As I sit here waiting to embark on a study abroad I never thought I would be embarking on, I reflect upon my expectations, and all I can really expect at the point is different. I expect to see the differences in humanity, the differences that are really the same in all, but these ones, I expect, will be magnified by the culture and the language. I expect for society to be backwards, not modern, whatever modern really is... Is modernization the future style, the improved edition, the more fashion-forward preferences in one's dreams? It isn't the skyscrapers, because Quito has a grand ól population living in skyscrapers. It is modern, though, relative to what time? As an American citizen, I would consider myself modern because I do not consider myself primitive - I have been civilized. I wonder, do those primitive people (Napo Region), in fact, consider me primitive because I lack a connection with a thriving environment, a unity with it, and rather I connect myself to things that won't last or reproduce, these connections are to things that can be improved, and if it can be improved, therefore it must be on the road towards modernization. I, for one moment, do not wish to be "modern." I wish to transcend this civilized time by experiencing humanity in the raw.
Take me to the place where the jungle dances.
With my "naturally brewed" (South American coffee, and not just by the label), I'll take a little humanity in the raw, please.
Dear Jungle of Ecuador,
We have not yet met. Consume me.
Signed,
A tacky modern tourist
civilization vs. barbarism, modernization vs. progress on the mind...
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