A Final Reflection

Well, I made it back to the USA. I've been home for about three days now and I've had some time to think about how this whole experience has really affected me in the long run. At first coming back to the US was definitely a reverse culture shock. Being back at home almost made me feel like my ten weeks in Ecuador was merely a dream of giant proportions. However, getting to show all of my pictures to my family and friends and explain my different experiences to everyone has helped put everything into perspective. I have never been so appreciative of what I have at home and the conveniences that living in the United States brings. Being able to flush the toilet paper, use the internet whenever I want to, and speak freely in a language that I know everyone understands are just the tip of the iceberg.

I always knew that I had a strong support system at home, but I never fully realized the immensity of it until I got ready to go to Ecuador. I was constantly amazed at how much everyone supported me and how interested everyone was in what I was doing there. Throughout the two and a half months that I was abroad, I saw the effects of my support system on a daily basis. Without my supportive family and friends at home there is no way that I could have lasted through the first week. I was so overwhelmed when I first became fully immersed in the culture and began to learn Spanish. Even though I was halfway around the world I still felt all of the support and encouragement from the States. I cannot thank everyone enough for that. It really made my experience so much more special to me.

I had a wonderful experience with my students, family, and fellow volunteers. I learned a new language, and made friends from all over the world. I cannot wait to keep in touch with all of the people from Ecuador and use my experience to make other connections. The feeling of being back in the US is like nothing else I have ever felt before, and being able to share my experiences with other people will keep the memories alive for me and it is a continual reminder of the work I did in Ecuador, the friends I made, the students I taught, and most importantly... the people that supported me back home. Thank you to everyone!

I have included pictures above of my school, students, and some other last tid-bits of my time in Ecuador!

Some Sad Goodbyes

Today is my last day in Riobamba. Yesterday was my last day of classes at UNIDEC, and it could not have been a better send-off. We had a party in both of my classes, and all of the students were extremely generous. There was so much food! Everything from pizza to cake to bologna (it´s like a delicacy here). I took tons of pictures of my students to put on here as soon as I can. However, my camera and flash drive are not cooperating, so I need to use someone else´s computer to put everything up. That´s why it´s been taking so long with the other pictures of the school and whatnot. Anyways, during my second class the guys brought in a guitar and sang a bunch of songs for me (in Spanish, plus some Titanic so they could hear my not-so-lovely singing voice) as a small Despidida (going away party). It was amazing and they actually have great voices. I recorded them on my camera so that I could have it later. After the parties, Sarah and I were whisked downstairs to this board room full of UNIDEC administrators. That was definitely one of the most intimidating experiences of my life. However, the Director of the university gave a little speech and presented Sarah and I with certificates and gifts to show their appreciation for us working at the school. It was really sweet and I definitely started to cry towards to end of it, which is of course when the newspaper man decided to take pictures of me. Oh well. But then I saw my students again outside and definitely had a little breakdown. They were really sweet and told me that they were very sad that I was leaving and some of them even started to cry too. It was extremely humbling and it made me realize that I really did make a difference while I was here in Riobamba. I will take the gifts that the school and students gave me back to the US with pride knowing that it was such a good experience. (And no one will second guess where I´ve been when I walk into the airport with two Ecuadorian duffel bags, one given to me last night).

It is definitely sad knowing that today is my last day in the city where I´ve spent my whole summer. My host family is making my favorite foods for lunch today (pan-cooked fish, rice, lentil soup) and I am gathering up the last of my things here, trying to figure out how to stay under the weight limit for two different airlines in two different measuring systems... all without a scale. Haha we´ll see how this goes. Thankfully I´m able to leave a lot of stuff here that took up a lot of weight coming down to Ecuador. Yet I have also fully taken advantage of the cheap prices in this country and the markets in every city, hence my needing to buy another duffel bag to use as a carry-on.

