Quito: the capital city of the country of Ecuador, where I will be spending the next four months of my semester abroad.
I don’t think I’ve ever been more scared in my life than I was on the day I arrived in Ecuador. Studying abroad is such a huge step in every way possible because it completely alters every aspect of your life. I was anxious at the beginning about many things – not knowing how to get around, whether I would be safe or not, what my host family would be like, and the list goes on. The first week was a lot to take in. My immediate thoughts once here were that the city is so huge, and that I knew absolutely no one at all. Those two mixed together is quite the overwhelming combination. In the next two weeks that have followed, my life has settled down and I’m able to start adjusting to what my life is like here. It’s a lot of daily work to make that happen, but it’s worth it.
One thing I miss from the United States is not having to take public transportation everywhere I go. Being in such a big city here makes traveling a time-consuming thing, which in my small home town, I am not accustomed to. There is so much traffic here! It’s hard to believe there can be so many cars and buses in one place at the same time!
One thing that I have found that I absolutely love here in Ecuador – which isn’t really prevalent in the United States – is the dancing culture. Everyone dances here! Young or old, male or female. It’s in their blood here, and I love it. People have so much fun dancing, and enjoy life through it. I have loved learning about all the different types of dance here, such as the salsa, which is my favorite!