To Quito and back

Traveling some in a foreign country is always interesting. I wish I could say I'm totally fearless, in control, and never make mistakes, but that's a dream. Maybe someday...

My 2 day adventure to Quito and back to Otavalo was an adventure in itself!

Wednesday had an interesting start. I had to go to Quito to meet with a professor who is lending me support. The night before, Pepe had drawn me a map after he and Cristina discussed the best way for me to get to the university. The final decision: 3 buses and a taxi.

Cristina waited at the bust stop with me and sent me off on bus #1. I definitely felt like a little kid being put on the bus on the first day of school. I sat down in the first available seat, next to a sleeping man, who promptly woke up to spend some of the longest 7 minutes of my life shameless hitting on me. He called me beautiful so many times the word lost its meaning; pleaded with me to move to Ecuador permanently; and begged me to be together forever and never leave him. Also, I'm apparently a French princess. And despite me trying my best to politely shut him down, he persisted. Not a single person spoke up, though one woman gave me a sympathetic smile. But dear God, this was all before 8AM and pre-caffeine!!

I was pretty sure it was a bad omen, and I was already nervous about traveling alone and my upcoming meeting. But, spoiler alert: I survived. 

I found the right bus (#2 if you're counting) at the Otavalo terminal, though I doubted myself on and off the entire way to Quito. The bus seemed to take forever and I thought I'd never make it (isn't that always the case when you don't want to be late?), but spoiler alert: I did. Bonus: my earlier experience must've given me permanent bitch face because no one sat next to me, or even spoke to me, and that was just fine because it let me recollect myself.

Once in the Quito terminal, I took the small town girl approach: ask everyone for help, and expect the best. I wasn't disappointed. Literally, everyone was incredibly nice and helpful and took pity on the poor gringita. I had to wait around for the right bus into the city (bus #3), so once again, doubt had time to creep in. I didn't realize the terminal was on the north side of the city and I had to go pretty far across the city, so I was restless and certain I'd missed my stop. Thankfully, a lovely young lady made sure I knew the right stop (even though she got off 1 stop before me). From there, I took a taxi to the area where the university is located. The "campus" is only a few buildings amongst other city buildings, and it had been 3 years since I'd been there. At this point, I was cutting it closer time-wise than I was comfortable with. Thankfully, I followed my instincts/vague memories, and I found the right building without any issues. I made it to the right office 8 whole minutes before our scheduled meeting to find a note on the door addressed to me: "I had to run out for a minute. I'll be right back. Wait for me." Whew! That meant I had 8 minutes to relish successfully making it to my meeting, thanks to the help of a lot of wonderful people (and one not-so-great guy who I refuse to let dampen my day).

My meeting went great (victory is mine!), and afterwards, I got to hang out with André, my BEST FRIEND from SUSI. We have the same birthday, so we're awesome. I cannot express how wonderful it was to spend time with him, and hear him talk about his work and education with such passion. I am incredibly proud of his success, and I'm so excited for all that is yet to come his way. Also, it was really nice to speak English for a bit. Sorry, not sorry.

Later, I met up with Mauricio for dinner, and we had a great time catching up. He's a lawyer and recently completed his masters in Spain. Y'all, SUSI for the win. Everyone from the program has continued to lead amazing, successful lives, and I'm so happy to have been part of such a fantastic program and remain close with so many incredible people! André joined us, and promptly told me we would only speak in Spanish now since they were in the majority. Glad to see my demanding Best Friend hasn't changed. It was so fun to have a mini SUSI reunion. Of course, I was asked lots of questions about everyone else from SUSI. Holy Shannon and Megan, you'd better come along next time and answer them yourself! Maybe we can get Money Bags Melissa to help us out. ;) ;)

Today was a lazy day, hanging out at Joseph's house in Quito before returning to Otavalo (only 1 bus. Easy peasy). Yesterday was a fun, full day, but after that, it was so nice to spend the better part of today lounging around, watching Netflix with Emily. It was such a normal family thing to do, and I really appreciate little things like that so much when I travel. It's also extra fun because I've gotten to see Emily grow up in snapshots during my trips to Ecuador. In 2009, she was literally a baby, and now, here we are watching Liv and Maddie together (because I'm not too cool to watch Disney TV). I'm just going to be the fun aunt in every country I visit, mk?