Back Home - Just to Say Hi and Goodbye!


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 beginners, I was still nervous about my ability to get around in Ecuador after only taking a 10 week Spanish 101 course the previous spring, especially considering I hadn't practiced at all while on the SAS trip.

I didn't have much time to worry about my Spanish credentials (or lack thereof), because before I knew it I was repacking my things that I had just unloaded from the previous trip. During the summer I had looked into flights to Quito and found that it was hundreds of dollars less to fly out of Washington DC instead of Columbus. So a few days before my flight my mom and I drove to DC to visit my aunt (who lives in Maryland, just north of the district). I had to leave my aunt's house during the wee hours of the morning because the flight departed at something like 7 am, and of course we had to make sure and get there extra early (I am usually a little too lax when it comes to cutting it close at the airport, but my parents make sure I remember to get there with plenty of time to spare).

The flight was through Copa, a Panamanian airliner, and from DC we stopped in Panama City for a few hours before heading on to Quito. On the way to Panama City I sat next to a guy who hosted his own fishing show on Fox Sports, and he was going to shoot an episode somewhere in the Panamanian jungle (he told me the name of his show but I could never remember!). On the flight to Quito I was a mix of excited and nervous as I prepared to meet my host family, who would be waiting to pick me up at the airport.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Training in DC and Prep for Georgia

Image
As mentioned a few posts ago, I took a new job back in the US starting in mid-January. I flew back from Japan to my hometown in Ohio at the end of December, arriving just in time for New Year's. My initial contract in Japan ended along with 2020, so it didn't make sense to start a new one for a week or two in January. This way I was also able to spend time with my parents and my sister and her husband (who live nearby) before moving to Washington, DC. In addition to family time, I had a lot of administrative tasks to take care of before the move; my new job is with the government, which involves a long, at times frustrating onboarding process. I had to fill out several HR packets, arrange temporary housing for my training in DC, decide on consequential things such as life insurance and thrift savings plan contributions, and choose my healthcare plan. By the way, why is healthcare so complicated here?! The electronic form listed over 200 healthcare options to chose from! After e...
Read more

Finishing Osaka, on to Tokyo

Image
I've covered some of the great food Andrew and I had in Japan, so now let me move on to whatever else it was that we were doing between meals.  Two posts ago I touched on Osaka, the second largest city in Japan and our fist stop in the country. Osaka is in the Kansai region of Japan, which also includes Kobe and Kyoto Osaka city proper has about 2.7 million people, but that is only a fraction of the true number.  Citing population based on city limits can be quite misleading.  Take my hometown of Columbus, and Cleveland, another city in Ohio, as examples.  The population of the city of Columbus is over 800,000, while Cleveland's is less than half that.  Take a look at the metro area, or the urban core plus surrounding suburbs and commuter towns, and the comparison is flipped: Cleveland is substantially larger than Columbus. Back to Osaka - while the city itself only has a couple million inhabitants, add in the urban sprawl and surrounding ...
Read more

My Dad and Uncle Visit Korea, Part 1

Image
Even before I left for Korea last November, my dad had mentioned that he might try and visit me.  In the past he has suggested trips only to say that it was just a hypothetical later on.  So when he finally booked a flight for a visit in the summer I was quite surprised.  Both he and my uncle flew in to Seoul on the 31 st of July and then also went to Japan together for four nights.  Here is a recap of their visit: My uncle (far right) and dad (second from right) were headed to Seoul! Korean public schools get over a month off for summer break in late June and August.  On the other hand, the private institutes (like the one I work for) often have much shorter breaks.  During the summer break from public school parents sign their kids up for extra classes at our school, so we actually are busier!  What a great vacation for the students – a full day of English classes!  My break was four days long (well six if you coun...
Read more