Got to Quito, Aug 23

I just finished the first day of orientation at the university and am on the way home. The day went alright, except for a Spanish placement test which I took and that went so terribly that I am taking it again tomorrow!! Agh!!! What happened, I don´t know! However, I am going to study a bit tonight and I hope tomorrow goes much better!!

I had to take a taxi to school today, although I will be walking home now. I ended up getting a little lost on the way to school, plus I left a little late, so I figured better safe than sorry and flagged one down. It was only $1! Quite cheap. They also have buses here, but I am too scared to use them. They ramble down the street at fast speeds with a man hanging out the front door. If he see´s you looking at the bus, he shouts out where it´s going and then if you want to get on, the bus doesnt quite slow down/stop and you have to jump on while it´s still moving! Luckily, as a woman, it slows down much more than it does for the men--they literally have to jump onto the moving vehicle while the man who is standing at the doorway helps to pull him on. So if I call with an injury about a bus running me over, thats why!!

My host family seems great so far and I feel very lucky. The mom is named Corina (Cory) and the daughter (17) is Gabriela (Gaby). The mom is a small petite woman with short hair and wears black most of the time--her mother passed away in the spring and she is still in mourning. She works at a bank closer to the middle of the city and seems to be very busy at her work--I went in to work with her yesterday and it was a zoo! Gaby is like most 17 year olds and likes to go out and talk on the phone. I think we may go dancing tonight! She loves to dance and we live right in the clubs/bar area of town and so it´s just a walk away. We live in an apartment on the 6th floor and I have my own room. Although it´s not ¨home¨ it´s nice and we even have a really, really small dog (like 10lbs!!)