Blessed Lessons

This summer has been crazy for me. Lots of "in limbo" time, lots of "just me" time and a lot of adventure. I've decided to do a post about what I have learned since in the past 4 months. It's more for me to just process it all, but I figured someone might be able to get something out of it too so I'm posting it online :) Here begins the list of my lesson and then how I learned it.

1. Flourish when you are given opportunity:
This summer I was given a job at the Community Laison office in the US Embassy in Quito. They coordinate fun activities for all Embassy employees and family and assist them with a transition over seas. Little did I realize how much I would grow with this opportunity. At first I just was sort of doing it to pass the time till September when I leave for Ukraine, but let me tell you, I have learned a TON not only about work related things, but about myself. I have visited many places all over Ecuador due to the opportunities with this job. Never turn down an opportunity. Even if you don't think you'll learn much.

2. It is OKAY to not follow the same path as everyone else:
Taking essentially 2 years off to live in Ecuador and serve a mission in Ukraine is big. I've realized just how big it really is. That is a LOT of time- nearly over 10% of my life so far. Everyone else is continuing with school and getting jobs that will better serve their careers and I'm not. For a while I thought that school/work was what the world expected of me. In the LDS church it is pretty common for young adults to serve a mission, but it is not an expectation for the girls, like it is the guys. So it's kind of rare that someone just drops life for a while and does something else like a mission but I think it's okay. It's better than okay- it's GREAT. I have learned more in 4 months than I think I ever have and I don't know that I would have had I been staying on that school/work path. It is OKAY to not do what the world expects of you.

3. This world is incredibly beautiful:
After having the opportunity to travel to Shanendoah national park and see a 360 panorama view of the Appalacian mountains; after traveling to the Amazon and ziplining over 400 foot gorges; after traveling to the coast of Ecuador and seeing blue footed birds and humpback whales from 20 feet away... I have determined that this world is so incredibly beautiful. For me, there is just no way it was created from an explosion in space or random occurance- it's just too magical. I want to see so much more of it.

4. It is OKAY to make friends even if you are leaving/they are leaving:
I have had quite a few transitions in my life. Moves (mine or theirs) are hard to deal with sometimes. Usually I coped by not getting too close to people if it was right before a move. This summer I got over that. I have met some AMAZING people in DC and here in Quito. It is OKAY to feel sad about transitions, but don't let that stop you from developing friendships that may last a lifetime. Shoutout to Nghia Tong, Kate Jefferson, Rachel Banen, Jeffrey Dahlby, the Richardson family, and the Lusters. There are great people all around the world! :)
This is one of my favorite quotes for now from Whinnie the Pooh: "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." Perfection.

5. Learning a language takes patience, courage, and hard work.
One of my goals for 2013 was to be fluent enough in a language to hold a reasonable conversation. I HAVE DONE IT! Learning Spanish has been stressful, wonderful, rewarding, and tiring. Sundays are the hardest because church is in all spanish and I end up tuning out after a while. But, I can say that I have had many "reasonable" conversations since being here. I'm not as fluent as I would like to be, but I'll have another 4 months after my mission to continue learning. Many people have told me my Spanish is great, many more have said that they are happy that a foreigner would take the time to learn Spanish and talk with them. These are all great lessons for me before I ship of to Ukraine and start a much more difficult language. But I can do it!

The other lessons I have learned are hard to formulate into words, others are personal, and others I still have yet to learn. But for now, I'm so grateful for this "limbo" phase this year and can't wait for the next chapter.

Ecuador #9 An attempt at a waterfall walk

Sunday Afternoon, the Richardsons (once again, two of my favorite people in Ecuador) brought us home after church (we still don't have our car) and offered to take us on a little excursion to go on a walk to a waterfall about 45 minutes away. Since I had not yet spent more than 5 hours with them this weekend I readily agreed (I've seen them every weekend for a month so far). Funnily enough, the drive there took about an hour and fifteen, more than we had been told. The people who kept telling us directions were all misleading and we flipped quite a few U-turns before finding the destination: Molinuco resort.

What we arrived at, having high hopes!

