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Today we visited a university, radio station and Hospital.

Univserdad San Francisco de Quito

The university has 5000 students and no dorms. Students either live on their own, with their families or with a host family. Since there is no where to sleep during the day the campus has a lot more activity than UMHB where students go to their dorm between classes.

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Some students at USFQ sitting in a circle on the Quad. They look like they are in class perhaps.

Students take public transportation to get to class which is not bad but not as sophisticated as New York. The university is in constant contact with the foreign exchange students. It is like a big brother for them. It help with everything from family problems to finding good places to go dancing to finding good places to visit in Ecuador.

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Here we are exploring campus. It was very nice and somewhat intimidating.

Applying for a Visa is complicated but not hard. Tuition is $4000 per semester. You can come just for a summer semester. Living with a host family costs about $13 per day. That includes breakfast a room and dinner.

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The goal of the university is to help students start their own businesses. We students the tools to make Ecuador a better place. We prepare our students for all sorts of jobs.

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The university blends cultures. To that end each building is built in a different style. This building is named "Buda."

There is also a satellite campus in the Galapagos island which focuses on Evolutionary sciences and social sciences.

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Cynthia posing in front of one of their many statues.

To gain entrance to USFQ you must have a 3.0 GPA.

Radio Station

We visited a Christian radio station known as the voice of the Andies. They have been advancing the Gospel over the radio waves since the 1930s via short and regular radio transmissions. This is one of the first shortwave stations in the world I believe.

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We have found that you must negotiate the price of the ride with the taxi before getting in. Otherwise they will charge you twice as much. I think ownership and position are 70% of negotiating.

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The satellite up-link and down-link for the radio station.

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That black thing on the bottom row is something called a record.

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Jose, Josh, Cynthia and Juan pretending to host a radio show.

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A boy manning a booth at the market. Children work here a lot more than in the states.

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The Jessicas posing for a photo for our scavenger hunt. Our team had to find a product that started with each letter of the Spanish alphabet and pose with two team members in the photo. We also had to find six products from other countries. We won but not by much.

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I don´t know who this guy is but he is very famous and his photo is everywhere: cars, shirts, stickers on light polls you name it.

I´m sorry I don’t have any photos of the hospital but it didn’t seem right. The hospital was started by the missionaries working across the street at the radio station. It is a self sustaining hospital that charges reasonable rates. It targets the middle class but does emergency work for free for anyone.

If you have a friend or family member on this trip feel free to leave them a note in the comment section of this blog and I will get it to them ASAP. Don’t forget you can have these posts delivered to your email inbox . You can unsubscribe at any time.