This was the toughest installation of this series to recall yet as it brought up many food memories and emotions from Ecuador.  I will always remember the family that I was placed with in Ecuador quite fondly.  It was a blessing to be dropped into the midst of the love they all shared for each other and extended to me.  The Valverde-Orellana family is the reason that I had such a positive...

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It was bound to happen – the dreaded traveler’s dysentery.  We had been warned.  It wasn’t if, but when.  Somewhere on our journey, something would infect us.  It could be an innocent glass of water that was not purified, an unsuspecting ice cube, a freshly squeezed juice, expired mayonnaise (they serve it with French fries), spoiled seafood.  Whatever the cause, we wouldn’t be able to prevent the days of stomach cramps, diarrhea,...

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Living in a foreign country is filled with daily annoyances until you learn to adapt.  Even some of the most mundane and basic of tasks are done completely different causing you to pause and think through a process that was second nature in your home country.  Sometimes, you never adapt and that one action will always make you think of home.  The bathrooms were a daily annoyance to me in Ecuador and...

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I was nervous as I stepped off the plane in Buenos Aires.  I had no hotel reservation, no taxi waiting to pick me up, no tour guide holding out a welcome sign.  For the next three weeks, I was relying on complete strangers for my food, my lodging, my well-being.  Sure they were family, but other than two I met ten years prior, I only knew this side of my relations through...

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I was infected by the travel bug as a junior in college on a study abroad program to Ecuador.  The adventure pushed me completely out of my comfort zone and caused me to challenge how and what I thought about the world.  I grew up somewhat spoiled as an only child enjoying comforts that most twenty-ones year olds didn’t.  Below are excerpts from the journal I kept as my conventions were challenged...

The post Settling Into Class – Semester in Ecuador Part 2 appeared first on The Wandering Gourmand.

I was infected by the travel bug as a junior in college on a study abroad program to Ecuador.  The adventure pushed me completely out of my comfort zone and caused me to challenge how and what I thought about the world.  I grew up somewhat spoiled as an only child enjoying comforts that most twenty-ones year olds didn’t know.  Below are exerts from the journal I kept as my conventions were...

The post I Felt Like Indiana Jones – Semester in Ecuador Part 1 appeared first on The Wandering Gourmand.

Growing up my family didn’t have an Easter tradition.  Instead, we either found ourselves in Mexico or the Caribbean or maybe even in Florida for Holy Week.  When we didn’t have a Spring Break vacation planned, we drove to visit my father’s family 2 hours away and went out to dinner for a meal that was less than desirable.  The kitchen staff obviously resented the fact that they had to work on...

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