Not bad :) 

  Upon arrival we were quite hopeful because it looked rather nice. We started the supposed 10 minute walk to the waterfall and after about 15, we asked someone on the trail who said we had gone the wrong way. We turned around and walked for another 15 and asked someone. They said the waterfall was another hour away..... By this time it was already 5:45 or so and it gets dark pretty timely at 6 or 6:30 here in Ecuador. So most of us went back to the car. Stephen wanted to see it, so he ran to the waterfall and back in about a half hour. Still a fun trip because the Richardson's are fun but now we know never to listen to ANYONE's advice.

This ended up being about as much of a waterfall as we saw and this was back at the resort. Ha. :)

Ecuador #8 Guayaquil (Temple Trip)

This past weekend I spent Friday/Saturday in Guayaquil with my mom and dad at the temple. We managed to find Lindsey and Jared who were in a 200 kid group doing other things at the temple. They had it pretty rough... 8 hour bus ride there, 8 back, little food, not water given to them.... Not unlike a prison (hah). So we took pity on them and crammed them in our hotel room Friday night. But it was such a wonderful experience to do 2 sessions at the temple with my parents. Especially before I go serve my mission in less than 2 weeks. It's getting down to the wire and my nerves were pretty bad last week, but going to the temple brought me a lot of comfort. It made me remember why I'm doing what I'm doing and willing to serve for so long. Here are a few pictures of the temple!

This is from the night session. So gorgeous. 

Iphone pics... they seriously are pretty dang good

My siblings are outside there somewhere...

I get creative sometimes

Love this building

Day 2: 

Saturday we got out of the temple around 11 or so and had the rest of the day to do things before our flight at 7 pm so we took a taxi around the city. Here are a few snaps I took. Guayaquil doesn't really have much to offer besides our 3 hour taxi ride though, so don't spend your money here- Quito is waaay more worth your time! 

Old church near Iguana Park

While walking on the boardwalk, this uber old looking boat passed by. 

Clock tower of awesomeness

No idea who this guy is, but his mustache was too rad not to snap a photo of. This pic doesn't do it justice, but it curls at the end and comes off his face. 

Las Peynas hill- pretty pastel houses under a lighthouse
(really the only thing worth seeing in Guayaquil besides the temple)

Side note- at the airport on Friday, there was a Johnny Rockets and I got an oreo shake and fries.
Best decision ever made. 

Love my parents and loved this weekend with them :)

Ecuador #7: Manta/Puerto Lopez Whale Watching with CLO

Mid August I took a trip with some people from the embassy and went to Puerto Lopez on the coast of Ecuador near Manta. We went whale watching/beach lounging/and sulfur lake swimming. It was a wonderful time with some great people. This post is a little long (mostly pictures) but, if you've made it all the way to Ecuador number 7, you're a champ who loves traveling (or you're madly in love with me... in which case feel free to tell me!)

Day 1: Driving in to Puerto Lopez and the Sulfur lake

When first pulling in, this is what the fishing beach looked like from above

Full body sulfur mud mask with my boss (left), another woman from the embassy Maggie (middle) and me :) 

The pretty sulfur lake. There were loads of frog/toads and huge spiders roaming around the edge. 

Day 2: The Whale Watching trip to Isla de La Plata and snorkling.
I was in the boat with the Richardsons (two of my fav people here in Ecuador) and we loved the day, despite the lack of adequate food from the tour company (cheese+butter sandwich and some fruit.... yum-ee)

On the way out of the docks. I think these are all fishing boats.

Two pelicans were eager to greet us upon arrival at the island. 

The island from the boat.

Blue footed boobies littered the island, this is probably my favorite pic of one that I took.
 His glaring stare is just too perfect. 

Mating season, need I say more?

Such pretty feet. 

We finally started seeing whales! This one was doing turns in the water. 

Another of my favorite pictures I took. 

Some got really close. 

Day 3: Beach in the morning/flight home

The group was supposed to go to another nice beach nearby but due to time constraints I decided to stay at the hotel's beach with Kate and Kaia and it was the perfect decision for us. We didn't want to do anymore transporting and the sun came out for us. We walked the beach for pretty stones and had a wonderful time!

                                      

Not too shabby. 

Reminded me a lot of Oregon

Skipping stones across ocean waves

Cute Kaia and I :)

In addition to the wonderful experience, I learned a lot about myself on this trip. It was an odd age bracket for me because the kids were 10 and below and the adults were 30ish or above. Being 19 I was stuck in the middle and chose to chill with the adults but I still had fun. I learned a lot of personal lessons about how I deal best, setting limits, and being okay with not doing what everyone else is.

