And Orientation is now halfway over

Today is the two-week anniversary of us arriving in Quito, and we only have two weeks left until we head off to our respective placements around the country. Tonight, our entire group is going out to celebrate, and, with respect to my first-week anniversary, I´ve hired a platoon of guerillas to run bodyguard for me...and a few of my friends.

Life here has settled into a certain routine. Every morning begins at 530. Well, every morning is SUPPOSED to begin at 530. As I have already completed one half of my observation requirements, the past two days I´ve been yelling through the wall to my housemates that I will be sleeping in until 830 and I´ll see them down at the hotel later. I am very adept at convincing myself while half-asleep to stay asleep, a skill I used often at Wake, and I´m somewhat pleased to see that the international travel hasn´t dulled it at all. However, it´s a very weird and unpleasant feeling to say that I ¨slept in¨ till 830...

Breakfast follows, which for me is a bit of an adjustment. I don´t like breakfast...I usually sleep right through it, but apparently it´s a moral sin to go off to class or work without some sort of nourishment. Breakfast at the Pasmino´s (my host family here in Quito) consists of some sort of juice, hot milk and chocolate, and bread smeared with homemade jam. Side note on the juice...it´s amazing, and I´ve had more varieties in these two weeks than I´ve had in my life. Blackberry, Tree tomato, Pineapple, Guava, Papaya, plus about 6-7 others whose fruit I´ve never heard of. It´s amazing.

After breakfast, I head out to the bus stop. And by bus stop, I mean any stretch of sidewalk that I happen to be on when the bus I need passes by. You calmly put your hand out and then get ready to leap onto the bus while it momentarily slows from 80 miles an hour to 60 in order to allow you access. Once on the bus, you wave hello to the other 200 people on there (really, there are bus limits that picture 36 people allowed to sit and 57 to stand, those are not made up numbers). On the bus, everyone looks like they´re in some weird sexual position with their bags/purses, attempting to cover every possible pocket to prevent pickpocketing while also holding on to the railing so that they dont fall over. I´m pretty sure that three bus rides qualifies you for the most advanced levels of Yoga and/or Kama Sutra...

And, since I´m gonna go take some tour or something, I´m going to have to cut this short, great note to end on I know, but I´ll be back to finish this probably tomorrow.

Keep those emails coming...

BRYCE