Universidad San Francisco de Quito is a young, 29-year-old, liberal arts university in Cumbaya, Ecuador. It looks like a Japanese spa crossed with old South American buildings that Stevie Wonder designed. Getting from one class to the next is as close to I have come to finding the Room of Requirement.

There are approximately 300/5500 students from the US at USFQ. The rest are fast talking, 2003 fashion dressing, Ecuadorians.

We have to take 18 credit hours… aka twice as many classes as I am used to:
1. Espanol para extranjeros—the professor was a no show on day one.
2. Danza moderna 1—a typical old school modern dance teacher with two papers and group choreography final. Good for the body, mind, and GPA
3. Amazon societies—I JUST added this class, but we do get to spend a weekend or two in an indigenous village in the Amazon.
4. Game theory—really hard really hard really hard econ class, where I am one of two women, one of three foreigners, and one of 14 students
5. Ethnography aka Intercultural Related Project (ICRP) class
6. Voloconolgy—Theo, our prof is bonkers. In addition, the class is all international kids, with more than half being from K College. But we are required to go to four or 5 “field experiences” also known as three weekends of exploring volcanoes with the man in charged of certain volcanic areas for the country.