When I left for my flight my Mother and youngest sister took me to the airport. They got passes to make sure I got to the right gate, because this is my first time flying without an adult with me. The first plane ride wasn’t that bad, there was a bit a turbulence. I had a hour layover in Florida. The second plane ride was a bit more stressful. The flight was delayed for an hour. And  when I tried to email my host family to tell them that I’d be late, the wifi wasn’t working. So eventually it sent while we were landing. Customs wasn’t bad and my host family is lovely. Ariana and I love her, she is so sweet and she has a big family so it felt  like I was at home. And they make me feel at home, or like I’m staying at friend’s house.

As for Sunday, Ariana and I went around the neighborhood for a walk and meet all of our host mom’s family. They are all really sweet and spoke in Spanish so that we get more accustomed to the language. Side note I really need to brush up on my Spanish. I can understand it more than I can speak it.

On the first day of school, we got on the wrong bus and ended up in Quito instead of a 7 minute bus ride we realized we’ve been on the bus for far too long and we had gotten on a city bus instead of the yellow school bus. We were able to contact the school and someone came to get us from the bus station. The school is so beautiful and open. It is unlike any school building I have seen. I work with two different teachers/ supervising practitioners and they are both wonderful. The first teacher is Margarita and she does push in and pull outs in 3rd and 4th grade. Estefani works with 5th and 6th grade. They keep busy schedules, and when I’m not with one supervising partitioner, I’m with the other because I wanted to see how it works in both grades. And they both wanted me to get the full experience of how special education is done at the school. So far, on my third day it has been wonderful. The crazy thing that happened today, is that I was on my own and had to do push ins and observe for both teachers. I thought it was going to be hectic but it turned out not to be as hectic as I thought. I did get lost and had to ask where to find a certain classroom but as far as today went it couldn’t have gone better.

– Helana