Very, very nervous! I’m sitting in the airport right now, waiting for our flight to Quito. I’ve been here approximately 2 hours and the flight isn’t for another hour or so. We left Athens around noon on a UGA bus. I didn’t know those things could be taken off-campus/on the highway. I tried to sleep, but couldn’t get quite comfortable enough. The bus dropped us off at the domestic terminal, so we had to check our bags there then take a shuttle to the international terminal. Our group got split up for a bit, which was a little unnerving to be honest. When we got to the international terminal there was a cutout of the Ludacris directing passengers to the TSA line. Getting through was easy enough, didn’t have any reason to be nervous either way. SO now I am just sitting, charging my laptop, and listening to music. The flight is only 5 hours, a lot shorter than I thought. I feel like there’s a common assumption that S. America is directly below N. America, but its offset to the east a bit more.

I’m not entirely sure what to expect. I don’t speak Spanish besides very elementary terms/phrases I learned sophomore year of high school. The language barrier should be interesting, I hope a lot of the people we interact with speak English. It’s supposedly South America’s “winter”/rainy season. I wonder what their cold is like. I hope the Galapagos isn’t too cold to swim in the ocean. I’m really hoping to swim with a sea turtle. I only have one goal for this trip (besides furthering my knowledge), to take a picture in a hollowed-out tortoise shell.