More than a month!

I have now been in Quito for more than five weeks, which I find pretty exciting. In that time I feel I have done a lot, and learned a lot. Last weekend I went to Baños with most of the group from WU for a couple days. It was beautiful there, and we had a lot of fun. Baños is a small tourist town about 3.5 hours out of Quito, that is tucked away in the mountains. We got there on Friday night and then on Saturday we did tourist things. We took a 22km bike ride to see waterfalls, which were beautiful, and the ride included riding behind and under some of the small ones. Some people in our group went white water rafting in the afternoon. I opted not to, but that meant then, that I got to go over to the natural hot springs, which were also amazing. I left early the next morning to go back to Quito and do homework, where we also celebrated my Ecuadorian sister's birthday.

This week, I finished my intensive Spanish class at ACLAS, which meant final exams, two papers, and two presentations. I'm happy it's done! On Friday afternoon, our entire group went to a town named Otavalo for the night. On our way there, we stopped in Calderón, which is famous for wood carvings. Otavalo is a town that on the weekends, has a huge open air market. There are tons of venders and everything is cheap, but you have to barter for it. We were in the market from 8 am until 12 pm, where we all spent a lot of money, but also got a lot of amazing stuff, and finished our Christmas shopping. After the market, we went to Cuicocha for lunch. Cuicocha is beautiful. It is also in the mountains, as most things are here. What makes Cuicocha special is that there is a big crater at the top, and there is a lagoon in the crater. After Cuicocha, we went to Cotacochi, which is a town famous for the things they make out of leather. Leather is not something that really intrigues me, but they did have a lot of beautiful things there. Then we headed back to Quito, making one last stop in Cayambe. Cayambe is a tiny town, that is only on the map because they make fabulous biscocho (which is like biscotti) and cheese.

Although my experience in Quito has been mostly positive, I did also have my first really negative experience this week. I was in the mall, Quicentro, with a friend one day, getting lunch in a cafe there. While I was at the counter, a guy came up to my friend and pointed out that she had something smeared on her backpack and jacket,a nd offered to help her clean up. He took her to the employee bathroom, which led me to believe he was an employee, and she left her backpack on the floor and asked me to watch it. I was standing by her backpack when the guy came back and told me that my friend wanted her bag, and picked it up. I started to tell him that I could take it to her if she needed it, but then somebody else tapped me on the shoulder, which instinctively made me turn around. When I turned back the guy and the backpack were gone, for good. It turns out this is a pretty common scam, including putting something on somebody's jacket so you can help them clean up, and having another person there to distract anybody that might be getting in the way. It was a very frustrating and upsetting experience, but it definitely taught everyone in our group to be more careful with their things, and be aware of their surroundings.

As we are now done with our classes at ACLAS, we go to the Universidad de San Francisco tomorrow for orientation, and then start classes on Wednesday. We will also soon be starting our social service job soon. I will be working in a with cancer patients in a childrens hospital for low income families, which I'm sure will be hard, but also an enriching experience. All in all, I am looking forward to what will be coming my way in the next four months.