The beginning of the end

Hi Everyone,

On Sunday morning our whole group reunited for the first time in a month and headed to La Hesperia, which is located about two and a half hours south of Quito via a very, very curvy road. A few people got carsick, but other than that we all made it to the farm safe and sound.

When we got to the reserve we settled in to our rooms, had lunch, and then started ISP presentations. I was the first to present, which wasn't nerve wracking at all because I had written and thought about the same information for about two weeks at that point. My presentation went really well, everyone had good questions for me, and a lot of people told me I did a really good job afterward. It felt nice to get it over with early so I could enjoy the other presentations, and after presenting I also felt a lot better about my project and the work/analysis that I did.

It was really interesting to hear about everyone else's projects because they were all so different. Everybody did really cool things, and the presentations were all really good too. It was also just fun to all be together again, hanging out, cracking jokes, and telling stories from ISP. While we were at La Hesperia we also had a session about re-entry and what we were excited about and worried about in terms of going back to the U.S. I think it's going to be a little weird to go back, especially because it's going to be such a drastic climate change, but I'm excited all the same.

We got back to Quito mid-day on Wednesday, and we're all staying in the hostel where we were during orientation week. We have a lot of free time now, which is nice because we have time to run errands and buy last minute presents. This morning we had Spanish interviews to see how we've improved over the semester, and we have the rest of the day free to do whatever we want. Tomorrow we have a goodbye lunch with the entire group and our Academic Directors, which will be really nice but also sad. It's hard to believe that three months here went by so quickly, and that after Saturday I won't be seeing many of these people ever again. This trip has been absolutely amazing, I've had so many great experiences and met so many great people. I'm excited to go home and see my family and friends, but I'm definitely going to miss it here.

Hasta luego,
Caroline