Almost There

And so the journey to Ecuador is about to begin....

On Thursday 8/28, I will head to Miami to meet up with the other WorldTeach volunteers. I am so excited to get to know everyone! Then, very early 8/29 it's on to Quito. Orientation will be held there until 9/24, where we are bombarded with a ton of information, including teacher training, Spanish language training, cultural awareness, and health & safety info. It will be a tiring 4 weeks, but hopefully it will also be quite helpful. On 9/25, I will move to Ambato, Ecuador and teach at SECAP, a quasi-governmental organization with vocational institutes all over the country. I will teach 20 hours a week, which is a little bit less time than I was putting in at University of Bridgeport. Though it seems like a part-time job, lesson planning and grading will definitely turn the position into a full-time gig. It's only been 3 days since my UB classes ended and I'm already really missing it, so it will be great to get back into teaching.

Ambato is a city of about 300,000 people located right in the center of Ecuador. It's in the Andes mountains, so even though I'll be close to the equator, temperatures are pretty mild up at 2700 meters (almost 9000 feet). The location makes it a great jumping-off point for weekend travel or longer adventures. I'm also very much looking forward to the city's annual Festival of Fruits and Flowers, which coincides with Carnaval. Ambato has little tourism, so I'll be much more in tune with true Ecuadorian culture - for better or worse. The past volunteers found it to be a great home, though, and I couldn't be happier with my placement.

I'm down to the last 2 days at home in CT, so I've started packing and trying to tie up loose ends. There is definitely a lot to think about before moving abroad for a year! The next few days will be frenzied, but I will be back to blogging once I am settled in Ecuador. Hopefully for the next post I will have some good Ecua-stories to tell. Thanks for reading!