Today is my last day in Ecuador. Womp womp.

Feels like I’m paralyzed with sadness (though it is likely due to the neck muscle I somehow pulled while stretching this morning. Now I can’t make move it to the left. Literally can only make right turns like Zoolander).

All in all, it is bittersweet to return to the States. Mostly sweet. I loved living here for the past 2 months and traveling alone for the final 2 weeks was an experience in its own right.

I spent the past two weeks traveling from Baños to Cuenca to Montañita and to Guayaquil without compañeros. It was awesome. Definitely a little isolating at times, but staying in hostels makes it so easy to meet other people and groups just like you.

The bus ride from Montañita to Guayaquil was tough yesterday. And for the first time not because there was a landslide or 2 hour line to buy a ticket, but because I am really going to miss this place! I had an amazing time in Montañita surfing, hanging out on the beach (reading GOT let’s be honest), and going out with my fellow hostelites.

I met an Ecuadorian girl on the bus as we prepared to depart Montañita. We talked about our adventures in the beach town and my trip. I was being all dramatic looking at the window as the bus pulled away, likely listening to Adele or something to that weepy effect, when the girl tapped me on the shoulder. She tied a bracelet around my wrist. “Ecuador te ama vida” it said. “Ecuador loves life” in English.

“To remember Ecuador,” she said intuitively.

So I´ve decided to dedicate the better part of the morning/afternoon to updating this bad boy. There never seems to be enough time in the day, but here goes. Sorry if it resembles a mess of word vomit…gag!

I´ve been in Ecuador for roughly 5 weeks now and at Jatun Sacha in the Napo Province for about 4.5 weeks.

I was originally supposed to spend only 2 weeks at Jatun Sacha and then return to Quito/Tumbaco to teach English for the next 4 weeks, but I changed my plans when I realized that 2 weeks was nowhere near enough time to get settled in and explore my surroundings.

I am now helping to teach English 3 days a week at a local school (Unidad Milenio de Ahuano…about a 10 minute bus ride from the reserve) and working on the reserve Mondays and Fridays and in the afternoon. Nice to mix up my schedule during the week!

Things I love about Napo: Fresh air, amazingly beautiful surroundings, weather, wildlife, practicing my Spanish, extremely affordable food and drink, reggaeton (LOL), new friends, manual labor, the inability to use the Internet and my cell phone 90% of the time, reading in a hammock for hours.

Things I will not miss: Mosquitos, sandflies and the hundreds of bug bites scattered across my body, semi-constant underlying nausea from the food, unpredicatability of public transportation.

Exploring the different plants on our reserve! (Left to Right: Kelly from Netherlands, Anna 1 and Anna 2 both from Germany, and Jonas, the volunteer coordinator, President of his local Quichua community and expert on Amazonian plants).

Where I spend much of my free time! Nothing like coming home from working in the garden and taking a cold shower before setting up camp in one of these guys for hours with a book and a fresh cup of coffee :)

We sometimes like to spend free time in Misauhalli, a 10 minute bus ride and 20 minute walk from Jatun Sacha. This small community boasts a super surreal beach on the Rio Napo complete with little capuchin monkeys that will try and steal your stuff if you´re not careful. Decent Ecuadorian fare with a cute town center surrounded by little artisan shops and cafes.

Here are the Cascadas some 10 minutes away by bus from the center of Misauhalli. This was my second time to the waterfalls, but first to the summit since I had a pulled muscle in my shoulder the first time we went a few weeks ago. In the picture are a few college students from an Alternative Spring Break group in Pittsburgh volunteering for a week at Jatun Sacha. It´s about a  treacherous 30-minute hike to the top – super muddy, slippery and steep. Worth the struggle though when you see the beautiful waterfalls and lagoon awaiting you.

The hike down this day was likely more treacherous than usual. Our group made it back down the mountain at different paces, unknowingly leaving one girl in between segments of the group by herself. When you pay at the entrance, the ticket seller warns you not to leave your belongings unattended as young children are known to steal them. Well, this girl was confronted by 4 young boys – 9 years old or so – and one 15-ish year old boy who happened to be carrying a knife. He apparently came out of nowhere and demanded she give him her stuff. She put her hands up and said she didn´t speak Spanish. Soon after, a few more group members caught up to her, unaware of the stick up! The little gang dissappeared into the forest and the girl was left unhurt, but shaken.

