Awesome host family in quito.

Ok. Already I'm a hopeless loser blogger person - this being my second blog of the day. But, how awesome is this!? It's the description of my host family in Quito.

Family Members: Mercedes (late 70s), Victor (late 70s), Francia and Juan Carlos (30's) live behind house

This is a wonderful family that has been hosting WT and PC vols for 30 years! Despite their age, they are still pretty active. They make vols. feel like special guests. Both have a great sense of humor and will probably tease you about falling in love with an Ecuadorian. They are warm people and offer good meals. Mercedes is a former soap opera star! You will have lots of independence and privacy. The location of the house is pretty centrally located and only about 20 minutes by bus to the orientation site. Their daughter, Francia, lives very close by and will be over often, with her husband, Juan Carlos.

Yeah. That's right. I'm living with a 70 year old soap opera star. Be jealous!

Some thoughts on English.

While teaching English, I've come to realize that it's a difficult language. This probably stems from the fact that it's a hybrid of many other languages, but it's hard when you're teaching someone that "seen" has a long "e" sound but "been" has a short "i" sound or why "two" sounds the same as "too" and "to".

Languages are always changing and I guess that reflects the fact that cultures are constantly evolving. I had this thought while I was teaching contractions. It's interesting that we can interchangeably say, "No, she is not", "No, she's not", and "No, she isn't", by choosing which words to contract.

I hope Spanish is easier than English.

Ibarra or bust.

Only 10 more days until I leave DC! Crazy!

I've just found out where I'll be living for the next year! And it is...... IBARRA!!! I'm very excited. It seems like the just the sort of place I want to be for the next 11 months - medium-sized city, teaching at a community school, in the Sierra, with lots of hiking and backpacking opportunities. Here are some snippets from my email about my placement:

"Ibarra is a small or medium, proudly 402-year-old city in the sierra, about 3 bus hours north of Quito. We're actually just north of the equator. It's very handy to be this close to Quito, but at the same time, it's nice that it's lower than Quito. That makes the weather a little warmer and the oxygen a little less scarce. It's also just more attractive and safer than Quito and some other cities. "

On my teaching assignment:
"You'll be working for a little municipal-run capacity-building center, El Centro de Capacitación del Municipio de Ibarra. It's a really cute little campus with a nice garden. "

"CECAMI accepts any student age 12 and up, so your classroom age-range can really vary from teenagers to middle-aged adults. "

My thoughts on it: AWESOME!!!

Well, things are winding down now. I've finished work, finished all but two secondaries (Temple and Georgetown), and gotten most of my things in order. So now is the time to enjoy and have fun and shop! I've had a few fun days and I'm looking forward to more.

Some pictures from some happy days!

Wow. First Blog Experience Ever!

Wow. I've never had a blog before. So, this is a new experience for me. In fact, I've always considered myself "technologically challenged", so bear with me! Since I will be soon leaving for a year of teaching in Ecuador, I thought that starting a blog would be a good way of recording adventures, keeping in touch with friends, writing down thoughts (if I have them!), yada, yada, yada.

It's been really busy this summer with getting ready for Ecuador and applying to med schools. I've gotten to the point where I'm starting to feel CRAZY/hertmit-ish/want to write "just accept me!!!!" on my applications. I have less than 4 weeks before I leave for a year! My departure date is August 29th. I'll be leaving DC on the 28th. Before that time, expect me to be SCRAMBLING to do 5 secondaries, teaching, volunteering, seeing people, drinking wine, learning Spanish, working, raising money, and overall preparing for Ecuador. Yeah, I don't sleep much. But who needs that? I'm excited!

I think I've gotten to the point where things are starting to fall in to place (I think I've fundraised most of my fee - thanks to the wonderful donations from family, friends, and my wonderful co-workers at work! Thank you guys! You know who you are. :D ). All I have to do is keep doing what I'm doing and focus on the secondaries to crank them out. Once I'm done with UVA and EVMS, I think most of them will be easy after that. This is what I've finished so far:
-GWU
-VCU
-UPENN
-NYMC
-Albert Einstein
-Mount Sinai
And those that have yet to be done:
-UVA
-EVMS
-Georgetown
-Cornell
-Temple

But who cares about that? I'm supposed to be living the life (which I haven't)! So, if you are a friend, kick me in the butt so that I go out with you and spend time with you before I go traipsing off to Ecuador! But yes, time is now limited, so get in line! =)