Well, here it is! My first blog of
the 2013 summer I’m spending in Ecuador. I can tell you already that it has
been challenging for me, and I think even more so than last year. Let me tell
you why.
(Scroll down to see the list.) First, to start with, my travel here
was not so great. I have never really had many bad experiences with flying. I
mean, the 17 hour flight to Africa made me physically sick, but it was still
okay. I also have always traveled with others. This was my second time traveling
out of the country alone. I went to the airport with my parents to find that I was
forced to pay $150 to bring my guitar overseas with me. This was a completely
horrible shock to me, seeing as I did plenty of research on the awful airline
that I used for this trip and did not see any problems. This was my first time
having experienced problems with having my guitar… and I’ve been out of the
country six other times before this! It’s just this one airline I used, I suppose.
Not a fan.
Anyway, so I ended up sitting next
to a really nice guy named David, who is from Ecuador and had studied in the States.
He ended up helping me a lot with luggage and translation if I needed it. He
also talked to me in English, which was refreshing, because everyone else I
would have to speak in Spanish.
Well, I was sick the entire trip. I hadn’t
slept at all on Wednesday night, and I tried so hard to sleep on the plane on
Thursday night. I couldn’t sleep at all. I couldn’t eat either. So needless to
say, I felt like crap. I watched “500 Days of Summer” because I knew it was
uneventful enough to help me sleep, but I think I fell asleep for like thirty
minutes tops. I kept asking the flight attendants what time it was, but the six
hours felt like forever.
I got to Guayakil, Ecuador at around
4:30 in the morning. I was well awake, even after not sleeping. My new friend
and I waited together, and he let me use his phone to text Santiago to let him
know when I’d be there. Guayakil is a short flight to Quito, which is the
capital city, so the flight was about forty minutes- if that, which was nice.
Santiago picked me up at the airport, and we drove the two hours to get home to
Calacali, a province in Quito, and my home.
I felt extremely weird at home. I
was greeted by my wonderful family, and even more so by Rebeca. To read more
about Rebeca, read my blog from last year, “I think she likes me” (can be seen
here: http://alliepisarro.blogspot.com/2012/06/i-think-she-likes-me.html).
Rebeca held open her arms for a big hug, and I picked her up and spun her
around. She giggled, and it made my heart melt. To think that she was so slow
to warm up, but that she told Santiago in December that she wanted me to come
sleepover again.
I kept being unaware of the time and
day. I was really confused to find that it was 11:00 in the morning as I was
unpacking. I felt like it should have been later, even though the time
difference is only by one hour, and that’s only because America observes
daylight savings, while many other countries (like Ecuador) do not. But I kept
unpacking and spending time with my family before I took a long nap for who
knows how many hours. It had been two full days since I had slept and eaten
anything!
After my nap, I groggily walked to
Santy’s house to see his family. They also greeted me warmly, and I got a
chance to update my Facebook about being at home in Ecuador! I also got a
special visit from my two good friends, Jhonatan and Jeymi, and we talked for a
while until it was time to go to sleep for a looong time. I was actually
supposed to go to this skating event thing this morning but was way too tired
to go, so I tiredly called Santiago at 8 to cancel so I could sleep for most of
the day.
I have to say, it has been wonderful
to see support pouring in from friends and family, as the many likes on my
statuses and pictures mean a lot! However, as I said, it’s been quite a weird
day and a half. There are many things that, of course, I’m not yet used to and
will probably take a while to warm up to, and they are the following:
1. The
boyfriend. Sometimes it’s weird to think that I’m dating someone, and it almost
is like unbelievable, if you can picture that. After not seeing your significant
other in person or anything for three or four months, it’s weird the first time
seeing them again. It is quite joyous, but it’s also strange. It’s like meeting
someone for the first time, and I’m not quite used to the feeling yet, and
sometimes it’s hard for me to accept the attention and affection. Today I wasn’t
feeling so well, and Santiago said to me, “When I try to hug you, you want me
to get off of you, but when I’m not hugging you, you get mad!” I said, “I’m a
woman! That’s my job!” To which he responded, “To make the life of a man
impossible?” “Of course!”
