Be One with the Ecuadorian...

In my time in Ecuador, I’ve had a few encounters with some locals the same age as me.  The conversation always revolves around funny accents and quirky, cultural differences, but one question that always seems to pop up is, “Are you bored in Ecuador?”  I’m always caught off guard by that statement.  I’m in a foreign country, and everything is different; how could I be bored?  When I say that, they usually respond with something along the lines of, “Americans are always doing something.  Ecuadorians aren’t really like that, we’re boring.” 

I’m not exactly sure bored is the right word to describe how I feel here, it’s just different.  At home I’m constantly a panicked mess juggling school, work, family, and a social life…and I’m always multitasking.  I’m texting while doing my homework, doing my homework while I’m at work, and if I’m not doing a bunch of things at once, I’m worrying about all I have to do.  It’s actually a horrible addiction, and since I’ve come to Ecuador, I’ve realized that I only focus on one thing: being. 

Time here moves differently than it does back home.  An hour is allotted just for lunch.  Food is savored, not wolfed down.  Families actually eat together and talk.  Back home, I scarf down a granola bar and run to my next responsibility.  I never stop to enjoy anything; I’m just working for something in the future: money, a good grade, a college degree that will hopefully land me a secure job.  I never stop and enjoy what I’m doing in the moment. 

It’s slower here, but I never want to kill the minutes that are in front of me; I enjoy them.  I like taking my twenty-minute walk to school every day; it gives me time to think and take in the scenery.  It beats my twenty-minute commute to school in frustrating traffic back home.  When I go home for lunch in the middle of the day, I take a half hour to eat my lunch, and miraculously, I don’t think about anything else besides eating!  

I realize that here I don’t have the same responsibilities that I have at home, but every day I notice my way of thinking is changing.  I think I needed to be removed from everything at home to realize that I always fixate on the future.  I’m not even sure I was even as busy as I thought I was; I just worried about the things I had to do rather than tackling things one step at a time.  I’m not bored here; I’m simply content with being.