¿Hablas español?

This week is all about improving my Spanish and this morning was our first day at Spanish school.  5 hours of verbs and conversation was pretty gruelling but it was very helpful to be chatting in Spanish.  Living with other English-speakers I haven't had to try very hard until today.  But after this morning and understanding church on Sunday I'm encouraged that I might be able to get by in the remote communities where they definitely don't speak English (and some of them won't even speak Spanish). 

Living in Quito is amazing - at the moment the three of us (Steph, Stephy and I - all engineers here for about the same amount of time) are staying in a 9th floor apartment with views over the north of the city and seeing as far as Cotopaxi - the snow-topped volcano.  We have beds, wi-fi, a washing machine... it's very different from what I expected based on my experiences in Peru - partly because this is the capital and therefore much more facilities are available than I've had before.  I'm looking forward to the adventure of camping in the villages, as well as the more middle ground of living in Shell next week.

No health or security problems (yet).  Stephy got her bag cut open on the crowded bus today but was quick enough to notice and nothing was taken.  Sorting out visa registration and orientation as well as all the language study is keeping me amazingly busy and is good preparation for the rest of the trip.