Estoy aqui. Or, in English, I’m here. In Quito, Ecuador. Well, that’s one way to look at it, anyway. I’m also here: at the start of something so vast I can’t really conceive the full implications, even now, inside the country. These last two days have been increiblisimos, and I’m more than a little overwhelmed. For those who I haven’t told, my parents in Quito are Carlos y Pati Guerrero, y mi hermano se llama Mateo, and I also have an older sister named Maria Belen, and she’s married to Pablo. They’ll be reading this, but I have to say that they’re absolutely wonderful, extremely kind, and very caring. I walked into their house a total stranger, but now I’m a part of the family.
Also, forgive me for dropping in and out of Spanish. It’s how I’m thinking right now. Being immersed in the language has forced me to think con las dos lenguas, because my Spanish is so much poorer than I thought, and I need to communicate. The loss of communication is the scariest thing about being here, and probably will be my greatest challenge. I’m a pretty long-winded person, as many of you know, and having to condense my thoughts to “I need” and “I want” is, well, agonizing. Yo estoy hablando con la boca de un niño, y I’m thinking with the mind of a college student. It’s difficult.
The transition to life in Quito has been smooth, though. The city is beautiful, the people wonderful, and the experience, even just two days into it, unforgettable. I look forward to sharing more about my time in Quito, but as of yet, I need to adjust a bit more in order to really process and share mis cuentas. For now, let’s suffice it to say that in Quito, everything is higher: the altitude itself, the level of kindness, and the amount of difficulty I’ll be staring down in the months to come.
Hasta luego,
José
