Study Abroad Assignment

I am going to be answering this question for my study abroad assignment

What did you assume before you left that you are not finding in your host-country, host-culture and/or host family and friends? Why did you make those assumptions?

Before I got to Ecuador I was told not to have any expectations about my experience, but of course that is nearly impossible to do. I knew that I was going to be living in the capital city but I did not realize that it was going to be so huge and modern. I expected it to me more like when I visited Nicaragua and all the roads were dirt and everyone lived in really tiny houses or shacks. Quito is quite different than that. There are huge malls that are just like the malls in the US and Supercine is a brand new movie theatre that is nicer than most in the US. I was also expecting everyone to be really conservative and I have found that is true only to a certain point. My host parents were both married before to other people and they got divorced and married each other. I expected the culture to be super Catholic and not support divorce but it seems quite usual. I know that other people on my program have parents who have also been divorced. The other thing that I assumed about Ecuador was that everything would be really cheap and what I have found is that certain things are really cheap and other things are really expensive. The things that are really expensive here are technology which makes sense and clothes which to me makes absolutely no sense what so ever. What I have been told is that it is because most of the clothes are imported and have a really heavy tax on them, but it still does not explain why all clothes are super pricey.

I think the reason that I had all these ideas was because I visited Nicaragua and that was the impression that I got from them. But I am not sure why I transferred it over to Ecuador because when I stayed in Nicaragua we were in the country almost the whole time and I knew that here I would be staying in the city, but somehow I just pictured living in the country I am not really sure why. I had also been told that South America was very Catholic and I guess my perception of Catholicism in the US is that it is super conservative and I guess that perception just transferred over to Ecuador as well. Also I had been told that things were really cheap in Ecuador and I did not think to ask if it was everything or just some things.