anita

It is the evening before classes start, and I realized I had kind of left my emails up in the air regarding my return home from Ecuador. So here are the highlights:

So, picking up from my last email...my last 12 days I spent in Quito, seeing friends for the last time, partying, hanging out with the family, and finally, at about 10pm the night before I was to depart (at 5am the next morning), I started the long process of packing my life from the last four months into my two suitcases. Terrified I would go over my 50-pound-a-suitcase limit, I left about 20 pounds of clothes, shoes, and shampoo bottles behind, becoming very critical in sorting my belongings into two big piles of things that needed to come home and those that were better off staying in Quito. Five o'clock the next morning I said my good-byes to my family, got into the taxi, and arrived at the airport. Apart from: 1) being subjected to a random cocaine search in the Quito airport, 2) having about a four-hour delay getting into O'Hare, due mostly to the crazy blizzard that hit Chicago the 23rd, but also due to slight technical difficulties in my plane because the "speedometer tube" in the plane had gotten plugged full of bugs when it landed, and 3) having to haul my guitar, backpack, and two suitcases onto the Vangalder bus, wearing my warmest articles of clothing (jeans and a sweatshirt), my trip back was pretty uneventful. I arrived in Madison early Christmas Eve, and hours later I was driving Catherine and I to Sparta where we spent the holidays hopping from one Christmas party to the next. Back in Madison since December 27th, I have been lounging, slowly unpacking things back into my apartment, reuniting with friends, and hitting up old haunts (mostly cafes!) that I missed in my four months away.

I've been noticing there are still some distinct traces of Ecuador in some of my behaviors. For example, I still always wear my purse with the little front pocket facing my body and not facing toward the outside, this important in Ecuador to avoid being very easily pick-pocketed. I walk into my apartment, slightly horrified at the facility of getting inside (just one lock and one click to get in!...where are the no-less-than-5 double-locks that should be on each door?!), and even more surprised that nothing at my house in Sparta is locked. Food now requires more salt than I ever remember using while cooking. I'm still hoarding napkins at every chance possible (a habit that comes from being a traveler in countries where toilet paper is really a scarce item in public restrooms) as well as constantly holding myself back from taking just a little extra toilet paper when I see there is an abundance...for next time! Subconsciously I spend my 20-dollar bills first, thinking it necessary to get as much small change as possible for those times the store/cafe/bus just doesn't have change, and I end up with a wallet overstuffed with 1s and 5s as I realize I am back in the United States, land of available small change. Snow is definitely a new aspect to outdoor weather and I've been consistently surprised with how cold it can be outside and equally surprised with how overly-heated buildings are. All this said, life is going back as it was before, with school starting tomorrow probably sealing my life back into Madison normalcy adding in studying and class to the mix of parties and friends....

I can not wait to travel again. :)

So a month after leaving, a final "chao" to Ecuador.

annemary