Transitions

Our directors told us this is a time for transitions. Today I left my host family and am preparing for five days in the Oriente (the rainforest) before I move in with my new family in Quito. I've officially been here for a little over a month, but some days I still wake up shocked that I'm in Ecuador and wondering why I'm not at Whitman. Studying abroad has been amazing thus far, but I still can't help but to feel a little displaced...

The last few weeks with the host family went pretty smoothly, but it was definitely time to move on. It's really difficult to go from a life of pretty much absolute freedom at school (and even at home I have few rules) to living under someone else's roof. It's not bad, it's just a hard change to make, and I'm looking forward to a week(ish) in the rainforest to kind of clear my mind before adjusting to a whole new family with different expectations.

While I am getting used to the different ways of communication and understanding here, it honestly is still hard to accept that things as deceptively simple as punctuality are interpreted a completely different way. It all comes down to my being willing to accept a certain loss of control on my part, which is something I'm actively trying to work on. When you're never ever completely sure of what's going on because details are really hard to pick up in another language. Basically with my host family, I would just wait for someone to tell me "vamos" and push me in the right direction, which generally works out just fine. I do feel like I have really learned a lot being here this month; I've gained a lot of self-reliance and a greater understanding of myself, which is a nice perk along with the language skills.

I return from the Oriente on Friday and move in with my next family on Saturday (right before Ecuador's World Cup qualifier game with Uruguay!). Then there's two weeks in Quito, a week on the coast, another week in Quito, and then my Independent Study Project. Crazy, no? They tell us it only gets harder from here, so wish me luck!