Day one in Ecuador!

Hola from Quito! Most of us got to Ecuador at about 11 pm last night (!) and spent the early hours of this morning settling into our respective hotel rooms. Fortunately, we had a late start this morning and began with breakfast and an orientation at USFQ's campus. After that, Ms. Giselle gave us a crash course in survival Spanish (Which I really appreciated, since I've long forgotten all the Spanish I learned in elementary school!). After that, we were treated to a special lunch in USFQ's dining hall of fried fish, rice, soup, and salad, while we got to know each other. Then, we listened to a fascinating lecture from Dr. Gabriel Trueba about how diseases are transmitted between animals and humans and the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. We got to take a tour of their gorgeous campus- the statues everywhere and finding out they had a campus pig, Gastón, were definitely our favorite parts. We're definitely going to look into signing up to walk and feed him when we get the chance. Yes, that's an actual thing students at USFQ do. We just got back from the tour a few minutes ago, and we're heading out in about an hour to get burgers for dinner. We'll probably hang out in our hotel rooms and wind down after that. :) It's been an amazing start to what's surely going to be the trip of a lifetime. Everyone has been so kind, and we're all so excited about what the rest of the week has in store for us. This blog is updated daily, so you'll hear from us again tomorrow!

Adios,

Hannah