Ecuador

First impressions! from the moment quito came into view I was mesmorized! I had never seen a city look like that from above. It was like it had a sort of glow. Its hard to explain but the lights were all downlit lights so its like the city had this personality that screamed WE ARE HERE......but shhhh we dont want eeeeveryone to know :) I get off the plane go through all that beautiful paperwork and security and find my host dad standing outside with a sign reading my name. And off we head to cumbaya a suburb of quito. cumbaya is basically a city in the hills and it is also where my university is. So we are driving home and the traffic lets just say they have no rules.....which really was no suprise because argentina was the same. But we come to a stop sign and my host dad tells me we arent stopping if no one is coming because it is very dangerous here. At this moment going through my head is (welcome to ecuador....you´re going to die haha)
I still dont know how to feel about my safety. they assure me that if i´m careful I will be safe but there has to be a reason everyone lives in gated communities and there are gaurds everywhere. and they pay people to watch their cars while they go in stores. But i get to walk to school everyday so hopefully that will make me more comfortable with the area.
I will tell you all more later because i´ve had a pretty incredible time already. went to quito did the tourist things. stood in two hemispheres at one time. ate great food. went out with friends. met ecuadorians my age. convinced one to teach me how to dance :) and well just been living it up. but i have an orientation at 8 am :P so i will try and figure out why i´m swelling up from mosquito bites and then its off to bed! I need to make up for the lack of sleep I got last night :P