Final thoughts
Trip Start
Jan 02, 2010
1
14
Trip End
Jun 02, 2010
Chicago, Illinois
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The home stretch of the semester was awesome but for different reasons that the rest. I actually didn't do any overnight trips, for one. On the weekends I instead hung around Quito, which was awesome. I was feeling like this was my home--I knew my way around, I felt comfortable, and I was exploring some lesser-known pockets of the city. My Spanish was good enough at this point too, where I was making some Ecuadorian friends and no longer felt like the things I didn't know were holding me back. It was all just so bittersweet, because I knew that my time was rapidly coming to a close but I still wanted to enjoy every day to the max.
I did take a couple of day trips though. One day we went out to Papallacta, about an hour away, where they have some hot baths. It was nice, sort of a chilly day to be taking a dip, but we got a delicious meal on the program's dime (well, I guess our own dime since we technically had already paid for these trips), and it's always nice to get to know a new place. The next weekend was a day trip out to a rose factory and hacienda near Cotopaxi, which actually was pretty sweet. It was really interesting to see the rose factory, it was all hand labor, and definitely not what I would imagine any sort of rose factory equivalent to be like in the U.S. The hacienda we went to afterwards had walls that were built by the Incas--even today it remains a mystery how the Incas piled those big stones atop one another so perfectly without using mortar. There were also a couple of walls in the hacienda that were built by the Spanish, and their inferiority was readily apparent. We also had the absolute best locro soup that I had had my entire time there, wow words cannot describe. I also went way out one day with the women who I worked with at the day care center and their adorable little kids to this town called El Quinche, pretty much just about as far as you can go on one of the bus lines...about an hour and a half from Quito. It was a rather unimpressive place, not pretty at all, just a town with a plaza and an old church, but we just went for a little picnic, so it was good for what it was, a good time with good people, enjoying good food.
The final weeks were a little busy in terms of schoolwork--within the last 10 days of class I had 4 exams, a final presentation, and 2 final papers to turn in. Sooo needless to say working on all of that was a bit much, but I got it done, and I managed to pull off 4 A's and a B in my classes, not too shabby for all being in Spanish. After it all, I decided to stay 2 extra weeks, because otherwise I would have just had one free week before whisking myself back off to the U.S., and I really just was not ready to go. Sooo in my found time I worked more at the day care center, volunteering there some full days, which was great...took some more salsa dance classes, hung around with some new friends, and just enjoyed being there without classes and homework hanging over my head. Coming back--exactly five months after I had left--was very emotional though. I mean, this was my first time even outside of the U.S...and to come back was...I don't know, bittersweet doesn't adequately capture what I was feeling, but it's the best word I can think of.
Soo, now that I've been back for some time, attempted to process the overload, what do I think? Well, my desire to constantly bring Ecuador up in every single second of every single conversation has subsided a bit, although I do find it creeping in relatively often. Some highlights and lowlights...
Things I do not miss about Ecuador:
*slow and unreliable internet connections
*my constant thirst (due, I'm assuming, to the altitude)
Things I do miss about Ecuador:
*the food, including drinkable yogurt, chifles, fresh bread everywhere, rice at every single meal (especially since we lack a stove in my current place of residence), THE FRESH ASS FRUIT AND JUICE (many of which I still do not remember the names)
*the constant perfect weather
*how cheap it is to travel...or to do virtually anything
*THE MOUNTAINS and all of the beautiful nature
*speaking Spanish
*the more laid back attitude towards life
*how warm and friendly the people are
*latin music everywhere, all day everyday
Things I realize I appreciate about the U.S.:
*the diversity of food and endless food choices (although that can be annoying when I'm hungry and just want to eat at a restaurant without having to think)
*rock music scene (sidebar--what I appreciate about CHICAGO: the outdoor summer festivals)
*Cash Cab and Jeopardy
*my friends and family
What I think is the most strange is to think that not everyone has gone through this great adventure in the same way that I have. People say that studying abroad is life changing, and I would definitely agree. I can't pinpoint any specific revelations I had, or how exactly my life is different, but just being somewhere else, somewhere where some things are so different, and where some things are totally the same, just experiencing all of that, LIVING there not as a tourist, learning the language, seeing so much. I guess I would say that every experience is life changing though, that we are forever different because of what happens to us each and every day, whether for better or for worse. This would definitely go under the "for better" category, and I really can't imagine, now, how my life could possibly be without having done this. Were there low points? Absolutely. Things I would have done differently? Absolutely. Would I do it all again? Absolutely. In a heartbeat.
What I think impacted me most profoundly was realizing that there is a WHOLE WORLD out there. I was just in ONE little country for five months, and there are almost 200 countries (or more?) in the world. To think that there are people who are living lives that I will never know, will never see, will never understand, never can understand because I am not experiencing it, because I don't speak their language, because I am not a part of all of that, is just mind blowing. If anything, studying abroad has created an even bigger fire within me, a greater desire to get out there, to not stay here (whereever that may be) forever. I'm just bitten by this travel bug, and find myself constantly imagining scenarios in how I'll be able to plan a life where I can be free and see the world. I think that that is what was the most valuable thing I got out of it all, that heightened sense of curiousity, the opportunity to see that, wait a minute, there's BILLIONS of people out there, doing things their own way, living life in a way that works best for them, totally and completely separate from everything I know here.
We'll see what happens next.
