On Being Home

The way I look at things, Ecuador is not over. I am no longer there, but the experience of study abroad is definitely still going for me. I feel like it's one of those things that will always be in me, it never really ends. I'm still working on "closure" if you will, from Ecuador.

I am going through culture shock being back in the US again. It's weird. I like it, but it's definitely weird. I was talking to Noah yesterday (he came over and we made butter mochi and watched the beginning of my illegal $2 Avatar that I bought in Quito the day before I left) and in some cases, yes, home and these places I know have changed, but more apparent is how much I've changed looking at them that makes them feel so different while still being exactly the same.

Things That Feel Different to Me:

• how much calmer and less frantic Hawaii and the US feels
• everything is expensive!!
• not speaking Spanish on a daily basis or at least hearing it at some point during the day
• not having to constantly worry about my personal safety
• the obvious wealth the US and its citizens have and how much more things are used and wasted
• feeling distinctly adult-like and being in my house I've lived in all my life and definitely feeling like a visitor rather than living there
• being warm and wearing shorts in public (not so different, but I like it)
• how very very small Hawaii once again feels to me
  

Regardless, I am happy to be home and back in the US, although yes, I do feel the loss of Ecuador in my heart, once again proving to me how much long-distance relationships suck and the one down-side to being a child of globalization.

How We've Come

It’s interesting to look back and compare who I am today with who I was just six months ago. Jackie, Espie’s madre just called up on the phone and we had a full several minute conversation. For me, this is such a sign of how much my Spanish has improved. While here, I almost never answer the house phone because simply, I can’t understand people when they are speaking to me. But to now have a full conversation on the phone, I can look back and compare that and think “wow, I’m proud of myself for that!” Other things to note: I can watch the news and understand the newscasters. When I first arrived, I had to read the headlines and figure out what was going on based on the video.
Going back to Otavalo was also a great comparison. I went to Otavalo in probably the first 4 weeks I was here, and then went again with my family last weekend. To be able to get to Otavalo on public transportation, find a hostel and then explore the city was so easy! I felt comfortable walking around and I could even teach my family a few things about the city itself.
I have come so far in just six months, it’s hard for me to believe. Traveling to the West Coast in a few weeks without any real concrete plans yet doesn’t scare me. It feels almost normal, in fact? I know I have changed. I can feel it. If even I notice it, I’m sure there’s even more changes that others see in me as well. My mom made the comment that I’ve grown up a lot since she last saw me, and I couldn’t agree more. Study abroad has literally been a life-changing experience and for that I am eternally grateful to Ecuador.

Leaving

I can’t believe that I’m leaving today. I’m packed!!! Oh my god, am I really leaving that soon? Has it really already been six months? I remember getting here and thinking “wow, six months is a long time, but I know it’ll go fast, but it just seems like such a long time” and all the way while I was here how I kept thinking “god, I still have 4… 3… 2 months left, but I’ve already been here 2, 3, 4, 5 months!”

I had this moment on New Years Eve, or maybe it was already 2010 by this point, or perhaps midnight exactly. But regardless, I had a realization. I realized that I was no longer a teenager. I have no idea when it happened or how it happened without me noticing, but I realized that I no longer consider myself a teenager, nor do I act or conduct myself in that manner. I don’t know how it snuck up on me, but it seems that I have grown up while distracted by this whole life thing.