I have one more week in Ecuador before I head back to the States. Saying goodbye to everyone here is really hard, but I´ll agree with my mom who said that that just means it was a really successful trip. Despite the goodbyes, I am definitely ready for a hot shower, moist baked goods, a meal without potatoes, and being able to communicate freely in a language that I´m fluent in. And I know that I´m going home to a lot as well. I can´t wait to see all of my family and friends and show everyone all of the pictures from this amazing summer. This trip has been the experience of a lifetime, and I would not have been able to do it without all of the support from back home!

I´ll write again before I go home, but I will see everyone in a week! :)

Winding Down Classes

I only have six days of teaching left here, and next Friday is a class party and Thursday is their final exam, which is a speaking test with me. So basically I only have four more real days of teaching. It is an interesting feeling... I have formed really good friendships with some of my students, and so I am very sad that I will be leaving them. They have all asked about emailing me, and so I can´t wait to inprove my Spanglish with them. There are other students who will probably not pass my class because of how little they actually speak English in my class. That definitely gets frustrating at times, but for the ones that really do make an effort, it really makes everything worth it. When the students speak in their broken English to me it just makes me smile. It completely makes all of the planning and frustrating times worth it.

I am also making some of my last rounds of places in Riobamba that I want to see before I leave. I am taking pictures of everything and all of the people that I see everyday so that everyone at home can see how I spent my days here in Ecuador. I am also headed to the south of Ecuador this weekend to Cuenca to visit another volunteer. It should be a great visit and then I have less than a week in Riobamba before I head to the beach and then to Quito before I fly back to Chicago in 16 days!

Sorry this one was so short, but I promise there will be more to update on after this weekend and after classes wind down some more next week. :)

The Weekend of Riobamba

This week was full of teaching, reviewing, and lots of exploring Riobamba. The swine flu test was negative, so I went back to teaching on Tuesday. However, my students have told me that there is another student in my class that is getting tested for swine flu, so I don´t know what´s going to happen with that. Otherwise, my students have a test tomorrow so we reviewed on Thursday and Friday for the test. My second class is slacking on attendance, so both of those days we did some review, then talked in a mix of English and Spanish for the rest of class. It´s really nice to be able to get to know my students, since they are almost all my age. I really like being able to talk to them a little bit in Spanish now, too. They are all learning more English and it´s interesting to hear them use their new vocabularies.

Our friends came to Riobamba this weekend and it has been awesome getting to show them around. Yesterday we explored a lot of the city, got A LOT of food, and just enjoyed each other´s company. Today was a slightly more adventurous day. We had tried to get tickets for La Nariz del Diablo, which is the train service that is supposed to have incredible views and leaves from Riobambe three days each week. We were unable to get tickets, and so we took a bus out to Volcan Chimborazo instead. It is the closest point to the sun and less than an hour away from Riobamba. It was so incredibly windy and cold, and we had a very interesting time of getting back into town, but the views were amazing. I never thought that I would be that close to a volcano in my life, let alone that close to the closest point to the sun on Earth. It was very humbling.

I only have two more weeks left in Riobamba. I absolutely LOVE my family and so it is going to be really hard to leave them all. However, I also can´t wait to get back to the States to see everyone. There is still a lot that I want to do while I am in Ecuador, and it will certainly be an eventful three weeks. I have a trip planned to the coast with a few friends before we leave, and it will be a great opportunity to decompress from teaching and the busy summer that we have had so far. I can´t wait to put more pictures up here! But it is really hard to upload pictures on the computers here, so if anyone has Facebook, I have a lot of pictures up there that I was able to upload last weekend on someone´s laptop. Otherwise I promise to put more pictures up. I have pictures of my school as well as a few pictures of my classes and trips. There is so much to show everyone!

I can´t wait to see everyone so soon!

Mid-Service, Mindo, Quito

I know I haven´t updated in a while, but I have been traveling for most of the past week. There is a lot to update on, so I apologize in advance...

