Host family

Our host mom is Patricia. She is 50 years old and is a stay at home mom. Our host dad is Carlos. He is 57 and does various services, possibly bar tending. Our host sister is Jennifer. She is 24 and is currently working on her masters. She works in a school as well. Lastly, our host brother is Andre. He is 27 and works at a bank. I have been able to communicate fairly well with them so far. Every day it is getting better. I still get lost when they speak quickly or have conversations during dinner but tonight I got most of what they said. I hope the classes will help with understanding and speaking.

I have noticed that our family always eats together for dinner. Their children come over too, even though they do not live with us. They are very family oriented and work as a family or group to succeed, instead of achieving success on their own. When I see people selling various items on the street, they are typically with their family or are close with a group around them. In the US, we are very separate and on our own.

Today a group of us from class went to the Basilica. We took a bus and had to walk the rest of the way. It was a nice walk, but most was up hill. When we got to the Basilica, we looked around and most of us climbed up to the top of the towers. It was amazing. It took quite a while to walk all the way to the top, but the view was well worth it. I have never seen something like that. It was breath taking. I noticed that in Ecuadorian culture, it is common to be crammed together on public transportation, as well as touching. They are very nice and welcoming, at least everyone that I have met. Even the people around us on the bus going to the Basilica, helped us get off at the correct stop. They don't seem to care to much about dogs on the street and time can mean a different thing for different people.

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