Arrival in Ecuador

1. I am alive.

2. this is what i´ve been up to for the last couple of days:

on Friday the 5th i took leave of Namibia and arrived in Miami finally late at night (though having scored a $400 dollar gift voucher from Delta Airlines in the process of overbooked flights) and there I stayed at a hotel and met other people on the program. Everyone has so far seemed real friendly, open and nice to be around - some group stats include 23 total students, 3 of whom are male, 1 of whom is non-gringo (aka me). On Sunday, the flight to Quito was uneventful, though finally we broke free of the cloud cover to see the city nestled amongs the mountains. Quito is literally stretched out in a valley between Andean volcanoes, about 9000ft (3000m?) high, its 4km wide and 44km long. Very beautifully situated, Quito is however, dirty and many buildings are modern and uncolorful. My group was soon shuttled from the airport to a more central area of Quito where our hotel is situated. We are in the center of ¨gringolandia¨aka tourist town, but very nice accomodations and I called a bunkbead. The program is run by 3 important people - 2 Academic Coordinators, Xavier and Sylvia as well as our logistical coordinator Aldemar. We had group meeting to begin our orientation and soon recieved such things as syllabi, schedules, forms to fill out and so forth. We luckily were able to soon give all of our valuables to ¨Alde¨for safekeeping, and also got some spending money that the course gives us for every week or so. A few new-found friends of mine and I took a walk immediately after our group meeting. We found a park and open market with people selling the legendary Ecuadorian sweaters (plus blankets and shirts etc) as well as paintings, drawings, hackysacks and everything else gringos might want. We then proceeded to get lost and soaked in the rain, finally making it back in time to go to dinner. It is the rainy season and it certainly has lived up to that reputation since being here. When the clouds do go away though, the sun is very strong due to the altitude. Also for that reason, I spent the first dinner with such lightheadedness I thought I was drunk though having consumed no alcohol (seriously).
Next morning, more meetings. We recived a huge pile of readings and started discussing future assignments and upcoming excursion. Then it was an SIT traditional ¨drop off¨or send off really, they sent us out on our own for a few hours to explore and buy rubber boots. I hopped on the nearest bus with no idea where I was going and eventually headed for one place I passed and knew I would have to get a better look at - the huge (gigantic) and central Basilica del Voto Nacional. I payed U$2 to get in and started climbing up the nearest stairs. The structure was amazing, huge columns and intricately designed volcanic rock made up the parapets, chapels, towers and columns. I climbed about 6 flights of spiral stairs, then two more metal flights and then my favorite - 3 flights of ladders to hit the top for an amazing view of the city. I could see the statue of La Virgen de Quito on a mountain in the southern part of the city and look out upon the streets, some zigzagging and winding upwards downwards, marketplaces, offices, apartments... . Then I met a guy who worked at the Basilica who I managed to communicate with in my very broken Spanish who told me the names of places (stuff mentioned above) and also that the basilica took 100 years to build. He then led me on a ghetto tour around the sides of the structure (locked off normally) and helped me buy boots in a local market nearby. cool. I walked around the city more, got hit by a water balloon and then went back in time for more lecture.
Group bonding really started that night for me when a bunch of us went to get a beer and dinner and ended up sitting and talking for 3 hours or so. Nightlife was full of bright lights and security guards, strange men offering us cocaine and stores open till late.
Yesterday I finally had the dreaded ACTFL language placement exam - actually it was a conversation between me and the director of upcoming spanish classes, and he sure asked hard questions about the environment and Namibia´s imports and what I thought we should do to end the conflicts between oil companies, the environment and subsistence farmers. Needless to say, I babbled a lot and havent gotten grades back yet.
Yesterday evening though was by far the most entertaining experience yet - at Alde´s suggestion, al 23 of us took a bus and then taxis to .... a soccer game!!!! brilliant, it was an amazing cultural experience. Fireworks went off at the beginning of the game, people were screaming and cheering, the stadium was huge and filled with about 30 000 people. An Ecuadorian team lost to an Argentinian one, but oh well. it was fun anyway and i learned lots of great sports terminology in the process. In fact most people yelled some pretty bad words for most of the time but that was part of it too.