Classes:
I only taught for two days last week because I left for my Mid-Service conference on Wednesday, but those two days were jam packed with vocab and grammar. Students were not happy that I told them I wanted to give another test this week sometime, but they lost that battle. However, they all really seem to be learning, and the new activities that I have been using seem to be effective. I can´t wait to see all of the long-term results at the end of the summer. Also, the student that had the huge Gringa-crush on me finally got a new girlfriend. It is hilarious to watch that unfold, but it has also lessened the awkwardness in class. However, my second class seems to be picking up the slack where the first one left off. It´s a strange situation, but it makes me laugh all the time and it hasn´t gotten awkward with the second class so that´s always good. In addition to all of that, I actually don´t have classes today because there is a chance that one of the dentistry students at the university has swine flu. Ecuador is nuts about swine flu and super paranoid, so any confirmed case means that the school doesn´t have classes for a week. Right now the girl is getting tested, so I won´t know anything for sure until later tonight.

Mindo:
Our mid-service conference was held in Mindo this year, and in general it was a lot of fun. It was awesome to see all of the other volunteers! I have seen some of them several times, but others are too far away to see on the weekends, so this conference was a perfect opportunity to swap stories with everyone. It is absolutely hilarious to hear everyone´s stories... so many people have similar stories, but they are all different at the same time. Everyone has done lots of traveling and has great teaching stories. I don´t think I´ve laughed so hard the whole time I´ve been here. During the actual conference there was lots of group bonding time where we were able to share experiences, and then there were also plenty of sessions that dealt with teaching and the different struggles that we are all facing at our sites. We had some free time during the day on Friday and so there were a few of us that went zip-lining between the mountains in Mindo. It was absolutely gorgeous! I have definitely become more adventurous since coming here, and that certainly helped me when I was zip-lining. The views were incredible and it was a great way to spend some time with other volunteers. We also went to the butterfly farm that Mindo is famous for on Saturday before we left. All of the butterflies were beautiful and it was something that I really wanted to see while I was in Mindo.

Quito:
On Wednesday we went to Quito for the day before leaving for Mindo. We got to spend some time with some of the other volunteers that came in early climbing the Basilica and wandering around Quito. Some volunteers who don´t have access to internet or phones took the opportunity to call family and friends back in the States. We had some good meals and on Saturday night we went to see "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." We tried to see it on Wednesday, but even the English version was sold out all night. Ecuadorians love Harry Potter just as much as Americans. Thankfully on Saturday we were able to get tickets in English. I actually ran into my host brother and his wife at the theater too. It was such a weird coincidence. Other than that, it was just a great relaxing time with everyone.

It feels great to be back in Riobamba and spending time with my family here. I definitely miss everyone back home too, but I know the next four weeks will go by even faster than the previous six. Some of our friends are coming to Riobamba this weekend and it will be great to show them around and let them see where we spend our days.

Again, sorry for the length, I will try and update more than once a week!

Chao!

Quito:

The Joys of Teaching

So, this week of classes has been interesting to say the least. One of my classes has regular good attendance, but the other one only has about half of the students show up on any given day. It´s a little ridiculous, and it´s making my life a little harder in terms of teaching new material. However, I have figured out a plan, and now our "warmer" for the day is an exercise that goes over ALL of the material that we worked on the day before, and makes the students talk and work in groups. It seems to be working out fine for now.

I also gave a test last week, which went actually better than I had planned. I mean, there were certainly still some students that didn´t do very well, but in general they at least got the main concepts. Grammar will come with time, so they just need to keep practicing. Some of them just get so nervous when speaking English that they don´t talk very often, making it harder for them to learn. This is the one instance when I am actually glad that I don´t know much Spanish. The students will babble off in Spanish asking me questions, and I just give them the same blank stare of not understanding that they give me when I talk too fast in class. It forces them to use the English that they know to communicate with me. Granted, it´s also fun to sometimes have them help teach me Spanish. They all get a kick out of the fact that I don´t know very much, and I especially enjoy when I´m teaching vocabulary and the students translate the words into Spanish and look at me to see if it´s right... I usually just look at them and say, "Sure, why not?" But then we always have someone double check with a dictionary to make sure if we really don´t know the word in Spanish. Teaching the vocab is helping inprove my Spanish and their English, so it´s a win-win situation all around.

