Welcome

Welcome, friends and family, to by my blogsite. I am admittedly new to this medium of conversation, but I am excited to experiment with it and happy that whoever you are that's reading this now is interested enough to join me. I will try to post as often as meaningfully possible over the next three months with insights, pictures, observations, or anything worth the currency of sharing. However, I very much encourage you to comment, post, and interact not only with me but anyone else following the blog. I get to hear myself think and write all day long, and I would be much happier to see this blog become a continuous communal conversation instead of a young idiot's electronic independent forum. So please, read often, post often, ask questions, and talk with me and one another. If you have any questions you'd rather ask me privately, please email me, sfwnelson@gmail.com

If you look to the right of these posts, you'll see google links. These are not advertisements, but news items about Ecuador. I am rather blind to most of their current events, politics, and cultural life. I have decided to enter the country packing light in clothing and information, so that things remain fresh and surprising for me. I don't mean to say that I'm going in without any information. I have read several state reports regarding safety, received all of the necessary vaccinations (I dodged the triple rabies shots, though, despite my father's anxieties), and have a general sense of geography, opportunity, and a few do's and don'ts. The rest I hope will be experientially gained, or lended to me by locals. Also, I have a home and family to stay with for my first month in Quito while I study Spanish with a professor at a local language school. I will be far from alone in the beginning.

I just bought my ticket before posting. My feet were beginning to lose some heat and before they could get any colder I thought I would thaw them permanently with a six hundred dollar plane ticket purchase. I think it was the punctuation I needed to settle my nerves.