Last weekend a group of us went white water rafting. We started at 8 in the morning and got back into Tena around 5pm. It was an amazing experience! The river we went down was like out of a movie. It was almost like being on a ride in Epcot at Disney…only in real life. It was exactly like you´d picture a jungle river – surrounded by lush green moutains and enormous trees with sprawling roots and dangling vines. Tons of birds and little waterfalls. The rapids were pretty intense at times and I was thankful I didn´t fall into the river as the current was strong and fast-moving. We were able to swim in the river at some points and jump off of an old walking bridge into the river. So fun! At around noon, we stopped for lunch – a buffet of homemade rice and beans, guacamole, salsa picante, pineapple, and oddly enough, chocolate cake. Heavenlyyy

Hanging out in the common area/dining room/kitchen/mud room. Left to Right: Roberto, a Biology student from England who has been at Jatun Sacha since October and will leave in June, Yours truly in the purple heyyy, Byron, one of the cooks and a recent grad from a local college with a degree in tourism, Anna B., a German college student who is volunteering during winter break, Kelly, a Dutch tropical foresty student and my roomie, Fabienne, a Swiss gal traveling during her gap year between high school and college, and Toby, another German also enjoying a gap year.

Some of my students from the school. They are in 4th grade I believe. Teaching has been really interesting. I think I can understand Spanish a bit higher than at a basic level, but there is definitely a language barrier. Younger students speak very quickly and sometimes they will ask me questions and I just straight up have no idea what they are saying. That´s when I find it´s a good time to use phrases like  “Escucha!” or “Mira!” (Listen! or Look!) to direct their attention to the other teacher or the blackboard ha.

We often times find a lot of interesting stuff on our walk to the garden each day. On this day, Anna and I ran into a friendly, albeit dead butterfly. Looks like it´s really drawn to us though doesn´t it?

Here is Alejandro. He is one of the original founders of the Jatun Sacha Foundation. He has been living here since the 70´s. An eccentric old hippie, he is like the oracle of Jatun Sacha and knows everything about every plant and animal within the reserve´s  parameters and would likely call each one a personal friend. And while he is quite in tune with nature, he spends upwards of 85% of his waking hours watching crappy bootleg movies and TV shows. Shown here: Fast and Furious 3. Well, the man put in his time…I say let him watch Vin Diesel until his heart is content.

To the right is a picture I took on the bus coming from Quito to Tena. It is somewhere around the area where the mudslide took out the road I was traveling on a couple weeks back. It´s in the middle of a cloud forest in the mountains. Really really beautiful. It´s so strange because people on the bus will randomly call to get off the bus in this really rural area. They will casually dismount and walk into the jungle somewhere which makes me laugh because I have to wonder where they hell they are going?

So that´s Jonas with an earthworm. Really. Everything is like 50x bigger in the rainforest. The spiders, the worms, the bugs, thunderstorms. There are also really big rats and bats here as well. Sometimes we will see a bunch of vultures when we are walking and we´ve come to realize that means there is a big dead animal somewhere close. Crazy! And ah so gross.

Welcome to Jatun Sacha! Here is the common area. If you take the trails behind it, you will find out cabins and bathrooms. Home sweet home.

Alas, there is some nightlife in the area. After a week of hard work, we usually hit up Tena at least one night on the weekends to enjoy the local Pilsener and people watch and dance and people watch while dancing. Left to Right: Me, Anna, Lisa and Emma, college students from Oregon who spent 10 weeks at Jatun Sacha teaching English nearly full-time.

Next weekend, a few volunteers and I are heading to Baños, a touristy town known for its natural thermal springs and outdoor adventure offerings such as  jungle tours, rock climbing, rafting, mountain biking, horseback riding, and hiking. Pumped!

Ciao for now! And don´t forget to say Rabbit Rabbit tomorrow :O

Sorry for the horrid formatting. The Internet is doo doo here and it´s a battle to post most anything. But FYI, I´m a little self consious about the formatting!

I´ve come to adopt a similar outlook on travel in Ecuador…if the trip seems easy and without stress at first, you can bet something crazy is going to take place later on.

As is consistent with most countries, traveling abroad can be chaotic, tedious and frustrating and for various reasons. Many times these sentiments can be attributed to language barriers, unfamiliarity with local customs, lack of communication resources, and to practices that many Westerners simply might find inefficient if not familar with. If you´re going to travel, especially on a limited budget, expecting the unexpected is a mantra you should embrace. Flexibility is of the the utmost importance.

Today started out strong. I woke up after a fun night out in Quito´s nightlife colorful district, La Mariscal, at 6am with the foresight that I ought to give myself plenty of wiggle room for the 7-8 hour journey back to Jatun Sacha.