Behavior-wise, I have found that enstilling the fear of God into them usually works well. Whenever the "Native-Speaker" (me) gets really angry and starts raising her voice in a language that the students don´t understand, they all seem to understand somehow. I never yell or anything like that, but a stern English talk has been very effective. The students are all finally getting to know who I am and know how to behave in the classroom. Of course I´m not going to be able to please everyone all the time, and some students don´t always like all the activities that we are doing, but that´s ok. As long as they´re practicing their English, I have come to the conclusion that there´s always a different activity that they will like the next day. Teaching has definitely been an adjustment, but it has also been really rewarding. Learning a new language is always difficult, but when they ask me questions and get the right answers it makes everything worth it. I´m also able to show my sense of humor in the classroom as well, even if sometimes it means making a fool of myself. The students love when Teacher is funny and does crazy things in the classroom.

I will try and take some pictures of my school and classes soon and get them up here as well. The school is actually really nice, although under construction, and my students are lots of fun!

Chao!

4th of July Weekend

Well, there were no fireworks. But this weekend was a whirlwind of events. On Friday I left for Quito with one of my host sisters, Elisa, her boyfriend, and our maid. It took about four hours to get there, but once we got there we were starving since we hadn´t eaten dinner... therefore we had a truly American dinner late... KFC. I can´t even tell you all how delicious it was. I also can´t remember the last time that I had KFC in the US. Last time I think I ate it was with Spencer in London last year. Anyways, we stayed at my mysterious host brother´s house for the night, and in the morning went to a multiple-baby baptism, where my host-niece was baptised. It was really interesting, but I got a little lost with all of the Spanish. After the baptism there was a lunch reception, and there was so much food to eat! It was a four course delicious Ecuadorian meal and a true celebration topped off with cake. However, one thing that Ecuador does not really believe in is moist cakes, so it was a little dry. I can´t wait to get back to the US and have some really moist cake (Mom, that´s a hint to you)!

After the lunch reception, my host brother dropped me off in La Mariscal, which is the main activity area of Quito and where I was meeting my other volunteer friends. It was so nice to see them and we checked into our hostal, got some ice cream, and ALL called the US for dirt cheap. In Riobamba it costs about 25 cents per minute or more to call the US from a phone place, but in Quito it only costs 5 or 6 cents per minute. We all took advantage of that, along with quick internet and the chance to speak English with each other. We spent the afternoon just hanging out, and then at night there was a going-away dinner party for our field director. She is finished with her term and then assistant field director has stepped up as the new director, and we also have a new assistant field director. It was a great dinner with lots of amazing food! There was dancing next door after dinner, and an all around good time for the night. It was so nice to be able to spend time with everyone, and we started to make plans for future travels. My schedule is pretty booked in terms of traveling, but it will certainly make for an incredible summer! In addition, today marks the one month point that I´ve been here. It has absolutely flown by and I can´t imagine how fast the next month and a half is going to go by!

Also, despite the fact that I don´t really miss American food too much right now (that will probably change soon), I have found the absolute BEST burger in Ecuador! There is a little stand in Riobamba that my family went to last night for dinner and I cannot even begin to describe how good it tasted!

This week I have more classes, which I will update everyone on, and then this Saturday I´m off to Tena in the rainforest!

Classes and Baños

I am officially done with more than one week of classes! It feels really good, but I definitely have obstacles to overcome in both classes. In my second class of the day, there are way too many kids that want to only speak Spanish and talk to each other the whole time. There were girls putting on makeup during class yesterday and it´s a constant battle to get some of their attention. Granted, not all of the students are like that, and I do enjoy doing fun activities with them. However, I am just having to be more creative when it comes to partnering them up and doing group work. Almost all of them are friends, so it makes it slightly more difficult. But I´m getting the hang of it and all should be well soon. My first class has some of the same problems (which I know you find in every classroom across the world), but for the most part they want to learn and are willing to participate in the activities that I assign. However, in my first class I have encountered my first bit of "Crush on Gringa Teacher Syndrome." It is very interesting, and he´s a nice guy, but I am constantly having to be on my guard and make sure that he is aware of the line that is drawn. All of my students know that I have a boyfriend, so hopefully he´ll get the hint that I´m not interested eventually.

