Q-U-I-T-O

Quito is the capital city of Ecuador. CADE, the school I’m at, is about ½ hr. out of Santo Domingo, which is about a 3 hr. bus ride from Quito. The road from Santo Domingo to Quito is up a mountain of sorts for most of the time. Crazy roads and rockslides aren’t uncommon. The first night I moved in with my new fabulous roommate at CADE, fellow gringa sm, it turned out to be quite a short night. The day before someone had told me I had to go to Quito to do some paperwork, but I never found the person that was going to take me so I assumed I wasn’t going to go after all because I didn’t know when to leave or meet or anything! Apparently invalid concerns. 4 a.m. comes around my first night with my roomie, Brittany, and this guy starts knocking on our door. I’ve only been at this school for a few days and am pretty clueless and freaked out already. Needless to say me and Brittany FREAK OUT –who in the world could be trying to get into our room at FOUR A.M.?! It’s almost a miracle in itself that we understood what he wanted through the language AND lack-of-sleep barrier. Turns out I’m going to Quito. 10 min. later I’m in the car with this guy I don’t even know on a crazy 3 hour ride to Quito. He turns out to be a pretty cool guy…his driving is another story. I’ve never thought I was going to die so many times in a car ride. Apparently it’s pretty normal here though. It doesn’t matter if it’s a windy mountain road, trucks and busses and cars are all passing each other on a 2-lane road like crazy. About 80 MPH too! Add the factor of a sleepy driver to the equation and you may have a taste of my experience. It was definitely an exciting day. We even got lost in Quito! I wish I could share some of the excitement with you all…it was quite experiential. I’m still alive though, and the guy’s still cool. Life is good :)