Sunday, August 11, 2013

The Day After the Day After Tomorrow

I was on vacation in Florida last week and I finally found out my host family placement. I'm going to Ambato, which is pretty much in the center of the country. To quote trip advisor, "Ambato takes a little warming up to. Compared with nearby Baños, it offers little for the traveler, except the chance to experience a totally nontouristy Ecuadorian city. And it’s actually an interesting place. The Monday market, which fills the streets downtown, is one of the biggest in Ecuador. Above town, there are fabulous views of the puffing Volcán Tungurahua (5016m), and Ambato’s parks and quintas (historic country homes converted into parks) are lovely. The ambateños (people from Ambato) themselves must be some of the best-dressed folks in Ecuador."


Tungurahua, which is apparently erupting right now.

Good news: my host mom has been emailing me and I'm getting the impression that she's a really nice, warm person. She says they have a very close family and I really am so excited to meet them. When I was in Florida I had my aunt, who speaks Spanish, help me write my emails. Today I received one and sat down to write a quick response. Fingers poised above the keyboard, I had a moment of hesitation, suddenly remembering that my Spanish doesn't even touch "proficient." The brief email took 30 minutes of dictionaries, conjugators, and google translate. I'm a little nervous by that whole language barrier thing, but here's to hoping I'll learn some Spanish in the next ten months.

Also, I'm almost sure that the picture below is of students at my new school.

Plaid skirts, here I come.

The next few days are to be devoted to frantic preparation and quality time with my friends and family. That and quietly freaking out.

3 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Even more than my plaid-skirt excitement is my hope that I'll get to wear one of those tracksuits.

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    2. You always crack me up with your comebacks!

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