My first stop out of Quito was Tumbaco, the town where my host family from the first few days in Ecuador live. I needed to pick up my other suitcase and a few items for Kelly before heading back to Jatun Sacha. I took a taxi for 45 minutes to the bus stop in Tumbaco where I navigated the roads for 20 minutes before arriving at the house. So far so good. The house is gated as are most of the other houses, but I had the front door key from before I left for Jatun Sacha.

Feeling good about the progress I had already made so early in the day, I stuck the key into the lock and turned. Then I pushed. Then I pushed again. Nope, that door was not opening. After 30 minutes of pounding on the door and various phone calls to various countries, I was finally let in. Okay, first leg of the journey complete.

Luis, the father in the host family, offers to drive me in his taxi an hour to the bus station where I will take a bus 6 hours to Tena. Perfect! We arrive at the bus station at 11:15am and I catch the 11:25am bus. As I sat in the second row window seat of the bus, I smiled to myself at how easy this trip was shaping up to be. I had successfuly collected mine and Kelly´s things and made it to the bus on time…no, earlier than expected!

As was the mindset for the next 3 hours on the bus. The ride through the mountains is beautiful albeit curvy and high up. I looked down the side of the mountains somewhat anxiously as we sped down the roads, but was distracted by the amazing views of the rainforest covered mountains.

I didn´t notice what had happened until everyone on the bus stood up, stared out my side of the bus and gasped. ¨Que paso? Que paso?!¨I asked around, trying to find what my fellow riders´eyes had caught.

A man next to me, in Spanish, pointed and told me that there had been a mudslide. Then I saw it. Then entire road had been taken over and most of it fallen into the river hundreds of feet below. Sirens sounded. Cars lined up. And people left their cars to observe the obstruction. It was like a scene from an action movie.

The man who told me what was going on took on a leadership role among the fellow passengers and attempted to organize everyone. He too was going to Tena and told me we would have to cross to the other side on foot to get another bus to Tena or head back to Quito. It all happened so fast, but before I knew it a group of us were scaling the severely slanted stretch of road, grasping to the guard rail as our feet slipped on the running water and mud.

It. Was. A. Little. Cray.

Long story short, the nice man helped me get into a cab once on the other side while he waited for another to come for him. So nice! I was very fortunate.

Would have liked to have taken a pitcure, but I was too busy trying to figure out how I was going to get out of the middle of the Andes with no phone service and limited Spanish while climbing across the broken road.

I didn´t notice or hear that anyone was hurt, but my mom sent me this article after I told her about the day´s excitement. I was traveling south of Quit somewhere on this stretch of road, but it was pretty rural in the mountains. Terrible nonetheless!

I am presently waiting for the bus from Tena back to Jatun Sacha. I hope to be back at some point during the week to put in a lot of time with the blog. Wanted to get today´s happenings down while it was still fresh in my mind.

Ciao and take care!

After attempting to and abandoning the idea of showering this morning — ice cold jet of water that would make Guantanamo Bay look like a vacation — I headed to the dining room where breakfast was being served by the matriarch of the household, Naeciassa. She is a very friendly, round woman who speaks virtually no English and reminds me a lot of an Ecuadorian version of Roseanne. Naturally, I like her from the start.

Breakfast consisted of fresh papaya, yogurt, a hard boiled egg, bread and freshly-squeezed tomato/orange juice. Que delicioso!

View from front of house.

View from back of the house.

I decided to tag along with Kelly, the 27 year-old Dutch volunteer who is also staying in the house, to the tourism ministry downtown this morning.

Luis, the father and only man living in the house, gave us a ride. He doesn’t speak English either so I really had to dig up some old high school Spanish. I surprised myself with how much I remembered. I was even translating for Kelly whose only Spanish comes from the first few pages of a book she bought called “Espanol En Tres Meses.”

Ministry only took a few minutes which was a nice surprise. We celebrated our victory over bureaucracy at a local cafe with coffee and toast! Er, I thought it was toast until the waitress delivered three grilled cheese with ham sandwiches. Kelly and I – both vegetarians – gave each other “what can you do” look before pushing the sandwiches around plates, trying to figure out the best plan of attack.
Neither of us wanted to offend our generous liaison so we went in for the kill. I chose to douse my sandwich with the salsa picante that sat beside the other traditional condiments at each table.

After our quick snack, Luis dropped us off at the hour, but before we could go inside, Narcissa and her daughter herded us into their car and told us they had a special treat for us: Guinea pig!

