Culture Shock

I never thought I'd say this but, Boston just doesn't really feel like home anymore.

I had never thought of saying such a thing because Boston had always been home for me. All of a sudden the city and I don't flow, don't mesh, just straight up don't get along like we used to. What's up with that?

I'd bet my money on culture shock.

I feel great when I'm in my house in Brookline, relaxing alone or with the family. I will always consider home as where the heart is, if I may say so...

Before I begin with the whole new wave of culture shock I felt when I landed at Logan International, I will share an unforgettable experience I had in the Miami airport:

So, I was waiting to check in at the self-service counter, which was completely pointless, by the way, because after getting the ticket from the machine, everyone still had to wait in a long line to talk to a representative about baggage AND THEN drag the baggage to a special "baggage drop-off" location a ten-minute walk from check-in. Everyone checking in there was confused. Why? There were no signs, and most people did not speak English proficiently. Every single person that tried to check in at self-service messed up. Including me. In short, it was a mess. Thank you, American Airlines.

As I was waiting in line, a Spanish-speaking man and his family were walking by. In front of me stood a pretty a family I could safely label "gringos". The father was tall and upset about something. The daughters had super straightened, super dyed hair. The Uggs, the Northface, the designer handbag. The girls were spitting images of their mother. The Spanish-speaking man approached the white man, and told him that further down the hall it was possible to quickly check in and get the baggage taken care of at the same time. I assume he was talking about the regular check-in (which, I believe him now, must have been faster than self check-in). For self check-in you had to get this special white slip of paper (a waste of paper); anyways, all of a sudden the two men are in a yelling argument about the slip of paper and the right place to check in (I think both of them were right in what they were saying). The white man then said to the Spanish-speaking man, "So, then you're being stupid right?!" The Spanish-speaking man responded sarcastically/angrily, "Yeah, I must be stupid," and walked away. I couldn't control myself, and sighed, "Oh, America..." under my breath. The white man heard and growled.

Perhaps it was that I didn't understand everything everyone said to me in Ecuador, or perhaps it was the coarseness of the English language that I began to feel instantly when I landed in the States, but that moment in the Miami airport really stuck. In Ecuador, no bus driver had ever yelled at me. The first time I took the bus in Boston, the bus driver was giving me lip.

I know that I'm just angry and confused from "culture shock," but way too many people I interact with in Boston these days just seem rude. Maybe it's also the cold weather, or the economic crisis that's bringing out the bad in everyone. I'm not the only person to come back from Ecuador to share an experience of people in Boston being rude.


I don't know what shocks me more, the fact that no one talks to me in Spanish here or the fact that I'm no longer in a developing country. I miss the Spanish language dearly, mas suave. Though I hate to admit it (although I actually don't hate to admit it), especially as an immigrant, I am so thankful for being able to live in the United States (despite the occasional rudeness). I wouldn't have been able to see Ecuador if I were still living in Ukraine. Coming back from Ecuador has some benefits, too. I am shocked that I am able to walk around Boston alone, day or night. I am shocked that everywhere I go I can get change for a twenty-dollar bill.

Basically, every country has its problems. Coming back to the U.S., I really feel that I can see the world (a little) clearer. I have another piece of the bigger picture. And the effect of that little piece on my life is more drastic than I expected.

There is so much of Ecuadorian life I wish I could inject into American life, and vice verse. For instance, I wish I could just pop the personal space bubble that closes off too many Americans from each other. I wish democracy could work, really work in Ecuador. But, you can't have it all, I guess.

To sum up, I'm filled with many mixed feelings. As a result, I find myself walking around everywhere looking confused all the time.

I'm excited to leave for and get to Spain in exactly one week. I will miss my family, but maybe I need a little more time away from Boston to really miss it.

Saved in Miami

My house in U.S. got a call from American Airlines at two in the morning the night before my flight home to let my family know that my flight from Miami to Boston was already canceled due to the snowstorm. I got a call at my house in Ecuador at 6:30am. It was my mother letting me know that the day was going to suck. Big time.

We landed in Miami and immediately I called one of my best friends from BU and a resident of Miami, Elena. She was still stuck in Boston! After a couple hours of figuring things out at the airport, our plan went from splitting a hotel between three of us girls on the same flight to Boston to the two girls managing to get on later flights to Boston that night (which I'm glad they took, by the way). When all of this was being figured out, Humberto, Elena's boyfriend called me and offered to pick me up.

Well, if he insisted...

He and my friend Joel picked me up at the airport, treated me to a delicious steak dinner and took me home to Humberto's so I could rest.