I blame Ecuador. I have grown up SO MUCH here it’s ridiculous. I can’t even begin to describe it or figure out why, but I don’t think I’ve ever changed so much over six months. But I’m grateful for it. Ecuador was hard, living abroad was challenging, but god it was so worth it. I realize, looking back over the past six months, about how much I’ve changed and how much Ecuador has changed me.
We did a reflection thing at our farewell dinner last week where every student went around and described something they would miss about Ecuador. There were some good ones. Here’s one of my favorites that I will share with you:

“I am going to miss feeling alive. I have never done so many things outside of my comfort zone So thank all of you for dealing with me, and thank you to Ecuador for the adventure.” –Esperanza Cantú

What am I going to miss? Well, I will tell you what I talked about:
I am going to miss the independence and the challenges that Ecuador has faced me with. Living here has been a challenge, for sure, but a rewarding one. It’s challenges came in all sorts of shapes and sizes. I am an insanely social person and very socially dependent on other people, but Ecuador has taught me, forced me, to become independent, often times against my desires. Whether it’s taking a trolé across the city with your school bag and all your books, toting a few extra packages and trying to avoid a riot, or just learning to enjoy time by myself, or getting on a random bus to some unknown destination, Ecuador has made me rely upon myself much more than I’m used to. The challenges have all been accepted and conquered though, and I have never had so much personal growth in such a short period of time. I feel that I carry myself differently, handle situations, look at life with a slightly different angle. And for that I have Ecuador and South America to thank.
I am also going to miss the amazing places I’ve gotten to see and the beautiful and completely unique nature places there are in this country. I actually enjoy the 6 hour bus trips across the country because I get to sit and watch gorgeous views pass me constantly. Whether it was sitting by the lake at Otavalo, looking out across the wide open-ness of the Páramo, touching snow on Cotopaxi, watching birds over the river at Tiputini, or just laying on a beach in the Galapagos, I have been so lucky to have seen so many amazing places while I was here. I feel so blessed to have witnessed so much natural beauty here in Latin America. And that, I will miss.

There are so many things that I notice now and I am absolutely sure that I will suffer culture shock when going back to the US. I already undergo it any time I interact with Americans who have only recently arrived in Ecuador. It’s crazy how different I feel from them. I find myself speaking more quietly because I think Americans are loud. I notice when lights are on and food is left behind (even moreso than before) and I feel like even my family has a tendency of wasting, and they’re some pretty conscious people.
Also, let’s not even get into how my English is weird again because I think in a strange mix of Spanglish-Katie-Pidgin. Yeah, my linguistics are even stranger than ever. Great…

I hate to admit it, but I am actually afraid to go back to my old life. I didn’t realize it before, but I think I tengo miedo. What if I don’t like my old life? I know I don’t like my old life, I didn’t really like it then anyways. I do not enjoy being over busy and worrying and all that crazy type-A personality business. I want to stay the me I found again here. The me from home who isn’t really that worried and is chill and not stressed. The me that sat next to the Tiputini river after a sticky day in the field, yet still drinking hot manzanilla tea because it tastes that good with the fresh miel. The me that sat for hours before dinner, just watching the flycatchers swoop in and out of the trees across the open expanse of orange as the sun cooled and bathed the whole world in reflecting rays of gold and bronze. The me that loved it when the bats came out and I sat and thought about the evolution and physiology of flying mammals and how damn cool it would be to study them.
It’s the same me that sits in the ocean and just feels the waves’ rhythm pulsate beneath my palms and the sand dance around my toes. The same me that loves the feeling of snorkeling because I can engulf myself in this marine world without the stress of oxygen or exhalation.
Can this crazy tree-loving hippy live in the Midwest where it’s cold and frozen? We’ll see…

The past few weeks

There was a bit more inbetween the last post and here, but I was really busy so I think I'm going to skip it.

Main Points of the past few weeks:

