Post from 10366 m Altitude

...purely because it could be done.

T-minus 53 minutes.

Surreal.

Tomorrow...

...will be a day for sleeping in.

for eating breakfast with my host family.

for last minute errands and packing.

for walking slower than normal.

for stopping to talk to friends in the hallway.

Tomorrow will be a day for goodbyes.

Tomorrow is my last day in Ecuador.

47 hours and counting

This adventure has taught me many things.

Mostly about myself.

For starters:

Finality still bothers me.

A story

¨...Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth, ¨Follow me,¨ Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.¨ - Luke 5:27-28 [emphasis mine]

An adaptation:

¨...Jesus looked down and saw a college student by the name of Charlie sitting in her dorm room, trying to decide what to do with her life, ¨Follow me,¨ Jesus said to her, and Charlie got up, left her school, her family, her friends, her country, her plans for the future, and everything else, and followed him. ¨

and you know what? So far it´s turned out alright.

La Reina

Some reading:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/world/americas/01colombia.html

The headline is: ¨Columbia´s Beauty Pageants Put Income Gap on View¨

It focuses on Columbia, but pageants are a big part of life in Ecuador as well.

Examples:

There is a Queen of Banana

My math midterm got moved from its original scheduled time and class has been cancelled because the annual school beauty pageant is being held that evening.

As Jeremy says, ¨ This is new for me...¨