“Ella es Ella,” my host family, smirking, says, introducing me to their friends and family. My name, Ella (El-La), in spanish ella (eh-ya), means she. This is nothing new, ex: attendance in every spanish class I’ve ever taken. I was a bit peeved that in my home for the month I was she, her. In reality, my annoyance was mainly based in my having become the Ecuadorian equivalent of ”her?” in Arrested Development. Her? Ella?
After five days I now understand my introduction, ”ella es ella,” as a term of endearment. For the remainder of my time in Quito I’ll just have to embrace being “her.” This, confused conversations comprised mostly of “¿entiendas?,”a lot of papaya, and countless hours of orientation for school have been my first five days in Quito. Next week I’m off to the Tiputini biodiversity research station in the Amazon.
Universidad San Francisco de Quito- Main Campus
Content from Universidad San Francisco de Quito
My host family’s street in Cumbaya, Quito
Views of Quito + Old Town Quito
Ella Fornari
<p><span style="color: rgb(29, 29, 29); font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; background-color: rgb(237, 237, 237);">Ella Fornari is a biology and media arts double major at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA and hails from Brooklyn, NY. Her interests include but are not limited to zoology, film, digital design, coffee, natural history, photography, scientific media, KenKen puzzles, bicycles, and the third person. She has an encyclopedia-like knowledge of the NYC subway system which will prove useless while she is studying evolution and ecology in the Galapagos Islands</span></p>
