Day One!

So, I’m in Ecuador. I started learning Spanish today. I can feel myself improving already.

I flew into Guayaquil on Saturday and the weather was incredibly humid! I had a chance to soak up some rays and take a swim in the pool of my hostel which I’m grateful for since upon my arrival in Cuenca I have discovered it is much like the April in Canada!

Today was my first full day here in Cuenca and my first day of classes! My classes seem to be designed specifically for me. As far as I know I am the only student right now doing 8 hours of classes a day. I have class from 8-12 in the morning with a lady named Viviana. She is quite wonderful. She was very insistent that I think of us as friends and not as professor and student. We follow the exercises in the book pretty tightly and she’s pretty easy going about the mistakes I make. She’s an excellent teacher for so early in the morning and is willing to move into conversation over the things we’re reading in the book.

From 12-2 everyday I have a break where I’ll return to my host family for lunch, do some homework and then back to school where I have class from 2-6. My class in the afternoon is again with a lady and her name is Marta. She’s much more tough that Viviana and corrects most of the things I say which is terrific. She’s very understanding that communication for me is top priority and is more than willing to mostly engage in conversation and to improve my listening. It’s terrific for me to have such a tough teacher in the afternoons!

Each evening the school as events planned and I think I will try to make it to most of them. Tonight there was a conversation circle about cities and specifically about the history of Cuenca. On Wednesdays and Thursdays there are salsa lessons. I’m definitely up for those!

My host family is wonderful. The family is quite large –as many Latin American families appear to be – but only two people live in the house – Helena and Eugenio. They’re both wonderful although Eugenio is quite silent while Helena is wonderful – very accommodating and kind. I can’t wait to have a real conversation with her! There are two other students here – a retired man from Colorado who teaches sociology and history part time and a fellow Canadian who is spending a year traveling around Latin America. At first I was a little disappointed at not having a family to myself but now I feel grateful – it’s nice to have people to talk to in English and to come home to. Tonight we talked about feminism!

The weather here is… good. It’s like Canada, I suppose. It’s cold in the mornings and in the evenings. It poured on my walk home at lunch and I didn’t have an umbrella so it was necessary that I changed my clothes. Which is fine. Then in the afternoon I had overdressed and it was quite warm. In the evenings I feel really cold and so have taken to having showers in the evening to warm myself up. All in all it seems like a good routine. It’s only 10pm here and I’m already wiped. In fact, when I finish writing this I’m planning on crawling into my bed and sleeping until 630am (I hope) and then studying before heading to school.

Hopefully I’ll find more time to write about the city because it’s so beautiful and some of the terrific conversations I’ve had already with my teachers.