2012-10-04
As part of our Spanish classes in Quito, we have been going to a high school in the northern part of the city to teach English. My group was assigned to work with the 8th graders (11-12 year olds, so what would be 5th/6th grade in the US), little did we know, they spoke almost...
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2012-10-04
Like America’s dedication and creed towards freedom, is Senegal’s declaration of Hospitality. Americans appriciate choice and individualism, and thus their citizens like to “mind their own business”. Senegal’s Hospitality is the opposite. So proud are they to host their country, village, neighborhood, and houses, that they will indeed host you— throwing huge pellets of smiles...
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2012-10-04
This is by no means an easy task. From San Francisco to Stanford, from Stanford to the hostel in Quito, from the hostel in Quito to a new home in Quito. This is my life at this moment, and it’s huge. I understand very little Spanish and am constantly reminded that this is where I...
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2012-10-04
One of the first differences to hit me between the U.S. and Ecuador was food prices. In the U.S. it is, nearly without exception, cheaper to buy dinner at a MacDonald’s or Taco Bell than to head out and buy fresh ingredients for a homemade meal. Here in Quito however, a small salad from MacDonald’s costs...
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2012-10-03
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I was told that I had been placed in a small indigenous town which is better known for their artisan embroidery and the grand Hacienda Zuleta. But I won’t be visiting as a tourist; I will be living there for a long six months. However, though it was...
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2012-10-02
In the United States people describe me as a ginger. In Ecuador I am a gringo (foreigner). I have not had a problem blending in with the swarm of other sojourners in Quito. Outside the city, however, I realized I am a minority: My host mother in the Amazon, where I am living and working for the next six months,...
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I was exhausted: I had spent the day–from 8am to 4pm–bringing big rocks from across the river to our community in the Ecuador Sun. I was lonely: I saw other workers joking around with their best friends, while I was stuck with five-year-old vocabulary. I was upset: I knew that this was not the day...
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