Ch-ch-ch-changes

A daily routine: everyone has one and we tend to spend most of our time maintaining it. Often times, we can even feel stuck in our routine as we go day by day doing the same things more or less to create some rhythm and regularity in our lives. When I started my school year in the fall at Linfield, I created a routine and I stuck to it. I was pretty comfortable in my routine and I liked my routine. I had my schedule for every week: wake up early days, workout days, sleep in days, class, work, study, repeat. I would throw a curveball in my routine every once in awhile so I didn’t feel like a robot and could keep life interesting: going out with my friends, trip to the beach, weekend at home, explore Portland for a day, etc. Like I said I felt very comfortable in my routine and I felt like I had finally found a groove that worked for me. However, as I found my routine I became increasingly nervous about the giant 180 change I was about to make in my life, taking my whole life and moving it to Ecuador for 5 months.

I knew that coming here would be a big challenge. I was going to have to change my routine completely. I would have to change how I ate, how I exercised, how I got places, how I learned and how I lived as I was going back to living with a parental figure for an extended period of time. For me, this was a lot of changes to take on at once, and I knew I would be hit with a lot of challenges and adjustments in a very short period of time. As hard as I tried to prepare myself mentally, there is no real way to completely prepare yourself for the kind of challenges you encounter when every aspect of your life changes.

Bienvenidos a Quito

As my first activity when I arrived in Ecuador was eating breakfast with my host mom, the food was the first thing that was a big challenge for me. I am very used to making my own food and doing my own grocery shopping and choosing what I eat everyday based on what I feel like my body needs. However, the basic meal here in Ecuador is very different than the basic meal in the US and my host mom spends time making meals for me so I feel obligated to eat it, whether I really like it or not. If I leave anything on my plate I get a surprised look that says “why didn’t you eat everything I made you, do you not like it? What was wrong with your meal?” This was tough for me because I didn’t want to tell my host mom that I didn’t like something she made but I had to so that she wouldn’t put it on my plate again. Or even if I did like it, I would be so full and feel bad when she asked why I didn't want to eat it all (it was delicious, but my stomach was at maximum capacity). It was also pretty tough because I am lactose-intolerant so I can’t eat dairy and I don’t eat a lot of white rice/white bread and both of these things are pretty prominent in Ecuadorian cooking. So my host mom was kind of at a loss as to what to make me when I said I didn’t eat a lot of rice or eat dairy and I didn’t drink a lot juice (I still get juice at almost every meal). It took me awhile, but I had to learn how to talk to my host mom about what I liked and didn’t like, even if she looked at me like a crazy person for eating or not eating certain things. I’m a pretty adventurous person when it comes to food but I also have a pretty sensitive stomach so even if she didn’t love that I didn’t like something, I had to get used to being very straightforward with her about those things in order to take care of myself.

a Typical Ecuadorian Meal

Continuing with the health and wellness theme, moving to a different country also completely threw off my exercise routine. At home I have my Planet Fitness membership and I had my set times when I went: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and once on the weekend and I was happy and comfortable with my gym and my morning workout routine. When I got to Ecuador I gave myself a little break to allow myself to adjust to being in a new country but after a couple of weeks I hadn’t done much exercise and I was feeling pretty gross. I had tried to run in the park by my house but found myself uncomfortable because more often than not I would get stared at or whistled at as I was running and I don’t like being bothered (especially getting cat-called) when I’m working out. I like being in my own little world and I definitely don’t like drawing attention to myself. Latin American culture is one in which cat-calling is really prominent and very common and I wasn’t comfortable just putting up with that in a time when I was just trying to take care of myself and my personal health. So part way through February I decided to splurge and get a gym membership near my house. I found myself a lot more comfortable working out there. I could give my workouts more variety and I didn’t feel like I was being stared at or preyed on while I was working out, so I adjusted my routine once again so that I could take care of myself, even though I had to spend a little extra money to do so.