This weekend some of the volunteers went to Baños (a small town not too far away from Riobamba). It was so much fun! There were nine of us and we got there early Saturday morning because we all have Friday night classes (the one flaw with our travel plans). On Saturday we had lunch, got checked into our hostal, and wandered the city. We made reservations for a Monkey tour on Sunday as well. We didn´t want to pay half of the amount ahead of time, so Tyler told her that his ITIC (International Teacher Identification Card) was extremely important and she could use that as a deposit. Little did she know that our ITIC cards are not widely needed unless you want discounts at some places. Some people went to get massages and spa treatments that afternoon and we had a great day of food, taffy (HUGE in Baños), and talking.

Sunday we were going to go to the thermal baths early, but it was raining so we skipped on that for the time being. We went to the tour place at 9:00 and got into our shuttle bus to go to see the monkeys. On the way there we stopped at a lot of waterfalls and rode a little cable car thing across the cliffs and a waterfall. It was incredible! We finally got to the monkey refuge site, where they help get abandoned monkeys back into the wild. It was not very touristy, but the monkeys climbed ALL over us! It has always been one of my lifelong dreams to play with monkeys, so I was completely in heaven. They are some incredibly smart animals, too. They knew how to open zippers and take things out of bags, so we had to watch our stuff all the time. However, they were adorable and would also lead us by the hand to show us things of theirs. They absolutely loved playing with my hair, too. Anyone who had long hair got their hair messed with. The monkeys loved trying to find things in the hair, and thankfully, were unsuccessful. I have TONS of pictures of them playing with us, and will put them up asap, but this computer is being a pain in terms of getting my pictures off the camera, so I´ll try to do it tomorrow.

After the monkeys we got a little lunch and did end up going to the thermal baths. The water comes out of the volcano at 136 degrees Fareinheight, and was not much cooler when we got in. It was a lot of fun and definitely worth the experience. We had a great dinner at Casa Hood and I actually ended up getting Pad Thai (just for you, Joanna). It was phenomenal and great to get away from rice and potatoes for a nice.

All in all, things are going well here and I can´t wait for my next weekend adventure! It will dfinitely be an interesting experience spending 4th of July in Ecuador, but we will make it truly American. I will put pictures up as soon as I can!!

First Weekend and First Day of Class

Well we all knew that it would happen eventually... yes... I ate guinea pig, one of the national dishes here. It was for Father´s Day and surprisingly, wasn´t bad. It kind of tasted like a really salty rabbit, and I don´t know if I´m going to have to eat it again while I´m here, but I wouldn´t mind in a smaller portion. I apologize to all of those people who had guinea pigs as pets... I meant no harm. Then yesterday before class I actually ate a whole crab, one that I had to rip off the legs and all. It was an interesting experience, but it was delicious! I would totally have some more crab while I´m here. However, I did see the crabs crawling around in a box before I ate them, yet that didn´t change my opinion about eating them at all.

My first weekend was full of emotions. It was really overwhelming being in a house where they really only spoke Spanish to me and I didn´t understand them at all. I was finally alone for the first time on the trip, and that definitely scared me. However, my host family has been great and they have done everything they can to make me feel welcome. My Spanish is improving every day (pero papi, no quiero escritar in espagnol ahora), and I even had an hour long conversation with my host mom last night IN SPANISH! It was amazing!

