BCA Study Abroad Spring 2013

It's been a while since the BCA study abroad program has ended, but I wanted to write a post about this semester before I forget about it and my reflections disappear.

First of all, I just want to say that this semester with BCA-Quito has been incredible.
I loved each and every single one of us, and have so much appreciation for the program directors.

In these five months, I have learned so many things, made numerous friends, improved my spanish, and have realized so many things about myself and what I am interested in.

I've always been very interested in volunteering for children (ARC and UNICEF) but I've never been interested in the hands-on education part of children.
I still don't feel like I would want to become a teacher (considering almost all of my aunts and uncles on my moms side are teachers, as well as my older sister) but I have realized that I am very interested in children's rights and education.

I've been a teacher assistant for an elementary school twice but both times I didn't think that I would really be interested in committing to children's education.

But since doing an internship in two different schools in Ecuador (a normal preschool and a school for deaf children) I've realized that I have a passion for children's rights to education - interesting how your past volunteering experiences and commitments connects to your interests and passion. I've realized also that I don't have interest just in children's right to education but more specifically the rights to education for children with disabilities and for underprevileged children.

After coming to Ecuador, I found myself trying to balance out my life as well. Since going to Soka, I've been pulled by the waves of "pressure" and "expectations" that exists invisibly in our university. At times it can be good, but many times these invisible forces brought me down so low and stressed that I was unable to eat anything nor enjoy anything from the bottom of my heart.

As the people-pleaser that I am, I have always tried to make myself more than I really was, tried pleasing people more than necessary and hiding things that I thought was not good enough.
That and considering the competitive nature within me, I would allow myself to be let-down many many times and accuse myself for not being good enough.

Sadly, I am in the majority group of students that do this to themselves.

That being said, I am also sure that this mandatory study abroad program definitely has a postitive impact on each and every student in our university.
But at the same time, I am very glad that I ended up choosing BCA-Quito for study abroad. I cannot express how much I look up to Daniel Bryan and Martha, Miguel Andres as well as the many speakers Daniel had coordinated for us to meet and the my fellow students in the program.

Through this trip, I realized I am definitely a balancer.

What I mean by this is that, I enjoy taking walks, drinking coffee/tea and listening to the birds chirp, sitting down and listening to music, and sitting on buses and staring at the scenery.
I don't mean that I do not work hard nor that I never study, but rather realized that I am not very much an elite type person in academics/work but rather a person that likes to see everything.
Maybe I'm greedy, maybe I'm a people-pleaser. Maybe I'm too competitive, maybe I'm just lazy.
There's always different ways to see things and different ways to describe things.
The same thing can mean very different things and explained in many different ways.

I am shy, I am outgoing, I am positive, I am an over-thinker, I like to see people happy, I like it when people think I am a nice person, I am a giver, I am not confident.

People make me insecure, I make myself think I am not good enough.

But that's all so common, and I am accepting - I'd like to think atleast. It's normal to have ups and downs, and its normal to compare. But I also know that ups and downs are constant but in genral, if you always feel appreciative, and thankful, in general you are rising.

Anyways.

This semester has been full of realizations.
Although I grew up in Los Angeles, I prefer to live somewhere with alot less people.
I loved being in the Amazon (Tiputini and Tena) as well as the Galapagos Islands.
I love being surrounded with many many animals and sleeping to the sounds of frogs and waves.

Through the internship program and talking to people, I have decided to apply for the Peace Corps and volunteer somewhere in the world for 2 years.
Through the Ecuador Culture and Justice class, I have reflected much more on the topic of tourism than I thought I would have.
Every time I visited a new place, it made me think that I want to stay there to get to know the locals, get to know the life, get to know the details, get to be a part of the comunity.

But anyways,

This semester has been such an amazing gift and privilege given by my university. I am so glad that I came to Ecuador with BCA-Quito. I am definitely "amando la vida" here and would love to come back very very soon to see my friends again as well as enjoy the nature at the center of the world :)

Thank you BCA-Quito! :)

Peru Trip!

April 23rd to the 29th -- Trip to Peru with my favorite people :)

We had some issues with our flights getting canceled so we had to get a plane a day earlier (better for me :] more days in Peru!)

Because of our schedules, it ended it up being some of us going on one day, and another on others.
So on Tuesday at around 4am me, Erin, Libbie and Brian left for the airport to go to Lima --> Cuzco.

We arrived around noon in Cuzco.
It was an absolutely beautiful city in the center.
The buildings and stores in the center were mostly brick and the scenary was so beautiful.

Louisa and Daniel arrived on Wednesday and Ally on Thursday.

We explored the city the three days, going shopping and just walking around, going to the chocolate museum, taking the trolly tour and eating amazing kiwi galletas and drinking delicious tea.

We went to Machu Picchu city on a train on Friday in the morning, arrived in the afternoon and did a hike up a mountain and saw the ruins in the far distance. Me and Erin were literally dieing behind the athletes but it was definitely worth the hour and a half and definitely thankful that me and Erin were at the same pace :)

On Saturday morning we left the hostal at around 5:30am to hike up the mountain to get to the ruins before 7am when there are less people.

 

Being a bit sick from the cold of Cuzco and having the-weakest-stomach-ever, it was rather a suicidal hike for me but again, it was so worth it when we arrived at the top and saw the view of the mountains.

The most amazing part about this trip to the ruins was that I ran into Devan (T) at the top of Machu Picchu! We knew that we would be in Cuzco at the same time but it was such a coincidence running into her with her study abroad program at the ruins :)

I didn't feel good the majority of the time I was there but I took a couple minutes to throw up off trail and I felt so much better after.

But anyways, we went back to Cuzco that day and left the next day for the day to Lima.

Honestly speaking, Lima was very similar to Santa Monica where I live and it didn't make me feel like I was in a different country at all. It's definitely not a bad thing nor a good thing, it was just such a big change coming from Cuzco and going to Lima. It definitely did make me miss home a bit though (surprising, considering I have never even had the slightest thought of homesickness since coming here..) But obviousy it still doesn't mean that I want to go back just because I went to a place similar to Santa Monica.

It was definitely a very clean, pretty place but it was so filled with foreigners I really felt like I was just back home in LA. If I were to live in Latin America, this probably wouldn't be the place I would choose to live.

Anyways, we just basically sat around and had a picnic on the grass area on the cliff over the beach and layed around playing cards for a while and went grocery shopping. We had a little "mock" graduation for Daniel and had icecream together :)
We went back to the airport and all of us basically sat around studying and cramming everything we had to catch up on for a weeks worth of missed classes.

Quite an exhausting trip considering the hiking and getting sick but totally worth the price and missed classes :)