Time is such a strange thing-a week can so often feel like the blink of an eye, and there are other times when it feels like months. I can hardly believe I have spent only seven days in this amazing county since my delayed arrival last Monday. These days have been filled with so much newness that each moment seemed to elongate itself to at least twice its natural size. To dive straight in, my host parents are Ximena and Gustavo (just to follow up, they did end up going to the airport twice, since they didn't get Rodolfo's call in time, but were not at all upset about fetching me a second time) They have two daughters of their own, ages 19 (Vanessa) and 23 (I think?) (Danna) who both live on Long Island in New York. They also have two dogs Titi and Xaagu (it took me a long time to figure that one out too: it's pronounced "saagoo" but spelled that way because it uses the sounds of every family member…)

The first two days here in Quito I walked a lot "con los perros," Ximena and Gustavo. Ximena and I had a wonderful rambling walk all over the city whilst discussing the history of Quito, which turned into the history of conquistadors in general and the nature of humanity and then the best way to raise children and we finished up hours and hours later after wandering all over town, with stories of her daughters. We set out in the early afternoon and returned at dusk (Ecuadorians are very generous with their time, in my experience so far). On the way back home we met Gustavo and Alissa, the German student who is staying with us for 3 weeks (things have a way of working themselves out don't they? Now I'll get a chance to practice my German Ecuador after all!)

That was the general tempo of the first two days, unpack a bit, read or check emails, eat, go for a walk, repeat (sleeping was in there somewhere too). I like my host family a lot-they are very different in some ways than my own (although Gustavo has a very similar sense of humor and manner of making horrible yet endearing "Dad jokes" as does my own father…except in Spanish) they have been doing a wonderful job of teaching me new vocabulary, introducing me to all the good parks and restaurants and Ecuadorian exotic fruit (I've got plenty of pictures below-fear not) International student orientation started Wednesday, and was just what you might expect, in a lot of ways. "Don't drink tap water" "Don't flaunt your expensive iPhones on the bus so someone steals them" "Don't eat street food" "Ignore cat calls" "Don't take the bus after dark" etc etc…We did get a tour of campus, which is a loooot bigger than us Earlhamites are used to (it has about 8000 students compared to our 1000ish…) but most exciting of all, it has an aerial silks setup (and a club) in the gym! (pictures of what that is below too) We got to meet all the other international students, most Americans, although a pleasingly large number of Germans to practice that language with, as well as a pair of Mexicans a Chilean and one student from France. It seems to be a fairly diverse and interesting crowd, and I look forward to spending the semester in classes with many of them. The most exciting part of our fieldtrip to "Mitad del Mundo" on Friday was probably the very polite way we were asked by the security guard to pleas get off the swings because we were over 12 years old… Despite its exciting name "the middle of the world" it was actually pretty low key-a monument, a planetarium, and a few shops.

After we got back, a couple of us explored the parks and "panaderias" (bakeries) and "heladerias" (ice cream shops) in the neighborhood (ending the evening in a tree, as all good evenings end) we went to our separate host family's houses and to bed. Or so I thought. After dinner, we (my host family and I) decided to go for a "short visit" (I am learning that this is a very relative term) to "La Ronda" which is in the "centro historico" (which is a world heritage site, apparently the most well preserved colonial site in south America) La Ronda turned out to be a very narrow street with the original cobblestones, overlooked by the balconies of old (about 500 years old, I was informed.) We walked up and down, touring art galleries, and stopping into chocolate shops and clothing boutiques, eventually ending up at this little bar without an actual bar. At this tiny establishment withonly 2 tables, we ordered "Agua Loca" (Yes, I was as confused as you are as to what that could possibly be) it turns out that a traditional tea (with 10 different herbs, and a rather earthy taste) is mixed with a bit of the clear liquid from the little pitchers (this must be the agua I thought) and thus is made "agua loca." It was not in fact water, but rather a very strong alcohol made from sugarcane. We had barely gotten through our first glass (we being Danna who is visiting from New York and Alissa) when the parents returned with an empanada. This was not what I was picturing either: It was a huge fried piece of dough stuffed with a bit of mozzarella and absolutely smothered in sugar. Well, we were all taking off our coats and fanning ourselves, despite the cool evening air wafting through the open door by the time we finished about half the pitcher between the 5 of us, and packed up the rest in a bottle (that is still in the fridge) and went home after our "short visit" of many hours. It was well after midnight before I was finally asleep.

