Day 0: The Beginning December 31st, 2017
My amazing, fantastic Ecuador journey simply began with first: getting there. Before even thinking about getting to Ecuador, I had to get to New York first! You see, I live in Galloway, New Jersey. In order to be on time for the extremely early flight the next day, I had to be up in New York by 8pm that night. Considering the fact that I don’t drive, I caught a ride with some other classmates (Haley and Greg) to our hotel. We planned on meeting up at about 2:30 pm that afternoon to leave, so a mast majority of my day was spent with my dad, dog, and getting packed. Then at 2:30pm after saying the long-winded goodbyes to my dog and dad, we were off!
Considering it was New Years Eve and all, the drive to New York City really wasn’t that bad. Greg’s dad volunteered to drive us up, so none of us would have to worry about all the tolls or traffic. Conversations varied from what we were going to do on the trip, to what we ate that day, to whether or not our suitcases were too large for the trip we had ahead. It seemed as if with every hour that passed, the reality of what we were doing started to hit us. Finally, by about 6 pm that night we had arrived at the hotel that we would stay for night: the Hilton.
After Greg, Haley and I said our goodbyes to Greg’s father and checked in, we headed up to our suite for the night. Yes, I ended up splitting the room with the only couple on the group. But if I’m honest, it was great, they’re great! Since we had gotten to the hotel sooner than mostly everyone else in the group, we decided to get some snacks and take a look around the hotel. The hotel was in a busy state with all the excitement of the new year. Once everyone had made it their hotels okay, we all met up in Tait’s room (in the Hilton) for our first official group meeting at about 8:30 pm.
Here we crowded on beds and talked about the events of the next day that were to come. We spent a decent amount of time doing that, as well as trying to get the projector for presentations for that night to work. At the same time Tait was on the phone with Domino’s trying to pay for the like 12 pizza’s he ordered that night. As we waited for the pizza to arrive Hayley & Greg gave their presentation on “Seismic Activity in Ecuador 2018”. As we waited for the pizza to arrive Hayley & Greg gave their presentation on “Seismic Activity in Ecuador 2018”. Did you know that surprisingly, Ecuador has quiet a lot of seismic (both earthquakes and volcanic eruptions) going on? More information about this presentation are listed below in "Fun Facts About Seismic Activity In Ecuador" section.
After Haley and Greg's presentation, we finally got the pizza we had been waiting for, and listened to Lester's presentation on biodiversity in Ecuador. Did you know that Ecuador is made up of four different attributes? The Coast, the Andes, the Galapagos and the Amazon. More details surrounding the biodiversity of Ecuador and the Galapagos can be found below in the "Fun Facts About Ecuador's Biodiversity" section.
Once we listened to Lester’s presentation and our stomach were finally full of pizza, we were allowed to leave Tait’s room. In fact, we left just in time, for Haley, Greg and I made it back to our room with about five minutes to spare before midnight. Haley, Greg & I looked out our beautiful NYC hotel room as we counted down the ball drop. We celebrated the new year for about ten minutes, before hopping into bed. I mean we did have to wake up at 2:30 am the next day. We ended the night with talking in bed about the events that were going to come the next day, and barely sleeping at all!
Considering it was New Years Eve and all, the drive to New York City really wasn’t that bad. Greg’s dad volunteered to drive us up, so none of us would have to worry about all the tolls or traffic. Conversations varied from what we were going to do on the trip, to what we ate that day, to whether or not our suitcases were too large for the trip we had ahead. It seemed as if with every hour that passed, the reality of what we were doing started to hit us. Finally, by about 6 pm that night we had arrived at the hotel that we would stay for night: the Hilton.
After Greg, Haley and I said our goodbyes to Greg’s father and checked in, we headed up to our suite for the night. Yes, I ended up splitting the room with the only couple on the group. But if I’m honest, it was great, they’re great! Since we had gotten to the hotel sooner than mostly everyone else in the group, we decided to get some snacks and take a look around the hotel. The hotel was in a busy state with all the excitement of the new year. Once everyone had made it their hotels okay, we all met up in Tait’s room (in the Hilton) for our first official group meeting at about 8:30 pm.
Here we crowded on beds and talked about the events of the next day that were to come. We spent a decent amount of time doing that, as well as trying to get the projector for presentations for that night to work. At the same time Tait was on the phone with Domino’s trying to pay for the like 12 pizza’s he ordered that night. As we waited for the pizza to arrive Hayley & Greg gave their presentation on “Seismic Activity in Ecuador 2018”. As we waited for the pizza to arrive Hayley & Greg gave their presentation on “Seismic Activity in Ecuador 2018”. Did you know that surprisingly, Ecuador has quiet a lot of seismic (both earthquakes and volcanic eruptions) going on? More information about this presentation are listed below in "Fun Facts About Seismic Activity In Ecuador" section.
After Haley and Greg's presentation, we finally got the pizza we had been waiting for, and listened to Lester's presentation on biodiversity in Ecuador. Did you know that Ecuador is made up of four different attributes? The Coast, the Andes, the Galapagos and the Amazon. More details surrounding the biodiversity of Ecuador and the Galapagos can be found below in the "Fun Facts About Ecuador's Biodiversity" section.
Once we listened to Lester’s presentation and our stomach were finally full of pizza, we were allowed to leave Tait’s room. In fact, we left just in time, for Haley, Greg and I made it back to our room with about five minutes to spare before midnight. Haley, Greg & I looked out our beautiful NYC hotel room as we counted down the ball drop. We celebrated the new year for about ten minutes, before hopping into bed. I mean we did have to wake up at 2:30 am the next day. We ended the night with talking in bed about the events that were going to come the next day, and barely sleeping at all!
Fun Facts About Seismic Activity In Ecuador:
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Fun Facts About Ecuador's Biodiversity
More information about this subject can be found by clicking here: |
References:
Flora and Fauna. n.d.Retrieved from http://www.embassyecuador.eu/site/index.php/en/turismo-inf-general-2/turismo-flora-fauna
The Richter Scale Reading and the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale Level.(2018, March 9). Retrieved from https://earthquakenepal2015.weebly.com/the-richter-scale-and-modified-mercalli-intensity-scale.html
The Richter Scale Reading and the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale Level.(2018, March 9). Retrieved from https://earthquakenepal2015.weebly.com/the-richter-scale-and-modified-mercalli-intensity-scale.html
Images:
City https://www.hipmunk.com/Hotels-in-New-York-City-NY
Hotel; http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/new-york/hilton-new-york-jfk-airport-NYCJFHF/index.html
Scales:https://earthquakenepal2015.weebly.com/the-richter-scale-and-modified-mercalli-intensity-scale.html
Chimborazo: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/jan/23/mountain-climbing-chimborazo-ecuador
Guagua Pichincha: https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=352020
Cotopaxi: http://www.haciendalacienega.com/en/attraction/cotopaxi/
Hotel; http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/new-york/hilton-new-york-jfk-airport-NYCJFHF/index.html
Scales:https://earthquakenepal2015.weebly.com/the-richter-scale-and-modified-mercalli-intensity-scale.html
Chimborazo: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/jan/23/mountain-climbing-chimborazo-ecuador
Guagua Pichincha: https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=352020
Cotopaxi: http://www.haciendalacienega.com/en/attraction/cotopaxi/