August 9th, 2011

STUDY ABROAD RULES! (punny punny)

So, in addition to my travel do’s and don’ts’, I have developed over the last few weeks some key rules to live by that I think will help me to get the most out of my time here in Quito.  At the risk of sounding preachy, they’ve been helping me out so far, so feel free to use them too! (® Olivia Blahut, of course)

1)      Don’t be afraid to ask for help…it’s definitely better to clarify what someone is asking/telling you rather than pretending you know what’s going on, because trust me, wandering the streets of a strange Ecuadorian city carrying roughly 90 pounds of luggage is NOT a pleasant experience.

2)   Write something down every single day, whether on this blog or in my travel

            Journal.  In the past I’ve been pretty terrible about actually keeping the journals

            That I have such high hopes for, but by making it a non-negotiable part of my day

            It’s become a nice way to vent about things that are frustrating, or remember the

            Things that I am loving about being here.

3)   In the interest of full disclosure, I must reveal my source for this one: The Happiness Project, a book I read just prior to coming here.     The author talks about a strategy called “reframing”, which I have definitely been using.  Basically it just means that whenever you’re feeling negative, you should just try to change the way you’re thinking about a situation.  For example, I am constantly annoyed here at the fact that we don’t have a car, so are entirely reliant on the extraordinarily unreliable bus system or kind drivers to come and pick us up.  We sometimes wait outside of school for an hour before we have a way to get home.  This irritates me beyond belief, but then I try (sometimes more successfully than others) to remind myself that it may be annoying to wait, but at least I’m doing so in a beautiful, weird place that I may never again get the chance to visit.

4)      Say “yes” to everything.  Any by everything, I mean everything within reason.  This stipulation excludes illegal drugs, excessive drinking, accompanying people to strange unknown places, and of course, eating guinea pig.  It’s easy to sit in my room and be on the computer or reading all the time, but I know I’m happier if I have things to do to keep me busy. 

5)      Be happy where I am.  Yeah, it sucks that I won’t get to see anyone from home or

Midd for 5 months, or get to drive my car or eat my favorite foods or see the fall colors, but I need to try and be content where I am.

Today I got the chance to put one of the Golden Rules into action, and I am pleased to say it went pretty well!  It all started when I was snuggled up in a hammock after school one day.  One eye was reading my book, and the other had a laser-like focus on a tarantula friend that was threatening to come within a 10-feet radius of me, so I was feeling pretty good.  I was considering making a cup of tea and settling in for a little mid-afternoon doze when Jessie, the project coordinator and house-manager asked if I wanted to go for a walk with her.  Did I want to?  Of course not!  We all know I love a good nap waayyyy more than the next person.  But I went, because I decided that while there will always be time to nap, there will not always be time to hike in the Amazon.

I put on my hiking shoes in a way that I hoped conveyed how difficult this was for me to pull my lazy self off the hammock and accompany her on a hike, and headed out the door.  It ended up being an excellent and beautiful journey.  We just walked further down the road past our house, which allowed me to see the jungle from yet another angle.  The road curves around the edge of a basin that is filled with all kinds of trees and animals.  We are so high up that some of the clouds hang below us in the basin.  It was really cool to explore a part of the area that I had never been in before. 

We then turned off the road and hiked up, literally, into a waterfall.  Jessie, aka Jungle Woman Extraordinaire, instructed me to leave my shoes and socks behind and follow her.  I did, despite the fact that it seemed pretty impossible that we would scale a waterfall bed made of wet clay.  After much slipping, we were rewarded with an even better view of the jungle and the sound of the waterfall pounding the earth beneath us.  Lesson learned: this was way better than taking a nap.