Steph's Logbook

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Hola!

I am beginning my journey abroad in Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands.

This semester, I will be participating in the Galápagos Academic Institute for the Arts and Sciences (GAIAS) program with Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ). I will be taking five courses that are divided into 3-week modules: Techniques of Marine Research 1, Marine Life, Marine Ecology, Marine Ecosystem Based Management, and Techniques of Marine Research 2. I will be spending my first month living with a family in Quito. During that time, I will be taking a week long Spanish intensive course and will complete my first module, which includes an 7 day trip to the coast of Ecuador.

After my first module is complete, I will travel to the Galapagos Islands on February 3rd. I will be on San Cristobal, where I will be living with another host family and taking my courses at the remote campus there. I will spend all of my time on the islands until May 5th.

I am so excited for this opportunity and would like to thank the Juniata College study abroad office for helping me prepare and the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship for making this financially possible. The support of the Gilman not only has helped financially, but they also have provided me with many resources I can utilize while abroad.

Hope you enjoy the recap of the beginnings of my adventure to Ecuador.

¡Hasta luego!

Flight Woes

On January 5th, I arrived to the airport in Washington, DC. At the airport, a family friend, Janet Ady, brought me a filtering water bottle and came to say goodbye! It was nice to talk to a seasoned traveler right before leaving.

Saying goodbye was far from easy. My mom and I cried a lot. My brother and I hugged for awhile. I am so lucky to have their support and I will miss them immensely. I appreciate them so much and love them more than anything!

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Unfortunately, my first flight was delayed and it was supposed to cause me to arrive too late in Houston to get on my next scheduled flight to Ecuador. I was landing at the time my flight to Quito was departing. The next flight out would have been 6:00pm the next day. I was fully prepared to spend the night in Houston once I arrived. When I landed, I asked an agent about my hotel voucher and my new flight assignment. He told me it would be quicker if I went to a different gate agent, until he was done with his duties helping the plane unload.

So I started walking towards the gate he suggested and I realized it was near the gate my original Quito flight was departing from. So I figured I would check the gate just in case because when I landed, the United app still did not report that the flight departed yet, as it typically does. As I walked there, I opened the app and refreshed my flight page again (I did it a million time due to numerous updates). The app indicated that my original flight to Quito was delayed…I took a double take. “Is this real life??”, I thought to myself. I jogged to the gate to find out if this was true.

As I was approaching, I sized up the scene: an official looking man on the phone, an agent, and an empty gate. I thought I was too late and then the man says to me, “Are you flying to Quito?”. I nodded and he sighed, “Well today is your lucky day”. He was so right. It certainly was.

He explained that there was an alleged mouse on the plane and they were going to switch planes. I was worried my seat might have already been given away, but they got a larger plane and I was able to make it on. I even got the whole row to myself!

Everyone who heard my story was impressed and cheered me on. Well, they were not clapping or anything, but they shared in my excitement and surprise that it worked out in the end.

Traveling With A Chronic Illness

As many of you know, I have Crohn’s Disease and was diagnosed in 2013. I take Humira, an injection medication, every week to manage my symptoms. As a biologic medicine, Humira must be kept between 36-46 degrees F.

I will be studying abroad for a whole semester. That means, I needed to bring 17 weeks worth of medication and that meant 17 Humira pens. So how the heck did I manage to keep that many injectable pens in that temperature range for so long?!

I did it thanks to Polar Bear Coolers. I found this cooler when I was researching about taking biologic medicine abroad and I found someone’s chronic illness blog mentioning their success. I then went to the website and found a recommendation for the product from a rheumatoid arthritis patient with a high ambition for travelling. This seemed promising. I also bought the suggested wireless thermometer to track the temperature. After some trials at home, we found the product to work great and that it should be able to handle my flights!

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The best part about the cooler is that I can even add loose ice to it without it leaking. This was very beneficial on the plane. I had to let TSA open my cooler to make sure the ice was solid and the equilibrium got little out of whack. However, with the added ice from the fight attendant, I was able to get it back to the correct temperature. They have many different sizes and it does not have to be a backpack, but that was most convenient for me.

I highly recommend this product to anyone with an ambition to travel and a temperature sensitive medicine. Chronic illness has tried to stop me many times in my life and I refused to let it stop me from exploring the world and pursuing my dreams.

“Welcome to Ecuador, my dear”

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That’s what the worker in customs said to me at 7 a.m. when I finally landed in Quito. I was exhausted, nervous, and excited all at once. I watched the mountains fly by me as I rode in the taxi to Cumbayá, a parish in Quito where USFQ campus is located and my host family lives. I breathed in the new air as best as I could…because the altitude change is so drastic that was a little hard.

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My host family’s house is beautiful. They have a nice yard with many plants and a garden. There are hammocks hung up and dogs running around the yard. My room is right off of the glass patio, which allows in the beautiful rays of the strong sun. Natural wood makes up a majority of the interior of the house.

One of the biggest differences I have noticed about Ecuador so far is that leaving the door open or the windows open is normal. The climate here is fairly stable and people are not worried about keeping in their heat or air conditioning because they do not need it.

I will be sharing details from my first few weeks in Quito, Ecuador soon. I am just so busy doing the things I am going to write about right now that I do not have much time.

Until then…

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To the students following my blog, feel free to message me questions!!!

“A dream will always triumph over reality, once it is given a chance.”

Stanislaw Lem