Guys, I’m a field biologist now! Ok, not really, but I did go on my first trip to the field with Shane, and I don’t think I did half bad! Shane has been to the field a few times now. He went to Tanzania for his PhD project and joined a group in Corsica betweenContinue reading “Butterfly Collecting 101: Balsas & Vilcabamba, Ecuador”
Author Archives: The Shwits
Shane + Whitney = The Shwits. Cheesy? Yes. Is our cat ashamed of us? Probably. We're an American couple that has lived abroad for 9+ years. The Shwits is our diary of expat life, travel, and occasionally science. Enjoy!
Hello, 2022!
Belated Feliz Navidad and Feliz año nuevo! A little belated, of course. A brief life update. We DO have visas now, but the process is still ongoing. So, more on that later. For now… Christmas in Tena! Since we went home to the US twice this year (🙌), we knew we were going to stayContinue reading “Hello, 2022!”
Quito, Ecuador – A Walking Tour of the Historic Center
Quito is a big city. Like, far-as-the-eye-can-see big. Now that we’ve settled into life here in Tena, we need long-term visas, which we can only apply for in Quito. Long story short, we are visa-less, but that’s still in motion, so it’s a story for another day. We planned for a long weekend in Quito,Continue reading “Quito, Ecuador – A Walking Tour of the Historic Center”
My Sis is a Married Lady, Y’all!
Eeekkk!! I love it so much. I mean, just look at these two! This wedding has been a long time coming, and I don’t mean because we were waiting for a proposal. Like a lot of 2020 bride and grooms, Covid put their original wedding plans on hold. Honestly, I’m happy the original plans wereContinue reading “My Sis is a Married Lady, Y’all!”
Greetings from Tena, Ecuador!
I’ve been slacking on the blog front. We’ve been here for two weeks, and I’m not quite sure how that happened so quickly. It feels like we’ve been going non-stop since we arrived. The trip from Germany was surprisingly uneventful. We left Munich at ~6:30 am, had a short layover in Amsterdam, then it wasContinue reading “Greetings from Tena, Ecuador!”
Meatball
We’re officially in Ecuador, but more on that later because we’re officially in Ecuador without Meatball. Meatball has been with me since 2010 when I adopted her after she was abandoned in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Greenville, North Carolina. It was love at first sight! Well, for me, at least. 😂Continue reading “Meatball”
America Trip Part 2: Chicago
The first and only ever time I was in Chicago was with Shane back in 2014, just before we moved to the Netherlands. We were there for our friend Brian’s 30th birthday, and the only thing I really remember is that the famous Bean was right next to our hotel. That, and we all wentContinue reading “America Trip Part 2: Chicago”
America Trip Part 1: Family & Friends
We made it through the wilderness, yeah we made it throuuuughhh! Obviously, the wilderness is 7 months of basement lockdown and 2.5 years away from home. Honestly, traveling during the pandemic wasn’t as bad as I expected. We needed a negative covid test, which is a requirement to enter the United States. Plus, when weContinue reading “America Trip Part 1: Family & Friends”
