One month gone by...

And how wonderful it has been. I have been thinking about this post for several days now and there are times when I feel like it couldn't possibly have been that long yet and there are others that feel like its been more like a year. But looking back, I am so amazingly glad that I am here and I would not want to be anywhere else in the world right now.

I am borrowing an Ecuadoring hiking and climbing guide from a friend right now to sorta start thinking about some of the more wildernessy adventures I want to take and I stumbled upon this poem that I think is amazingly applicable literally, but also figuratively as well.

One cannot stay on the summit forever - One has to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this. What is above knows what is below - But what is below does not know what is above One climbs, one sees- One descends and sees no longer But one has seen! There is an art of conducting one's self in The lower regions by the memory of What one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, One does at least still know. Rene Daumal

On this adventure I hope to literally stand on summits and while I will not be able to remain on them forever, the feeling of accomplishment will live on forever. I will stand on figurative summits as well and these more likely than not will probably end up being the ones that are truly the most defining. But by the same token I will not be able to remain here forever.

Although I might give that the old college try.

This morning, upon for the first time measuring my stay in months not days or weeks, I started thinking about how much longer I will be here. Although this is still officially undetermined, I sorta started mentally preparing myself for the fact that this adventure isn't gonna last forever. I know I'm not even a quarter of the way done, but I also know that the time is gonna fly. I started a list of things I wanted to make sure that I do before I go and just in my uber-excessively-plan-loving brain I was able to start thinking about how long I would need to do everything. Upon my departure I had grand schemes of finding an awesome job here for the summer and staying for the fall semester, but somewhere along the way those had been transformed into grand plans to enjoy a summer of excellent traveling and exploring. Those then became maybe half the summer of traveling and then returning to the US to work a little bit before going back to school.

But this afternoon greeted me with a bit of amazing news. I have started playing Ultimate once a week with a really interesting group of people from all sorts of walks of life. Upon talking to some of them, it was brought to my attention that it is actually very easy for gringos to get jobs in Ecuador and that these people all have amazing connections. I talked to a women who works for a chocolate company who said she could probably get me an internship and possibly a small living stipend. Several people said that they got there jobs because of people in the club.

So I guess what I realized is that in this first month I have become amazingly comfortable here in this city, but maybe almost too comfortable. I think I might have lost some of my adventurous spirit. But as I begin this second month, I think I may have found it again. Although I have a lot of time to figure summer stuff out everything is back on the table.

It was nice to get this little kick in the booty early on forcing me to reexamine what has been going on since my arrival. I truly believe that the most meaningful and permanent ways in which this experience is changing me as an individual can't be understood or even realized until I am gone. But it is important to keep in mind the changes in the daily stuff like the complacency that I had settled in to.

So I'm not sure if any of that really made sense or if I connected all the dots that are loosely floating around in my head right now. I would encourage all of you though to think about your summits. What mountain can you climb that will make an eternal difference in your life? How will you change because you reached that summit? Whatever you do, never stop climbing.

I'd love to hear about some of the great stuff that everyone is up to. Of course keep me posted about your summits but about the small hills you crest as well.

Peace and Love