Arrival

Here I am, at an internet cafe in Quito! (I just have to point out that Saved By the Bell: The College Years is on the TV in Spanish.) Whew! Saturday morning did not get off to the best start. When I checked in, the ticket agent asked me several times if I had a return ticket. I did not. She said that was going to be a problem when I got into Quito. They´re going to want proof that you´re leaving, she said. She let me panic over this fact for a few minutes before asking someone else what she could do about it. He said just to book me on a flight to Peru. That way if they asked, I´d have an itinerary to show them when I was leaving. She said she didn´t want to lie for me (?!), he told her just to do it. I finally calmed down, but I was still a bit nervous all day that I was going to be apprehended by the Ecuadorian authorities. I wasn´t. They didn´t even ask to see anything of the sort.
Customs was no problem, so all I had to do was find my ride. I didn´t think it would be that difficult to find the sign with my name on it, but I was unprepared for the literally hundreds of people standing shoulder to shoulder, three and four deep, each holding up a sign for a particular individual. I disappointed a few people when I wasn´t Megan or Colleen or Kristen, and was starting to get a bit nervous when I finally saw my name by the exit. After I found my ride, we had to wait awhile longer for another student. Maren and I bonded immediately since she was from Norway and I have, in fact, been to Norway. Sadly, our bond was not meant to last. She's attending language school in another town.

This morning my Elvia, my host mother, walked me to the language school I´ll be attending while I´m here. On the way back we stopped at a grocery store. The grocery store is called SuperMaxi. To me, this does not sound like a grocery store so much as a feminine hygeine product, but whatever. I was just excited to be able to buy copious amounts of water. (My stock cost me less than $2. Awesome.) What was not so awesome, was when I got home and discovered that I had purchased the wrong kind of water, the kind ¨with gas.¨ Argh. It´s better than nothing, but I´m conducting an experiment by leaving them open to see if they´ll get flat. I´ll report my findings later.