Mas o menos

We made it to Ecuador! So much has happened in the last week... On January 15 we had a day of orientation in Jamaica, New York. Then at 4 a.m. we left for the airport in New York. We flew from New York to Miami and left from Miami to Quito, Ecuador. We arrived in Quito at about 8 p.m. In New York we marked all the Peace Corps bags with rose colored yarn so we knew whose bags to pull off. After we made it through customs we watched all of the bags come through the belt when we realized that none of our bags where there (there are 25 of us each with at least two bags). We waited for a bit and then we went to talk to the baggage people. We found out that our bags were on the second flight from Miami and they weren't going to be in Quito until 10:45. We talked to our Peace Corps representatives who (after a while of waiting) decided we would head to the training center since we still had an hour drive! We arrived at the training center around 11:00. Some of the staff stayed behind with our passports and baggage claim tickets (good thing I kept them!). They picked up our bags and brought them to the center.

As soon as I got off the plane I felt the altitude difference with a huge headache. I've been getting headaches everyday, but they seem to be getting better. Except for that, the experience so far has been great. Here are some pictures.

This is the view from the top of the training center. The city in the mountains is Quito.

This is the view on the right of mi casa (if you turn right from the picture below).

 This is the house of my host family.

This is our room! Sorry it's a little messy. I'm not sure that we have unpacked all of our stuff yet... We have two closet drawer things for our clothes. Our bed is quite firm, but not too bad. There are roosters that like to talk to each other early in the morning! Aye.

My host family is great. They really like teaching us Spanish and have been very patient. Our padres are both teachers for 9-10 year olds. My madre calls her house Gringo Landia because their family has had five volunteers before us and they all come back to visit.


Much love,
Emily

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PACKING!!! It is often described as the beginning of the end by many Peace Corps Invitees. In many cases it is. As I stood in the middle of my living room with luggage, clothes, books, etc. scattered all around, it finally become real that I would be leaving for two years. How to begin the task of downsizing our lives into two pieces of luggage. Not to mention find a place to store the things that we are not taking with us (thanks mom). For Em and I packing has become somewhat of a daunting but stress free task. Having pack up all our possessions into a Nissan Sentra and move has been an annual thing for us.

Eric ‘noitemleftbehind’ Aiken

12 years of professional packing

Style: Modified Army (‘let me plan it out’)

Biggest Packing Moment: packing a two bedroom apartment into a Nissan Sentra and driving it 12 hours to another state.

Emily ‘spacefinder’ Aiken

8 years of professional packing

Style: grab-n-stuff (‘oh it will fit’)

Biggest Packing Moment: Packing two people’s summer possessions plus wedding gifts into a Nissan Sentra in under 2-hours and taking it another state (all before the honeymoon).

Much like me, I know that there will be future volunteers surfing the internet looking for what to bring (and what not to bring). What I want to offer you is some help on many levels. Below you will find my words of advice and our packing list.

1. If you are traveling as a married couple make a list together, but remember that you must pack separately in case you are split up for a period of time (I am thinking mostly clothing here). There are some things, such as sun block, medicine, entertainment items, and toiletries that you can split the duty of packing but still share later.
2. You can fit a lot of things into a suitcase. The important thing is to the think about the weight of both the items you’re packing and your luggage. Line these up correctly and you should come in underweight.
3. Warning: go easy on researching what others have brought in the past. It is important to look at what others have done before you but you must pack to your own needs as well. With that said here are a few blogs (Nomaddict, Ucdkiliclimb, mkellyecuador) that really helped us create a packing list. Also remember when the people above wrote this blog they were in the same position as you (waiting to leave). Here is one the bloggers follow up blogs after being there for a year. Nomaddict
4. Our packing philosophy: if you can get it there, then leave it here. I don’t believe in wasting money or resources, but in this case you should only take what you cannot live without and buy as you go. Who knows you might find out that ‘need’ is really just a ‘want’.
5. Here is our packing list. I think it can be helpful to men, women, and married couples. Good luck and Good vibes as you pack.

If I'd known how much packing I'd have to do, I'd have run again. -Harry Truman I know I said sometimes I wear clothes but apparently I lied...I'm only packing swimsuits. -Kate Upton Always  EZ Aiken

Learning without a classroom pt.2

…I know I left the last blog without any really conclusion as my friend, TJ Taylor, pointed out. I would like to say it was a test to see how many people were reading. However the truth is I felt that the last blog was getting too long and I just did know where to cut it off.

Recently I have been reading, The Four Hour Chief and The Power of Habit, The first is book about learning in which they use cooking as the example of rapid learning. The second breaks down the how habits works, breakdown and buildup. Needless to say I have been convinced! It takes about month to create a habit, another month to see growth and change in from that habit, and yet another month to master it (maybe). We are in the Peace Corps for 27 months so that makes 9 goals; 7 of which I have already created. There you have it in a nut shell. I plan to write more on the topic as I develop a method of action for these goals. But now with only four days left Em and I will be writing our last minute thoughts has we prepare to depart for Quito, Ecuador.

“Change might not be fast and it isn't always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.” 

― Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit

"No matter how good a plan is, how thorough a book is, or how sincere our intentions, humans are horrible at self-discipline"..."A goal without real consequences is wishful thinking. Good follow-through doesn't depend on the right intentions. It depends on the right incentives"

-Timothy Ferriss, The 4-hour Chef

Always

Ez Aiken