No, amigos…not to pet. But to eat. Like a hyena to a wildebeest. Pure carnage. I’ve come to realize that checking “vegetarian” under meal preferences is as effective as wearing Tom’s in the snow (thank you Vermont for that lesson).

We first had to stop at a school first to, unbeknownst to Kelly or I, pick up Narcissa’s grandson. After 20 minutes, her daughter emerged from the school with young sobbing boy clutched around her.

She proceeded to tell us in great length why she had to pick him up, but my weak Spanish only told me that it had to do with pencils and Tae Kwon Do. No joke.

But he soon cheered up when he realized he was on his way to feast on the cousins of my 4th grade classroom pet. And when he found out my iPhone has a camera.

One hour later, we had apparently found the perfect “cuy” (Guinea Pig) restaurant nestled in the winding cobblestone streets among Quito’s surrounding mountains. The cartoon pictures of guinea pigs donning little aprons and chef hats seemed welcoming, but my nausea grew with every step toward the door.

The roasted rodent came on a stick and resembled much of what I imagine its former self to have looked like. It was served over potatoes, avocados, and tomatoes and topped with salsa picante, of course, was awesome. After avoiding it for as long as possible I came face to face with the beast. I watched my fellow diners devour their pigs, leaving nothing, but teeny little bones on their plates.

“You can eat this right?” Narcissa’s daughter asked Kelly and me. “It’s not meat. It’s a member of the rodent family.”

Suddenly I was in a scene from my Big Fat Ecuadorian Wedding.

“Si! Si! No problemo!” we assured her.

Kelly put on a great act, tearing the thing limb from limb and licking her fingers as she went in a sort of trance. I later came to find out this was no act, but really the final nail in the coffin to her vegetarian lifestyle.

I, however, struggled. Literally, the skin was on par with the turkey from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I put it aside, but shortly thereafter the scraps were picked up by Narcissa and devoured.

I ate much of the meat or so I thought until Narcissa told her daughter in Spanish that I wasn’t doing a very good job eating all the meat. Not like Kelly was. I reached for a recently discarded leg and sucked it bone dry, hoping to gain her approval.

Interesting tidbit: Narcissa’s daughter, out of nowhere and with little dialogue before, asked me enthusiastically in Spanish if I knew anyone in 9/11. I didn’t understand at first, until Narcissa and her amigo made plane crash motions with their hands. It caught me off guard a little, but conversation quickly changed.

K, I’m pooped. Heading to bed.

Muchos besos!

I arrived in Quito around 7pm last night. My flight was actually early, but unfortunately my ride was over two hours late due to miscommunication — not a big deal and at that point I was just thankful to have both feet on the ground.

Patricio, my driver provided by UBELONG, brought me to the volunteer house just outside the city. The 25 minute ride provided time for a useful introduction of Ecuador by Patricio. The drive reminded me a lot of driving through Beirut with lights sprinkled across the surrounding mountains. Very beauitful.

As I said before, I can’t describe much of my physical surroundings yet. However, the volunteer house is decorated modestly and has a very lived in vibe as it is home to Geovanna – the Ecuadorian liaison for UBELONG -, her sister, and her grandmother, “Abuelita.” Oh and two friendly little dogs – mini poodles maybe? – named Chicita
and Tomatillo. They seem very nice although they don’t speak English as fluently as I assumed they would. A little daunting at first, but on second thought I’m excited to practice what little Spanish I know.

I have my own room – ow oww – and there is consistent wifi in the house which is sweet and somewhat unexpected. I Google Mapped my location last night. Ta-da!

Met a Dutch girl, Kelly, last night who has been in the volunteer house for two
weeks. We are both traveling to the Amazon tomorrow. Will be nice to have a travel buddy! Exploring some of the city with her in an hour…better hop in that shower ’cause I am one greasy lady right now. Ciao!

As I drew the curtain, I noticed a few housemates I haven’t met yet…

Off to Ecuador this time around. Let’s recap…push pins for where I’ve visited/lived…bubble things for where I’m going in Ecuador 

My trip in a nutshell:

Quito - Feb. 27-28: Arrive and get settled in the volunteer house.

Jatun Sacha – March 1-15: Near the town of Tena. Volunteering in the Amazon (rainforest conservation, organic farming, etc.)

Quito – March 16 – April 14: Teaching English in local schools. Oh boy.

Montanita – April 15-22: Potentially toasting the end of my volunteer work in this coastal surfing spot.

Guayquil – April 23-25: Flying out!

