Welcome To Paradise

Hello from San Cristobal Galapagos!

It's been quite a while since I've made a post... This is truly what I thought living in Ecuador and Galapagos would be like. We are living with host families again, but now there is only one student per family. Most of us don't have internet, air conditioning, or even guaranteed water on demand at home. However, I wouldn't trade it for anything; this island living is so great and makes me appreciate the modern day conveniences of home that much more.

When we arrived in San Cristobal, it was so hot and muggy when we got off the plane. We then had to shuffle through a makeshift airport that was under construction. Going through customs was a bit nerve-wracking because they check all your papers, search your bag for organic material, and the baggage claim was just an area where they laid out all of our suitcases and you had to go find yours. After finding all of our bags we put them in a huge pile to be loaded in trucks by school personnel and hopped on a bus to our school.

Our school is across they street from Playa Mann and it's so cool! The internet is ridiculously slow here most of the time so it is difficult to upload pictures, Skype is not an option, and waiting for things to load is pretty normal.

The GAIAS sign

This is the front of our school.

Playa Mann directly in front of our school.

Sign at Playa Mann.

More Playa Mann....

Un lobo marino... This is translated as "sea wolf"

As for my host family, I have a mom, dad, and two sisters. They are Ludys, Manuel, and Luisa (12 yrs.) and Lusette (6 yrs.). My host mom runs a restaurant out of our house and my host dad is a waterboat taxi driver. Ludys, my mom, is so friendly and nice. She doesn't know any English, but we understand each other for the most part. My host dad on the other hand is a bit harder to understand because the island accent for Spanish is definitely not as clear as the mainland.

My host sisters are so cute! They ask me lots of questions and tell me about the little bit of English they know (colors, numbers, etc.). I've also become the resident hairdresser because I showed them that I can braid and stuff. They absolutely love when I do their hair. My host family is great, but the house is also pretty good. I have my own room and own bathroom, which I was not expecting. My host mom also cleans my room and makes my bed every day which is so nice. She also does my laundry. The eating schedule is a little weird here though.

We only have breakfast with our host families on Mondays and Fridays-Sundays, lunch is always on our own, and we have dinner with our host families on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. On Tuesdays-Thursdays we have breakfast at the university which is usually pretty good. On Monday and Wednesday we have dinner at a local restaurant with our school. Then on Fridays and Saturdays we are supposed to be on our own for dinner, but sometimes we have dinner with our host families anyway. One of the administrators of the program said they do it this way to take some burden off the host families and to spread the wealth throughout the community. It is also a great way for the community to get a better outlook on the international students.

There are so many other cool things about the island as well. We have an awesome bakery, a few discotechas and bars, some good restaurants and tourist shops. It is a lot more developed than I thought it would be. Obviously there aren't any malls or movie theatres, but we aren't living in grass huts either. However, my favorite thing about the island is the beach and the sea life!

Class isn't too bad. I've been learning so much about the ocean in this Marine Life class! We frequently snorkel for class and do marine life identification. It's great!

Once I have a more solid internet connection I will upload more pictures for everyone's viewing pleasure.