It has been a little more than 2 months since I got to Ecuador. I can’t believe how fast its gone by and how little I have felt homesick. I have fallen in love with the all the people in my life here, the city of Quito and all the beautiful nature at my disposal. However, there always comes a point in time when you are living in another country where the magic of it all starts to wear off a little - when you start to become disillusioned with things you once found fascinating or unique. There is something about the halfway mark.
By now, I have established routines, make local friends and connected with my host family and these are the things that have kept me grounded. But now that I am settled, the negative or maybe better said not-as-great aspects of the city have started to get to me. Little things like the never-ending traffic, cat-calling or randomly overpriced products are starting to upset me when they never used to before. I feel like this is an often un-talked about part of being abroad. We are conditioned to act like we love every part of being in the country we are in and if we criticize or do not like certain aspects of life abroad we are being ungrateful or judgmental. But what I am starting to come to terms with is that it’s okay to not be happy all the time. It’s okay to criticize, question or inquire about why things are the way there are. This is why we are here - to learn, to observe, and to begin to understand the context and systems that are at play.
The more I come to know about Ecuador, its history, politics, and people, the more I feel connected to it all. This knowledge has let me start to look deeper into the subtle differences that may sometimes to frustrate me. The traffic I sometimes can’t stand has now turned into research into why the government is investing in extractivism instead of public transport. The cat-calling I often hear has turned into debates on why machismo still permeates today. And those randomly over-priced products I begrudgingly buy has now turned into discussions about Ecuador's struggling economic model. I am learning to channel some of my disillusionments into research, actions, questions, and investigation that I hope will only enhance my knowledge and connection to this country. I truly love Ecuador and I am so grateful to be able live in a country so different from my own that I get to have these internal debates. I hope as I move past this halfway mark of my time here, past the initial honeymoon stage, I can use this curiosity to propel my Independent Study Project (ISP) that I will be beginning in a few weeks. I am excited to start to delve deeper into some of the topics that have surfaced through my experiences and use my observations to contribute to important global discussions surrounding Ecuador today.