Overall- I had a wonderful time seeing some of the greatest things this Earth has to offer. 

Ecuador #6: Otavalo and Lake Quicocha

Two of my favorite people here in Ecuador took my family up to Otavalo (Ecuador's largest market) and we also went to Lake Quicocha and the leather market nearby. It was a fun day with great company browsing the colorful streets of the market. I didn't take too many pics at the market simply because I don't find it awe-shocking anymore after living in Thailand for 3 years, sorry for the lack of them. But I got plenty of the gorgeous crater lake! Here they are: 

These pictures just don't quite do it justice but they're the best I got. 

We took one of these boats around the islands in the center of the crater.

Kind of reminds me of Thailand's beaches with green cliffs

Interesting tidbit- the water in the crater was about 5-10 degrees warmer than it should be because it is still an active volcano underneath. There are little bubbles that pop along side the boat when you dock (probably from small vents in the volcano).

On the way back we caught this amaaazing view of Cayambe mountain/volcano? (not sure which)

Just sooo GORGEOUS. 

Another wonderful day! With wonderful people!

Ecuador #5: Mindo (Amazon Rainforest)

Day 1: Chocolate Tour/ Frog Concert

We arrived in Mindo at about 3:20 or so on Friday after a gorgeous 2 hour drive there. The road was winding but it was beautifully coated with trees and gorgeous cliffs. We went to the small tourist office first and decided what all we wanted to do and picked several activities for our time there. 

This is on the drive in,  taken from a moving car... Can you saw GORGEOUS!?

Once we got there:

The first thing we did was a chocolate tour of a small company: 

The tour started with a brief explanation of how cocoa is baked/smashed/mixed into what we know as a chocolate bar. 

This bean mixer had a funny train shaped face to it. 

Step 1- crush dried cocoa beans

Step 3: Crush to chocolate powder

Step 4: Mix cocoa powder with some cocoa butter to create a solid block of baking chocolate

Then we took a tour around the crops and kitchen to see how exactly it was done. 

Drying cocoa beans and baby spice peppers for flavor 

Sugar cane for sweetening 

After all that work, here is the final product! 

The next thing we did was the Frog Concert where we toured a hosteria's 2 acre land for animals with a flash light. No pictures because it was so dark, but I loved it! Nature is so cool and we managed to be there on the 2 days a year that a certain orange eyed bug graces the rain forest with it's presence. 

Day 2: 
We did loads our second day in Mindo. We started early with an 8 am trip to the butterfly garden in Hosteria Mariposa. We were told the butterflies would be most active in the AM. It was WONDERFUL. The garden was pretty small, but we stayed in there for nearly an hour, taking pictures and browsing around the flowers covered in butterflies. The large grey/spotted ones let you hold them and have a gorgeous blue outer wing (shown below). Here are some of my pics.

Chrysalis net. We saw some butterflies hatching as we watched. Took only a few seconds for them to pop out. 

New eye

One landed on Jared's foot :D

So pretty.. nature rocks. 

One of my favorite images- that blue shine on one and the orange on the other just makes the leaf look pathetic. 

The next thing we did was hiking to a waterfall and swimming in it. Little did we know that to get to the other side of the gorge, you had to take a little cable car 300-400 feet above the air in a sketchy little contraption. It only took about 45 seconds but it was riveting.

Mom's face... Lindsey's face. I was left to stand with no seat, so imagine my face. 

River + Me =Smile. 

It really was a great hike.

We went swimming on the way back- it was pretty dang chilly.

Aaaaaand, can't post a blog without a duck face, right?

So then we hiked back up to the awesome trolley thing and went back on over to the other side to begin more fun:

Next: Ziplining over canopies :)
Now obviously I don't have a ton of photos because I was in the air and all... but here is what I have. It was a blast (even though I got eaten alive by mosquitos and still have the scars to prove it).

I'm ready... ;)

We're ready

I think this is about half way through :)

WOOOO

This was one of the funnest weekends I've ever had in my life and will probably never forget it :) Loveeee my family. P.S. this country is just gorgeous.