The First 20 Hours

Life is feeling pretty surreal right now. I, Jamie Nicole Bacigalupo, am now in Quito, Ecuador, starting a whole new life. I keep having to say this to myself. Months of planning, and then this day actually did come. If you would have asked me on the plane last night, the flight from Atlanta to Quito, I would have told you I wasn't sure I was going to make it. Mostly because I get ridiculously paranoid on planes and begin inventing far-fetched stories about other passengers' intentions. The man that sat across the aisle from me, who was probably just as nervous about flying as I was as he seemed quite jittery, suddenly became something much worse. I won't go on because I'm embarrassed and ashamed that I make such judgements of people. The fact is that I have arrived, in one piece, and I'm still content with my decision to flip my life for two years.

Quito has been somewhat different than I expected. The city itself is not pretty. There are some beautiful buildings, but it altogether looks under construction....pretty much everywhere. There isn't much greenery, which is the case with many other large cities, but I subconsciously took with me the image of the lush lakes area of Minneapolis. The pollution is also bothersome at this point. All of this I will get used to in time.

There are some things I am loving about the most populated capital in South America. The real, fresh fruit juice for one. I couldn't stop gushing about the strawberry juice at dinner tonight. I'm also a big fan of the food so far, which is HUGE for me as I am the girl who chose her college partly based on the fantastic cafeteria. The creamy carrot soup with cheese I had with lunch was amazing. While I get a fresh vibe in general on the food front, I was disappointed to see KFC (Grandpa, want to come visit?), McDonald's, Pizza Hut...C'mon, America, we gotta step up our game and share something more productive than the fast food industry with the world. I'm also grateful for the incredibly kind and welcoming people in Quito. I feel that the green new hires are in good hands. Speaking of, we, the 14 new hires, are a fun, eclectic group of people; everyone has some pretty interesting life stories to share.

Tomorrow we look for housing. Sooo looking forward to getting settled and making a place feel something like home. I'm running on fumes here, so I need to sign off. I'll leave you with my first blog picture from our tour of the city today. Buenas noches, familia y amigos.