SUMMER 2013 – PRE-DEPARTURE

Towards the end of May, I left my house in London to go back to Bristol and live with my parents for about 3 months until my departure to Guayaquil (26^th of august). During this time, they greatly assisted with many things I needed to sort out such as purchasing the flight ticket, vaccinations, bank/finance matters, etc. Plus, leaving London and living back home certainly helped save a lot of money too. I strangely seemed to really appreciate living back there a lot more; after two years of living in student houses, I was really thankful to have nice cooked meals served to me each day and it was like a luxury just being in a stable comfortable household where nothing seemingly went wrong in comparison to the student households where I encountered the horrors of tacky furniture, landlords, mice invasions, etc.

My dad's home, where the vast majority of preparation was done

The trickiest part of my pre-departure was certainly acquiring the visa, as my application was rejected the first time I went to the Consulate in London. Even the international co-ordinators in Ecuador got frustrated with the folks at the Consulate. Anyway, my second trip there was successful and I returned to Bristol with the visa at last. All the other bits and pieces fell into place eventually, and the rest of my time that summer was spent spending time and saying farewells to friends and family. Actually, I also had to do a couple of assignments but booo that’s not interesting.

I had family I needed to visit and say goodbye to, so I went with my mother to Spain for a week to visit my Spanish family (from her side) and that was chill. Flying back to England, it was a comforting thought that I wouldn't have to wait long for sunny weather again. I went to London for a weekend with my dad, mum, and step-mother Nathalie to visit and say goodbye to the family from my father’s side. This involved lunch with Nana at her care home, and an evening dinner with Grandpa, his wife Chris, and Uncle Mark.

The family with Nana.

I then stayed behind a couple of days to party, including visiting my old house and finally being able to enjoy a proper barbeque in the magnificently spacious garden we had (spent 8-9 months waiting to have a bbq party and ended up leaving as soon as the weather turned appropriate for it). I think this was a really nice ‘send-off’ weekend with the family and I appreciated the effort everyone made.

During this stay in Bristol, I had less friends there than ever before, because a lot had either moved away or just gotten out of touch. But there were still a few to spend some nice times with and catch up.

  Me and a friend, by the Bristol suspension bridge

I also received some information about the host family I will be living with during my time in Ecuador (at least for the first term, after that I may move into independent accommodation). The mother is called Nizida, and the son and daughter are Eduardo and Priscila. They are not my age though, they're in their early 30's/late 20's respectively. I had some contact with the son Eduardo with a couple of e-mails. He is a doctor. I do not know anything else about them, and there appears to be no father (on the form I received it states FATHER: NO, unless there is a father and his name is No).

The picture I received: Nizida and Eduardo.

I think that it never really completely dawned on me that I was leaving for a year until the last weekend, because I did not feel much sadness when saying goodbye to friends and family which was kind of surprising, but it also makes sense that the excitement overshadowed that factor. On the Friday night of the weekend before I left, I had my last farewell shindig with friends and the next day when I walked back to my home I finally felt a real sad feeling at leaving everyone, I’m not sure what exactly triggered it but it was quite overwhelming all of a sudden. That night my parents and Nathalie went for a meal (curry) and a couple of drinks.

The next day was pretty much just packing, leaving the bag ready, etc. Anyway, a lot of that was done thanks to my dad. My luggage consisted of a suitcase and large rucksack. My mother went away that evening abroad for a week, so she passed by to say goodbye. I guess because she was sort of in a rush, driving away it was not a very emotional farewell; not as much as it would have been if she came to see me off at the airport I’m sure, which was better for her sake I reckon.

I had to get up at 4am but I still didn’t end up going to sleep until gone 12, I think even 1, exciting times!

INTRODUCTION

Hello, my name is Oscar. I am 20 years old, from the United Kingdom, and this blog will be all about my year abroad in Ecuador.

"Hello!"

So for the Spanish part of my university degree, the third year is spent entirely in a Spanish-speaking country. The majority of my classmates (in fact all of them apart from myself and one other) chose to go to Spain; quite a lot of them study French, so they have to divide their year between two places. Besides, spending a year in Spain seems fantastic anyway. But I decided to go to South America. As nice as Spain is, I have been there quite a few times and felt it would be much more exciting to go somewhere new. A country I had not been to before would be more challenging and an overall more unique experience, one which (hopefully) would contribute towards me growing as a person, and gain more maturity and responsibility – I will be 21 when I return to the UK.

So my choices were Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, and Costa Rica. I chose to go to Ecuador, based mostly on the programme, location, and features which the host university and Guayaquil offered. Guayaquil is the city where I’d be based (the second capital after Quito). This process started around late 2012. Until then, I had never given much thought at all to Ecuador but all of a sudden my life began to increasingly be focused around Ecuador and Guayaquil.