I made it!

I survived my first day!!! 

Its so unreal. After all this time of waiting I cant believe im finally here! It is wonderful! I dont think ive stopped smiling since I walked off the plane. 

I started off my journey at 4am saturday morning. Or should I say 10pm friday night. I don’t think I slept a minute that night. Its was like sleeping the night before Christmas x10. Flew from Salt Lake to Houston. 5 hour layover in Houston. Then flew from Houston to Quito. I arrived in Quito at 10:40 pm. A very uneventful 14 hour travel day. 

I did want to go up to every single person on the plane though and ask what they were doing flying to Quito. Cause what average American just flies to Ecuador? I wanted to know all there stories. Especially the cute family with 5 kids under the age of 11. Unfortunately, I never got brave enough to ask.

So when I walked off the plane I was a little nervous. Here I am, all by myself, this 19 year old blonde american who has never left the United States before, in Quito Ecuador and I don’t know a lick of Spanish. It was scary. The airport was so good though and had everything pretty clear of where I needed to go. I got my bags and I was off. 

I was told that the project directors of OSSO (Bryn and Sean, they are a cute LDS American couple that lives in the house with us. They are pretty much our bosses) were gonna be there to pick me up so I just needed to look for them. Well my plane got in a little early so they weren’t there right away. I wasn’t too worried cause I knew they would be there so I just stepped back and watched everything going on around me. I have got to say this was pretty awesome. I have been in a lot of airports before but I have never seen people so excited to see their friends and family come off the plane. There were huge groups of people with flowers, and balloons, and treat baskets everywhere. They were so excited to be together. 

And then there were begging women with children. They had baskets full of candy and gum and then a very sickly looking child strapped to their back. They came up and literally shook a box of tic tacs in my face, said something in spanish and kept pointing to the kids. And they would not leave me alone! I kept shaking my head and saying no but that did not stop them. Then there was about 12 year old girls doing the same thing. And then even younger kids just asking for money. I wish I would have recorded it or taken a picture. It was nothing like I have ever experienced or seen before. No I did not give them money but my heart does go out to them, especially the poor kids. 

Sean showed up and we left for the house. I got in at about 11 pm so everyone was already asleep. I said a quick hello to my new roommates and hopped into bed. 

The next morning I didnt have a shift so I decided to go to church with a couple people. If you thought regular church was boring, try not understanding a word anyone says. ha! But it was a good experience. The spirit was strong and it was great to see that the church is the same no matter where you go! 

We got back, had lunch and I finished un packing. 

Then I had my first shift...

I promise I will post more pictures later on. But here is a picture of the house I'm living in! 

PS: this blog will probably be very wordy. Not only am I writing this so all of you can here what I'm doing but I am wiring this for me so I can look back and remember all my memories.