I'm Here!

So, I've been in Quito for almost 24 hours now! It still hasn't quite sunk in that I'm going to be here for 15 weeks.

Yesterday, I flew out of St. Louis to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to Quito. My flight from Atlanta to Quito was about a half hour late, but other than that, my traveling went fine. I had a nice meal of pasta and some side things on my flight to Quito. I was also able to watch some movies (probably some of the last I'll be able to watch in English for a while). And I had fun keeping track of where our plane was as we flew. We flew over Cuba and Panama, but weren't able to see much because it was at night and there were a lot of clouds. When we landed in Quito, I went through immigration, got my bags from baggage claim, and went through customs without any problems. I was then met by a group of people including most of the NILI staff (Stan, Kim, Lucy, and Jen), the other NILI student for the semester (Kevin), and my roommate for the semeser (Carla). After leaving the airport we made the maybe 10 minute drive to the seminary where I was shown my room and was then left to get some sleep.

This morning I got up and went to a late breakfast (about 9:30) with the NILI crew. We then met for a devotion led by Stan followed by an orientation where we went over the Student Handbook and talked about our general schedule for the semester. We went to lunch with the seminary students who are here (most are gone right now and will be back on Monday). After lunch, we had a break, which I used to unpack and then it was back to more orientaion. We talked about Ecuador's culture and culture shock. Then we talked to Kim and Jen individually. Kim was wanting to get an idea of why we were here, what we expected from the semester, and a little about who we were. Jen is in charge of ministry for NILI so she was seeing where our interests lie and to get us thinking about what we want to get involved in while we are here. After this we had a safety worshop for when we leave the seminary. And then we went to Carcelen, where we went to the SuperMaxi (basically a grocery store), a pizza place for dinner (I don't remember the name, but I'm sure I'll go back cause it was good), and then a few shops (including a DVD store where you can get DVDs such as J.I.Goe which is still in theatres in the U.S. The pizza place was interesting becuase we could put ketchup and mayo on the pizza. I was skeptical but tried it anyway and was surprised to find it was kind of good, probably not something I'd do in the States, but good. Now we're back at the seminary for the night.

It's been a long few days. I'm pretty tired, part of which is probably the altitude here which is aroun 9,500 ft. It's also tiring to have so much information thrown at you over a few short hours. Also, outside of the orientation stuff, we were pretty much expected to be communicating in Spanish. I knew I was getting tired later in the day, when I stopped really trying to understand what was being said and just kinda zoned out. I am kinda surprised how much I am able to understand when I'm not tired. I'm not comfortable speaking, mostly because my vocabulary is lacking, but I'm sure that will quickly start to change, especially once we start classes next week.

Well, I should have some free time tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures up of my room if the internet cooperates. Hasta Manana.