Ecuador taught me ten things.

I went to Ecuador for three weeks earlier this summer. I went as a teaching assistant for a class that covers foreign policy, natural science, and communications. The students were there to make films about a specific topic like recycling, or shark finning. I was there to eat things, and hang out on the gorgeous water wearing too many clothes and a ton of sunscreen. (Yeah, I know how to live it up!)


Here are ten things I learned about myself in Ecuador.

1. I'm wicked attached to my mom.  She's cool. What can I say?
2. I could actually live with roommates. No seriously. I could. When we got to Quito, I had to share a hostel room with 5 others. It was fun. I had a raging headache on day 1, so I went back to the room, hid under the blankets and went to sleep. Life went on around me and it was fine. I liked having people to talk to and do stuff with. It totally did not interfere with my independence. When I wanted to go wander on my own, I did. But how awesome it was to have someone to explore with. And it was really gogogogo, the whole time we were there. The only time having a roommate was questionable was in Santa Cruz, Galapagos, where I spent 12 hours with Montezuma's revenge. It didn't suck as bad for me as it was nice to have someone that checked to make sure I was okay. But my poor roommate Natalie was forced to cover her ears and look green when she heard me puking in the bathroom. Poor girl. 
3. My Spanish sucks, but I have a good accent. This is troublesome. This is troublesome because when I say the few words I can say, apparently I say them well enough to invite a cascade of fast and multi-syllabic words that I cannot begin to comprehend. Then I stand there looking blankly while I get pickpocketed. (Kidding.. Sorta... Quito is dangerous. But no one got me.) However, I did learned that when you want to know the cost of something, you should not ask "cuanto queso?".
4. Spiders are cool. There were spiders EVERYWHERE. For serious! We saw scorpion spiders and tarantulas, jumping spiders and hunting spiders, social spiders, wolf spiders, and banana spiders. They were huge and small and hairy and smooth. In Jatun Sacha, there was an audience of spiders when you'd brush your teeth or go potty. So now, the wimpy spiders in my house are adorable.  
5. Deet and sunscreen work. I wore deet every day in the rain forest and got only one bug bite. Let me show you someone else's legs who did not use deet. I wore sunscreen every day and only got burned once on the tops of my knees because I felt it was vital for me to sit on top of the boat for hours in the direct sunlight and never reapply sunscreen. Because I am smart like that. Because it's fine! We're only on the equator. Though I have to admit that I wore so much sunscreen my skin could not absorb any more and it sat as a over-protective white layer on top of my skin. I came back to the States as white as ever, though my hands were tannish and just looked dirty. That's right! I'm starting a new trend. Glove-free gloves.
6. I can actually get up early in the morning and go to bed early and be okay with it. It's true. We always had someplace to go and things to do. It was kind of awesome. I want that all the time.
7. This goes hand in hand with #5. I don't need the TV. WHAT? I KNOW! It's just crazy talk. Didn't miss it at all. I would much rather be barreling down a volcano on a bicycle than on a couch watching ANTM. Canoeing across a river in the Amazon is far superior to watching a show about an office. Even risking the rise of vomit to eat fresh fruit from a market in Otavalo is substantially more exciting than seeing Oprah leave. So, yeah. Get me out of my house. 
8. I can get used to anything, but it doesn't mean I will love it. Like throwing toilet paper into a bin next to the toilet. Or applying sunscreen/deet all the time. Or travelling in a car/bus/canoe/plane to get places. There comes a point when you just want to BE THERE ALREADY! But the cold showers, and the blind leap into water became second nature really quickly. 
9. I'm not a water bug. I'd like to be. But it is not my first instinct to jump into the water. I'm not a strong swimmer and so I am a little scared of the water. But snorkeling was amazing, and I could swim forever with my head under water. I'm not really scared of anything in the water, as long as I can see it. Well, except for jellyfish and this crazy scary worm that was in the ocean near Kicker Rock in San Cristobal that was three feet long, and about a foot in diameter. He was translucent and had a spiky head. I dunno what that was, but grody to the max. I leapt 40 feet out of the water to steer clear of him. (Also, I'm magic). 
10. You can't have fear! While we were riding bikes down Cotapaxi in the snow, I learned that if you want to fly, you have to let go of your fear. Big rocks and ditches would be coming, and I had to learn to just go. If you veer or falter at all, you are going to fall and get hurt. What a life lesson this is. 

It was an amazing trip, and just makes me want to see more of the world. I also lost 5 pounds while there and that is pretty cool. 

Dude, I'm a chick!

I found a website that does a gender analysis on blogs. So I plugged in the Television Bug site, and it correctly predicted that it is written by a female. Which, yay, is me!

Then I entered in this blog...

It REALLY believes that Bug E. Bugger is a guy. Why? Do I write like a dude? Do I look like a dude? No. Ha. That's just silly (right?).