Well a lot has happened since I last updated my blog. In fact I'm back in the US safe and sound, I'm in Madison this week and then I'll be moving up to Minneapolis to start working. But back to Ecuador...
I finished up teaching at Pedro Luis Calero, all of the kids were sad to see me go. I received lots of notes and little gifts on my last day and got some great photos. It was really gratifying to know that the kids enjoyed the classes that I taught and it was hard to say goodbye. I'll definitely look back at that experience as a fun and educational time. I learned a lot, and although that I may have learned that I do not want to teach young kids as my profession, I do have a greater appreciation for teachers and have a lot of great memories.
Once I finished teaching, I had a week to finish writing my final term paper. That week was also when all of my friends from my program came back to Quito so we juggled some work with a lot of last minute fun as well. When it was all said and done I had a 20+ page paper to turn in and a short presentation and before I knew it my semester was over.
After that I spent some more time hanging out in Quito before I traveled to the coastal towns of Manta and Calceta. It was nice to get to the beach one last time, but the heat and humidity on the coast can be almost unbearable. It's definitely not what I've grown accustomed to living in Wisconsin and Minnesota...
On the 21st my Mom arrived in Quito. It was great to see her after so long and it was very exciting to have her in Ecuador. We spent the first day in Quito checking out an artisan market and also getting to know the more central area of towns (La Mariscal) where there's lots of shops, restaurants and bars. Sunday morning, we were picked up from our hostal by the tour group that we went birding with. We spent the next two and a half days doing a lot of hiking and bird watching. The birding tour had beautiful lodges that we stayed at and all of the meals were excellent. My favorite birds were all of the varieties of hummingbirds as well as the Toucanette (a small Toucan). After the birding excursion we returned to Quito where we spent more time in the Centro Historico (the old colonial part of the city) and also did some other Quito things like riding the TeleferiQo up the side of Mount Pichincha. We also finally caught up on some sleep after the long exhausting days of birding.
It's hard to believe that all of this was just last week, the past few days I've started to feel farther and farther away from Ecuador as I get readjusted to my life here in the US. It is good to be home, mostly to see everyone that I missed over these past months, but there's definitely a part of me that is still in the southern hemisphere. When I look back at my trip, I can confidently say that it was everything that I had hoped it would be and more. I learned so much about myself, what I like, what I don't like, maybe even some things I want to do in my future. And one of the first things on that list is going back to Ecuador. I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to have this experience and I know that if I could do it again, I wouldn't change a thing.
