After more or less a full 24 hours flying from Honolulu to Los Angeles, then Panama City, and finally Quito, I have finally arrived in Ecuador!
The approach into Quito
The Galapagos program, which I am participating in, is structured very differently from a typical study abroad program. Taking classes like any other student, we pick a “track” with a focus on a specific subject (mine, for instance, is focused on ecology and evolution). Each track includes five intensive three-week-long courses, taken one at a time with three hours of class a day.
Basically, it’s like five Jan Term classes all strung together. In addition, since the university here in Ecuador (Universidad San Francisco de Quito, or USFQ) doesn’t have any student housing, we don’t live in dorms or apartments but with host families who the university assigns us to.
In any case, my host mother picked me up from the airport and drove me into town. Host families seem to vary pretty widely in terms of size, income, and location, although as far as I can tell most of them are in the same neighborhood as the university.
I was lucky enough to live quite literally a block away from campus, so it might as well have been campus housing! My host mother lives alone but her children and grandchildren visit often, which I think is a good combination – you often meet other family members, but can still have peace and quiet if you come home after a long day.
Having arrived on Friday, I had the weekend to get to know the area before orientation and classes began on Monday. The university is located in Cumbayá, a neighborhood located about 30 minutes from central Quito. One of the highest-income areas in the city, it is very safe and has many malls, stores, and restaurants as well as many gated neighborhoods.
A view of Cumbayá at sunset
I had happened to arrive the day before Ecuador’s Independence Day, August 10th, so when Saturday came around my host mom took me with her relatives to observe the festivities. It was a good opportunity to see downtown Quito and try out the public transportation, although the streets were insanely packed.
The festivities of Ecuador’s Independence Day in Quito’s old town
After the weekend, classes and orientations began. While our courses were each three weeks long, our first week was a standalone Spanish course to ensure everyone could at least do some basic communication. The classes were split based on the results of placement tests we took prior to arriving, so everyone was in a class that matched their skill level.
We also had several orientations concerned with the rules of the program and life in Quito. We were given a tour of the campus, which is probably a 10th of the size of Linfield, taking up about 1 and a half city blocks. Despite this, it has nearly 5 times as many students, so it is extremely densely packed!
Overall, though, it is a great campus in an exciting area, in my opinion, and I am excited to get to know it better!
– Kai