* Everything after April 14 is subject to change. Just going with it, bro, you knows whatevzz

Really hoping to blog consistently. Not sure what internet access will be like and I will only have my iPhone so we shall see! Send me your address for a postcard….well, potentially :)

Where I have been since I last blogged you might wonder? Well, I graduated in May. Spent another summer on Block — can’t get enough of that little porkchop. Visited friends up and down East Coast. Spent a couple weeks in New Orleans. Spent 6 awesome weeks helping my sister take care of my newborn niece and her 2 and a 1/2 year old sister (love those girls, but wow — full-time job right there, folks.) Spent 6 weeks in Vermont making some extra cash and snowboarding on my days off. And, ta-da, present day!

Now that we’re all caught up, I’m off to pack! Last minute Lucy all day errr day.

Following my transition from the “high-fat, high-protein, high-carb, additive-intense,” diet of my childhood to the current “healthy vegan” lifestyle of my 20s, I continued to crave the arguably toxic, but undeniably delicious beefy snack.

And what to my longing vegan tastebuds did I whip up tonight? Vegan beefaroni! After a lot of brainstorming, Pinterest-compiling, and napping I created the following recipe. While certainly tasty when served hot from the pot, the real test took place hours later when I snuck a few bites from the leftovers in the fridge. Eureka! The cold leftover vegan beefaroni summoned visions of a Hayley childhood long since passed where a white-haired cartoon chef was the authority on what constituted the perfect school lunch and all was right in the world.

Truth be told, I lurrrv this recipe…And am excited that the odds of this version of my beloved beefaroni giving me intestinal cancer are slim compared to its canned counterpart.

Vegan Beefaroni 

(aka American chop suey aka goulash)

Makes 8-10 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 28-oz. can of organic diced tomatoes
• 1 T ground pepper
• 1 lg. green pepper, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 lb. whole wheat elbow macaroni
• 1 lb. tempeh
• 3/4 c. shredded vegan cheddar cheese
• 3 T extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 t. stevia

You may use one 14 oz. can of organic tomato sauce in substitution for the homemade tomato sauce below, but it probably won’t taste as good and I, for one, will judge you.

• 1 lg. white onion, finely chopped
• 6 lg. tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, minched
• 1 T dried basil leaves
• 1 T dried oregano
• 1.5 t rosemary
• 1/2 T stevia
• 1 T salt
• 3 T extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

Skip if using store-bought tomato sauce. Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add the 6 whole tomatoes (stems removed) to the pot and continue to boil for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium-low heat in large saute pan. Add 2 minced garlic cloves and onion and cook until soft,  but not brown.

Drain tomatoes and peel skin. Cut tomatoes in fifths, removing their seeds and cores with your fingers. Combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, oregano, rosemary, 1/2 t. of stevia, and salt in large pot, folding in ingredients with a spatula. Bring to boil again. Let simmer for one hour to thicken. Stir occasionally.

Start here if using store-bought tomato sauce, you sloth. Boil 2 quarts of water in large saucepan. Add pasta and bring to boil again. Cook until al dente, about 6 minutes. Drain, but saving one cup of pasta water.

Meanwhile, heat 3 T. of  olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the green pepper and 1 minced garlic clove to pan. Saute until tender, about 4-5 minutes. Crumble tempeh (to resemble ground beef) into pan and add ground pepper. Cook another 4-5 minutes.

Combine can of diced tomatoes and 1/2 t. of stevia to heated tomato sauce (either homemade or store-bought) in large pot over medium heat. Stir and heat for 2-3 minutes. Add tempeh mixure and pasta water and stir/heat for 2-3 more minutes. Mix in pasta and vegan cheese.

Add salt, pepper, basil, and oregano to taste.

Serve hot. Or cold. Or in a can. Enjoy!

This TED talk, as many do, really struck a chord with me and my my own views on society/communication technology. Here are a few quotes I found to be most revealing.

“We use conversation with each other to learn how to have conversations with ourselves….[texting/social networks] can compromise our capacity for self-reflection…for kids, that skill is the bedrock for development.”

“We set ourselves up to be isolated….You end up isolated if you don’t cultivate the capacity for solitude — the ability to be separate, to gather yourself. Solitude is where you find yourself so you can reach out to other people and form real attachments. When we don’t have the capacity for solitude, we turn to other people in order to feel less anxious or in order to feel alive. When this happens, we’re not able to appreciate who they are. It’s as though we’re using them as spare parts to support our fragile sense of self. We slip into thinking that always being connected is going to make us feel less alone…If we’re not able to be alone, we’re going to be more lonely and if we don’t teach our children to be alone, they’re only going to know how to be lonely….It’s time to talk.”