(At dinner)

At night, I saw Elena, and Elena and Humberto woke up at 4am to take me to the airport for my early morning flight. I know I've expressed my gratitude, but I'd like to take a moment right now to express it again. Thank you guys for being truly great friends! I loved seeing you.

Not to mention, I spent all day speaking Spanish with them. That eased my culture shock..

Feliz Navidad!

Feliz navidad, feliz navidad, feliz navidad, prospero año y felicidad!!

Happy Holidays! I hope that everyone's holiday season has been full of cheer!

I had a very emotional transition from life on the equator to life in below zero (in celsius) weather in good ole Boston. Good-byes were hard. I mean, look at these lovely, beautiful, incredible people I called family for four months:


(The kids- Alex (18), Dany (19), me (20), and Juli (21))


(My Ecua-rents and I)



By the time I got on the plane and that beautiful city nestled in the mountains was fading from reality the farther we rose into the clouds, I had no tears left. Some of those tears went to a screaming fight I had with a cab driver the night before...

It was my last night in Quito. A few hours after meeting up with everyone from the program in the Mariscal (the going out center of Quito), we decided to go our separate ways. Some of us thought of going to a club that my host brother and his friends had gone into an hour or so before. After catching a cab to this club, we were told that the entrance was $12. Too much. At this point, I was very sad at the thought of not being able to say good-bye to my brother. Luckily, he came out for a second and I was able to give him a hug...and bawl my eyes out in front of him and the club security guards and my friends. So after this very difficult moment, it was time to catch a cab home. There were two cabs parked outside the club. My two friends went for one and I for the other. Now, I knew for a fact that during the day it would've cost at most a dollar with the meter to get home from that spot. At night, I would pay $2. Max. How much? I asked. $4, he said.

Four U.S. dollars! Now, in Quito, after dark the taxi meter goes off and you have to bargain for your price. But, four dollars!

(this was all in Spanish, by the way):

"No, sir, $2 dollars, please..."
"No, $4, nothing less!" (He wouldn't even lower the price by fifty cents).
"I know how much it costs to get where I'm going, and it's not $4. No sea malito, $2!"
"No way, $4 and that's it," he yelled out.

At this point, I let it rip:

"You're a bad man. You're a thief. Don't think that you can cheat me because I'm a gringa. I live here. I know exactly how much it costs to get home. You're a bad, bad man."

He kept firing back. And that's when I started to cry. On top of everything he turned to his friend and started calling me a stupid drunk even though I had had only one celebratory cocktail four hours earlier. I bawled. From this cab driver's nonesense, from saying good-bye to my brother, from leaving Quito, from leaving my friends. It all hit me.

My friends and I just walked away, and two blocks later I hailed down a cab that only charged me $2.



Study abroad is strange. You fly into this new place. You know you have four months. And you know that in four months, you'll wake up one day and everything, your friends, your family, your daily routine, the food you eat, the bed you sleep in will be gone. Just like that. I got home to Boston and hated the fact that it just felt like I had never left. But, I really had a life there.

At this point, I would like to make a special shout-out to the country of Ecuador for everything it has taught me about life. I didn't even realize until I got back to the U.S. how much clearer I see certain things about this world.

Odds and Ends...and how I got half a stadium's worth of soccer fans chanting my name...

First of all, I just got one of the best hair cuts of my life. Yes, my whole life. How much did I pay? 5 USD. I walked into this hole-in-the-wall salon tonight. The couch leather (or pleather) was peeling, "2012" was playing on the 10" TV screen, and cigarettes were cooling in an ashtray on the microwave. Enrique, 39, blue-haired (was bleach-blonde a couple days ago), and gorgeous, had me take a seat. He told me to trust him, and I did, after a few minutes. Because it only took him that long to figure out my hair. He knew exactly how I wanted it without even asking. It seemed so effortless.

So, after one of the worst days ever, worst because I took one of the most ridiculous finals in the history of college finals, all of a sudden I feel sane.

In a taxi on the way to get my haircut, I was listening to a talk show (in Spanish, of course). The host was interviewing an Ecuadorian Jew about Judaism. Fascinating, yet just a little awkward. It was interesting how the host was asking the Jewish guy why it's the year 5770 and not 2009. It got awkward when the topic of Jesus came up. The host was saying something along the lines of "I'm not trying to criticize you, but you're saying that for the Jews, Jesus is not the son of God?" The Jewish guy replied, "well, no." The host went on to say, "So, because most of the listeners of this show are, well, Catholic...ummm...so Jesus was a prophet then?" "Well, a teacher of sorts, yes." "So, what, in Judaism, is the equivalent figure of Jesus?" "Well, there isn't really...."

