• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
FREE REPORT
BEST PLACES TO RETIRE
*No spam: We will NEVER give your email address to anyone else.
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
Live and Invest Overseas
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
No Result
View All Result

Expat Theresa Rall On Her Life In Quito, Ecuador

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Sep 19, 2014
in Retirement/Living
0
Amazing views like this church In Quito, Ecuador, are found plenty.
210
SHARES
3k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

F’ing Ecuador

The goings-on in Quito continue. Among those addressing the attendees at this week’s Live and Invest in Ecuador Conference today was American expat Theresa Rall…

“I’m from Nebraska,” Theresa began. “I first came to Ecuador 30 years ago as an undergraduate student. Fourteen years ago I came back to live here, and I’ve been here ever since.

“I’m in the golf business,” Theresa continued. “I own pro shops here in Ecuador, and I’m the Titleist distributor.

“How can I help you understand all that Ecuador has to offer and why I’ve been so happy I’ve made my home here all these years?

“I’ve put together a presentation to that end titled:

“‘The F-words of Ecuador’…

Starting with: Fun.

“When I first came to this country as a 19 year old, I spent seven months working as an intern. That was a lot of fun. There are all sorts of activities and outdoor things to do here in Ecuador. Ecuador is about as different from Nebraska as you can get. Everything I encountered and experienced way back then as a young girl was new and exciting.

“It’s easy to enjoy all the outdoor experiences this country has to offer because the climate here can’t be beat, even on our worst days. Some locals will say ‘Que frio’ when it’s 50 degrees or ‘Que calorzaso’ when it’s 78 degrees and sunny. All I can think is, ‘Wow, you guys have no idea…’

“Right now it’s fall in Nebraska. While fall is a beautiful time of year, it’s also a sad time because it signifies the end of the growing season. We don’t have that here. The growing season is continual. As a kid, I knew what a poinsettia was. It came in a pot, and you bought it at Christmas time. Here poinsettias are trees. Impatiens, which were annuals back in Nebraska, grow to be bushes here.

“I have a house with a yard and a gardener to take care of it, but I’m a Nebraskan. My parents taught me to mow the lawn. My neighbors all think I’m a gringita loca because I like to mow my lawn. They don’t know what to make of it. The gardeners here pick something and stick it in the ground and, wow, it grows! There’s joy in that.

My second F-word for Ecuador is: Fantastic.

“We tend to throw around the word ‘fantastic’ to the point where it ceases to have meaning. Fair enough. We should use it only when it really applies. ‘Fantastic’ means extraordinary.

“I travel with some frequency to Ecuador’s three major cities to try to stay on top of my businesses. On any given flight you can have a fantastic experience just looking out the plane window. The Andes…the volcanoes…these are fantastic sights.

“One time in Baños, a little town with hot springs, our guide told us to go across the river and up the mountain and wait. At around 4:30 to 5 p.m., our guide told us, the clouds will part. So we went, and we waited, and, just as the guide had promised, the clouds parted…and there was the volcano. Not only that, but we could feel it rumble. I thought, ‘Wow, this is definitely not Nebraska.’

My next F-word is: Frustrating.

“Now we get to the reality of living in a place that is not your home. After living here for nearly 15 years, I still have to remind myself not to become the person who thinks everything in the United States is turn-key, perfect, and efficient and then is unhappy because that’s not how things are here in Ecuador.

“Banco Pichincha is one of the largest banks in this country, and nearly everyone has an account there. On the 15th and the 30th of each month, there is a line like you would find at Disney World for their most popular ride that just snakes around and around outside the door of every Banco Pichincha branch. That’s because everyone just got paid and is waiting in line to cash their paychecks. For me as a business owner, this can create huge frustrations. I can have to wait in line hours to make a simple deposit. But what are you going to do? Nothing. You just have to roll with it.

“I applied for my citizenship here months ago. My lawyer and I compiled all the required paperwork and went to the immigration office. They told us, ‘You’re missing this paper.’

“We got that paper and went back to immigration…where they told us that ‘this document that you got two weeks ago was only valid for 10 days…’

“After a few visits, even my Ecuadorian lawyer was frustrated. I finally said to him, ‘I know what I have to do. Let me see what I can do on my own…’

“I finally went by myself, said a prayer outside the building, and they took my application.

“As I said, you’ve just gotta roll with it…all of it.

Next F-word: Flexible.

“This has to do with expectations and attitudes going into a new experience. If you expect that living in another country will be like a U.S. experience only in a different place, you’ll struggle. But if you go into it with the attitude ‘I’m gonna roll with whatever challenges come’ and keep your mind flexible with a capital F, you’ll be more likely to enjoy your experience.

My final F-word for Ecuador is: Focus.

“One thing that has really helped me make the most of my life here in Ecuador has been shifting my focus so that it’s not on me and what I want but on other folks. For me this has led to becoming involved in the local community as a volunteer. Several years ago, in the English language church where I attend, they were asking for volunteers for the women’s prison ministry. I raised my hand, and it’s been life-changing…”

Kathleen Peddicord

 

Continue Reading: Best White-Sand Beaches In Panama

Comments

Tags: 'Ecuador''retirement'Expats In EcuadorLive And Invest In Ecuador Conferenceretire to EcuadorRetire To QuitoTheresa Rall
Share84Tweet53
Previous Post

Best White-Sand Beaches In Panama

Next Post

Climate In Croatia Versus Climate In Portugal

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

Related Posts

Toledo, Spain.
Retirement/Living

Why You Shouldn’t Retire Overseas

by Kathleen Peddicord
April 11, 2021
0

We speak every day about all the good and compelling reasons to think about launching a new life in a...

Read more
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Where Are The Cheapest Places In The World

April 9, 2021
Doi Inthanon National Park when sunset, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The Top 10 Best Places To Live In Asia For Retirees

April 8, 2021
San Pedro Beach, Belize

What I’ve Learned From Living 6 Years In Corozal Town, Belize

April 7, 2021
The Marble Temple, Wat Benchamabopit Dusitvanaram at sunset in Bangkok, Thailand.

Culture Shock In Asia

April 6, 2021
View of Carvoeiro at sunny spring day, Lagoa, Algarve, Portugal.

Portugal: The Best Place To Live Is Also One Of The Safest

April 5, 2021
Tuscany landscape at sunrise.

Comparing Best Lifestyle Options: The Americas Vs Europe Vs Asia

March 29, 2021
Next Post
dubrovnik in croatia

Climate In Croatia Versus Climate In Portugal

A world full of fun, adventure, and profit awaits! Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we'll send you a FREE report on the 10 Best Places To Retire In Style Overseas Today.

Start Your New Life Today, Overseas

how to retire overseas

LIOS Resources


  • New To LIOS
  • Ask An Expert
  • Media Center
  • Contact Us
  • FAQs

Quick Links


  • Best Places To Live
  • Best Places To Retire
  • Finding A Job Overseas
  • Real Estate

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and get your FREE report: The 10 Best Places To Retire Overseas In 2021

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe

© 2008-2021 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Countries
  • Budgets
  • Archives
  • News
  • Events
  • Bookstore
  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Members Area
  • Contact Us

© 2008-2021 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

WANT TO RETIRE OVERSEAS?

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we’ll immediately send you a free report on the 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE in style overseas. Each day you’ll learn about the best opportunities for international living, retiring overseas, offshore diversification and asset protection, and investing in real estate around the world.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.