• Galapagos: still awesome. Still amazing. Seriously, some of the most amazing weeks of my life were to be there.
• Galapagos with everyone else: was weird to have the liberal arts kids around after being with just the ecology geeks for so long, but it was fun. Had good bonding time with the Lolo and the Dahlia. and the Sari too. They're all good ones.
• Ick Week: last week of the program where we were at the uni every day writing lab reports and doing stats and yuckyuckyuck. But I had insanely significant data for my palms so ha! Yo gano.
• Family: My family came to visit me and it was awesome! We went to Otavalo for the weekend, then Tena for a few days, stopped at the hot springs in Papallacta, then back in Quito where we went to Mitad del Mundo together. Tiring being a translator all week, but it was fun to show them around Ecuador.
• Carnival: Ecuador throws water on carnival, and thus it was "dangerous" to walk around on the streets. Me, with my brillance, took my family to Peguche (the falls in Otavalo) the weekend before Carnival. My poor sister. She got soaked, covered in foam, and flour thrown in her hair. Tena, where we were on actual Carnival, was also... exciting. There were kids riding around on the back of pickup trucks with huge tubs of water and just huling buckets at people on the sidewalks. They drove around town toting super soakers and kinda reminded me of terrorists, except like 7 years old.

Perhaps I shall post some pictures when I have stable internet/time. Good fun times for my last week in Ecuador.

Kicker Rock

As a surprise, our directors took us out on a snorkel trip to “el Leon Dormido” aka Kicker Rock. We spent the entire day out on the boat, and god it was great. We first stopped at Isla de Lobos, which was another shoreline snorkel site. The sea lions were insanely friendly and seemed to enjoy making all of us scream by popping out right in front of us. There were lots of Bullseye Puffers everywhere, some turtles and we even got to find some sand dollars. There were not really any new fish as it was a typical rocky shoreline, simply a bit more isolated.
Leon Dormido, however, was completely different, which was really cool for me to see and especially to compare the fish I was seeing there with those I’d seen other places. Leon Dormido is formed by two giant rocks with a canal down the middle (DSCN6807, DSCN6816). In relatively deep, open water, Leon Dormido has a much colder temperature than on-shore sites, and thus we saw a lot of different things, such as the Kings Angelfish, which was everywhere. While swimming through the channel we also saw some sharks swimming deep underneath us, appearing only as distinct silhouettes below. The water was also full of jellies and other invertebrates. Luckily they didn’t sting much, though our wetsuits gave us some extra confidence in addition to keeping us warm in the cold water.
After exploring for a while, we headed to a calm lagoon for some lunch and relaxing time. We sat in the glassy shallows, watching pelicans kamikaze themselves into the water next to the boat. Every once in a while, we’d jump off the bow to escape the painful bites of horseflies and biting flies. Synchronized swimming and afternoon lounging was enjoyed by all.
Unfortunately, I got severely burned over the day, although if you ask me, it was totally worth it if it meant I could have an awesome day.

How to Disguise Oneself as a Sea Lion

This afternoon I found myself laying on the beach, taking a nap next to the sound of the waves, my favorite way to sleep. The beach, called La Lobería (The Sea Lion Place), is outside town, with significantly less people and surprisingly less sea lions as well despite its namesake. The few sea lions, however, are placid and silly, playing with each other and calling out frequently. Our favorite was the small group of pups (in a kindergarten) that played in the shallows, adorable beyond all belief. Being tired and lazy, I decided to lie down on the sand, though the horseflies and other insects were bothering me, so I decided to cover myself up with my sarong (aka pareo). I was napping happily, dreaming sweet oceanic dreams, when I was awoken by a loud sea lion bark. It sounded normal, as several had been sleeping a short distance away from me previously. However, the next call sounded closer than the first. Groggily I decided that I should probably get up to check to make sure the sea lion wasn’t coming too close. As I peaked out from under my sarong, I realized that the large bull male was sitting right next to me, not more than 2 feet away. Needless to say I screamed and jumped up. Even though I was several feet away, the bull began to approach me again, walking over my towel and purse where I had been only moments before. Again, I screamed and ran farther down the beach. Apparently, being wrapped up in a brown tie-dye sarong with ones’ feet sticking out of the bottom makes you look like a sea lion. We figure the bull was investigating to see if I was a rival male or another unfamiliar female. Regardless, either reaction was not so appealing to me. As I stood laughing down the beach, Claire and Sarah concerned as well as laughing with me, the bull rolled around in the sand next to our towels, apparently as entertained as we were.

