Blog Post #5
5.8.2017

            My greatest challenge while here in Ecuador so far has been resisting the urge to speak English to locals. Although I know that it is very likely that the people I speak to do not speak English, I constantly have to catch myself and speak Spanish instead of English. I feel like I face this challenge because I see English as my safety blanket, the language I am most comfortable with. In order to successfully communicate with the people I meet in Ecuador I need to be able to step out of my comfort zone and be confident that I know enough of the language to get by and they won’t make fun of me or judge me if I am making mistakes.
            I definitely struggled with this more so in the first day or two but then as days went on I got better about it. I think I was able to move past this challenge by realizing that the people I spoke to appreciate my effort in speaking their language. It didn’t matter if it didn’t completely make sense I tried my best and they saw that. The more I saw this the more I became comfortable with speak more frequently.
   Today’s trip to the Teleferico was great, although it was very fogging the hike was amazing. It’s also amazing to think that today we were over 14,000 feet high. I will remember from our trip how once the fog broke for just a little bit I was able to see both sides of the volcano. On one side I am able to see the sight I am used to seeing, the large city of Quito with all of its buildings. And on the other side I see rolling hills with no big city or buildings. It stands out to me so much because in that moment I was able to both sides of Ecuador, both very cool in my opinion. 




            

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