Made it to Quito!

So after a long night in Montreal and finally joining my group in Toronto (:S) ... I finally made it to Quito! Quito is an amazing city with break taking views! The landscape pictures I have tried to capture on camera do not accurately portray or encompass the beauty of this city. I have quickly realized that Quito is it not what I expected to see and my ideas that I had were quickly squashed. The city is larger and more developed than I had expected.

In the four days that we have been in Quito, we have been extremely busy trying to keep up with the fast paced tempo of the city. We have travelled to different sight seeing (touristy) destinations as well as we have visited the schools that we will be working at for the next month.  My favorite place that we have visited thus far would be downtown Quito. I love the architecture of the buildings. The fine details on the outside of buildings are exquisite, especially at one church that we passed near the downtown square of Quito (Plaza De La Independencia?).

Although there are many topics that can be discussed with all the things that we have done in the last couple of days! The moment that stands out the most at this time is the first day that we went to visit the different schools. I was overwhelmed with emotion to see how welcoming and excited that the school staff and students were at our arrival (especially the little kids at Calderon who sang to us). The warmth and kindness they portrayed to our group such as welcoming us to be apart of their family made me realize the kind of meaningful and reciprocal relationships/connections that can be built in our time in Quito. Their generosity and excitement made me also extremely excited to meet and get to know the staff and students that we would be working with. Although Jen and I were only able to meet one class, I believe that this next month will offer many opportunities for us to build relationships with the students and staff of Calderon.