EcuadorSabbatical

Spring is coming to Baltimore, it feels that suddenly the grass is green and the tulips and daffodils and crocuses are everywhere. And our move to Ecuador is ever closer. I am getting accustomed to informing my patients and colleagues and friends and neighbours and everyone I meet that I am leaving and each time I tell someone, it feels more real and more imminent. I am still wading through papers and clothes and more junk than I ever imagined I could accumulate in a short seven years. It feels as if I am leaving my life behind forever, I will NEVER come back to this life, so I have to say goodbye every day. I am amazed that I am still eager to go. I wonder if this is a convenient time to have a midlife crisis. I am leaving my life, a life I wanted to leave, a life I needed to leave. This is my chance to start anew, not just inside but in every way imaginable. If I was not going to Ecuador, I would simply be repeating the same life, and a year from now, nothing much would be different...

Eric asserted yesterday that I was the driving force behind this move. That is not exactly true. It was Eric who came up with the destination for his sabbatical. I have been ambivalent at every step. However, when he suggested at one point that this was altogether too BIG a move and that perhaps Montreal or another institution in the United States would be a wiser choice, my reaction was clear. Ecuador is a once in a lifetime opportunity, it would be folly not to take advantage of the possibility. That was before I knew that we had to empty the house, perhaps sell it, and for some reason it never occurred to me that I would not be working as a physician. I did not realize that we would be living on such a reduced salary. I have no idea how to live simply and have never kept to a budget. I wonder if Eric sees this as an opportunity to change our lives so dramatically, that we can never go back to the life we once had. We have lived to excess for too long, much like the rest of the nat...

Maya, Eric and I saw Kooza today, the latest Cirque de Soleil spectacular. It was magnificent. I began to wonder what we will do for entertainment in Quito. I like to go out and see movies, listen to music, experience theatre, try different foods. I am not one to stay at home and watch television or pursue hobbies. What do Ecuadorians do in the evening? How do they entertain themselves? When I dragged Erika out for a dance performance one night in Quito, she was not impressed and told us she preferred staying home. There were several events happening at the cultural center we visited. There is a theatre in the historical center of the city. It has been recently renovated, and when we visited, I was quite sure I saw a billboard with advertising of culturally relevant entertainment. Being in a different culture will be interesting in and of itself. We will have new experiences daily, everything will be an adventure, so that evening entertainment may not be relevant anyway. But I am curio...

I heard last weekend, when Alejandra and Santiago were visiting with us in New York, that a plane had crashed in the area of Gonzales Suarez, one of the places Eric and I had chosen to live in Quito. The occupants of the plane were killed as well as some inhabitants on the ground. There was a fireball and panic. Apparently this we not the first time that this has happened! I quickly went online to find any articles or information about the incident, and of course there was a video of smoke and people running both toward and away from the scene. I imagined that I recognized the location. When searching for available apartments, I was more concerned about earthquake and fire safety. It is not unlikely that a volcano will erupt, or that an earthquake will occur in or around Quito while we live there. In that case I am not sure any one area is any safer than any other. It will be impossible to escape the city, even if there is a significant warning system.When I expressed my shock and dism...

Today was a day designed to accomplish a long list of tasks. I came to work early, saw my first patient, took a wonderful 90 minute hot yoga class, returned to my office and contemplated the piles of paper and items to attend to. Before I knew it, my two available hours had passed and more patients were scheduled. I wonder if the more time one has the less efficient one is. I have been winding down my practice for several weeks now and have two intense days on Tuesday and Thursday and half filled hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I try to make progress on paperwork and referring patients when I have free time, but I find myself preoccupied with everything but the work that must be finished. I have always been efficient with my time, using every minute and starring in multi-tasking marathons. I am ordinarily proud of my effectiveness and my ability to do ten things at once. However, now that I have more time available, I find myself less and less effective. It happens at home as we...

Oh dear, it is tax time and I have been avoiding facing this unavoidable misery for as long as possible. Eric's attitude is that it is a privilege to be paying taxes, it means that we are earning money and that is a good thing. I am always frustrated because I never feel that I have enough deductions. I am brutally honest and do not claim anything that I do not have proof of. And my accountant is not creative or slippery, and I get away with nothing. I am always shocked when my patient who makes maybe 30 million dollars a year comes to my office thrilled that he has once again been able to whittle his tax burden to less than I am paying!!!! I am shocked every time I hear it. I do not ask how he does it, it just reminds me that life is not fair. Tax time is usually a reason to travel to Salt Lake City and ski. My accountant happens to live in Salt Lake and has taken care of my taxes for more than a decade. Spring break for Tara used to be in mid March, so in the past I would take Ma...

Eric is looking forward to a simpler life. He believes our year in Ecuador will be life-altering. We will be moving to Quito with a suitcase each, without expecting to accumulate much. I agree with Eric when he makes his pronouncements about our alternative lifestyle, but I truly know nothing about living quietly and simply. I have been waiting to slow down for years now, and I continue to wait. I convince myself to let things go, and I make efforts to streamline my schedule, but my time is quickly filled up with other activities and responsibilities., and I am running running running. I look forward to having less junk. It is stunning to see what I have managed to accumulate in the seven years we have lived in our house. I remember getting rid of more than half of my belongings when we moved from Salt Lake. I loved the spareness of every room in our new home, and I recall telling myself that I wanted to keep from filling up every space. Somehow my resolve did not last, and every room ...