My Expectaions

After doing research, I learned a lot about Ecuador that I didn’t know before. I don’t know a lot about Ecuador, other than what I researched and what I heard about from my peers. When I was listening to the presentations however, I instantly had that little voice inside me say “that’s gross” or “that’s weird.” This happened mostly with the food. I have a hard time being adventurous with food, but I am going to try new things. I picture everyone looking very Hispanic as well—with darker colored skin. Some of their social practices I think are interesting, but I’m not sure what to expect quite yet.

Some stereotypes that I have heard about Latin Americans are that they have big families and have blue collar jobs. I’m not saying that having big families is a bad thing, but that is just something I hear all the time. I hear that generations within the family live in the same house. I’m sure that they don’t all have big families and small homes, but this is something that I picture when I think of a Latin-American country. I have also heard that they don’t have a lot of money. Once again, I’m sure this is not true. There are wealthy and poor in every country, but this is another stereotype which I have heard before.

I’m sure that Latin-Americans might believe that we are all cold-shouldered. We like to have our space and this may come across like we don’t want to talk to them. They probably believe that we aren’t friendly. They also might believe that we are all Trump supporters. They have probably heard a lot about Trump and the bad things that he has done. Since he is our president, and we voted him into office, they may think that we support all of what he is suggesting.

I imagine I am going to struggle talking to people. I feel like I am going to have to use a lot of facial expressions and hand gestures (mostly pointing) in order for them to understand what I am saying. I have only taken a couple of years of Spanish and am not an expert by any means. I think that this is going to be difficult for me because talking is such a big part of how people get to know me. I won’t be able to articulate what I want to say like I can when I am talking in English.


I hope that this experience will make me more independent. While I won’t be going anywhere by myself, I am going on this trip without really knowing at least one person well. I hope to make friends from other parts of the world at the Acedemia. I am looking forward to the service learning portion of this trip because I want to be a strong role model for these kids.  

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