Well it finally kicked in. Once I boarded the plane to Quito I realized I was about to travel to a Spanish-speaking country where I knew no one and I kind of freaked out a little bit. I accidentally checked both pairs of headphones I brought with me, which made me very sad. Luckily, Delta provides headphones for international flights free of charge, but they are nothing like my earpods. I was able to not vomit from nervousness on the flight and just listened to music.
Surprisingly, dinner was included with my flight AND it wasn't awful. The only option was a turkey sandwich, but the cheese was quite good (aka real) and the bread was a slightly dry grainy bun. We were also served brownies, plain Lays, a choice of pretzels or peanuts and two stops from the drink cart! Delta really splurged on this flight. The weather for the flight was quite clear over Florida and Panama and so I got to see the stars from 37000 ft.
Once I landed in Quito, I went through customs fairly easily. My passport was stamped and I was officially welcomed to Ecuador! Next I needed to claim my luggage to go through the next step of customs. It seemed like everyone from my flight was getting their luggage, but mine was very delayed. I started to get worried and so I walked around the carousel and found that someone had taken my luggage off and set it aside. I was able to procede to the last step of customs without any hassle (they didn't even question me about the pharmacy's worth of drugs I had!) and was greeted by my host family.
The family I'm living with has a very nice home. There is lots of room to store all of my belongings. They also have pretty fast wifi, which is a major plus. They are very friendly and want to make feel at home.
I have to be at USFQ tomorrow morning at 8:15, so I think it is time to say buenas noches.