2. The food.
Since this past November when I got my gall bladder removed, I am HIGHLY
sensitive to food products. I’ll still spoil myself, but it becomes not so
enjoyable afterwards when I’m in pain from my body working to digest.
Therefore, after not being able to eat for like at least a day, my body was
going into a weird mode. Now I am able to eat, but my body isn’t quite used to
it. I don’t have quite as many options, and I haven’t gone shopping yet to get
some food that I’m used to. Therefore, I’m living off of Whoppers, eggs, and French
fries.
3. The cold.
First of all, in case I have NOT said this enough, IT IS COLD HERE!!!!! For all
you people that think that just because Ecuador is on the Equator that it’s
like Africa, you would be incorrect. It gets hot for maybe a few hours a day,
and even then it’s not hot. The only difference is that the sun is like ten
times hotter than in some other places, and although there are clouds and
frequent rain, you can still get sunburned pretty badly! The cold is nowhere near
winter in Jersey, because it’s a different kind of cold, but it’s definitely a
stretch from the 80 degree whether I left behind. I’m at a 2,000 ft altitude
surrounded by mountains. Suffice to say, it’s cold.
4. The water
(or lack of). This morning I was in pain taking a shower. Why? Because the
water was so cold that I couldn’t breathe, and when I could breathe, I could
see my breath in the air. This was because they’re working on the water here in
Calacali, so during the day there is often little or no water. Yes, this does
mean no water to flush the toilet, wash your hands, OR shower. I had to wait to
be able to shower, and when I could, it was freezing cold. To try and get some
positives in that, I researched it, and it’s actually healthy for you to take
cold showers. (see more here: http://www.ineedmotivation.com/blog/2008/04/4-reasons-why-you-need-to-take-cold-showers/)
5. The
borrowing. I have to continually remind myself to be humbled and gracious for
having everything that I do here. Sometimes I get snippy and entitled, and it’s
hard for me to not have my own bathroom and own everything, but I’m so grateful
to have what I do here, and even back at home, too.
6. The
sleeping. It’s actually weird being able to sleep. For the past year I worked
really hard and took some of the most difficult classes. I had a full class
load of 18 credits per semester, while working, interning at an alternative
school with teens, teaching in several different ministries, doing a long
research project over the course of the semester, trying to have a social life,
and studying for my Spanish CLEP test (which I passed!), all the while finding
time to Skype my boyfriend overseas in Ecuador. I barely had time to sleep and
was always looking to do the next assignment, cross off something on my to do
list, or meet a new deadline. Now I can actually learn the meaning of rest and be content with that, which is
kind of weird. Everyone has been asking me what I’m going to be doing all summer,
and to be honest, I’m going to let God decide that one. Then you can read it
here in this blog. Yet, for now, I’ve found that it’ll be nice to be able to
sleep, spend time with God, and just RELAX here in this beautiful country. This
doesn’t just mean not doing anything, but actually just enjoying what I do have
and having the time to do just that!
7. The
quirks of mi amado Ecuador. Aka, dogs barking all night, waking up to the
crowing of roosters, people using loud megaphones to advertise things while
they drive around the streets, it raining a lot here right now, it getting dark
outside before 6:30, watching Disney shows in Spanish, and trying to understand
everyone who is trying very hard and politely to talk to me in full Spanish.
Those are just a few…… :)
So needless to say, it’s been a
little challenging. My health has not been 100%, nor have I felt mentally
amazing. I think I need to really have some more devotional time and start
getting into a real routine to start feeling better. Once I’ve been here for a
few days I can really start enjoying the positive in things I listed above,
rather than feeling burdened by them. And that, my friends, is the beauty of
being in another culture: you just learn to embrace it!
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