It was Tuesday night, and here I was back in my dorm, all packed up and ready to go! I had my headphones, my sunglasses and my trusty bag (which is basically all you need in life) and most of all I head heart my friends. I was ready to embark on this adventure with my fellow nursing students to the land of spiders and monkeys and big flying bugs. It was totally on! I wish I had a picture to mark this moment in history but alas my broken and incomplete explanation of the event will be the only momentum to this joyous occasion.
Then after that, I went to bed. (sometimes life just isn't exciting folks, that's just the way it is)
After waking up bright and early Wednesday morning we left. Way early. Like 4 hours before our plan was going to leave. Apparently our professors wanted to be extra prepared much to the dismay of all 18 of us loitering in the terminal four hours on end (pun intended). However, on a side note, I was super excited to get a call from my good friend Kali who had just gotten engaged!
Kali and Matt
Waiting in O'hare
Finally on the plane!
After eating breakfast (and lunch) and calling everyone in my phone contact list, we finally boarded the plane! I was tired and I knew we were scheduled to get into Quito late so I decided to sleep as much as I could. There was a layover in Miami which was pretty uneventful. Well, we did eat at this Mexican restaurant with horrible service that I highly discourage anyone who finds themselves in Miami airport to go to. But other than that, nothing. After more waiting we boarded again and after a few hours, finally landed in Quito.
Eating at the Mexican Restaurant
It took some time to get all our luggage sorted and get the group through customs, some of us even broke out our 'gracious' and 'por favors.' Excitement and expectation was in the air as we wondered about our accommodations, what we would be doing, and whether or not the bugs were really as big as they looked on Google.
Bug from Google
We met some of our group leaders for the first time and then headed outside, expecting the warm air to embrace our skin with all the love that summer had taken with it some long months ago. Instead, however, we were greeted with torrential rain fall. Apparently it was the rainy season. Forgot to mention that huh, Google! Oh well, nothing could get these brave hearts down! We were in Ecuador! We grabbed our bags and our determination and headed outside the comfort of the airport into the wet, black night.
To be continued....