Hello everyone!
First of all, I would like to thank all of my family and friends for all of their emails, skype calls, and for keeping me in their thoughts and prayers. I can feel the love, and I appreciate it more than you can understand!
Second, I want to thank you for reading my blog. It means so much to me that people are interested in how I am feeling and what I am doing. That being said, I have been keeping very busy and it has been hard to find time to write. Also, I need to focus more on Spanish than writing in English all the time. My goal is still one post each week, unless I have a crazy-busy week and can't post or I have this burning need to post more than once. I suggest adding your email to the update list so that when I post, you'll know.
Where do I start?! I am at the two week mark and yet I feel like I have been here for much longer. I hope that means I am already getting accustomed to life here. I do not plan on recaping each day of my exchange in future posts, but there have been so many new things that I have experienced in the past two weeks that I felt it was necessary to give more detail.
Day 1: My first full day in Ecuador: I spent the first half of the day with my host family in Guayaquil doing errands and eating, although I wasn't very hungry and for some reason my stomach was still upset. I think I was really nervous to begin with and didn't want to overdo it with the food in case my stomach reacted poorly. Back at Gaby's appartment, we brought my bags down to the little car. Jorge worked for 20-25 minutes trying to get my bags to fit in that car. I ended up with my smallest carry-on in my lap, my other carry-on and smaller suitcase next to me, and the biggest one in the tiny space they consider the trunk. Lorgia took a picture of me surrounded by my luggage and has proceeded to show almost all of her friends that I have met. Anyways, I was tired and tempted to sleep on the ride from Guayaquil to Machala, but I quickly remembered from my previous trip to Ecuador that the road quality here isn't amazing and their driving isn't any better. I fell forward and shifted after every bump we went over and thus couldn't sleep. But there were some great sights along the way, and I was growing excited to arrive at my new home. My home in Machala is beautiful (if you haven't seen the pictures, check out my link below ). I was happy to bring my luggage into my new room and unpack. We went out for dinner and stopped at the Supermaxi (the Ecuadorian version of Walmart) to buy some food for the house. It was so different than our supermarkets though- there was a whole aisle of milk products (in a box and not refrigerated!) and the check out lanes were only wide enough for a person to fit through, leaving their empty cart right in the middle of the store. I also stood there patiently while my host family talked to friends in the middle of the store for 10 minutes before they started shopping. I have discovered that no matter where you go, Ecuadorian people are all about being social. Whether it's the mall, the gym, school, or out to eat, they talk the whole time. And that was my first day.
Day 2: I discovered that I would be starting school the next day. Lorgia and I went to buy the the things I needed for school; sweatpants, shorts, jacket, white sneakers, and a t-shirt for the physical education class, a notebook and pens. We also bought the fabric for the uniform skirt and brought it to a sewing shop where they would make it. We went to the mall to buy a Claro chip for my phone so that I could make calls here.
Day 3: My first day of school. I had never been so nervous for anything in my life. I arrived and one of the general inspectors named Sonya brought me to my course and told the students to give me a seat. Everyone just started at first, then went back to talking and doing their own thing. I am the only exchange student in my course, so I didn't have a familiar face to look for. My first class of the day turned out to be English class, but it was actually nice because the teacher wanted a couple of the students that could speak English to practice by asking me questions. He also said that he would like me to help him and the students with English and that they would help me with Spanish. That day, one student in particular, Ana Paula, was really helpful to me. She immediately befriended me, linking our arms and showing me around the school at our "recreation" time (lunch). She was able to come up with synonyms for words that I didn't understand so that I could eventually figure out what she was saying and attempt to respond. The other students were easy to warm up and ask me questions (see my FAQ 3 post). The only downside was the slight sunburn I got from watching the soccer games the classes play against each other two times each week (which is during class- YES!).
Day 4: Day two of school was tough because I was exhausted. I had gone to the gym with my parents the night before. I was still getting used to the schedule and I was frustrated with my limited comminication abilities. I got to meet Lorgia's mother that day, and as soon as I entered her home, I was immediately reminded of my both my Great Grammy DuBois and my Great Grammy Clairmont. The home smelt like smoke, and she brought out cookies for Lorgia and I to eat. I also meet the family maid, Consuelo, who cooks our main meal of the day (lunch), does the laundry, and cleans/organizes the house almost everyday. It is weird coming home from school at 2 and immediately sitting down for a prepared lunch and an organized bedroom.
Day 5: I asked another student to copy her schedule for me, and suddenly my school days made much more sense. Unlike my high school in the United States, the students stay in one place and the profesors travel to the students classroom to teach. My mistake today was forgetting that the toilet paper for most bathrooms is located outside of the stall and sometimes out of the bathroom itself. That was quite unfortunate. Oh yeah, and here in Ecuador, we don't flush our toilet paper. We throw it in a waste basket next to the toilet. I find it gross, but they are kind of supersticious about it- so I try my best to remind myself. But honestly, this is one habit that has been hard to break. I had my first meeting with my host counselor, and with the other exchange students in my host club today and it was so nice to meet some new people who would help me and become my friends. With the exchange students, I ended up translating to English for a girl from Germany and a boy from Thaiwan who knew very little Spanish. It helped my confidence a little bit to know that my understanding was there.
Day 6: I didn't sleep well the night before and was extremely tired all day. During English class, I was the person that everyone wanted on their team when we played a reading comprehension question game. It felt good to have so many students interacting with me, even if it was for a competition (I am a competetive person myself). Also, I think I have found a place where I belong- where others come and ask to have a sip of water and then take an extreme "Megan Sip" and practically finish what's in the bottle. That might not make sense for some readers, so I'll just say that apparently, when I ask to take a sip of someones drink, I end up always taking a huge gulp and this has become the "Megan Sip". Guess what people? Here their sips are worse than mine! This has happened on more than one occasion and I realize that I need to start hiding my water when I bring it to school.
Day 7: I skyped my family, (who was living it up in York, Maine without me!) and some friends. It was nice to see people. I also submitted my first monthly report for Rotary that I had to do even though it had only been a week. That afternoon my host family took me to the coast of Machala. The pier was beautiful and there were huge fishing boats there and smaller boats to take people to a beach 30 minutes away. There was also a whole street of seafood restauraunts lined up one after the other. It was nice to walk around and try some food from the venders at the pier. I snacked on mango, a coconut ice pop, some crackers, and some other fried dough type thing. It was all delishious! Back at home, I met some of Jorge's family and we ate pizza and talked until almost midnight. I showed them the picture book that I brought depicting my home, family, friends, and more. It was really nice.
Look for the details of my second week in the next post...
Check out my pictures from the first week: https://ayearinalife.shutterfly.com/pictures/56
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