I'm not scared...

I left rainy Kansas yesterday, traveled for 12 hours or so and arrived safely in rainy Quito. After all of my airport pick-up planning fell through, I ended up taking a taxi from the airport. As I expected, my taxi driver tried to rip me off. There's nothing that will bring your Spanish skills back faster than haggling over $2, or so it seems.

As I try to connect with old friends, I'm remembering the difference between Ecuador time and US time. For example, I was supposed to meet someone for drinks at 8:00 tonight. 8:00 meaning 9:30, apparently. While I wasn't waiting in vain for people to arrive on time, I was able to get the low down on Estero de Plátano, which is where I'll be spending most of my time trying to teach sex ed.

It turns out that the health center in Estero doesn't provide condoms, nor does it offer STI testing. This puts a bit of a kink in my plan. I imagine it will be a little difficult to encourage people to use condoms and make sure to be periodically tested for STIs if there isn't actually a way to do that... It looks like I'll be getting creative this summer. In addition to that little snag, I also periodically freak out in my head when I remember that this community is an hour from the nearest town with internet access and that no one there speaks English. Did I mention I'll be there by myself? But let's not forget the upside! The town is on the beach, a clear advantage over everywhere else I've ever lived. And my Spanish is going to be ludicrously good when I leave.

I hadn't realized how much I had forgotten about Ecuadorian life, so here is a brief list of things that gave me a mild surprise:
-toilet paper goes in the trash, not in the toilet
-kissing on the cheek, not shaking hands
-just because something is on the menu does not mean that it is actually available
-navigating the porta/movistar cell phone world... (the office uses Porta, my friends all have Movi... and if you haven't lived in Ecuador you won't get this one, sorry)
-15 minutes = 45 minutes to an hour
-everyone is dressed better than I am