1.) “Start thinking of solitude as a good thing. Make room for it.”

2.) “Create sacred spaces at home and reclaim them for conversation.”

3.) “We’re so busy communicating, we often don’t have time to think.”

4.) “We all really need to listen to each other. Including the boring bits.”

I have found this necessity for solitude to be innately true. My experience working for the fifth summer in a row in the service industry has taken a toll on my ability to create moments of solitude for myself. The unspoken, but general consensus that we must not only spend all our time at work, but also our off-time interacting with guests or co-workers seems unnatural and exhausting to me. I have found myself fantasizing about being alone during my shift and looking forward to a period of self-reflection with great anticipation. 

For me, and it would seem likely for others as well, I need time to myself to process events, realizations and developing plans from the day before I can readily proceed on to the next venture. While the idea of constant social interaction could seem positive  in theory, it doesn’t allow you to spend quality time with the one person who likely needs listening the most: yourself.

This morning my fitness freak (I say this with affection) of a roommate Taryn was kind enough to guess pass me into her lovely gym, Commonwealth Sports Club in Allston. Girl lost 20 pounds in three months by dieting and exercising  – no shortcuts, no purging, no sugar-free/laxative candies. Bitch is mad old school! (again, with affection).

Kickboxing class, hooo! We uppercut, jabbed, and kicked until our I was literally quite red in the face. Soon after we set out to make the PERFECT smoothies…with the ingredients we had in our fridge.

Our parameters: vegan for me and low-cal/recovery for Taryn.

Our smoothie creations: Blueberry ginger (vegan and low-cal) and strawberry banana (low-cal and recovery).

Our ingredients:

Blueberry ginger (140 cal).

1/2 banana

1/2 c. frozen blueberries

1 c. soy milk

1 c. spinach

1 tsp. fresh ginger

1 packet of stevia

Combine ingredients and blend.

Strawberry banana (240 cal.)

1/2 banana

1 c. frozen strawberries

1/3 c. cottage cheese

2 c. spinach

1 packet of stevia

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

1 c. water

Combine ingredients and blend.

Our adorable dog:

Dally approves.

Yesterday presented a small hiccup in my forever-changing life plans, post-grad edition. As seen in my previous post, I’ve had my mind made up for some time that the months/years following this May would include volunteering, traveling, freelancing — many “-ing” words that don’t necessarily include the word “work.”

“No way will I start working right after school unless a really sweet job happens to fall into my lap,” I’ve told family and friends for the past year or so (much to the dismay of my parents).

Well, what do you know? Wa-lah! A really sweet job fell right into my lap! Or so I thought. Fall as it did, I was not in the position to catch it. When I heard about an opening at HuffPost, I knew I had to apply. And going against my gut, I did.

I received advice from many on whether I should apply based on my initial desires to, let’s say “not work,” before strapping on those cement shoes I’ve heard so much about and have come to dread. After a few days of deciding, I applied, thinking I would be a shoe-in, but alas the team needed someone to start in early April and I would not be available until mid-May.

This made me sad. Distraught even. Hysterically crying on the phone with my mom for 45 minutes some might call it. My inability to compose myself prompted me to skip a meeting with my Arabic professor, the same man I’ve taken the language with for four years at Northeastern. Not a mean bone in his body, nor a hateful hair in his thick, black mustache.

Though my pity party was in full swing, regret for having wasted my professor’s time surfaced. I emailed him to apologize and to assure him that I was thankful for his flexibility over the past few years as my teacher. And through the years, his responses to my intermittent lapses in judgement have remained consistent — words of genuine interest and understanding.

This morning I woke up with a renewed energy, but a mild impression of melancholy still lingered.

“Feeling better today?” my professor asked me, with a concerned, but encouraging gaze at our meeting this afternoon.

“I am,” I ensured him. “Everything just snowballed yesterday.”

He pushed a smooth arrowhead-shaped piece of wood toward me. With four classes, three directed studies and countless needy students (myself included), this 60-something-year-old Iraqi man has miraculously still found time to pursue his calligraphy and wood carving projects.

I ran my fingers over it. Engraved in the wood were the Arabic words sabaah jadeed.

“I thought you might be feeling better today,” he said.

Sabaah jadeed, I repeated in my head, admiring my personalized new artifact.

‘A new morning’ in Arabic.