November 2010
1 post
Home
I know I kind of discontinued this blog…
Well, I have been home for about 5 months. Ecuador is in my past, and I still can’t accept that. Each day, the details become a little bit fuzzier and I dread the day when almost all will be forgotten. I look at photos from my exchange and long for that life of freedom, adventure, and learning. My friends at school can only pretend to...
May 2010
1 post
6 WEEKS.
In six weeks I will be back in Oregon. I will be with my family. I will be able to eat Subway and Jamba Juice. I will be able to speak English. I will be able to walk down the street without being called “Gringa.”
Sounds great, doesn’t it? I’m not so sure.
Yes, I am so so so excited to go back home, back to my country! But I will be leaving behind people that I...
April 2010
5 posts
Only in Textbooks
I remember learning about it in Biology class, reading excerps from “The Origin of Species”, and nervously giggling in the 7th grade when we found out there was a bird named “Blue-Footed Booby”. It was a place that I had only read about in textbooks, someplace far away that I only studied so that I could get an A on a test.
The Galapagos Islands. A place that can never be...
The Bucket List
I’ve made sort of a bucket list.
No…I’m not dying. But my exchange is. Less than three months left in Ecuador! So to make sure that I take advantage of every opportunity here, I wrote down all of the things that I simply had to do before I went back to Oregon. And this past week…I got to cross off a pretty good amount of those things from my list.
Tuesday: I met up with...
Baby Michael Serenade
I think I’m still blushing…
Usually I’m the first one on the bus when our principal mentions a school fieldtrip, this time however…I wish I had stayed behind.
We were taken to the Centro de Arte y Cultura where we would be watching short films made by students from the local high school. We all filed into the auditorium and made ourselves comfortable. After about an hour...
March 2010
0 posts
The Jungle Book
Monkeys, mosquitoe bites, floating down the Napo River, hiking through the rainforest, jungle boys, poisonous snakes, and exchange students. Doesn’t that sound like the recipe for the perfect week?
The Jungle adventure began on February 17 with my bug spray and sun screen in hand. So, here is what happened during one amazing week in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador:
Day 1: The taxi picked...
February 2010
6 posts
Water, Eggs, and Flour
Sometimes being a foreigner can be quite the advantage. You get free drinks, whistles in the streets, and are exemped from tests and homwork. During carnaval week, however, being a “gringa” just means you get extra eggs in your hair.
In Ecuador, Carnival officially starts on 13th of February, but the festivities start long before that date. It’s definitely one of my favorite holidays...
Rewind
Back to step 1.
Do I do my own laundry?
Can I help myself to the food in the fridge?
What time should I get up in the morning?
Do I have a curfew?
When can I use the computer?
On friday the 29th, I carried my two bulging suitcases, two backpacks, and a very full duffel bag down the stairs of my house and nervously waited.
What was I waiting for?
The complete strangers that would hopefuly...
January 2010
4 posts
I love being an exchange student!
The life of an exchange student can be pretty stressful at times.
Swimming in the ocean, eating seafood, watching movies, going to parties…the kind of stuff that really causes those premature gray hairs.
On the 10th of Janurary I left the cold, ash coated streets of Riobamba (a nearby volcano, Tungurahua, had just errupted) and headed for a warmer part of the country, the coastal city of...
Feliz Año Nuevo!
WOW….where to start.
Ecuadorian New Years. It´s just too much to handle in one night.
I´ll try to explain it as best as I can.
The best place to really experience New Years is on the streets. My host family took me out in the car so that I could see the mayhem for myself. The first Ecuadorian tradition is that men dress up as women (called viudas), fake breasts and all, and dance all over...
December 2009
5 posts
Christmas in Ecuador
This year I got to experience my first real christmas! My family in the U.S is Jewish, meaning menorahs and potatoe latkes are a more common sight at our house than stuffed reindeer and a singing santa.
