I’ve now been here for over a week, and am beginning to adjust. For instance, I no longer fear that I’ll get lost on my way to or from school. I know how not to get ripped off by a taxi driver. I know to immediately grab the handles inside the bus, because as soon as you have one foot inside, it’s moving again. I’m also making some pretty cool friends.

Quito is gorgeous. It’s surrounded by the towering, snow-capped Andes. The city itself is constructed in a valley, but is so hilly that it could probably make San Francisco look really flat. It’s also much larger than I had imaged. Although not extremely wide, it’s almost forty-seven kilometers long!

God has really blessed me with a very kind and hospitable host family, really great professors, and good friends. Oh yeah, and wireless internet J.

So far I’ve gotten to do some pretty crazy stuff. I got to climb some extremely precarious ladders to an awesome vantage point in a tower of the Basilica in Colonial Quito. I got to stand simultaneously on the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, as well as balance an egg upright on the head of a nail at La Mitad Del Mundo. I got to try at least ten different fruits that, up to this point, I never knew existed. I got to eat at an Afghan restaurant (in Quito).

I know you are all eagerly awaiting to hear of the cultural faux pas that I have thus far committed. And hear you shall. Last week I went to take a shower, and I turned on the knob that had a red “H” written on it. It occurred to me that it could be written in Spanish, but I thought that since this was the guest room in which they host foreign students, it was probably in English. Besides, “Frio” starts with an “F.” I waited a couple of minutes, but much to my chagrin, the water never warmed up. I knew I had no choice. I took the coldest shower I’ve ever taken in my life; the water was literally so icy it hurt. The next day, with my mangled Spanish, I managed to convey what had happened to my host mom. As she attempted to hold back her laughter, she proceeded to tell me that the “H” stood for “Hielo,” which means “Ice.” Why it was written in red shall forever remain a mystery.