It's a small, small world

Yesterday was my travel day to begin my final stint of dissertation research (fingers crossed). It was an incredibly long day, made longer by both flights being wracked with terrible turbulence and my ever loathed journey from Quito to Otavalo tacked on straight from the airport. I was glad to get it out of the way, but my stomach had other feelings...

It seemed like the vast majority of our plane was visiting Ecuador for missions or as medical workers, complete with the matching attire. The man next to me mistook me as a member of his mission group and asked me to remind him of my name when I sat down. The longer we talked, it turned out he wasn't entirely off-base. He mentioned traveling to Ecuador last year for a similar mission trip (based in Quito) and encountering a girl in the Plaza de Ponchos market (on their free day) who had a really interesting project. Cue me excitedly exclaiming, "Hey, that was me!" I don't feel too badly for not recognizing him because he didn't recognize me, but we had fun "catching up" after our brief encounter several months prior. But seriously, out of ALL the people in the world who could've been next to me on the plane, it turns out to be someone I met last year in Ecuador? As Grandpa always says: It's a small, small world!
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Other highlights included a member of another mission group on our plane making some of the funniest comments about a girl's lack of pigmentation (and trust me, as a super white girl who is incapable of tanning, I've heard A LOT of them over the years): "You're whiter than sour cream!" "You look like whipped cream with a cherry on top!" (the girl in question was a lovely bottled auburn). I also managed to impress our flight attendants while exiting the plane. They typically tailor their responses (thank you/gracias, etc.) based on appearance and previous interactions. Apparently, I surprised them by responding in Spanish because I got a string of comments/compliments: "Ooh, girl, she knows her Spanish!" "Look at her!" Glad I could impress them 🤣

It was also a great surprise when Cristina (my host mom) picked me up at the airport along with her son! I've spent today eating, sleeping, unpacking, and catching up with the family. It's nice to have a restful day before hitting the ground running tomorrow.

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