Adios Primer Ano

Who woulda' thought
while in Iowa

We are close to wrapping up the end of the year at school (10 school days left but who's counting) and we have our flights back to the states booked and ready. As we are approaching that time, it seemed like an appropriate time for reflection. I don’t want to go into a summary of our experiences and adventures because we have detailed all of those on this blog as they were happening, (volcano hiking and camping, llama fights, pink bedrooms, Amazon treks, Galapagos swims and trips to the beach) I would rather go into the mindset part of things for a moment. I have pictures from all the fun stuff but if this blog is about capturing the most accurate representation of our time here then I have to write these experiences down before they’re out of my memory for good.

Ughh. the pink room.

This whole thing was about experiencing new things. We wanted to experience new culture and we did. Sometimes that’s pretty and idealistic as you talk to a local about the differences between your food and theirs. Other times it’s a messy string of unrelated moments where you can’t explain to a taxi driver where you live or where you can’t eat dinner because no matter how hard you try you simply can’t tell a person what you want. We’ve been boxed into the cereal aisle of a grocery store by people too inconsiderate to notice the presence of other beings.

House hunting seemed
so long ago

This year has seen us drop our jaws in awe at the majestic views of the Andes Mountains, glistening white sand of the South American Coastline, and fear while standing on the cap of a volcano. We have met incredible people. We have experienced food that takes your breath away. We have made lifelong friends and seen them grow from party people to parents. We’ve seen people break down and find strangers willing to lend a shoulder. We’ve learned so much about this country, this lifestyle (the good and the bad), and redefined our previous conceptions of life outside of the US. It wasn't easy to get here. We had to argue with the Visa offices, send countless mail on behalf of Howie, pack up our lives to ship them, and say some very tough goodbyes to great friends and family.

I'll take all the victories I can
get, little or big

When we got here we had some struggles. We didn’t have a home at first and two days to find one with the help of the school which was a cascading avalanche of pressure. Once we found one, we were without hot water and our possessions for about a month and a half. We were cold, frustrated, and hopeful. We have had our hard moments where we’ve had friends robbed at gun and knife point and car dealerships that made me want to bring the weapon into the picture. Putting the pieces in place for us to live the kind of life we expect and need has been arduous and long. I mean, we’ve been here since August 13 and we are just this weekend having a washer and dryer installed and we just got an oven last week! I’m sure there’s a ton of work to be done in the future but in the meantime I’ll take my little victories and enjoy them.

If this post is a bit scattered between the good and the bad…then good. That’s what life was like here. That’s what our lives have been for the past 9 months. But the fact of the matter is, through the difficulties and through the frustrations a fog lifted and we began to navigate our way around a strange new place. We carved a life out of the thicket of tangled confusion. That’s one of the most valuable lessons I can take from this first year. We had many tough times. We had many experiences that we couldn’t have had anywhere else in the world. We learned a lot about our students, international teaching, a new country, a new language, and most importantly ourselves. We realized that while this transition was huge, it is something that we can handle and we had a blast along the way. I look forward to our trip to the states. I look forward to real BBQ sauce, M&Ms, music I understand, and the guarantee that I will not see a pig’s head or a flame thrower on the side of the road. But at the same time, I can’t wait until we come back next year and do it all again without the transition and culture shock. It’ll be time to sink our teeth into Ecuador. We’ll be busy planning a wedding and all of that but we won’t have to go through the house hunt, car search, language barrier, laundry hikes and cold water nights. I will always look back on this first year fondly with memories of struggle and triumph that I appreciate equally. 

It hasn't all been hard but I'm looking
forward to coming back.