Hola Mom y Corey!
So I have already failed at blogging apparently. Liz and I arrived 2 days before the rest of the group so we stayed with Diego and his family. Wednesday Diego brought us to La Basilica where we proceeded to climb some 300 odd steps to see the view from the top... from both sides. I am blaming my extreme out-of-shapeness on the altitude, of course. Later that night we went to El Panecillo to see the Virgin of Ecuador at night. It was beautiful but a little chilly. I definitely did not pack for the weather. His mom gave us a tour of the Historic Center of Quito and we tried canelazo, this (disgusting) alcoholic, syrup drink that is supposed to warm you up. Then we went with his whole family for pizza at midnight. We slept at Diego´s house and left for his farm house the following morning. We did some hiking and spelunking (I have always wanted to use that word!) It was a lot of fun but exhausting. We all took a nap and then Diego brought us to the hotel to meet the rest of the group! There are 20 other people, 19 girls and 1 boy. I can´t decide if he´s the luckiest or saddest guy in the world... The first day together we went through some orientation stuff and then went for a tour of USFQ, where we will all be going to school. We had dinner in the Mariscal, a very big tourist/bar area. Yesterday we did more orientation things and then went back to El Panecillo and the Historic Center as a group. Tonight we meet our families, finally! Hopefully I have internet..