EIL Intercultural Learning

It´s hard to believe I´ve already been in Ecuador for 2 weeks. So far my life here has been a whirlwind of activity.
 
I started off in Quito, after 15 hours of flying, where I stayed with a family of 4. Thankfully the daughter spoke pretty good English so I was able to communicate somewhat with them. While in Quito I joined a group of Americans and found it really refreshing to be able to speak fluently with other teenagers, a few days of stunted sentences had started to irritate me as I expected it would. We travelled to the Mindos cloud forest which was really stunning and again the company of the Americas was great. Mindos has probably been the highlight so far. It´s sort of like a mini rain forest and the scenery is spectacular.
 
Then I made the journey to Riobamba, a small city in the Andes. It´s much smaller than Quito and has a very different atmosphere. My house is on the main street so I´m very fortunate to be close to everything. Internet cafes, restaurants, parks, everything is on my doorstep here. In Riobamba I met my new host family who I´ll be living with for about four weeks. They are really great. The mother is actually Riobamba´s Eil rep and has very good English, the children speak some too which is a relief; it's definitely made it easier to get to know them.  They've all been really welcoming as have their friends and always take me along to social events and fiestas. My host siblings have many amigos so the house is always busy which is great. Although sometimes it can be frustrating not to be able to talk to people my Spanish is improving and occasionally I come across someone who can speak some English.
 
So far I haven’t really experienced homesickness but I am missing my friends and family, naturally. However as time goes on and I become more comfortable with my new friends I miss home less and less.