2020-02-06
In October I realized that my gap year wasn’t going to be what I wanted it to be. I wanted to take a gap year to gain practical experience in environmental conservation before starting uni. Working at a tourism office doing mostly photo and video editing was not going to fulfil that goal. After some...
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2019-12-13
Before I start this blog post I would like to apologize for not writing anything for over a month. I guess there just hasn’t been a single topic or event that inspired a reflection worth sharing. I rather spent the last one and a half months gradually working through thoughts, realizations and just learning a...
Read More2019-10-17
As you guys know the situation over the past few weeks in Ecuador has been everything but pleasant. Without wanting to go into too much detail, the president cut the subsidies on fuel, protests broke out, public transportation strikes prevented any normal routine from happening and the indigenous were marching. The chaos of the country...
Read More2019-10-12
Hey guys, First, Thank you for following this email blog type of thingy! However, to be honest, I have been increasingly annoyed by this format as it does not allow me to include as many pictures as I would like to or format everything as nicely. So, I decided to create my own personal blog...
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2019-10-08
(Check out the pictures at the end to get an insight what I do at my apprenticeship in the tourism office!) Being a white woman in Ecuador. I was visiting my friend, another girl from Germany, in the small town of Paute. We got ourselves some ice cream and sat down on a bench in...
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2019-10-06
This blog post is going to feature more pictures as I realized that the last two posts were quite wordy…. I was walking around Gualaceo today taking short video clips for my work (I am volunteering in the tourism office of the municipality for all who don’t know). One thing that surprised me about Ecuador...
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2019-09-28
Two weeks ago today I arrived at my host family ‘s and a lot has happened since then. I explored the area, started working in the town’s municipality and had my first debrief circle in the warm Yungilla valley. A couple of things have surprised me about Ecuador in these two weeks. (To be honest,...
Read More2019-09-21
(See attachments for picture) Day 3 with my host family. I am sitting on my balcony and just came back from Cuenca from my firs language class. On the bus back I was a little overwhelmed by emotions and tried to sort out my thoughts, so far I have come to several realizations: Language is...
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2019-09-11
Aaand we continue with Quito Street dogs are everywhere in Ecuador, however, most of them do not look sick or starved. Wuhu, a pretty balcony. Cuenca (the city where I have my Spanish classes and which is closest to Gualaceo where I live) Cuenca is beautifully located in the Southern sierra region. Again, we...
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2019-09-11
Hola gente, As promised I am finally sharing some pictures with you! (However, unfortunately, for some of them I did not have the settings quite right which is why they are a little grainy) San Francisco The number of US flags displayed on every street is astonishing! Especially to a German who only sees the...
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2019-08-31
It’s the morning of the second day of orientation week at Stanford university. So far, I’ve been overwhelmed with first impressions and the obscurity of some of my experiences. This feeling first arose on my first transatlantic flight from Lisbon to the US. Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean it hit me that this huge and heavy...
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2019-08-19
From: Aniska Bitomsky Sent: Monday, 19 August, 10:49 Subject: Why I chose Ecuador To: updates@globalcitizenyear.com Hey folks, Writing my first blog post is kind of exciting and scary, but here we go. I came back from the Ecuadorian consulate in London yesterday and finally received my visa, wuhu. Getting that visa was such a struggle...
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