"Poco a poco"

Woohoo! I finally have some time to give a full update! :o) I am having such an amazing time that I am not even sure where to begin.

I suppose I will start with school. I am here with a group of 28 other students. Although the majority goes to the University of Minnesota, there are people from California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, and West Virginia. For the first three weeks, we are all taking the same classes together at a foundation called CIMAS. CIMAS is located on a pretty busy street in Quito and is a small building with an auditorium, a kitchen, a few offices, classrooms, and a couple of computer labs. Taking classes at CIMAS is quite the change from Minnesota, it is such an intimate atmosphere…everyone that works there treats us like family, which is very comforting.

We have class from 9am until 4pm, with a break for lunch, of course. The morning consists of classes that focus on development, globalization, philosophy, and Ecuadorian culture, followed by 2 hours of Spanish in the afternoon. After this week, our classes will change a little bit because we will take classes that are related to the track that we have chosen (for me, Education.) I don´t have much background in the things that we have been learning about at all, but I am fascinated by so many of the things that we talk about. I´ve really become driven to really be present in class and completely take in what I am learning. Aside from the awesome professors that we have, I feel very lucky to be surrounded by a group of extremely intelligent and passionate students. It´s pretty amazing. I think we have 6 or 7 more weeks of class, and then we will move to our internships for 5 weeks. Many students will move out to an indigenous area, but the more I read about possible internship opportunities, I think I may end up staying in Quito.

Hm, besides learning a lot, I don´t think I´ve ever eaten so much in two weeks as I have here. Luckily, the food is delicious, the only problem is…I cannot physically fit it all into my stomach. Haha. Breakfast is usually bread with jam, scrambled eggs, a banana, an orange, coffee, and orange juice. Interestingly enough, the common thing here is to drink instant coffee with hot milk. I asked my host mom why instant coffee is more common over real Ecuadorian coffee (one of their leading exports!) and she said simply that it is very expensive. For lunch, I´ve become a pretty big fan of the Panaderia (bread store) close to CIMAS. Panaderias are EVERYWHERE…and you can smell them from a block away…ummm WONDERFUL. Instead of buying a loaf of bread, it seems more common to go buy fresh bread daily…I´m a pretty big fan of that. Okay so dinner. Soup. I´m not talking like…chicken noodle soup, I am talking soup with thick broth, beans, potatoes, corn, meat. I´ve had a different kind of soup each night that I´ve been here. Soup is followed by a plate FULL of rice, some sort of meat, and a vegetable, or potato, or pasta. Lots of carbs. Haha. And juice! The juice here is amazing, I have had juices from fruit that I did not even know existed. Despite my attempts to explain to Mary (my host mom) that I have a small stomach, I have a feeling she will continue to feed me the same amount of food. Haha, it could be worse, right? :o)

This weekend I went with a group of people to a city called Otavalo. It is a smaller city that has a large indigenous population. We stayed at an awesome hostel that had an outdoor fireplace. At night we had a fire, and in the morning we got up real early to go to the indigenous market. WOW. The market was huge, and to see all of the work that many of the people had done by hand was amazing. The market was filled with panchos, sweaters, scarves, artwork, jewlerly, and a large part of it was for food. The whole street was lined with fruits, vegetables, spices, and people cooking authentic rice and meat dishes. Besides the market, we had some pretty awesome conversations. I am thankful every day that I have been so blessed to have this opportunity and to get to know so many beautiful people. So, needless to say, life is pretty wonderful. I am happy. And as ecuamami (hostmom) says, ¨Poco a Poco.” Little by little, I´m learning the language, I´m getting to know the city, and little by little, I´m feeling a bit more at home.



Props to you if you have actually read all of this, I know it was long…oopsies. I miss you all tons and love to hear from you always (schet003gmal.com).

Love and hugs!
Jessica