I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook memories. Sometimes they drag up ugly photos from my braces-fille high school years, or pictures of people I was once close to but through time and space no longer see. Other times they remind me of amazing moments like rafting in the jungle or a date at the…
At 6:21 my eyelids flicker open. My alarm, set for 7:45 am, is at this point a hopeful dream. The rays of sun streaming in through my thin lilac fairy curtains push me out of sleep and into wakefulness long before I am ready to leave my subconscious. The sound of the news comes into…
Sometimes I forget I’m in Ecuador. Most days are pretty standard. I eat oatmeal for breakfast, just like I did back in the States. I still drink coffee twice a day (but it’s instant. I have come to accept this sadness.) I go to school every day just like I did back in Berkeley, though…
As a little girl growing up in the Central Valley of California, I was lucky enough to have easy access to both mountains and beaches. Every year, my family would usually take two vacations: one to the beaches of Sea Ranch, and another to a national park in the Sierra Nevadas. While I thoroughly enjoyed…
Today marks a little more than one week since I arrived in Quito. Since last Saturday, life has been a whirlwind of training and getting acquainted with this beautiful Andean city. Life at 9,000 feet is different than back home beyond just the difference in altitude, though. Figuring out how to exist in and navigate around a place so…