Would you like some free love?

AHH!!! I AM HERE EVERYONE!!!

Well, after a long and exhausting journey, I am finally in Quito, Ecuador! It has been quite the journey from Cincinnati to Miami to Ecuador. My plane leaving from CVG was downsized and I got bumped off my flight to Miami so I had to catch a new one to Atlanta and then get to Miami so I missed the first day of Staging, but it all worked out. I actually met a fellow PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) on her way too and that made the journey a lot easier. But Miami was awesome and was a great way to get to know everyone before we all left on this ridiculous adventure!

So a little bit about our group, there are 32 volunteers in total in my Omnibus (which is like ¨class¨) and we are all either Health or Youth and Families volunteers. We are Omnibus 100 in Ecuador, so we´re kind of a big deal. We lost one girl in Miami due to boyfriend issues, however everyone seems to be in good spirits. When we arrived in Quito (after another round of numerous plane delays) we were greeted by current PCVs with shouting and posters and roses. It was an amazing feeling coming out of the airport and being greeted by all these people, wanting to see us and supporting us in our decision to do this. It was a great show of pride.

We then traveled to our hostel in Quito which we are staying at until tomorrow. These past four days we have had a number of orientations dealing in everything from safety and security to language aptitude tests to culture shock to vaccinations to a day-long health fair we had today. I got three shots (not 5!) and may have to go through another round once I get to training. As for my language test, I placed into the Advanced group which is great and I am very happy with that (the only level higher is Superior and that´s for like native speakers).

But we have had to deal with a lot of information these past few days and have been running around non-stop from 8 am to 6 or 7 pm at night. Training, they said, is going to be very similar but at least I will be living in my own room for 10 weeks and not have to travel around as much.

Tomorrow we leave for training in Cayambe. With the language tests, we were all divided up into groups and then we will live in communities around Cayambe based on our language levels. I will be living in Ayora with two other girls who are also in the Advanced level. But we each have our own host families and we even found out who there are. (Not like I can facebook them or anything hahaha) But I do have a family with two kids--10 and 12-years-old--and a dog ¨se llama Bobby¨(which means his name is Bobby¨...which I thought was funny). I am excited to meet them and develop my language even more.

Once in training we will do a lot of language acquisition and technical training. We got our health kits today with all of the essentials---ibuprofen, band-aids, a whistle (???), creams, Avian bird flu medicine--you know, the usual. We also learned all about diarrhea, Malaria, skin problems, Tuberculosis and Dengue fever (which SUCKS!) today so we have a general idea of what to expect.

We are swearing in August 29 and on week 5 of training we will receive our site assignments, so I won´t have to wait too long before I find out where I am going and what I will be doing.

So much is going on right now and I am completely exhausted but everyone is great. I really like all of the people I am with. Most are recent college grads, a Master´s degree graudate, two young married couples and three older women. One was a PCV in Honduras in 1969 and decided to go again...so she´s giving me hope that this is a good thing! Everyone seems to be from all around the country. A lot are from California, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois and even one guy is from Columbus, OH.

Thanks for all the prayers and good vibes, they are definitely helping.

Oh and as for the title of my entry: I was eating breakfast this AM and an old man asked me to sit with him, thinking he was harmless. He asked me if Americans believed in free love and I said it all depended on the person. He asked me if I wanted some free love from him and then went on to tell me his room number and what time I should meet him. I politely declined, needless to say. Culture shock is definitely an understatement....