Arrival in Quito

Sunday 8/7
I made it to my host family’s home yesterday at around 11:30. The house is on a private street with a guard station so it took the cab driver more time than anticipated to find it (and he had to pull over four times to ask for directions). Honestly, I started to feel a bit concerned that we would never find the house and I would be left wandering the streets of Quito alone and with all of my baggage. Such a drama queen I know. The house is really nice. I was pleasantly surprised that I have my own room with a window that has a view of the mountains. I spoke to Rosita for a bit and she seems very nice. We speak a Spanglish mix back and forth (she usually speaks to us in Spanish...but slowly so I can understand). I also met her 25-year-old daughter Priscilla. The final resident of our home when I arrived was the family dog named Winnie (as in Winnie the pooh). He is too cute. I think he is a Maltese or some sort of poodle but regardless he loves me. He sat on my bed yesterday while I unpacked and then we rented source code on itunes and watched together.
Rosita was a bit surprised that I didn’t want to stroll around by myself but with my directional abilities (I have no sense of direction) combined with the language barrier plus the fact that Quito is a bit sketchy in some areas, I figured the best option was to wait for other students to arrive. In the meantime I took Winnie for a walk at the park across the street.
Two girls from Canada (Beth and Caitlin) got to the house at around 4 but needed to unpack and sleep for a bit. They are just coming off a ten day trip through Peru so they were pretty tired. We decided to go out for dinner because Rosita cleans the house on Saturday so she doesn’t cook…aka dinner out was our only option. I thought it might be fun to try a nice seafood place but Caitlin is allergic. Plan b was a trip to Plaza Foch which is a big club/bar/tourist friendly restaurants area. We ended up eating at some irish pub (very cultural experience..not) because it was the first reasonable establishment we found. We then decided to walk around a bit and grab a drink. We found this cool asian fusion(ish) restaurant and went there for drinks and dessert. We stayed until around 930 and then cabbed home. When we arrived there was a new student at the house, Noah from LA. I think there will be six students staying here by the end of the weekend but I am not entirely sure.