4months in 4months out

Hello my fellow reader, I am excited to share with all of you that I have got through my first semester here in Ecuador. I do however, have 4 more months to go. Since my four months here I have talked about culture shock, racism, the September 30 event when the President cause more than a little uproar, how to budget, etc. but what I have not really got into is the affect Ecuador has had on me. When I first got here I must admit that I wanted so bad to go home. I felt like this was not for me and that this experience was going to hurt me. Some say it was culture shock, and part of me believes that. Here I am in a foreign country with no kind of training on the language to get around. It was so hard trying to deal with that. Sometimes I wanted to stay in bed and just wait for night fall. I, however, found ambition to get up every day and work at not only the language but getting to know people and this culture which was my goal also. Now I am at a level in Spanish where I can hold a conversation, and with four more months to go I hope to be fluent. One thing that I will take back to the States with me is the knowledge of what another country tries so hard to get that in the United States is so much easier to get; jobs, homes, cars, welfare, government help, rights, acknowledgement. All these things I took for granted are now different to me. I know that the United States is suffering, I am not saying we are all mighty and powerful, but what I am saying is compared to Ecuador we are very rich in everything. We have more opportunities than we allow ourselves to believe. I want to be that person that understand the wealth we have and to really grasp the opportunity we have in the States because, if we do not then someone else will, then we notice what we had but only once it is gone. I do not want to wait until then, no one should. This experience will follow me throughout my life. It has transformed me into a totally different person. I want more for myself than I ever wanted because I know it is possible to obtain. I know that at the age of twenty-one, if I could go to another country for the first time for an entire academic school year, that anything else that comes my way is just simply a little road block, or stepping stone to get me to the next level. I said goodbye to some really great people that I met along this experience. I will never forget what they have brought into my life. I not only learned about Ecuador, but I learned about Mexico, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Australia, and even Africa. These have changed my lives and if it was not for this experience I would have never realize what I have and the choice to be someone so grand and important. I hope to change someones life throughout this journey we call life. I hope that one day I can live up to my potential and be satisfied with the out come. Continue reading my blogs in 2011. Happy New Years and Happy Holidays to all...