Carlitos Darwin is My Homeboy

We got our first chance to explore San Cristobal a little. Went on a short walk-like-hike on the Frigatebird trail (Frigate bird aka iwa birds=tijeretas in Spanish). We got to see the bay where Charles Darwin first landed on the Beagle and got his first look at the Galapagos. Interestingly enough, Darwin only spent a total of 5 weeks in the archipelago, a supringly short amount of time for a place and person so strongly related with one another. Being here is amazing, I’m still riding my insane high. It’s cool to be in a place where I can just see so much ecology right in front of my face. We went snorkeling after the hike, and despite the sucky conditions (I felt bad for my poor Midwestern peers who are not as used to the scariness of the ocean, esp big surfing waves which are not good for snorkeling), I still saw tons of fish, several turtles, and got showed up by a sea lion in between the breaks. I am so excited to try snorkeling some more and see the fish! Ah! Basically, the Galapagos are still awesome and I'm still in heaven. Ah....

I have Died and Entered Ecologists’ Heaven

Tor and I, super excited to be here

I have arrived in the Galapagos and oh my god, I am happy beyond all reason. This place is amazing. One of the things that I think is making me happiest is also that San Cristobal where we are now really reminds me of home. Maui, especially. There is a small town with a very touristy boardwalk area around the port, where our “school” is located. We have class for a few hours every day at the GAIAS (Galapagos Academic Institute for the Arts and Sciences), which is conveniently directly across the street from one of the best beaches on the island. We are staying in a hotel on the other side of town from Gaias, which means a 15 min walk if we take the long way by the ocean. It’s really hot, but not humid like the jungle, which is nice. What they say about the wildlife here is true! The birds don’t fly away, no matter how loud you are, you have to be careful to not step on the lizards everywhere, and I already have over 50 pictures of sea lions after only being here for 12 hours. I should also mention that sea lion pups are ADORABLE and EVERYWHERE. I may die of cuteness at any moment; it is quite the precarious situation. Basically, life is good. Reeeeal good. My desire to wear shoes has disappeared and I am delighted to be barefoot, covered in sand and coated in salt once again.

TIPUTINI: aka The Jungle Book has a new protagonist and her name is Katie OR There’s cool stuff everywhere!

Katie has returned from the inner depths of the rainforest back to civilization, however, with much sadness. Tiputini was beyond amazing. I can’t even describe it, but definitely some of the best 2 weeks of my life. I am so lucky that I had the opportunity to go to such an amazing place. It’s funny, because lots of other people say Tiputini is a dream come true, and for me it literally was! I have wanted to go to the Amazon since I learned what it was when I was 5 and in kindergarten! I finally fulfilled my dream to live in the jungle and see all the animals I’ve always wanted to see in the wild! Needless to say, I was in heaven for two weeks.
I was surrounded, rather, engulfed by nature and it was fabulous. Our cabins had no walls, but screens instead. Thank god for that, because wearing clothes in itself was undesirable most times (waaay too humid for clothes) although covering up as much as possible was our field strategy for avoiding all the bugs everywhere. It didn’t always work, as I still emerged 2 weeks later looking like an infected Chicken-pox victim of come sort.


Jungle Revelation: Nature is LOUD.
What does it say about our society today when we arrive in a pristine jungle environment and one of the first things we notice is the sound? I never realized nature could get so loud! The constant calls of birds, frogs, the buzzing of insects everywhere, monkeys howling, wind blowing, and all the sound waves carrying for miles through the dense vegetation. It was also interesting for me to get used to the sound of bugs flying around and realizing that they were not all coming to me, but sometimes just passing through (although those insects also had the uncanny ability to crash into my face constantly). I realized that I associate the sound of a large buzzing insect or simply a loud buzzing sound as “bad! gross! watch out!” when in reality, sometimes there really were just big bugs flying a few meters away and couldn’t care less about me.
The sounds of the forest also change, depending on the climate, as I noticed when things got hot and dry versus immediately before and during a rainstorm. The dominance levels, as in more birds versus more frogs, vary constantly, oscillating as much as the calls themselves.
Upon returning to Quito, I noticed how very quiet our cities are in comparison. Even Quito, where there are always cars honking, busses going, and discoteques blaring, seemed so much less alive than when I was lying in my bed, hoping to god the smokey jungle frogs (aka South American Bullfrogs?) would shut up so I could sleep, but enjoying it all the same.


