Building a blog from an Internet Cafe

Hola!
I think I’m going to trying a start a separate blog about my trip to Ecuador so I don’t hog all the space in the family blog. I’m not sure how interesting this blog will be, or how well I’ll keep up with it, but I’ll try and organize it so you can jump around and find the things that are interesting to you! Vamos a ver….

Packing
Well, I’m definitely not known for my packing skills, as anyone who has ever seen me pack to go to school or return home or go pretty much anywhere can attest. Packing for Ecuador was no exception. I didn’t start packing until Friday, the day before I left, using the philosophy that if you wait til the last minute, it only takes a minute to get done.

For future reference, that philosophy is usually inaccurate, but I don’t think that will stop me from procrastinating in the future. Anyway, after hours of packing and a lot of help rearranging from Mom and Dad, I finally ended up with two suitcases weighing under 50 lbs. each, and two large carry-ons. They weren’t pretty, but they worked!

Departure
After a nice run Saturday morning, I ate breakfast with Mom, Dad, and Brian (delicious blueberry muffins and some breakfast casserole/egg thing that Mom can whip up out of thin air and taste good). Then Mom, Dad, and I headed for the airport and Brian headed for U of I.
At the airport, Mom dropped Dad and me off to park the car while Dad and I went to the ticket agent. The ticket agent suggested that I fly stand-by on an earlier flight because the weather in Houston, where my connecting flight was, could get nasty. Dad and I agreed and as soon as Mom arrived, I said good-bye and power-walked to the gate. They were just about to close the ramp to the plane as I arrived, but I made it onto the flight.

Houston
The good news was that I arrived in Houston so I could make my connecting flight. The bad news was that I had a lot of time to sit around George Bush International Airport until my connecting flight to Quito at 5:50 p.m.

As soon as I exited the plane in Houston, I headed straight to gate E3, the gate the ticket agent said my flight to Quito was. There was a flight to Lima at 3:45 p.m. at the same gate, so I ended up taking with Tory, a girl form Iowa doing some volunteer work at a prison in Peru and Brandon, a guy who was traveling around Peru.

I also managed to write my part of the traveling bracelet letter that some of my girlfriends at U of I and I have. After Tory and Brandon left, I ended up talking with a guy from Wisconsin who’s studying in Quito but at a different university. He said that the TV screen said our flight was in gate E17, though he was told by an official that our flight was at E3. After awhile I tried to find a mailbox and check out gate E17. Well, I quickly found out that the nearest mailbox ws outside security which I didn’t have time to go to. So I hunted down gate E17 (which is extremely far from E3, especially with my heavy backpack containing my laptop and my ridiculously large purse in which I might as well have been carrying a small child).

Sure enough, the 5:50 p.m. flight to Quito was posted at E17. So I hiked back to gate E3 to tell my new friend (though he doesn’t know we’re friends) that our flight really was at gate E17. He wasn’t there, which didn’t surprise me because I had been wandering for about an hour. So I hiked back to E17. I really felt I was getting to know all the E gates at Bush International. I’m pretty sure the shopkeepers would recognize me, I walked past the random stores so many times.

Anyway, at get E17, I started talking with Sarah, a girl from Canada studying for three weeks in Quito. I also met up with some other girls form U of I!

So we all got on the flight (my Wisconsin friend made it and figured out the gate change) and before I knew it we were looking down into a billion lights and landing.

Walking into the Quito airport was crazy because there were so many people pressed against the glass walls looking at for passengers. We felt like animals at the zoo in a very popular exhibit. Customs didn’t take too long, and after a bit of nervous waiting, I got both of my bags. Too bad, I could barely handle all my bags. I’ve got to learn not to over-pack.

So we all sleep-walked (it was about 11:45/midnight after a long day) into a crowd of people waving hands and signs. After a bit of confusion, I met up with my host mom, Patricia, a really nice lady. We took a taxi to her apartment where I quickly fell asleep on my wonderful bed.