One Month

Exactly one month ago I said goodbye to my friends, family, dog, house, and the town I have known and loved since I was born, and boarded a plane to a city 4,000 miles away from New York in a country that I had never imagined going to. To most people, I am crazy but in my opinion, it was the best decision I have ever made. I love every single day of my life down here and despite the little problems, I am so happy. I have great friends in school, I am so close with the other exchange students after just one month, I love my host sister, she is already like my best friend, I understand 65% of what people say in Spanish and when I really pay attention, maybe even 70%, when people speak directly to me I can understand even more. Everything is great. People always say that Ecuador is a great country to go on an exchange to and that everybody that goes ends up absolutely loving it, and now I can see why. What shocks me the most is that I am still not homesick at all. My mom bought a blackberry just to talk to me, so despite her 4839243 messages and every good morning and goodnight bbm, I still don't feel homesick. I can call my family and hearing their voices doesn't make me miss them. It sounds mean, but it is the truth. I look at it as a positive thing.


I finally got tan. You would think that in Ecuador I would be practically Latina by now, but it has been cloudy here a lot and I haven't had many chances to go out in the sun. Yesterday I was outside all day at a Rotary olympics event and I stayed in the sun as much as possible and I got pretty tan for an Irish girl. I think that after one year, people won't be able to recognize me.

After being here for a month, I really realize how lucky I am to live in Westhampton and how spoiled I am. In an entire month, I have only seen one Lexus, two BMWS (I think it was the same car twice), one Audi, and 3 or 4 Mercedes. In Westhampton, you see about 5 times that amount on any given street. Whenever I see a nice car I scream and point and get so excited and nobody understands why.

A teacher in my high school just told me that he makes about $300...PER MONTH. Most kids in NY can make that in a week and that is the amount he makes in a month at his full time job. My jaw just dropped when he told me that. I can't imagine living off of that.

In Portoviejo, whenever I hear a motorcycle, I jump and quickly check to see whos riding it and many times, I even jump to the other side of the sidewalk, farther away from the road. If it is one person riding it, you are safe. If it is a man with a woman on the back, you are safe. If it is a man with a kid on the back, you are probably safe, but if there are two men on it, you better hide your cell phone and be extremely careful.

Some things I miss:
-fast, wireless internet
-paved streets without potholes and random sections of dirt
-McDonalds
-my 60 inch TV with HD and a DVR
-Starbucks
-HOT showers
-my car and having the freedom to drive anywhere
-having a macbook in school
-having a cellphone with a monthly plan...scratching off cards and plugging numbers in a cellphone is not fun every two seconds
-safety and being able to walk around outside without fear
-being able to leave the front door unlocked and wide open
-not having a giant wall and gate around my house
-7-11
-Jersey Shore
-being able to drive to the beach in 5 minutes