We arrived in Quito, Ecuador today, and we will be staying here for about four days (got to start my malaria meds tomorrow...).

This marks my first time crossing the equator, because Quito is in the Southern Hemisphere! Quito is also quite high up-a few people had some altitude sickness, but a meeting with Yanapuma, our partner NGO, combined with a delicious dinner helped us regain our strength.

Anyway, what's on my mind right now is the way we as travelers bring our culture with us. For example, as I type, we are in one of the hostel rooms discussing characters from Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and Twilight (we're determining which characters each of us would be).

That's in many ways a good thing, because we have each other for company when the journey gets stressful. We were all exhausted from travel earlier today, but now we can feed off each other's enthusiasm. And Quito at night isn't the sort of cultural experience any of us signed for.

However, carrying American values and popular culture with us when we visit other countries can also harm our experiences there. With our upcoming Ecuador homestays, where most of us will be living with another TBB student with a host family, we have to be careful that we don't cling to the familiar (our fellow student) at the expense of the amazing new knowledge that will surround us (our host family and the village). Our information sessions with Yanapuma over the next few days will give us some cultural background on Ecuador and the T'sachila people, but only firsthand experience with the community will truly open our minds to other cultures.

Once we are in the village, I won't have as frequent internet access, so I may take a while to respond to emails. I am having tons of fun, but of course I miss you all.