Signing Off

Well, well, well. This day HAS arrived. (Insert: “AHHHHHHHH” here.) I don’t even know how to feel right now. Talk about a clash of emotions. Clearly, I’m pumped to come home, but with being so homesick during the beginning, I wasn’t expecting to be this sad about leaving. Turns out, Quito grew on me.

This past week has had its fair share of bumps along the way, more than the previous 19 weeks. I debated about putting the following in the blog, but it had an impact on me, so I figured I’d include it. I messed up my goal; one week ago, I ended up having money and my phone stolen out of my purse. It’s a long story, so I’ll spare you. However, the person did it without me knowing, so no ‘scare’ factor, and it was a crazy set of circumstances where there is no way I could have avoided it happening. It’s not as if I let my guard down. If anything, my paranoia had hit a new high the last month after hearing more and more stories from my friends about getting robbed. But, moving on to bigger and better things.

For once, I’m going to talk about academics, seeing as this is a main component of the whole ‘study abroad’ thing and has gotten left out of nearly every blog. As far as schoolwork goes, this past week was … rough rough rough. I had a take-home exam that took 10 hours to complete. (It’s funny to look at how things have changed being in Ecuador, at IU 10 hours to study for an exam was nothing!) As far as I’m concerned, I’d rather study for a test, take it, and be done with it. Sure the idea of a ‘take-home’ exam sounds wonderful, but… it’s not. Anyway, this past week was filled with exams, the so-delightful-take-home exam, presentations and papers. I finished yesterday at 5pm. (Wow, that feels like so long ago.) I can easily say that I learned the most outside of the classroom this semester. It has been so amazing to have the opportunity to learn about another part of the world. I feel blessed to have been able to do this. God works in some crazy, crazy ways.

There is no way to try and sum up the past 4 and a half months… maybe a simple: I love Ecuador. No, it can’t be put into words. Although this has been a relatively short amount of time, there have been some defining moments, and therefore, this will always be special to me. It has been a learning experience, about myself and about the world, from start to finish.

Wow. What an adventure.

Thank y'all for reading my blog and being a part of my adventure. It really has meant a lot to me to know that, although I had an amazing group of people in Ecudaor, I had an unbelievalbly soild group to come back to. I can't thank y'all enough for that.

Much love,
Em