However, my first day of classes did not go exactly as planned. I have beginners in both of my classes (I thought I was going to be teaching intermediate and advance classes), and so all of the lesson planning that I did completely went down the toilet. I am going to have to be very creative in getting them to participate and understand what I´m saying, because they speak about as much English as I speak Spanish. They all also want to learn irregular verbs... and much to my dismay I did not quite know what an irregular verb was in English. That´s just one thing that I never exactly had to know when I was growing up. However, I now have a list of several irregular verbs, and am confident that I can tell the difference. It will be a definite learning experience for everyone involved, and I ready to face another day. I was actually kind of bummed after yesterday, but after talking to my mom and getting some more teaching tips, I am much more ready and have a few ideas up my sleeve. We´ll see how it all goes, but seriously... nothing can be how uprepared I was yesterday. I had so many cool activities planned and all of them ended up being too advanced for them. But I will say, we went over colors in both of my classes, and by far purple is one of the hardest words in English for them to say. They all got a kick out of it, which made it more fun for me.

I am currently trying to upload pictures and will have them up as soon as possible. I am also trying to multitask and plan my lessons for today, so hopefully everything will work.

Chao!

Riobamba at Last

I arrived in Riobamba last night and was greeted my one of my host sisters, Elisa, and her boyfriend Tyler. After getting to the house, I met my host mother, Paquita, and my other host sister, Anahi. They were very warm and welcoming! Paquita does not speak any English at all, but Elisa, Anahi, and Tyler all do (Tyler is actually from Iowa and just visiting for the summer). My house has a wonderful view of the city, including Chimborazo, the volcano that is located very near to the town. I have my own space, which is wonderful. They family even has a golden retriever named Timo-Teo, which is wonderful because I definitely miss my dogs back home. So far the food is fabulous! This morning the maid had bread, eggs, and jugo (juice) ready when we came up for breakfast. And Paquita made some incredible Ecuadorian lasagna for lunch today. I am definitely getting my fair share of jugo while I´m here. I think I´ve had over 10 kinds since I got to Ecuador, and my favorite thus far is jugo mora (blackberry juice). It´s absolutely amazing.

This morning I had a meeting with my director from my school and it went really well. There was someone there who spoke English, so I was able to ask all of the questions I needed. I start teaching on Monday and it should work out really well. Everyone at the school is really nice and incredibly willing to help us with whatever we need along the way. It should certainly be a completely different experience from anything that I am used to, and I´m very nervous, but excited to start teaching.

After the meeting I went to this very indigenous open-air market with Paquita, Elisa, and Tyler. There were tons of fruits, vegetables, and meat. Everyone was flying around and negotiating prices. It was extremely interesting and I asked Elisa and Paquita every 5 seconds to tell me what the name of the fruits were in Spanish. There were plenty that I have seen, but many that are indigenous to Ecuador. We took a "taxi" home which was a pick-up truck, and I got to ride in the back of it with Elisa and Tyler. Getting to see the city like that was something that I don´t think I will forget anytime soon.

I will definitely let you all know how my first day of teaching goes!

Chao! (the correct spelling this time)

First Set of Pictures!

Hey everyone! I finally got some of the first pictures up. There are tons more, but these are just a sample of what I´ve done so far. There are pictures from Quito and Mitad del Mundo (the equator). Enjoy!

Discovering Quito

Orientation has been absolutely crazy so far! We are in Spanish class from 7:30-9:30am every day and after that we really don't stop until about 5-6pm. However, during the last four days I feel like I have really gotten to know some of the great parts of this beautiful city as well as learn a lot about all of these different people that I am volunteering with from all over the country.

After taking a recommendation from our field directors, there were a few of us that decided to try this tiny place for lunch that doesn't have a name... all we know it as is La Garaje (the garage). We got served a huge plate of beans, rice, beef or chicken, and fried bananas, all for $2. Seriously, eating in this country is ridiculously cheap. I saw a filet mignon last night for $9 if that puts things into perspective. But back to La Garaje... it was so good that we decided to go to it again the next day. Don't worry though, we have branched out and found several other places around La Mariscal (a famous part of the city and where our hotel is located) that we really like. Lunch is cheap everywhere and dinner is not much more expensive, unless you go to a really big gringo place, then it can get a little more pricey.

