First Month Here

I've been here for a exactly a month, and I can confidently say that this is going to be the best year of my life. Ecuador is amazing, and I love my new country. Everyone here is so welcoming and friendly right from the moment they meet you. Something that is different from America about here is that it seems a lot more based around your family. On the weekends or after school back home most of my time was spent with my friends, but here is different. In my family, almost all of our time is spent together, eating meals, going out, and even just relaxing at home we all spend time together in the same room.

       The first 2 weeks after I arrived, my school was on a vacation because they just finished mid-term exams, so I had a long time to settle in and adjust to my new life here. After those 2 weeks I had my first day of school, which is a lot harder than I expected because it is much more difficult to understand the teachers when they are speaking spanish as fast as they do. My school here is definitely different than my high school back home, but I like my school and I love my friends here.


      I love the food here! It would be hard for a vegetarian, or someone who is allergic to gluten, to live here, because the basis of our lunch and diner is chick and rice, which lucky for me I love! The fruits here are amazing. Every lunch we have had a different fruit drink, which are always home made, but my favorite new food discovery so far has been a Granadia. From the outside it looks and feels like a foamy orange with a little poking out of the top, but when you open it, it is filled with grey seeds, similar to pomegranate, but much more goopy feeling. It is one of the weirdest foods I have ever seen, but the sweetest fruit I have ever had before!

       It's going to be weird not to be home to experience the leaves change, apple picking, and a white christmas, but I am going to be surrounded my palm trees and tropical weather for the next 9 months, so I think it is a fair trade!