DISCLAIMER: I always get nervous publishing posts like this because I think people might interpret them as us being ungrateful for this experience. But we're not. We're very grateful. This is just part of the experience. We'd be lying if we didn't post things like this, because as everyone knows it's not always rainbows and sunshine!
Remember a while ago when I referenced the 'W' experience of being abroad. Well if there's anything I've learned about living, traveling or studying abroad is that it's not all roses and that you should pay attention to how you're feeling. Ryan and I are certainly doing that right now. The danger is that one of us gets into a funk about being here and then both of us end up negative Nancy's for our last two months here. That's what we're avoiding. For us, the process of avoiding this is to talk about how we're feeling but not dwell on it. And most importantly not letting one experience shape the way we think and feel about a whole country.
So here's how we're feeling... tired. We're tired of going against the grain with people constantly. I'm tired of being charged $1 more for a taxi driver. I'm tired of being charged 20 cents more per pound of avocados. Ryan is tired of 'most of the people here, except for our friends.' This ordeal with our landlady is taking a toll on our emotional determination and our sentiment towards people similar to her, which unfortunately for us, we have encountered quite a few.
Now, don't hear us incorrectly... we signed up for this and we love this lifestyle. But, after living in a place for almost 15 months we're allowed to make some judgements. One of our judgements is that there is a certain group of people in society in Quito that just want to rip off Americans because they think we have money. And we're tired of these people. Not so much annoyed with them, because we know they aren't going to change. But tired of constantly being on guard and defending ourselves from them.
For the first time, we both feel ready to come home. We're going to REALLY live it up these next two months but we're ready to not live here anymore. We'll certainly miss the amazing friends that we've made here that have become our make shift family and we certainly want to come back. But when we return, it will be as tourists and as visitors, not as residents!
MULUB,
Taylor
