This Flight is Closed

"This flight is closed."
"What?!"
"This flight is closed. It closes an hour before departure. No puedo ayudarte, has perdido tu vuelo."


I had just asked for my boarding pass at the Miami gate, to which I arrived after walking an unnecessary terminal over and back. They're serious about their Spanish on LAN Ecuador, it comes before English in every conversation. But in either language, I wasn't leaving that counter without a boarding pass. 


Ignorant Americanism prevailed yet again, and this previously-unexperienced solo international traveler made her way onto what is possibly the most comfortable plane for in-flight snoozing ever.


Of course, being conked out in a dramamine daze the whole flight means that I had to fill out all of my customs papers behind the line to enter at UIO Quito migracion.


I found my "madre temporal" Eleana and her daughter Andrea in line with my name penned lightly on a sheet of white paper. The fresh, cool mountain air of Quito encompassed me lightly for the first time outside and the electrical, humid storms of North Carolina felt far away. We drove the Cuellar-Mideros's car - which resembles a champagne-colored mini cooper, but older and a make I've never seen before - down Avenue de la Republica, a thoroughfare "muy importante" that runs from North to South of Quito, to their (our!) apartment.


We have now entered el mundo espanol. As Eleana told me outside the airport Mariscal, tu espanol es bastante bien. It's good enough. Gracias a Dios that I begin a week of intensive one-on-one Spanish classes tomorrow. As we said all summer long in our immersion program last year, tengo seis anos en espanol. I'm six when it comes to Spanish. 
This summer, I aim to hit double digits.


Well, I have a movie to go to...we're off to the cine for the evening! I got on the plane today. So I guess it's all a downhill climb from here. ;)

Mi casa ecuatoriano!