Day 1: May 15, 2013              Athens Georgia to Quito Ecuador

#UGA #ECUADORBOUND #ENTO

Delta Flight to Quito

The countdown begins until take off from the Atlanta airport bound for an 18 day study abroad term in Ecuador. I feel like the hardest part of traveling is packing and making sure you have everything especially the important items like a toothbrush. My parents are more concerned about the flight than I am; this seems to be the case for most students. I am the first in my family to have the ability to study abroad in another country and am really excited to see and explore all the things Ecuador has to offer. I have never seen a rain forest or even set foot on the Pacific coast so this trip will have lots of first for me as well as for many others who are joining in on this awesome opportunity to learn and study outside of the walls of a classroom.

The flight to Ecuador went by really so, guess it was because I was so excited to get on the ground. I made friends with the Delta flight attendants and told them all about the purpose in our trip to Ecuador and what all UGA students were going to be doing for the next 18 days and they were really interested in this study abroad program. The flight attendants even donated items from the plan for use during the trip. Items included; peanuts, pretzels, bottles of water, tissues, toilet tissues and my favorite Biscoff cookies. We then landed in Quito and hit the ground running, gathered our gear and loaded up on a bus for a one hour drive to our hotel in Quito. The Sierra Madera would be the last chance for connection to the outside world via the web for many of us so we all took the time to let our families, Facebook friends and followers know that we arrived safely in Ecuador and that this would be the last update for a while.

(Due to the nature of this trip and the availability of internet access this blog had to be written after my return to the States)

Brian L.