Favorite Spot #1: Tiputini has a canopy tower, a tall metal structure that ascends through the vertical levels of the forest and gives you the opportunity to do observations from a platform embedded in a tree, to see the jungle from the perspective of most creatures instead of the floor where humans are usually restricted to. I have realized that I really like big wide open spaces (cue Dixie Chicks) and as much as I love being in the forest, to go up and see for miles and miles just felt so releasing for me. From here, we could also lots of the birds and creatures we usually had to strain our necks just to glimpse. I went up to the tower at sunrise on two different days and it was so great to watch the jungle come to life, slowly waking with the sun. I have always loved dawn hiking, and this time it was cool to observe the changes in sound and activity as the birds and bugs woke up and became more audible and visible as time passed.

Animals Everywhere! (Common things I saw on numerous occasions)

• caimans
• snakes
• monkeys (saki, wooley, spider, howler, squirrel)
• frogs (incl. poison dart variety dendrobatidae, this picture is of Dendrobatidae bilingus)
  
• fish
• parrots
• flycatchers
• vultures
• ani birds
• hoatzins

Cool stuff I saw that were really special:

• Tapir (super rare)
  
• baby coati (cuchucho! ohmygodsocute)
• scarlet macaws
• cicadas that are huge and eat lizards/frogs

Favorite Spot #2: Sitting on the dock after a long day in the field, sipping tea of manzanilla con miel (chamomile and honey), watching the sun set over the trees and a light fog begin to form above the trees and slowly engulf the distant parts of the river. The aging rays of sun would reflect off the river, shining silver and gold and sending the gentle afternoon sunlight en todos partes. Dusk is also prime bird watching time, and the flycatchers are out in full representation, accompanied by ani birds, vultures and numerous other species I can never remember the names of. As the hour progresses, the birds retreat with the sun and the bats begin to emerge, swooping with their amazing wings, chasing the lingering insects the fill the air. Neither birds nor bats ever hit anything, despite their amazing aerial acrobatics. The combination of the sunset, open area, and especially the river made sitting on the dock almost a daily visit for me while we waited on dinner, soaking in all the glorious beauty of the Tiputini River and the jungle.

Pre-Tiputini

Side note: I uploaded some pictures from our trip to Mindo and the Centro Historico, plus all our Peru adventures. Scroll down to check um out!

I´m off again tomorrow! This time to the jungle to go to the Tiputini Biodiversity Research Station, owned by USFQ out in the rainforest. It´s located in the Napo region, which is considered to be one of the most biodiverse regions IN THE WORLD. Needless to say I am SO EXCITED. Us Ecology kids will be there for two weeks, each of us conducting our own field experiments. I´m studying the dispersion of seeds in relation to the distance from "the mother tree". In theory, if the seeds are too close to the mother tree, they will experience intraspecial competition, though if they´re too far away, they won´t receive the benefits of nearby protection. So basically I´m trying to see if there´s an optimal distance that seeds from the palm iriartea experience. Pretty simply study, but should be good. Everyone´s got some really cool things they´re studying, so it´ll be fun to just run around being supergeeks in the rainforest for a while.
I get back to Quito on the 19th, hopefully with tons of pictures in hand, so that´ll prolly be my next post. I´ll be back for two days before I head out to the Galapagos!! Which I am equally excited for.
Tons of exciting ecology adventures coming up! I can´t wait!!