Pre-Ecuador Blog

Hello!!

I have sent you a link to the site I hope to be blogging on while in Ecuador. Now, I must confess that I have never been a "blogger" before and I cannot promise that I will be any good at keeping up on this or writing any sort of profound anythings. BUT I really would like to keep in touch with people while abroad and I thought that this was a good start. Now, the other task is for people to tell me what is going on their lives when I am abroad because I know I am not the only person who will have stories to tell. With that said....

I do not have much to say about my trip yet (being that I am still in Minnesota) so this is more a short practice post. I leave on Monday January 19th at 10:30 am. AAHH!! I am getting excited, very excited. Oops, for those of you who do not know even why I am blogging....I am going to be studying abroad in Ecuador this spring through a program called MSID Ecuador (Minnesota Studies in International Development). The program is set up so the first 1/2 of the trip we spend in Quito (major city and capital of Ecuador) learning about development and globalization in Ecuador and the second 1/2 of the trip is spent at an internship site. The track which I am on is education and literacy so my internship site will be at a school most likely and this school could be anywhere from in the rain forest to on an island to in the mountains, I won't know until I am there for a while, but everyone goes off alone to their own site. The internship aspect is a main reason why I signed up. My personal goal is to be able to implement theatrical tools in the classroom experience, because lets face it...we do not all learn the exact same way and I hope to encourage using the physical/creative side of our brains as much as possible. I also cannot wait to learn about how the educational system works in a country that is not my own, I think that there is a lot to learn about the different methods of teaching and learning that could benefit everyone. So in a nutshell that is the plan for the next 4 and 1/2 months, we shall see how all of this actually happens and what of what i have just written is totally different when i come back! :)

Okay, that is my game plan. If you are interested in seeing what is going on feel free to check back to this website. If not, no harm done I will see you in June!! Have a fantastic day!

~Julia~

PS- As stated above...please keep me updated on your lives as well. please. please please.

PPS- I watched The Motorcycle Diaries last night and it got me quite inspired, if you have not seen this movie I HIGHLY suggest that you do.