Settling in

I’ll be honest: when I was on the airplane, and I first saw the lights of Quito popping into sight below me, I had a very strong reaction. It was,

What have I done?

Especially in those first few days, my mental state saw a lot of pendulum-swings.

Initial descent into Quito…What have I done?

Drinking beers and cheering at the soccer game? I can do this!

Waking up from a nap at Nicole’s house and staring out her window at the ash plumes emanating from Cotopaxi Volcano…  What am I doing?

Successfully navigating a trip to the corner store to buy water and snacks all by myself? I can do this!

Now, as a seasoned “Quitena” of over a week, I’m feeling more consistently and confidently on the side of I’m doing it!

Mostly, I’m struck by how remarkably smooth the transition has been. 

I was thinking about Margi’s mom, who was telling me at my going-away-barbecue about her experience teaching abroad several decades ago, where she up and left to Ivory Coast with a backpack and a sleeping bag, with no way to contact her family except pen-and-paper letters, days and weeks apart…

Me, I had to suffer through an entire weekend without internet (ok fine, I was still able to use minimal internet through my Ecuadorian cell phone data plan.) But not to worry, because now I am connected, and I have at my disposal at least 5 different ways to chat, message, write and even speak face-to-pixelated-face! Naturally, once connected, I immediately video chatted Rika so we could catch up…Although, while I’m being honest, I suppose I’ll admit that we probably spent as much time making faces at each other through the computer screen and giggling as we did actually exchanging information about the status of our lives. Just like home!

So, anyway, technology definitely has made being far away feel a lot less so.

Another contributing factor to my feeling relatively at ease is that I have bonded quickly and strongly with the group of new arrivals I am entering with. There’s nothing like being plunked down in the middle of a tangle of foreign customs, culture, food, geography, language, and personal safety guidelines to fuse you together with the people who are trying to figure it out along side you.

Most of all, Nicole has paved the way for me like nothing else. Yesterday she took me to the MegaMaxi, which is kind of like a Super-Walmart, only I think not owned by an evil empire.  Grocery shopping in a new place for the first time can be incredibly overwhelming, especially in a huge store where you don’t know any of the brands, or where anything is supposed to be, or even what products you should expect to find, and you can’t really read the labels all that well. Plus, everything’s slightly different, like milk comes in bags, and eggs aren’t refrigerated, and there are fruits in the produce section I’ve never seen before and wouldn’t even begin to know how to eat, and you have to order cold cuts in grams, and you have to get a receipt con datos, with your name on it so you can deduct it from your taxes…

All this could have been very alarming for me (I mean, I tended to become disoriented back home even just going to the other drug store on the opposite end of town). BUT, yesterday, Nicole took me grocery shopping and essentially led me by the hand down the aisles of MegaMaxi and explained which are the good brands of ketchup here in Ecuador, and that I should buy Aunt Jemima syrup now, and lots of it, because they don’t always have it in stock. And she and told me what she usually buys and what she usually makes and what it goes well with. (Truthfully, I could have used this kind of a service back at home because I have been known to wander absently down even well-known supermarket aisles and emerge with but a few bare essentials, only to find my cupboards bare again within a matter of days.)

Now I am basking in the victorious relief of having managed to meet my basic needs in my new country. (Admittedly, this accomplishment is mostly thanks to the patient assistance of others.) Fridge is stocked, pantry organized, various and sundry household items purchased and put away, laundry is tumbling away right behind me, and best of all INTERNET HAS BEEN INSTALLED. I am back from the abyss!