Monday January 21st

Hoy empezé mis clases en la universidad, a cuales estaba casi tarde porque mi alarma de reloj se murió.

Whoops, other language.

Today I started my classes at the university, and I was almost late because my alarm clock died. I carefully pressed snooze when it sounded at 7:00am, and was startled to become conscious again at 7:33. I ate a hurried breakfast with Lucía, and then she drove me to school so as to point out the building I needed to be in. It wasn’t the building that was the problem; I already knew the location of the International Language building. But once I was there, I had no idea what room, or even what floor, to be on. I wandered around for a few minutes, hoping I would find it before I was spectacularly late, and I came across what looked like another American student with an Ecuadorian mom.

Hazarding a guess, I asked if they were looking for the Spanish classes, and they said yes, so I tagged along with them. With the help of the mother, we were able to find María Isabel’s office on time.

I have two classes a day for the next two weeks, one language and one culture. They start at 8:30, but I’m out by 12:10, so I still have a good chunk of the day free. Today’s schedule wasn’t usual, though, as we started with our placement exams. There are seven of us American students, four from Keene and three from Oregon. For some reason they felt it necessary to divide us into two different classes, never mind that that gives us a class of four and a class of three. I placed into the advanced class, with Braulio and two of the Oregon students.

After classes, Braulio and I found the cafeteria and got lunch, and while we were sitting outside eating and enjoying the warm, sunny weather, we were joined by Marie and Liz. When we were finished with lunch, Liz and I went to find the US Embassy to register ourselves, but they were closed due to Martin Luther King Day, which all four of us had forgotten about. In the afternoon we had a short orientation with Rocío, the director of International Exchange. She started by asking us how well we understood Spanish, and then did her speech in the slowest, easiest Spanish I’ve ever heard. After several hours of barely keeping up with our two professors, it felt like Rocío was speaking English. I didn’t have to concentrate much harder than I do at home to understand.

Once she had given us enough dire warnings about not going to el Nobar alone and carrying our backpacks on our fronts on buses, we were free to wander the city. Braulio and Liz went off with their parents, and Marie and I headed for the Mall el Jardín. We had a late lunch, really more like British tea, at a nice but inexpensive restaurant in the mall, and then went to Movistar to get me a cell phone. I’m a little behind the times on that one; the other three already had theirs by Sunday. It’s a prepaid phone, which I’m not used to, but I don’t plan on using it all that much anyway.

Marie didn’t like the idea of walking through the city alone, having never been out of the country before, so I went with her back to the school and waited with her until her bus showed up. Then I caught the Ecovia north back toward Jipijapa, but I got off about six stops early. Realizing my mistake, I got on again, and this time got off three stops early. I had forgotten the name of the stop I was supposed to take, and in the interest of not overshooting it, I did the opposite and ended up walking the last mile back home. Not that I really minded; it was a nice walk.

While Lucía and I were eating dinner, Raquel returned from Otavalo, and the three of us sat and ate and talked for an hour. Her Spanish seems to be right about the same level as mine, and the three of us managed to converse pretty efficiently. We only reverted to English a couple of times, and even then it was just long enough for a “What’s this word?”