Quito Ecovia

However, another adjustment I made that actually is saving me money is in my daily transportation. I haven’t driven a car in three months. Everyday, to get to school and back, my option for transportation is either taxi or bus and since taxi prices can really add up if you took one every day, I pay a dollar every day to get to school and back via two public buses. While it is cheaper, and I spend a lot less money taking bus than I do fueling my car at home, the bus is a pain in the butt sometimes and also not the safest place in the whole world. You don’t want to take the bus after dark, so if it’s past 7PM on any given day, your safest bet is taking a taxi to wherever you need to go. Three months in, I feel pretty comfortable on the bus and I am used to it, and I hadn’t had any problems, until last week. On these busses you have to carry your bags in front of you with your arms hugging it like a baby. The issue that I had was that on this particular day, I had too much stuff and had to bring a small extra bag with me on the bus, to carry a couple things as I was staying the night with a friend. So my big backpack with all of my valuables was right in front of me and my little bag was by my side with my arm over it, hugging it close to my body. When I got off of the bus, I realized that the end of my hairbrush was poking out of the side of my bag, and with further investigation, I realized that someone on the bus had slashed the side of my bag trying to take something, and I hadn’t even noticed. Luckily for me, I had crammed that bag full of my beauty supplies and clothes so they weren’t able to take anything valuable. Unluckily for one of my friends, she had a similar experience and had her bag cut and phone stolen. It’s a lot different because even though I don’t really take public transportation at home, I generally feel pretty safe on the Max (aside from the occasional crazy homeless person), and I’m never packed in with other people like a can of sardines.

USFQ

Nonetheless, I go to school every day via bus and sit through my classes, which are entirely in Spanish, and clinging on to every word that my teachers say just hoping that I don’t miss important information. Taking classes here was definitely something that at first was a bit overwhelming for me. My classes here are a lot different than my classes at home because of obviously the language but also how my teachers teach and format their class. At home, my classes are basically go to lecture, come back to my room, study what I learned in lecture, do a long study guide and take 3 tests throughout the term to determine my grade. With my science classes I’ll have labs included and for any general classes there might be an essay or two thrown in. That being said, here I do still sit through lectures sometimes, but a lot of my classes are much more interactive, and I swear I have never been assigned so many group projects in my whole life. I hate group projects and all that they entail because I like being graded solely on my own work and I hate oral presentations because I’m not huge on getting up in front of a group of people to speak, especially in Spanish. My Spanish is pretty good and I don’t really mind presenting as much when I am in a class full of other exchange students, but when I have to get up in front of a group of Ecuadorian students and give an oral presentation about something in Spanish, I swear my Spanish gets worse just because I’m so nervous that I’m going to butcher it (one day I was so nervous that I forgot how to say “eleven”). I’ve gotten more used to it, but now I realize why I’m a science major. As hard as some of those tests are, I would much rather study for hours on end and then get grilled on my knowledge then spend hours putting together an oral presentation or a group project.

My professors here tend to be a little bit more disorganized and unlike at home, my assignments are not always on the syllabus or get changed a week before they’re due.

It can get really frustrating because if everything is on the syllabus before hand I know that I will get it done, but if it’s not there and I accidentally miss something in class because I didn’t catch the small sentence in Spanish, I’ll be scrambling to get an assignment done the night before that I didn’t even know about. It’s a lot different because at home I can kind of zone out for a minute, half listen to my professors at an early 8AM class and still know what’s going on. But if I zone out and half listen to a professor speaking in Spanish, chances are I’ll miss something and wind up pretty confused later. So, I have to have laser focus at all times to ensure that I don’t completely miss something important. But hey, I’ve done pretty well this far, and I don’t have a single class that I’m worried I won’t pass. I find it harder here because I can’t just drag myself through my daily routine and my classes, the second language forces me to be more present and more proactive in participating in and understanding my classes. This makes it a little more difficult, but it’s probably a good thing for me because it makes me feel less like a robot in a routine and it helps me to do better in the long run.

While I’ve had to adjust to all of these new things and more, this change in my life has ultimately been really good for me. As someone who isn’t always super comfortable with change, having to make all of these changes has made me more comfortable adjusting because I realize how valuable making adjustments in my life can be. This entire experience in Ecuador has been so valuable for me and I have learned a lot about myself, and grown a lot in how I handle new and different situations. I have learned even more how to appreciate and embrace the differences in another culture and with all of the exciting changes that are coming up in my life, I know that I’m better equipped to handle it. The experience I have had here and the things I have learned are things I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and now I know that I can embrace new challenges instead of being scared of them. As the semester draws to a close, and my journey home approaches in just two short months, I can only imagine the craziness that will ensue when I come back and have to readjust again. I will be going back to work (the same as I do every summer), but I will also be apartment hunting, moving, prepping for nursing school, and living a life with a dog shaped hole in it (x2). All of this is a huge adjustment for me, but I've done it once, and thanks to Ecuador I know I can handle it all again (the new home and the reverse culture shock). As I have learned, every new chapter of my life is going to bring incredible changes to help me grow, so as this one comes to an end, I can't wait to see what the next one has to bring.

Chao por ahora,

Claire

The dog shaped holes in my life - plus who doesn't love a good puppy picture?