My travels began with a Megabus. For those of you who have never experienced the Megabus, you are missing out. Generally the Megabuses have wifi and are doubledecker. They are the better, safer, and nicer version of the Greyhound. They were originally designed for college students to reach home in an affordable manner. Recently Megabus opened up a route connecting the Midwest to the East coast--score!
Anyway...way back in the beginning of the fall I was thinking about taking some time off school before I graduate. You know, the whole "I'm burnt out on school, I need some time off" story that nearly all college students go thought at least once during their career as a student. Well Emily, being the good friend that she is, bribed me to stay in school for the last two terms and finish up strong. What was this bribe? An all girls climbing trip, any place of my choice, with all the gals that I spent my first summer at Miguel's with--conveniently enough they are also my best friends. All winter we worked through our various busy schedules to set a place and a date--Vermont/New England June 12th-16th. (It originally was supposed to last 2 weeks) 
At some point during that time I decided that I also wanted to study abroad in Ecuador. For my last term I only need Spanish classes to graduate. Unfortunately none of my Spanish classes from Cincinnati State transferred to OSU. So instead of taking them again in a classroom and not really learning the language I decided that going to a foreign country is the best way to go about these final classes. Remember when I mentioned that we needed to find time for girls trip amongst all of our busy schedules? Well I was one of the more difficult. As soon as I made the final decision and worked it out financially I bought the plane tickets departing from New York on June 16th.
My final weeks in the Sates went as so:
May 31st-June 9th:
- Move out of my house
- Study and take my Final Exams
- Pack for Girls trip AND Ecuador
- Drive to the Red to say goodbye to Jordan
- Drive back to Columbus June 11th to say goodbye to my family
- Make sure I have everything ready for the early morning Megabus departure to Philly to meet up with Nikkie
- Megabus from Columbus to Philly June 12th
- Drive with Nikkie from Philly to Vermont June 13th
- Hangout and rock climb with my girls at Smugglers Notch and Rumney June 14-16
- Drive the 6hrs very very early in the morning (2am) with Nikkie from Vermont to JFK, NY June 17th
*notice the start and end times-->Depart USA 9:17am Arrive in Quito 12:20am the next day
My program through OSU required that we arrive on June 17th between the hours of 7-9pm...or something like that. Well my ticket was much cheaper if I arrived at the hour of 12:20am. And by cheaper, I mean the price was cut in half. So I figured that I would just arrive SUPER early and get a taxi to a hotel or hostel. After I gave my program director my itinerary, with an explanation as to why I was flying out of New York, she contacted my school in Quito and arranged for my family to come pick me up. (very nice of her considering I disregarded the rules with arrival times) Unfortunately when I arrived at the busy city of Quito in the wee hour of the morning there was no one in sight to pick me up...dun dun dun
I waited for about an hour with many a creepy taxi driver saying "Tu necessitas una taxi?" to which I replied, "No, yo tengo una familia." (Apparently all of my eloquent Spanish has decided to escape me since I arrived in Ecuador. I now only use about 5 verbs and all of which I only use in present tense) About 1:30am I grudgingly decide to trust one of the Taxi drivers who had been stalking me for the past 20minutes and told him I needed a hotel. I began to follow him and immediately began to get sketched out because he was walking off the property of the airport. I politely told him that I was going back to the airport and would not be needing his "taxi". At the airport I attempted to get an internet connection but had little luck. Mentally I decided that I would just remain in the lobby and wait for the other girls to arrive in 16hours--at least the lobby with other people is safe right? Unfortunately a few moments later myself and the other people waiting were getting kicked out by the night crew who needed to clean. crap. So I wandered with the rest of the people back into the land of creepy taxi men and decided to trust the most ordinary looking taxi. Lucky for me he knew a little English and took me to a reliable Hotel. The drive was about 2 minutes away from the airport and it cost me $5--the first time, of what I am sure will be many, I got ripped off in Ecuador.
The view from outside my Hotel balcony
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