EIL Intercultural Learning

Buenos tardes!

It's E-Day plus 2. I arrived yesterday at 8 am after a full day and night of travelling. Everything went perfectly travel wise, my flight was delayed in Dublin which allowed me to watch the Lions match at my gate (which I would've missed otherwise) in the airport but it didn't affect getting the next connection as I had 6 hours to spare in Amsterdam. Amsterdam was a great airport to come through, very laid back and easy to navigate through and from there the flight to Quito was long but went very smoothly so it was an excellent journey overall. 

Yesterday jetlag was a bit of a problem as in order to get my body adjusted to the time difference I didn't let myself sleep during the morning or afternoon which left me tired but I got a good 13 hour sleep so I'm recovered today and adjusted to the time. The altitude here in Quito (9000 ft approx) isn't as bad as I was expecting, it's only noticable when you go up a load of stairs and notice you're out of breath which would never happen at home. Any of the people I've met here are extremely nice and friendly but I'm let down by my inability to speak spanish so I'm working on that now, just trying to use the little spanish I do know while also trying to learn as much as possible. It's not too bad here in Quito because alot of people have english but I'm heading to my host family in Riobamba on friday so I need to have some respectable spanish by then. The climate here is fantastic too, 20-25 'C nice sunshine and it's not cold or too warm. Just right.

Next blog will probably be Thursday after I visit the equator. Gary.

Ps. Titles of blog are songs by R.E.M. in case anyone is wondering.