Here.

Such a long day, but such a wonderful day.

I will spare you my dramatic (always) rush to the airport, over-loaded bag, and then 7 hour layover in Miami musings since that is not what's really exciting about this whole experience anyway. I will say though, that the airport floor makes for great napping, and traveling with someone is always a good idea. Though, I suppose that I will have to get used to traveling alone if this is the kind of thing I want to do with my life.

And it totally is.

Ok, important things. Sergio Alava. Asked me in the terminal if I was going to Ecuador, and when I answered yes, he smiled. He calmed my nerves when I suddenly was terrified about the thought of actually coming to Ecuador and realizing just how un-practiced I am at Spanish. But when our seats were across the plane from each other, I thought that was the end, when lo-and-behold, the seat next to mine was empty, and he moved (of course) and we became friends (obviously). Truly though, he made the trip so much better. Battling a headache from no sleep, nausea from my Malaria pill, and butterflies was nothing when he spoke to me. He is from Guyaquil, he went to school in Wyoming, and he went to Europe last year and learned a little Serbian and Italian. Wonderful? I think yes. He wants Dorothy and I to come visit him in Guyaquil...it'll happen.


Antonio. Cab Driver. He was very, very nice. After some kind of awkward but usual exchanges in English I asked him, "Puedo a practicar con mi espanol?" "Por Supuesto!" he answered. So we began talking about things we liked and then talking about Ecuador. I told him I was going to Cuenca and he told me he was from there originally. He studied architecture in school and he loved the architecture in Cuenca. But his favorite style is gothic. "Yo tambien" led into a discussion of politics. When asked what I thought about "socialismo", I asked him how to say "it's hard to say". We bonded over our shared opinion that some things had improved, others had worsened. We arrived at the Secret Garden Quito Hostel when hoping that the Correan government would not get any more oppressive.


Now here, sitting on the couch in the WiFi room, blogging (so 2010), all I want to do is go up stairs and meet lots of people and drink some red wine, but I know I should go to sleep. I haven't slept much and I have to get up at the ungodly hour of 5 am tomorrow in order to make it to the airport on time for my flight to Cuenca. As horribly early as that is, that also means that is the earlier I get to see my beautiful sister, Dorothy.


I just caught myself eaves dropping. This is like a gold mine of interesting young people from all over the world, actually, I guess this is a hostel, and that's what those usually are. It's brilliant and wonderful and I am in love.