Flights, Delays, New friends, Quito!

Voy a empezar mi blog en español porque, porque obviamente, estoy en Ecuador. Creo que si está leyendo este, sabe quien soy. Pero, por si acaso, me llamo Emma Mackey. Tengo veinte anos, y asisto la universidad de Nueva York en Plattsburgh. Mis carreras son Español y los Estudios Latinoamericanos. Por eso, hube decidido estudiar en Guayaquil Ecuador a La Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo (UEES) por un semestre. Voy a vivir con Salvador, Narcisa, Sussy, Wendy, and Salvador Cherrez cuando mis clases empiezan.

Yo llegue esta mañana en Guayaquil después de muchos retrasos en Albany. ¡Llegue a mi viaje a Ecuador con cinco minutos antes de despegar! Ahora, estoy en Quito para la orientación. Hay 57 otros estudiantes internacionales aquí, algunos de Australia, Suiza, Francia, Canadá, los Estados Unidos y mas. Muchos nombres para recordar…. Hoy exploramos Quito un poco, pero no hacemos mucho anoche. Todos necesitan dormir y preparar para un día grande mañana.

And now for my English version, with a bit more detail...

My name is Emma Mackey. I am 20 years old, and I attend SUNY Plattsburgh in upstate NY. I am studying in Guayaquil Ecuador this fall. It will benefit both my Spanish and Latin American studies major greatly. I will be living with Salvador, Narcisa, Sussy, Wendy, and Salvador Cherrez once my classes begin.

I left yesterday out of Albany, after 2 delays while inside the terminal and 1 on the runway. However, as a result I met Sean, who ironically is from about an hour-ish west of Plattsburgh. It was kind of like a Hollywood movie, when a girl is stressing out and a cute guy strikes up a conversation and distracts the damsel in distress. Haha. He is a very motivated, caring guy, my first friend of the trip! Goodbyes were said in NYC, but I'm sure we will stay in touch. I owe him a post card anyway.

Once in NYC, I had to get a taxi over to JFK from La Guardia. When all was said and done, I got to the gate for my flight to Ecuador at 11:25, boarded at 11:30pm. Phew!! I drifted in and out of consciousness on the way to Guayaquil. My carrier was LAN Ecuador, and it was a very good flight. HUGE plane, good food and such. Everyone clapped when it landed because it was so smooth. It arrived around 5:30am.

I spent about 5 hours in the airport in Guayaquil waiting for my flight to Quito. I met a reporter for a local AM radio station. His name is Jose Luis Medina Correa. He spoke very little English, so we were able to practice with each other with our non native languages.

The flight to Quito was over very quickly, and after waiting for some other students, I got to the hotel around 3pm (by the way, Ecuador is one hour behind home). There are many other international students here for orientation as well, 57 to be exact. The first two girls I met are from Australia, Bridget and Sara. Great accents! There is also Sophie from Switzerland, some students from Belgium, Kristi from SUNY Buffalo (!) and more. I can't remember everybody's names yet of course, but I will get there... maybe. We didn't do much tonight except explore a bit, and dinner with some girls. I like the city so far, and the hotel is quite nice.

I desperately need a good night's sleep, so I am off to bed. Big day tomorrow, and big week ahead. I don't know when I'll blog next, because we are fitting a lot in before we go back to Guayaquil and classes start!