More orientation

So my second post incorrectly delineated some information about my host family. Antonio actually does live in the house because it’s customary for Ecuadorians to live with their parents until they’re married, Natalie is actually the international programs coordinator for Kalamazoo College and USFQ and also she and her husband run the vegetable chip company Kaiwa, which distributes to 14 countries, and Claudia graduated from law school at USFQ and is finishing up her thesis in the next three months but she’s not a practicing lawyer. 

Today was orientation with all of the USFQ international students and we sat through a good total of um... 5 hours of yammering about general Ecuadorian customs and what to expect, and then covered a bunch of information about safety and health. People we heard from:

• Daniel, the director of international programs for all of USFQ, about general Ecuadorian stuff
• Carlos, the founder of the university (which currently enrolls about 5,500 people, according to wikipedia), about shifting paradigms of intellect and getting the most out of our stay in Ecuador
• Daniel, an agent with the US Embassy in Ecuador, about how scary crime is and how to beat up a taxi driver if they try to do anything fishy 
• and Daniel (I’m so serious. And all of the Daniels were bald and slightly bearded.), a coordinator for BCA, one of the other USFQ international programs, with health and safety information and tips.  

Between Carlos and the second Daniel, we had a break for instant coffee and tiny galletas (of which the chocolate ones were the best), and then a brief tour with EcuaBuddies, who are volunteers for international students as a resource for acclimating in the country. 

After the second and last day of orientation ended at 2 pm, we went back to the house and I changed out my giant bookbag for my small inconspicuous purse and went to hunt for cheap cell phones. I’m pretty sure we’ll be doing that in Quito tomorrow during our group tour, because the cheap phones we heard about were not available at the stores we encountered. In the midst of hunting for cell phones, Savannah and I stopped for lunch at Bigote (which translates to “moustache” and is a cute outdoor cafe of “infusiones organicos”). I don't have very interesting pictures today. 

Definitely overlooked the daily special menu.

Savannah's sanduche (that's how it's spelled and pronounced here)  of pesto, tomatoes, mozzarella, and balsamic vinegar. 

My sandwich of capers, tomatoes, and cream cheese (I misread it as "queso fresca" when it was "queso crema", but good news is that cream cheese here is not as fatty or rich as the Philadelphia stuff we're used to.

One of the flowers in our neighborhood. 

Then we went to Ambrosia, the chocolatería and bakery run by USFQ students, and I got a “concha de dulce” which is a slightly sweet bun with some sweet crust on top, similar to chinese pineapple buns but drier. 

Then we got a chew toy for Teo, came back and played with him, and hung out till we had some burritos with guacamole, beans, carne, and tomate for dinner with everyone. Well, almost everyone - it was Savannah and I, Natacha, Milena, Claudia, Antonio, and their dad. We ate, cleaned up, and played with Milena. Not the most exciting day, but it was good.