Sunday, April 20, 2008

Hello from the Campo!

So I´m at my site now, which is quite exciting (and slightly scary). I arrived here on Friday after a hectic few days in Quito. The swearing in ceremony at the embassy was very nice and just the right length of time (I didn´t start fidgeting or anything) then we had a picnic at the peace corps headquarters with real hot dogs and hamburgers. In the evening we rode around Quito on this crazy party bus that had a band on the roof. There´s nothing like a bunch of gringos making fools out of themselves. The bus went through colonial Quito, which was absolutely beautiful at night. Then it was off to a club for a little bit of partying before calling it a night. The next day everyone was off to their sites. It was a bit sad saying bye to everyone, since we´re probably not going to see each other for 4 months.
The bus ride to my site was gorgous, and I got to indulge in one of my favorite pastimes, gazing out the window and daydreaming. The family that I´m staying with was waiting for the bus and helped me get my stuff unloaded. My living arrangement is really nice, because I have my own house basically with a stove and everything, but the family lives next door. The family is really nice and have been very welcoming and tolerant of my spanish. The guy I´m going to be working with is also really nice as well as other people I´ve meet in town. The volunteer that has been here for the past 3 years is much loved in the community so they´re excited to have another one. This is also kind of nerve-wracking as I have a lot to live up to.
The bad news here is that the internet is really slow and expensive so I probably won´t be updating that often, or sending many emails. The nearest big town is a 3-4 hour bus ride away and I´ll probably be going there once a month or so. I also can´t really upload pictures here either so that will have to wait until I go into town. The cell phone that they gave us only works if I climb the hill behind my house, so I can´t get incoming calls which is too bad since I can´t call out to the states. Oh well, the price I pay for being in a beautiful, tranquilo site!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Boo for slow expensive internet. Maybe I'll get ambitious and actually send you a real letter :o)