Wow. This photo was taken three days ago, right before I left for the airport. It feels more like three weeks ago now. It has been a busy past couple of days! My first flight left Bloomington at 11:30 in the afternoon. I sat next to a darling old lady and we talked all the way to Atlanta. To my surprise, she knew Mr. Sax (my high school history teacher) and a few others from the El Paso Gridley area. By the time the plane reached Atlanta, it felt as if I was saying goodbye to my grandma. I was a bit apprehensive about navigating through the Atlanta airport, but it was much easier than I thought it would be. I even found a good omen in my fortune cookie at lunch! My flight to Quito was just about the opposite of what my heart desired though, at least at the beginning. It was cramped and I mean CRAMPED. Since there was no room in the overhead compartment, I had to keep my massive 30 pound backpack next to my feet. I had essentially no leg room to speak of. My two seat mates were both Ecuadorians, a boy about my age and an older lady. They spoke in rapid Spanish to each other for the first five or ten minutes after we boarded. I understood maybe two percent of it, which did not do wonders for my confidence. The boy fell asleep before the plane even took off, and stayed asleep for about half of the flight. I wished that I could fall asleep. But unfortunately there was a toddler seated right behind me who was babbling incoherently and kicking the back of my sleep. On the bright side the sunset over the ocean was gorgeous! At some point Alejandro woke up. He became my first Ecuadorian friend when we discovered that we go to the same school in Quito! He was flying home from a summer internship in China, which explained why he was so tired! Once we finally landed around 11:00 pm, Alejandro was an absolute life saver. When my phone stopped working he offered to lend me his so I could call my host parents. He guided me through immigration and baggage claim and customs and security, rented a cart for us to share, and helped me look for my host-person. I was originally told that my host grandma, Susy, would be waiting for me with a sign that said "Olivia." Instead I was welcomed by my host dad, Juan Carlos.
I liked my host dad immediately, he was so friendly and he talked slow enough for me to understand almost everything. The airport is on the outskirts of the city so it was about an hour long drive, but there was plenty to talk about. We got home at about 12:30 or so, but I wanted to unpack so I wasn't in bed until past 1:00. What a day! I will have to save day 2 and day 3 for later, but keep posted, I will be writing again soon!
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Hola, soy olivia.After living in the Midwest my whole life, I packed my bags and moved south to Guadalajara, Mexico where I'm working as an English teacher and studying Spanish. Keep posted to hear about all my adventures!
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