Wait! I'm not ready!

This always happens.

You move to a new country for a year and think you've got all the time in the world to do everything it is that you want to do. So the year passes and you travel and eat strange things and meet new people and think that you are going to do everything it is that you want to.

And maybe you do.

But somehow, when you get to those last 48 or 24 hours in-country and you're literally hours away from boarding a plane, you stop and think: "Wait! I'm not ready!" Somehow there just wasn't enough to time to take that one trip to that one place that you always wanted to visit but kept putting it off because you had "so much time." Or you weren't able to visit that one cafe with the really good dish that you just had to eat one last time because you know you'll never find that food in your hometown. Or you didn't get the chance to take that one last walk around your neighborhood and etch every detail onto your brain in indelible ink.

When it comes down to it, you're never completely ready to say good-bye.

This year in Ecuador can't be summed up in a blog post so I'm not even going to attempt it. I've had the opportunity to see and experience so many amazing things this year and this list only just begins to touch on them:

I've climbed one volcano and biked down another.
I've eaten guinea pig and cow tongue and cow belly (Not stomach. Belly.).
I've visited the middle of the world.
I've canyoned down a waterfall.
I've experienced my first earthquake.
I've been stranded at a gas station in the middle of Ecuador and lived to tell the tale.
I've become (fairly) conversational in Spanish.
I've fallen in love with my students.
And my host family.
And Ecuador.

Hopefully, the culmination of all of my posts and videos and pictures over this year have painted a fairly complete picture of how this year has affected me. But even I know that I won't fully realize exactly what this year has meant to me until weeks, months, or even years later.

I don't know when I'll be back. I don't know if I'll see my students again. I may never know if Ana really did become a doctor or if Miguel and Bryan became soldiers. I don't know when I'll see my host family again or if the Ibarra I left will be the same one I someday return to.

But I do know that Ecuador has left it's mark on me. In little ways--like my newfound love of fritada. And in much larger ways--like teaching me what it means to live like a Latina.

Ecuador, te amo. 

Voy a extrañarte mucho. 

Hasta la próxima vez!

A Quito Thanksgiving

This year is only the second time in my life that I've missed out on Thanksgiving in the states. In spite of my travels, somehow I've almost always managed to make it back home for this holiday.

When I applied to the WorldTeach program I knew that based on the length of my stay in Ecuador (and my small stipend amount) that I wouldn't be able to swing a trip home for Thanksgiving. It didn't seem like a huge inconvenience at the time because, honestly, who's thinking about turkey in the middle of February?

But as the months passed, and November grew closer, and my friends and family at home began chatting about Thanksgiving plans, and my Facebook news feed started to blow up with all things Thanksgiving, I began to feel that little twinge of homesickness. After all, what was I going to be doing for Thanksgiving? Turkeys are insanely expensive here (no, turkeys are not native to Ecuador, who knew?), I didn't know any gringos in Ibarra who might just happen to be whipping up a Thanksgiving meal, and I was skeptical about the possibility of streaming the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade live from NY to Ecuador. 

Well, lucky for me, as part of the WorldTeach program, we are required to have an End of Service conference to wrap up our experience in Ecuador and prepare us for whatever may come after. And, luckier for me, that conference happened to land right on the fourth Thursday of November. Suddenly, I had not only one, but nine other gringos to celebrate with. And most of us could cook!

It didn't take long for all of us to realize what this meant. We were going to attempt our very own Thanksgiving meal right in the heart of Ecuador! The owners of the hostel we were camped out at were kind enough to give us free reign over the kitchen and with a little ingenuity, some hastily printed recipes, and a few crazy hours in the kitchen, we ended up with a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner. 

One of the host moms in Quito cooked us a lovely turkey and delicious homemade gravy, and between the nine of us volunteers we ended up with a complete spread of: mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, soup, salad, Carolina ale, rice pudding, apple crisp, and ice cream. And since we made enough to feed a small Ecuadorian army, we even had the traditional Thanksgiving leftovers (complete with turkey sandwiches) which were thoroughly demolished the following day.

I just want to say a huge thank you to our director, CJ, and to my wonderful group of fellow volunteers who made this Thanksgiving one of the most memorable I've ever had. As always I have so much to be grateful for and this year you are all at the very top of my list!

I hope that everyone back home in the states had a beautiful Thanksgiving as well and I look forward to sharing an equally beautiful Christmas with you! 

(Only two more weeks until I'm back stateside!)