The sun gently caressed my face. The dogs nearby began to bark in unison. I got up out of my bed, dazed, and opened the curtain in front of my window.
I was suddenly blinded by the intense light and then I saw it…
Quito!
Ecuador!
I was finally here!
After months of fundraising for my summer campaign, after saying a tearful goodbye to my family and friends at the Ted Stevens Airport in Anchorage, after two weeks of fun and meaningful training at the Red Woods and Stanford University with my other Fellows, after saying goodbye once again to my Brazilian and Senegalese Fellows on the morning of our flight, and—finally—after an exhausting trip across the American continent… we were finally here; I was finally in Ecuador.
But my arrival here was still just the beginning. And for the next three weeks my Ecuadorian Fellows and I would just begin to scratch the surface of what Ecuador was like. We would take Spanish classes and In-country-orientation courses daily, live with a host-family in Quito to immerse into the Ecuadorian life, and spend our free-time and weekends exploring nearby sites and monuments with our friends and family.
It would be a busy, chaotic, fun, meaningful, and memorable three-weeks.
It would be the start of an amazing adventure in Ecuador!
