Half-way mark

Exactly four months ago, we left Brooklyn in the pre-dawn for Quito, Ecuador.  Hard to believe, we'll be reinserting ourselves back into regular life in just about another four months.

What better way to celebrate the midpoint of our sabbatical than with a home-cooked meal and chocolate cake?

What's happened to us in the past four months?  Our Spanish has improved a lot.  We've developed more patience for one another and gotten closer as a family.  Because we're together all the time, experiencing the same things, we've developed a world of inside jokes that will forever make sense only to us.

We've also developed a way of getting in and out of taxis that enables us to sit in the same spots every time.  It'd be unthinkable to change.

We've gotten a feel for different cultures -- what are Ecuadorians like?  What's a Chilean world view?  What do Chileans and Peruvians think of each other? (Not much).  What do they think of us North Americans?

We have become expert packers.  And we've definitely gotten used to making do with fewer clothes.

We've gotten pretty skilled at playing cards and word games.  We've forgotten what it's like to wake up to a daily alarm.

Some of us have gotten used to not flushing toilet paper and brushing our teeth with bottled water.  

Oh, and some of us have grown a few inches.