Tonight after an extremely long day of orientation I went to dinner with six other volunteers. We were following a recommendation from a volunteer's friend and I had absolutely no idea of what to expect when we got there. We took a cab into Old Town and when we finally got to the restaurant, we were greeted with the most BEAUTIFUL scenery I think I have ever seen! It was a rooftop place located right in the middle of the city, so we were able to see everything from the nearby basilica to the bicentenial light display and tons of old churches, plazas, and buildings in between. Dinner was phenomenal (and cheap), and it was just an amazing way to spend an evening. It really struck me at dinner how much we have all bonded in the past four days. There I was, in a local restaurant in Quito, with six people that I didn't know four days ago talking about life as though we've known each other for so much longer than that. Our group comes from all over the place... there are four people from Harvard, two people from North Carolina, one from Columbia, two from Notre Dame, and many other schools including a guy originally from Senegal and one from Canada. It is truly incredible and I am actually a little sad about leaving for Riobamba next weekend because I know that I won't be able to see all of these people until we meet up again in Mindo, a cloud forest, for Mid-Service conference.

However, I am extremely excited to go to Riobamba. During orientation we have had countless sessions on our safety and how to become less vulnerable in this country. It's a lot to think about, but a lot of it is common sense and we have all been looking out for each other. I have learned to carry only essentials on me, along with the minimal amount of money possible. It has actually been kind of liberating, because I used to carry my life with me in my purse, but now I just wear my money belt with my passport copy, emergency numbers, and $15. It's awesome. Too bad I probably won't be able to keep that up once I get back to the States. Regardless, I have learned everything I could possibly know about keeping myself safe while here, which makes me feel much better. These sessions have covered everything from the Swine flu (which is now a "pandemic" here and a few people walk around the streets with masks... a little over dramatic according to the nurse that talked to us) to natural disasters including volcano erruptions. Personally, I can't wait to get to Riobamba and hopefully see a mini-erruption from Mt. Chimborazo, the volcano nearby. Apparently every few weeks it spits out some ash and there is a little bit of ash-rain that covers the ground. I think that it would be incredible to see. No worries everyone, it hasn't actually errupted with lava in hundreds of years.

Ok, well there is so much more to tell about Quito that I have learned, but I think I will save it for next time. We are headed to the Mitad del Mundo, or the equator, on Sunday during our free day. It should be a great experience with a definite photo opportunity! By the way, I am going to try and put some of my pictures from Quito up on here eventually, but it's just taking me a while to figure out how to do it.

Ciao! (Yes, they use that here as a basic form of goodbye)

Arrived in Quito!

I have officially arrived in Ecuador! It was pretty crazy leading up to leaving, with Spencer´s graduation the day before I left, but after eighteen hours of traveling I am finally here! The country is beautiful and the people are great. It is great being with a group, and the field directors have been extremely helpful in terms of getting everything organized and ready for us. We got in really late last night and everyone was exhausted, so we all just went to bed, but today has been packed full of orientation events, ice breakers, a small safety talk (before the bigger one tomorrow), and even a scavenger hunt where we were in groups and had to find different things around the Mariscal area of Quito. So far everyone is getting along extremely well and it looks like we will all be able to do a little bit of traveling to different cities while we are here.

I haven´t learned much else about my site placement, other than that it is officially university students and not adults. I am very excited to teach! I will start living with my host family next Thursday when I travel to Riobamba. I can´t wait to meet them! It will be a totally different living experience going from being one of two children in the house, to suddenly being one of five, but I am very optimistic and interested to get a taste of what a big family is like.

Since I found this internet cafe that is dirt cheap, I have thankfully already been able to call my parents (for only $.05 per minute!!!!!), and hopefully I´ll be able to make a few more calls soon. Hopefully when I get to Riobamba I will be able to have the same sort of experience with internet cafe phones, otherwise most of the computers here have Skype. Oh and to anyone who was randomly wondering, Ecuador is on central time, so there has been no time change for me which is REALLY nice.

