TravelBio

I wanted to write a post about the city of Quito, partially to give you a better idea of how my trip went and also because the city is such an interesting place. Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is situated in the Andes Mountains which run north-south through the center of the country. To the east of the Andes lies the rainforest, and to the west the coastal areas.   The Andes cut through the middle of Ecuador, separating the coastal and interior regions The city of Quito is in a fairly narrow valley, so as it has grown development has stretched primarily north and south, with the modern affluent areas to the north. The central part of Quito is home to many old colonial Spanish administrative buildings, churches, the presidential palace, and hundreds of small shops. The population of the city is around 1.5 million, and with the surrounding areas it is close to 2 million; a decent sized city, but with the shortage of flat land the population density is quite...

I arrived in Ecuador on a Saturday, and the following day our group was scheduled to go out to dinner for a meet and greet type event. The other students had already met at Ohio State during fall quarter, but only during a series of three info sessions. I of course had missed the meetings because of Semester at Sea. Sine I applied extra early I was able to attend the spring sessions (the program is held twice a year, during the summer and winter). I had a pretty good feel for how the program was structured and what to expect from classes, but it was odd being the only student who hadn’t met everyone else back at OSU. There were about 25 Ohio State students in total, plus our two graduate leaders. When I arrived at the restaurant it wasn’t hard to pick them out, off in their own little group section. There were the normal awkward moments that come with meeting a bunch of new people, but everyone seemed to be nice and interested to hear about my trip the previous quar...

After arriving in Quito I was greeted at the airport by the two program leaders, Sarah and Daniela. They were graduate students at Ohio State and would be looking after our group during the 10 week stay. Sarah and Daniela would prove to be great resources during our stay in Ecuador; they would sit in on classes, lead our group trips, and check in with us periodically to make sure everything was going smoothly with our host families. Although I had not met them until that point it was comforting to see two fellow OSU students waiting for me at the airport and to know they would be there to help if I needed anything. Quito is in north-central Ecuador, in the Andes mountains Ecuador is bordered by Peru to the south and east, Colombia to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west Mariscal Sucre Airport, Quito Sarah and Daniela led me outside to meet my host mother, a middle aged woman who pulled up in an old Chevy Bronco-esque truck to pick me up. After a brief i...

Oh and for anyone who is interested here is the Semester at Sea website - its got some cool info about the program and past voyages: http://www.semesteratsea.org/ And more to come about Ecuador!

After flying out of Orlando I arrived back home in Columbus on December 15th, close to four months since I had last been home. It was great to see the rest of my family - my mom and sister Christine - and to spend the holidays with them. Extended family came to visit, and I enjoyed the down time for a few weeks. I did not have long though; I had to get ready for my next big trip - a 10 week study abroad in Ecuador! I had applied for the study abroad before going on Semester at Sea, and although I knew it would be hectic doing them back to back it sounded like an opportunity I couldn't miss out on. The program was in Quito, Ecuador for Ohio State's winter quarter (from early January to late March). While in Quito I would live with an Ecuadorian host family and attend Spanish language classes with other Ohio State students. It was an elementary language program, so I was only required to take one quarter of Spanish to qualify. Even though it was intended for beginn...

We reached Miami the morning of December 14 th . After visiting 10 countries and sailing around the globe for a total of 108 days, our journey had finally come to an end. We had to wait around to go through port security in groups based on our cabin numbers. At the beginning of the trip I planned to book a flight from Miami to Columbus and meet my family back home, but my mom had told me not to book one since my dad decided to visit me in Florida. It was supposed to be a surprise, but she didn’t want me to make travel arrangements not realizing he was planning for us to go home together. What I did not know was that my sister Anna would also be in Miami waiting for me! After over 3 months away from my family (and almost no phone contact) it was great to see my dad and sister. I had no idea that Anna would be there and was glad she could make the trip too. port of Miami Before leaving I said my final goodbyes to the friends I had made during the trip and made...

Again, its been a long time since I last updated my blog (sounds familiar, huh?). I looked over my last few blog posts and realized that I didn't really finalize the Semester at Sea trip. So here is a little recap of the last few days: After leaving Costa Rica our trip was nearly over, but we still had several days left of sailing before we landed in Miami. We departed from Puntarenas, and the following morning woke up to find our ship already in the locks of the Panama Canal. Most of us had never seen the Canal, let alone sailed through it. When I was in Panama City the following spring (which I hopefully will mention in one of my next posts) I never got around to seeing the Canal, which was kind of a bummer. It would have been cool to see what it was like from land, since I already had the opportunity to go through by ship. Sailing through it was a neat experience, but who knew it would take all day!? I assumed that we would go through a lock or two, followed by a qu...