much because I had no idea what my host family would be like, but since my Spanish was so elementary I was afraid we would have no way of communicating. After a few of my painful attempts at starting up a conversation in Spanish, my host mother informed me that she actually knew quite a bit of English. She said that if I didn't understand something she could try and explain it in English, so for the rest of the car ride to the apartment we spoke a jumbled mix of both languages.
Her apartment was in a fairly large complex located in the north central part of the city, right on a major road (Seis de Diciembre). It was a great location, with a giant supermarket next door and not far from two of the city's major parks, Parque la Carolina and Parque Metropolitano. The apartment was around the 12th floor out of 15 (I'm estimating here - it's been over two years!).
We parked in the underground garage and brought my things upstairs to my new residence for the next ten weeks. When we got to the front door I was greeted by my host mother's two sons, David and Martin. David, close to thirty, was a few years older than Martin. It was great to have two younger guys living with me who I could hang out with and who could show me around the city. David and Martin both spoke English as well, so I felt good knowing that we could communicate easily if needed.
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| A modern section of Quito |
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| Streets of Old Quito |
My new brothers showed me around the apartment, which had three bedrooms, a kitchen, two baths, an eating area, and a living room. It was fully modern, with many amenities I would expect to find in an American household (albeit a little dated). Even though the info available about the program stated that we would be living with middle to upper class families, I was not sure exactly what kind of atmosphere I would be placed in. It was definitely a relief to finally see my new home and find out that there weren't any huge surprises.
Although it was only afternoon by that point, I was already exhausted from what seemed like a full day of traveling. After some unpacking I took a long nap and then sat down to dinner with my host family, getting to know them through a jumble of English and broken Spanish.
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