I will post soon with more updates from orientation, but for now, Adios!

Placement and Garage Sale Updates

It's definitely been a long time since I wrote on here, but it has been quite busy at home.  I chose not to do May Term at IWU this year so that I would have enough time to get ready for Ecuador, and boy am I glad that I have been able to spend time at home!  Things have been absolutely insane!  I'll start with the garage sale...

The generosity that everyone had was incredible.  When one of my roommates came up with the idea for the garage sale, we never expected to have the amount of donations that we actually received.  My garage was FILLED with amazing donations from people all over the Chicagoland area!  My mom was a huge help while I was at school and throughout the whole process.  It took us four full days to set up this sale with the help of my friends.  To Will, Joanna, and Danny- I would have NEVER been able to pull this off without you.  Thank you so much!  We had a bit of bad luck on Friday with some rain, but thanks to the donation of a giant tarp, we were able to make a tent  over the whole driveway and continue with the sale.  I was worried at first, but the rain certainly did not stop people from coming.  A friend of mine from school came Friday night to help on Saturday, and with her help and the help of Will, Joanna, and Mrs. Sammons I was able to make my goal!  It made all of the efforts completely worth it and I cannot thank everyone enough for all of the support and donations.  It has been overwhelming and I can't wait to be in Ecuador to fulfill all of the work that I have been leading up to!

The other thing is that I finally got my placement!  I will be staying in Riobamba after Orientation with a family there (although I have not found out who they are yet).  The city is located almost smack-dab in the middle of the country and is a medium-sized city of about 126,000 people.  It is located in the Andes mountains and is beautiful from what I can tell.  I will be teaching at the Universidad Interamericana del Ecuador teaching university students there through mainly conversation classes.  I am extremely excited that I know where I'm going to be teaching.  I went shopping for school supplies to bring with me on Saturday and decided that I love buying school supplies.  Yes, that does make me sound like a total nerd, but I like to think of it as a sign that teaching is the career that I should really be in.  

The two week countdown is about to begin as of tomorrow... so much more to do and so little time to do it in!

What is WorldTeach?

So, I was thinking that everyone who sees this may not understand exactly what am I doing this summer.  Therefore I thought that I would take a little bit of time to explain everything.  

WorldTeach is a program through Harvard University that sends volunteers to developing countries to teach English to students.  There are three programs:  summer, semester, and a yearlong program.  The summer one is the only one available to undergraduates.  The six countries that I could have chose from were Bulgaria, Costa Rica, China, Ecuador, Poland, Namibia, and South Africa.  I happily chose Ecuador, filled out the application, and the rest is history!  

There is a long process of coordination between WorldTeach and I.  It has been a very new type of adventure for me; at times it has been very scary, but I am extremely excited to be able to help my future students in Ecuador.  

All of the support that everyone has given me has been amazing.  I want to thank everyone involved; I couldn't have gotten everything ready alone.  Our garage sale fundraiser will be May 15-16, and there is going to be a TON of items ready for purchase!  I can't wait be home to help get ready for it!  

Well, I think that's most of the information.  If anyone has any questions, feel free to leave a comment on here or email me at kellison@iwu.edu.  I would be more than happy to answer any questions!

My First Post - Departure Dates Confirmed

Hey everyone!  I am not entirely how these things work, but I'm giving it a shot.  I want to keep everyone updated on what is going on while I'm in Ecuador, and so I will be updating this as often as I possibly can.  

Here's the only update that I have at the moment:  my departure dates have been confirmed and I will be leaving June 8th (missing VBS for the first time since I was born) and returning on August 15th.  That means I leave exactly two months from today!  It's crazy to think about, and there is still a lot of work to do before I leave, but I am very excited.  It will be the adventure of a lifetime, and I can't wait to share it with everyone!