And on it went like that. I thought it was great to hear a relatively respectful discussion about religion on public radio in Ecuador. Especially, around an important holiday time for Jews and Christians alike. Yes, it was awkward, but it was a step. I think everybody learned a little somethin'.

FINALLY, I totally forgot to mention this around the time that Liga (one of the Quito teams/won the South American cup) won one of the final games. What I'm about to share with you, I can safely say was both my most glorious and most embarrassing moment.

Here goes...

So, all of us BU kids are leaving the Liga stadium, every emotional. We see this sea of people in front of us heading toward the exit. To our left is a twelve foot high dirt wall, so we decide to scale it to avoid the crowds. Everyone struggles a little but somehow manages to get to the top. Except me. Two things happened.

1) I was brought back to a very traumatic rocking climbing incident from earlier on this semester. I was the only one that failed and it was determined in my mind that I was indeed, the weakest link.

2) A uncontrollable fit of laughter overtook me.

Here I am trying to get up this wall by grabbing at roots. I'm smeared in dirt. My hands are black, my Liga jersey is blotched with soil. And to make this experience EPIC, hundreds upon hundreds of Ecuadorians have stopped in the middle of the road at this point to cheer me on. My friends recorded a video, and I'm trying to get my hands on it. So, every time I make progress the crowd explodes with cheers, and every time I slip the crowd gasps and feels my pain.

After about five minutes, there's no way I'm getting up there. My friend Garrett is yelling to me to grab his hand...I grab it but then I lose his grip. Eventually, my other friend Matt throws a big Liga flag down to me. With the flag in one hand and Garrett's hand in the other, FINALLY, I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I get up, the crowd cheers and I roll around in dirt from joy. I think one of my friend's peed her pants from laughter.

I've always wanted an epically embarrassing moment, and now I have one to share with the world!

Two Weeks Left: Separation Anxiety

Here I am. With just two weeks left in Ecuador. I know it' silly for me to say this, but I'm crying right now just thinking about it. And I know that it all is what it is, and I knew when I landed I only had four months, but as the date approaches I can't help but feel heartbreak.

I know that I'm sensitive, I know that I'm emotional. But, I also know that in two weeks I will leave a life that I created for myself here, or really this life that just happened that is now so much a part of me. My life started in Ukraine, and by the time that period of my life was over I couldn't remember all that much of it. Every since then, even though I've transitioned from middle school to high school to college, I've always been in Boston, and transitioning from one of these institutions to another with a big group of people going through the same thing. I entered the world of South America with twenty three people by my side. Even though others have taken on this program before, and many more will, no one will ever understand exactly what the twenty four of us went through. It's not to say anyone else with have a better or worse experience, but it won't be ours.

So, basically, I have never had to leave a whole way of life in this way before. My family that I have seen everyday since I landed, my friends and everyone I've met, my school, my block, my view of the city, my bus route, my places to eat, my casa, my room, my keys, my streets. I don't even know half of Quito, but I feel like it will always be my city, like Lvov or Boston. It will always be a part of me.

I'll miss my family here more than they know. They've been nothing but amazing to me. They've listened to me, and I've listened to them. I just want them to know how much I love them.

Anyway, I know that the time has come and I have a whole new adventure waiting for me in Spain, but right now...let's just say I'm having serious separation anxiety.

LIGA CAMPEON!

The Quito soccer team, Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito, is officially the best team in all of South America. Just less than two hours ago, la Liga met the Brazilian team, Fluminense on the battlefield to win the Copa Sudamericana. Liga Campeon! Not to mention, this is especially perfect timing because of the ongoing fiestas de Quito, which celebrate the city's founding with bullfights, chiva (a bus with no windows or doors) rides around the old city, drinking, and street parties.

Pookie and Froggie Reunited

So, my sister, Asya, just left today. She was visiting me for a week here in good ole Ecuador. I was very proud of my parents for letting her fly by herself. We had a fun, packed week. The highlight was either being at the game at which Liga (the Quito team) won or the epic five hour trip to the cloud forest in Mindo. Extreme. Anyway, miss her already, but I'll see her in a few weeks. Oh boy, just a few weeks left. On the one hand, I find myself tearing up once or twice a day at the idea of it. On the other hand, I have three ten page papers to happen by the end of next week. I haven't started any of them.