Here is a brief explanation of an Ecuadorian Christmas:
The Christmas festivities in Ecuador don´t just start on Christmas Eve, for the nine evenings before the 25th, the whole family...
Feliz Navidad
This past week instead of going to school, I decided to do something a little more productive…
The Rotary Club invited the exchange students to help them pass out bags of candy and pills for the flu to the poorest schools near Riobamba. We gladly accepted, although mostly because we wanted to skip school. These past days, however, have been amazing not because I got out of going to school,...
Climbing Chimborazo
When thinking of Ecuador one might picture sandy beaches, sun, and summer clothes…
Winter jackets, hot chocolate, and below freezing temperatures aren´t usually the first things that come to mind.
This past sunday however, I was definitely thinking of the latter.
This weekend, the exchange students were invited to a Rotaract conference being held in Riobamba. Rotary members from all...
November 2009
4 posts
Bull Fights!
The 21st of November was a significant day in that I had been in Ecuador for exactly three months. In celebration of that important day, I did something truly Ecuadorian…go watch the bull fights.
I went with the host family of one of my exchange friends here, and to say the least, we were both nervous wrecks the whole time. To sum it all up, there were a lot of close calls between the bull...
Hola from Ecuador!
I´ve been here for close to three months and almost every day something different and exciting happens. One of the highlights of the month of October was the trip with all of the exchange students to the coastal province of Manabi. We stayed in Manabi from October 17-21. There were over 120 exchange students from about 18 countries, it was so much fun! The first day we got to be a part of the...
October 2009
2 posts
Hola! I have been in Ecuador for about a month and a half and have so many great memories to prove it. This month has been pretty low-key. I´m simply getting to know Riobamba, making new friends, and getting used to my new school. September went by so so fast!!! In the beginning of the month I attended a language camp in Quito where I got to meet my first group of exchange students. It felt...
September 2009
1 post
ECUADOR IS AMAZING!
Hola! I have been in Ecuador for almost a month, and I am enjoying myself so much! I arrived in Quito on August 21 and spent the night with my host family in my host brother´s apartment. The next morning I was whisked away to the province of Esmeraldas, to a small town called Rio Verde. We stayed in a beautiful white beach house called a ¨finca¨ which belonged to some family friends. The catch was...
July 2009
1 post
3 WEEKS UNTIL I LEAVE!!
It is finally starting to dawn on me that I will be gone for a whole year! I am in major panic mode but at the same time I am so so so excited. For the next three weeks I will be buying everything I need, getting immunizations, and catching up with my friends. I spend all day thinking about my exchange, I can’t wait!
June 2009
6 posts
I am currently in the arduous task of applying for my student visa. I have had to do everything from going to the police station to getting blood tests. My biggest fear is getting my blood drawn, it was not a fun experience for me! Anyways, I am almost done with all the paperwork for the visa, I just have to get a couple of passport photos from Walgreens and I’m done! My date of departure is...
If you ever get bored with my blog, head over to hellofromfrance.tumblr.com. My foreign exchange counterpart, Eli, is going to France with AFS and he will also be writing about his experiences as an exchange student next year.
I just got an email from my host family, and they are SO NICE!
My host mom sent me her love and said that her family would do everything possible to make me feel comfortable in her home.
She also said that the average temperature in Riobamba is 57 degrees farenheit. You know how when you think of Ecuador, you picture sunny beaches and palm trees? Well, that’s not too realistic.
Another...
So, some very exciting information that I just received from Ecuador:
Host Parents: Felipe y Patricia
School: Colegio Jefferson
Date of Departure: August 21
SO EXCITED!
My new school in Ecuador! →
May 2009
2 posts
Welcome!
HEY! WELCOME! My name is Alex and as of August 2009 I will be living with a family in Ecuador. This is a blog about the life of an exchange student, complete with photos and links to anything Ecuador related.. It’s like an online travel show, except my adventures won’t be as dangerous as those of Bear Gryllis. Enjoy!