ringing true

I've just about hit the one week marker in Ecuador with my Study Abroad program jazz. After stalking this chica a bit... what i've been thinking deep down inside for the past week was confirmed a little bit more.

I had an amazing experience in Guatemala. Not going to lie. But i was reminded after my first day in Quito, not to try and recreate my experience i had this summer- cause it won't work.

For this reason, i have tried this week to as little as possible compare this week to the awesomeness of my summer.... trying not to compare Gaute with Quito....trying not to compare study abroad with AIESEC. Well, that is very hard to do when they are so drastically different.

I was greeted in Guate with a group of Guatemalans and was taken out straight from the airport. I then went the next day to a national @ conference and had at least 30 phone numbers in my phone of guatemalans within 72 hours. I know i've already said all this...but i say it again because this is really how it was the rest of the summer....and by the looks of it, it was the trend of many other badgers this summer too. Alone figuring everything out..but not, we had a network like woooah.

Now i'm in Ecuador. I started orienation at school on monday with 250 other gringos. Okay fine. at least reall school will start on Wednesday and there will be locals to meet so i can figure out where to go in this city. Hmmm. Well school started on Wednesday alright.

My classes are filled with foreigners who don't speak spanish to you. I even saw a girl next to me taking notes in english in our Spanish taught History class of Colonialism in Latin America....hmm. My 'laguna beach' campus is full of small groups of either americans chatting amongst themselves or groups of ecuadorians in small groups talking to themselves. I found my self idle for a little over an hour between classes with no clue on what to do. I walked around campus for a bit, not sure on who to try and make friends with... and not sure how to. On a camopus with no sports teams (except if you take a class ...i'm in yoga by the way, too cool) to join or go watch, and no clubs to join. I randomly sat down in an open patio area to eat a sandwich and made a comment about the weather to an ecuadorian. No dice.

In my classes I try to find the 3 or 4 ecuadorians and sit by them and ask them questions or make random comments... but my curiosity or blatant efforts to make conversation have been done in vain. With lack of people talk to, I joined a group of americans for lunch. Where we had burgers across the street with 3 other tables of americans....

Tomorrow I'm going with a group of 20 americans to a market 2.5 hours away. Frankly i'm pretty excited to see some of Ecuador finally and get back into the swing of weekend getaways, but its weird to not be accompanied by locals. My 'family' asked me if I'm going with any Ecuadorians since it will be a lot safer and easier to get there and walk around...i replied with nooo, only americans- i don't really know any Ecuadorians yet. They just nodded.

I've been left this week with a feeling like my feet are stuck in mud. I want to see Qutio...I want to go to the sweet places...I want to be able to go into the university and feel some sense of belonging...I want to make Ecuadorian friends... I've just felt like i haven't been able to pick up my feet and mooooove. More effort is needed I guess.

I've been searching for AIESECers in Quito to grasp onto the network that I know is there...but i wish I would have started the process of emailing and facebooking a little earlier. If all goes as planned...I'll be meeting some aiesec alumni that I heard were pretty cool, (and great dancers!) from down the aiesec chain of the quito travelled. We'll see how that goes.


For now? Keep speaking spanish, keep trying to grasp on to Ecuador.