an incredible semester

This is probably the last post that I'll write from Quito. Man, what a truly amazing semester I've had here. That's something that my friends here and I have been talking about for weeks now, how grateful we are to have met each other and how blessed we are to have had this experience. But it didn't really hit me until tonight, when I was saying goodbye to Maya and Rosa, two friends that live on the West Coast, and my host family's "extended family" (whom I consider my family), at which point I, of course, started crying. My host dad made a good point -- that's the hard part about us traveling. We make great friends, and then we have to say goodbye to them. Well I say, I'd rather have made such lifelong friendships here and have the pain of saying goodbye, than have never made them at all.

Yes, I can cry now because what was an incredible 4 1/2 months is now over. But, I can always laugh and remember all the amazing memories I have with friends that I know will be friends forever.

Since January, I have...
1. Learned how to navigate a city of over 1.5 million people
2. Mastered a semester of 5 classes taught all in Spanish
3. Celebrated my 21st birthday at hot springs below the Equator
4. Ziplined through the Amazon rainforest
5. Cheered on the Quito soccer team at Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa
6. Visited Ecuadorian beaches seven times
7. Eaten countless bowls of shrimp ceviche
8. Memorized all the lyrics to 5 reggaeton songs
9. Been robbed in Quito
10. Repelled down waterfalls in a wetsuit and Keds
11. Jumped off a 450-feet-high bridge
12. Drunk a milkshake "to go" out of a plastic bag
13. Been foamed during Carnaval
14. Strolled down La Ronda, drinking canelazo
15. Watched my baby sister grow to be 6 months old
16. Climbed Ecuador's best-preserved archaeological ruins
17. Hike Cajas National Park in my TOMS
18. Made friends with great people in Canoa
19. Got a hair wrap
20. Climbed a tiny ladder 200 feet above the rainforest
21. Held a monkey
22. Learned to surf
23. Swam in a river in the Amazon, home to piranhas and anacondas
24. Went rafting on a river in South America
25. Got stuck by a mountain landslide
26. Saw the Galápagos Islands - sea lions, blue-footed boobies, iguanas, pelicans, etc.
27. Snorkeled with sharks
28. Met a giant turtle
29. Went to countless Ladies Nights and salsa nights at Aguijon
30. Stood on the Equator
31. Lived in a house with the most kind and fun people anyone will ever meet.