Well everyone, after 36 hours of travel and far too many disgruntled airport employees and pampered Houstonian princesses, I've arrived safely in South Dakota. Thanks again to everyone for reading my blog, as a final send-off I've made some lists of, well, various things.
Things I will miss from Ecuador: warmth, $1 beers, llapingachos, my family, fresh fruit, the language, cheap travel, real mountains, my kids, historic buildings, sunshine, beaches, vanilla Konitos, Pingüino ice cream, plazas, fresh bread, music, my friends, Martha, Sarita, María, and Adriana (professors/program assistants), 25 cent public transportation, chochos, smells, futbol-mania, balconies, Pingüino ice cream (it deserves two), bus adventures, newness, soup, the G-Spot, Rafael Correa, indigenous remedies, open-air markets, the black market, tarantulas, year-round flowers, flexible schedules, Juan Car´s movies, South American Coca-Cola, protests, hope, familiarity, $3 movie theaters, flexible due dates, fresh juice, humitas, dozens of banana varieties, city life, chocolate milk
Things I will miss from Ecuador: warmth, $1 beers, llapingachos, my family, fresh fruit, the language, cheap travel, real mountains, my kids, historic buildings, sunshine, beaches, vanilla Konitos, Pingüino ice cream, plazas, fresh bread, music, my friends, Martha, Sarita, María, and Adriana (professors/program assistants), 25 cent public transportation, chochos, smells, futbol-mania, balconies, Pingüino ice cream (it deserves two), bus adventures, newness, soup, the G-Spot, Rafael Correa, indigenous remedies, open-air markets, the black market, tarantulas, year-round flowers, flexible schedules, Juan Car´s movies, South American Coca-Cola, protests, hope, familiarity, $3 movie theaters, flexible due dates, fresh juice, humitas, dozens of banana varieties, city life, chocolate milk
Things I won´t miss from Ecuador: bus exhaust, rain, child street workers, staring, creepy taxi drivers, Nestle instant coffee, racism/homophobia, buses packed to over-capacity, low doorways, barking dogs on roofs, El Jardín, reggeaton, sunburns, my electricuting shower, too-short blankets, dog poop on the sidewalks
Things I still want to do in Ecuador: learn Quichua, visit the Galápagos Islands, canoe in the Amazon, learn to cook, drive somewhere, bungee jump, see an erupting volcano (with lava, Tungarahua doesn´t count), scuba dive,
Things I´m looking forward to at home: peanut butter, space, exercise, real coffee, the language, my family, driving, Christmas, friends, my pets, coffee shops, consistently warm showers, reliable postal service, independence, extra-long twin size beds, snow, stars, good Indian food, Carleton, sharp cheddar cheese, the ability to use the bills the ATM gives you, skiing, macaroni and cheese
Foods I like (as in actually crave and search for on menus) now (mostly for Paula Ensz and Susan Langlee): tofu, tomatoes, avacado, hot salsa, onions, cucumbers, peppers, pineapple, spicy things, figs, shwarma (I know, who comes to Ecuador and eats shwarma?), cuy (guinea pig),
Foods I still really don´t like: mushrooms and mayonnaise
New names I go by: Nath (how Charo spells "Nate"), Nata (everyone), Natan (my boss), Net (Myriam and the kids in the street), Leche (Gabby), Milk (Gabby), Natita (Elizabeth when she wants something and Eli´s mom), and, as spelled phonetically in Spanish by my neighbor, Neith
Things I lost in Ecuador: timidity, weight, inhibitions, two scarves, idealism, direction
Words I might start using in English: chévere (cool, but better), chuchaqui (hangover), bacán (cool, again), chao (ciao, but how we spell it here), sigue no más (like, "go ahead" or "move along" or really anything you could possibly need to express verbally), a ver (used like, "look here")
Things I care less about now: my appearance, what other people think of me , personal comfort, promptness
Things I care more about now: education, Spanish fluency, GLBT rights, personal awareness, good ice cream (you laugh, but Pingüino´s up there twice), South American politics, economics, philosophy (Juan Car talks about it all the time), tranquility, and if possible, travel
3 comments:
Great stories - I had fun following along. Now back to the shock and awe of winter in the Midwest.
Good lists. I might copy them. Not the stuff, but the titles.
I, too, have lost two scarves here.
Good luck with this "reentry" stuff everyone keeps blabbing about. Can't wait to see you and compare notes.
Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my blog, it is about the Home Broker, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://home-broker-brasil.blogspot.com. A hug.
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