And I have arrived!

Greetings friends, Just a quick email to let you know that I have arrived in Quito, and am primed and ready to join the revolution. My flight was relatively uneventful highlighted by Kung Fu Panda in spanish. I realize that some of you don^t know what Im doing here so Ill explain briefly. In short, Ill be studying spanish with a private tutor for four hours a day and staying with a host family, all the while travelling on off time and then tacking on an extra 2 weeks of travel at the end. I also may or may not be dodging the IRS.

I arrived last night at my host family and after some quick introductions I was showed to my room and was lulled to the sleep the sounds of vicious dogs barking in the background. My new mother (sorry old mom but I am loyal to Momma Cecilia now) is just the sweetest. Despite being relatively awkward due to the current state of my embarrasing spanish, we managed to stumble through a lovely breakfast where I communicated through mostly grunting and pointing and adding "o" to the occasional word (breakfasto¿) and she just smiled and spoke slowly. She also freaked out when I showed her a picture of Lucy because she grew up with Dachunds and had one up until 2 years ago. I start classes on monday and Im super excited to finally understand the things that I pretend to understand as my host mother speaks. The view from the house and my room is simply breathtaking with the hills and mountains of Ecuador off in the distance. In the meantime Im off to explore Quito and play a little game I like to call "try not to get robbed on your first day".

Ill keep sending email updates periodically. I will not apologize for the mass email but I will say that If I start sending too many and you get annoyed you can email me and Ill take you off the list with the understanding that it will put a minor strain on our relationship when I return. Also, if you respond I will get back to you personally. All personal emails are much appreciated, and Id love to know whats going in your lives. Also, Ill apologize in advance for my poor spelling, and I never realized how truly naked I am without English spell check. Also, despite all my tech savy I have yet to locate the apostraphe on the spansih keyboard. Look for exciting updates on that front.
For now,
hasta luego,
Etan