Wrapping up Round 1...

Sorry for not posting for so long; since Thanksgiving life’s been pretty nutty. My last Monday, sitting and thinking hard about life and everything that I had been living up to that point in my internship, I finally came to terms with the fact that I had been going through culture shock without realizing it.

So I was finally present in my life in rural Ecuador, for the first time in five weeks. I hadn’t been really present and aware of what I was doing and living because my life had been so thrown off course, because I was not living a life in really any way normal for me.

My last week in La Rinconada was really great. I realized I was really going to miss the kids, and that I really was contributing positively to the school. The kids even threw me a goodbye program on Friday! It was so sweet, with songs and letters and little gifts, and they made me cry (thanks, mom & dad…I kid, I kid).

In any case, it made coming back to Quito a lot harder than I anticipated. I actually experienced reverse culture shock for the first few days, which really threw me off because I was not expecting that in the least. On top of that we all had our (minimum 20-pg, in Spanish) final papers to work on!! Ay life was throwing some hard punches at me for this past week.

But I have made it through, very much alive and very much well. You gotta roll with the punches. It was just harder because I was worn out from six very long and challenging weeks that, like I said, I only came to appreciate in the very end. I can’t really explain how that experience was for me, because it has been a very important one for me in so many ways, but it suffices to say that I will continue growing/learning from those six weeks for the rest of my life.

My paper ended up being a paragraph onto page 32. I think it’s hilarious that the longest paper I’ve written up to this point in my life is in Spanish.

ANYWAY. So our program wrapped up and since then I’ve been hanging out with the 99% of my friends that are leaving/have left. It’s been weird because the first time all semester hanging out has felt so normal, seemingly with no pressures of getting on a bus to head back to Quito or our papers hanging over our heads…though that’s ironic because there’s that whole pressure of the I-don’t-know-when-I’m-going-to-see-you-again thing. Ay. I don’t want to think about that because it makes me sad to say goodbye to 24 absolutely remarkable people. You just don’t experience group dynamics like that in any group of 29 people.

But hanging out has been really nice. Oh, and since I know you’re reading, hi Keith! It was awesome to meet you, because I love your wife and it was great to finally meet the dream husband she’s told us so much about.

MY PARENTS WILL BE HERE AT 10:22 PM!!! I can’t believe that December 15 has already come, that I will be seeing my fambam for the first time in three months and two weeks. Crazy. Bur we’re going to have a great two weeks so I’m thrilled for them to come and see bits of the fantastic country in which I’m living.

So until I’ve got my next chance to write, I hope you all are doing well and that this holiday season treats you well and brings you lots of time with loved ones like it’s doing for me!