Now we come to Saturday, in which, at 9 in the morning, had our Earlham crew boarding our bus and heading for Otavalo. Three hours and a cup of coffee and a Biscoche later, we arrived at the top of the steep mountain cliff at the cultural and community center where we were to stay. After a quick (by Ecuadorian standards) lunch we set off for the traditional market in Otavalo. A sun hat, some sunglasses and some traditional pants later (and that was just me) we boarded the bus and drove up another mountain to enjoy the splendor of the evening.

It is hard to capture in either photos or words the sheer majesty of those mountains. I don't think they are really unique in that, among their fellow mountains, which really blows me away, that there are so very many stunningly beautiful places in this world. It was one of those views that simply filled my soul-I couldn't look enough to satisfy myself. It was so utterly peaceful and yet grand that it really did stun me. There was this old and picturesquely gnarled tree perfectly crowning the very top of the mountain (which I of course climbed) and when the sun really was sinking quickly behind the western mountains, we had to regrettably board the bus once more and wind our way down to the valley once more. After dinner, we followed our ears to the "Fiesta de San Pablo" down in the valley where we stayed for a while, listening to the rousing indigenous music, sung in Quechuan with an interesting variety of instruments, from violin to reed pipes to guitar. After a very short while however, we all agreed that we were fairly exhausted, and thus returned to sleep, before 10:00. After breakfast on Sunday we set out for Cotacachi, a nearby city where there was a "festival of the seeds" with an accompanying market. There we watched (although didn't understand much of) the ceremony that was presided over the seed mandala set out in the street (it was once again in Quechua) we explored the church, and a museum and ate an amazing amount of food (one might even say a painful amount) at a local restaurant before heading out to tour a lake. It will become important later in the story to note that, during lunch this seemingly minor event occurred: while rubbing my eye, my contact folded up and got pretty stuck at the top of my eye, and I was unable (despite multiple trips to the bathroom) to either straighten it out or remove it.

By the time we got to the lake I was feeling pretty dizzy from being able to see clearly out of only my left eye, and blurrily out of my right. I napped instead of hanging out at the overlook spot. I was feeling enough recovered to come along with them by the time the group hiked up towards another majestic view, this time of the lake, tucked amongst the cloud shrouded mountains.

By the time we returned to our home base, the whole group was concerned with my eye perdicament, and nothing was resolved, despite much concern and helpful suggestions even after dinner and a quiet fire in the pit in the center of the room. To sleep we again went, hoping that my eye might right itself by morning. Monday morning, my eye had not changed, but seeing as it did not hurt, I put on glasses (after having taken out the other contact the night before) and proceeded to help pack up and say farewell to our hosts before once again boarding the bus. We stopped at "La Cascada" (the waterfall) for a little break before setting off for Quito once more. In order to avoid paying the entrance fee, our guide suggested we hike down a path that led from the road. Ok, it looked fine at first, perhaps not the most well maintained of trails, but a path at least. It soon became obvious that rain and the resulting erosion had taken its toll on this "path" that was slowly becoming nothing but a dusty, overgrown, winding landslide. Well we finally did all make it down, with minimal scrapes, stains and bruises, even managing to jump the creek at the end. The view was really worth it-the rainbow framing the foaming rush of water in this lush green valley. It really felt like we deserved this view after our hike. We took a group picture that soaked our backs with mist before hiking down to the pools. I quickly stripped off my clothes to my waiting swimsuit and splashed into the water. After cavorting in the pool briefly, and drying in the hot sun a bit I changed back into my still misty clothes and we boarded the bus once more. Three hours and some more coffee and Biscoche found us back in Quito once again.

After telling of some of my adventures to my host family, I explained my contact situation. After much joking on Gustavo's part (offering to hit the back of my head until it popped out…) I found myself blinking and rolling my eye all about and blinking and stretching the skin and massaging it (that's what Google told Danna I should do…) when that didn't seem to work, I found myself in the shower bathing my eye in chamomile tea (this was after placing the teabag over my closed eye…) then I lay on my bed and both host parents shined lights in my eye and finally determined that maybe it fell out at some earlier point and I didn't notice? If I didn't feel anything, then maybe what I thought I saw was just an irritated eyeball and not in fact a rolled up contact lens… When I went to the campus doctor this morning, he said he could find no evidence of a rolled up lens, just a lot of irritation…I guess Ximena was right. And now here I am, writing all these many words to you all, until it will seem like the longest week you've ever lived too, even if you didn't even live it here with me!