7...

...more days. One more week. This time next week, I'll be on my way to Ecuador and AWAY FROM THIS HORRIBLE SNOW!

je suis trop geeked!

oh, and amount of time spent practicing/studying spanish since i've been home and have had hella free time: none. i'm going to be regretting this in....7 DAYS!! [=

Mi Nueva Familia Anfitriona

I finally got my housing information!

Here's what the email said:

Your house is located in Lumbisi, its 20 minutes bus ride to USFQ. Your house is located in a small community, very close to USFQ called Lumbisi, and it’s a very safe area. You have easy bus access to Quito. Your host mom’s name is Guadalupe, she is a housewife, and her husband is Rodrigo he works as an electrician. They have twins, Cristina and Felipe they are 8 years old and go to school.

I am TOO GEEKED because:
1. I'm living in Lumbisi which (from what I've heard) is an indigenous community which is GREAT because I'll be close to where I want to volunteer and the community (again, from what I've heard) is small so [hopefully] I'll get to know people and establish relationships.
2. My mom is a housewife which is PERFECT because I can learn lots from her (like cooking, and maybe sewing and whatever other motherly things she may do on a regular basis).
3. I'm getting two younger siblings. 8 years old is a great age. They're the same age as my cousin Maka who is into Disney Channel and a bunch of other lame things that I still enjoy as an almost 20-year-old. So maybe they'll be into some cool Ecuadorian/Latin American 8-year-old thing that I'll fall in love with (like High School Musial:El Desafio).
4. I'm not going to be in a wild party environment.
5. Living in Lumbisi for a semester would be a great taste for what my life may be like as a Peace Corps volunteer in a couple years.

So living in Lumbisi shall be fun, but it also may be a challenge because:
1. I don't think I'll have access to internet at home. So no constant facebooking, blogging, skyping, etc (which is a blessing low key because it'll force me to live in the moment and interact with my familia)
2. As a minority, I'm not sure how the community will respond to me. I was told that since it is a small indigenous community many people may have never seen anyone like me before. This could also be a blessing because perhaps I can shatter whatever stereotypes they may have through example.

I can't wait to look back on posts like these when I come back and compare my preconceived notions to how things really ended up happening lol.

I pray that this housing situation works out great and I learn a lot and establish many close relationships. Less than 2 weeks. Too geeked =)

catorce dias....

hasta me voy para ecuador. too geeked. my spanish is still mediocre though :P

10 Goals:

1. Grow in my relationship with God and become a better example of Christianity.
   
2. Establish a relationship with SOMEONE in Ecuador. Anyone. Whether a friend, or a family, or a person at an organization that I am interested. Someone to come back to in the future.
3. Improve my Español (obviously...).
4. Maintain a good GPA (no more than 2 B's).
5. Learn to dance some type of dance (Salsa, Tango, whatever I can).
6. Learn a skill from my host mom (sewing, cooking, something! I pray that my host mother and I become close and that she can teach me something interesting that I can carry with me to the States and throughout my life).
7. Step outside of my comfort zone and explore (at least once. Whether it is traveling to another South American country, or hiking [yikes!], whatever it is I must come back to the States with a good story that could not be replicated here).
8. "Find myself" (whatever that means. I don't even know what I'm looking for but I think I'll know it when I see it).
9. Not gain weight (losing weight would be preferable).
   
10. Conquer my fear of bugs, as I'm sure there will be several and it would probably be rude of me to get my host family to kill every single one of them like I would make my real family do over here :P
    

26 days

Spring 2010 Coursework (@ la Universidad San Francisco de Quito)

Countdown till Ecuador: 30 days. Too geeked.

Yesterday I signed up for classes. So far I'm taking:

• Lit Y Cine en Latina America (Literature and Film in Latin America) - Counts towards the "area studies" component of my major (Global Studies) and I'm TOO GEEKED because originally it was all full but I checked on it about a week later and there was one spot open [=. God is too cool. I hope this class is good since it was the only one that filled up that quickly.
• Arte moderno latinoamericano (Modern Latin American Art) - an area study.
  
• Arte colonial latinoamericano (Colonial Latin American Art) - Again, an area study. With those three classes my area studies component will be completed.
• Conversacion Avanzada (Advanced Conversation) - my last advanced language requirement for my major
• Frances Basico I (Basic French I) - because thats the next language that I want to tackle and I figure it'll be good to use Spanish as my dependent language
• Capoeira!!!! - a super cool Brazilian martial arts/dance form. According to my Afro 340 class last semester, black Brazilian slaves would practice this in order to revolt but would make it look like a dance so they wouldn't get caught. pretty sweet.
• Total: 15 hours (Capoeira counts as zero, which is just as well because I'd probably be horrible at it :P)
  

And yes, I'm taking all my classes in Spanish. And no, my Spanish really isn't all that good. But thats the fun of it right? :P