San Gerardo Teaching Experience

For three days, I worked with students in the village of San Gerardo in Riobamba. Our group taught in Bolivar Chiriboga Paquibug school for two days. We were welcomed with open arms and in such a wonderful way. As soon as we entered the village, an announcement was made for the village people to gather near the school to start our welcoming parade. The parade took us around the village so we could see where our students lived and familiarize ourselves with the area.

The men, women, and children of San Gerardo were so sweet and generous. They made us fresh food right after the parade using fruits, vegetables, and meat grown on their land. We were all given tokens of appreciation on the day of our arrival, which were hand-made scarves and bags.

During our second day at San Gerardo, the students of Bolivar Chiriboga welcomed us with wonderful performances of songs and dance. They sang “Old McDonald Had a Farm” in English, Spanish, and Quichua. The day before, some of the students taught us how to sing it in Quichua. I was able to pick it up pretty fast, so my director made me sing it alone in front of the school! It was actually pretty fun, and I was able to record it on video!

After the performances, we were sent to our classrooms to begin teaching! Alex and I read “The Shoemaker and the Elves” in Spanish and in English to 4^th graders. I ended up teaching the entire class in Spanish and asked the students comprehension questions to see their understanding of the book. I was surprised at how I was able to get through to the students without using any English. They were all really responsive and very intelligent with their answers. At the end of class, Alex and I gave each of our students a little goodie bag that we packed prior to leaving for San Gerardo. The students were so excited for their notebooks, pens, and puzzles!

Once classes were over, our director took us to meet some ladies who make Shigras. Shigras are items made from the specific type of Aloe Vera plant that only grows in that area. Shigra-making is a dying art that our director helped to revive from the years she has been coming to San Gerardo. The ladies take the Aloe leaves, dry them, and weave the fibers together to make the beautiful artwork. I was able to purchase two Shigras from the two ladies who still make them. It takes them two months to make one Shigra!

The next day, we only had two hours with the students of Bolivar Chiriboga because the teachers of the school planned an all-day excursion to the town of Colta. Alex and I read “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” to our 4^th graders and also taught them the song “John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt.” The students loved both our activities and were definitely not ready for us to go.

We spent the rest of our day touring Colta and seeing the ruins of churches and buildings created by various earthquakes in the 1900s. We were also able to see the first church ever built in Ecuador! The teachers of Bolivar Chiriboga went out of their way for us to experience this side of Ecuador. They even took us to the Lago de Colta - Lake of Colta - so we could take pictures and relax for a little bit.

Overall, my experience at San Gerardo was definitely a life-changing one. It was amazing to see how the students thrive in their learning environment with what little they have. The village people were so generous and so loving and wanted to ensure that all of us felt welcome in their homes. I am so grateful for this experience and it is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I can’t wait to share pictures with my family and friends back home and to tell them my stories in detail!

This weekend, we’re off to the beach in Esmeraldas! Time to relax and soak up some sun before heading back to the States!

Reflection on Teaching in Quitumbe

Well, today was the last day at Quitumbe. The five days we spent with the Quitumbe students went by so much faster than with the America Latina students. The amount of love and appreciation I received from my students in Quitumbe was so overwhelming, but in a good way. I connected with the students a lot more because I spent more time with them outside of the classroom. I played with them during recess and learned their favorite recess game, Tazos. With six sections of 5^th and 6^th grade, I was responsible for teaching 240 students. I obviously was unable to form relationships with all 240 students, but I was able to get to know five students very well. These students were so nice and polite and did everything they could to make me feel welcome in their classrooms. I would speak with them in Spanish outside of class in order to make them feel comfortable around me.

At the end of the day today, my students surrounded me and wished me good luck for the rest of my trip and gave me small gifts- Tazos, which are the small disks that we played with during recess and a wristband from one of my favorite students, Benjamin. It was so hard to leave all my students, who eventually became little friends of mine! They were all so bright and worked really hard to speak English. Their work ethic inside and outside of the classroom was remarkable.

Though their English level was not very advanced, the little phrases they produced in English were enough for me. It was so rewarding to hear them say “I will give friendship” in English and then explain what friendship meant to them. The students loved being around native English speakers and showing off what they knew, even if it was very little.

Working at Quitumbe for a week was a great experience for me to see what it would be like to work in a challenging environment. I had to modify my lessons and change my style of teaching for this school, which taught me to be more flexible. 

My experiences at America Latina and Quitumbe have helped me shape who I want to be as a teacher and what I need to do to improve myself before I have a classroom of my own. The students in both schools had different dynamics, but they all had the motivation to learn and to become better at speaking English. I can’t wait to see what experiences I will have in the village of San Gerardo and what the students are like there!

End of the First Week

I haven’t blogged in almost a week. I am SO sorry. This week has been so busy! I had a full week of teaching along with sightseeing, so I was left with very little time to blog!

After the first day of teaching, Alex and I continued teaching our 5^th and 10^th graders about confidence and giving. We have bonded with both of our 5^th grade classes and love teaching them. They are all so intelligent and want to learn. When teaching them about giving, we read the book “Rainbow Fish” and asked them to tell us how they can give to others. Many of them had really creative responses like giving love, happiness, friendship as well as toys and candy. I was very surprised by the answers they were giving and was very proud of the way they were contributing to our lesson.

Our 10^th graders also had a lot to say about giving. We had a wonderful discussion about giving and what they have given to others and what others have given to them. A lot of the students said they enjoyed volunteering and giving to the community, something that I loved hearing from them. They are really open to talking to us about various topics and always have something to say. Their English level is very high and they have no trouble speaking their minds!

Besides school, I’ve been very busy being a tourist! In the past week, I have visited churches, the President’s Palace, the City Museum, a bakery, two crafts markets, two lakes and I lived in a resort. By visiting these places, I can say that Ecuador is absolutely beautiful. Pictures don’t do it justice! I’m learning a lot about Ecuador just by visiting all of these tourist sites. I’m excited to come back and share what I have learned. 

I spent the weekend at a resort with the rest of my group- this resort, Casa Mojanda, was the prettiest place I have ever been to in my life. We had a perfect view of the mountains from any part of the resort and had flowers and trees all around our cabin. I lived with five other girls- Kalia, Morgan, Leah, Emorie, and Samantha. We had quite a fun time in the cabin and at the resort!

The view from our cabin in the
resort.

My roommates and I

One of the highlights of my weekend was hiking to go see a waterfall. I have never gone hiking, so I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity of being able to do so! I hiked for about 20 minutes to get to the waterfall at 6 am. It was a wonderful experience and so fulfilling. The sounds of birds chirping and water hitting the rocks were so serene and peaceful. I went with my professor, Neil, and our guide, Humberto. We spent about 30 minutes sitting and admiring the scenery. It was such a great experience, and I hope to hike again sometime in the future.

I hope to blog a lot more next week telling you all about my last day at America Latina and my new journey at Quitumbe school.

Remember that professional development session on special education that I talked about a few blogs ago? Well, I have now been assigned to interpret what Ahnya says in English into Spanish for the teachers to understand! It’s a wonderful opportunity for me to use Spanish in a big setting. I have definitely improved my Spanish and can have conversations with many native speakers. I have never received so many compliments on my Spanish, so that’s a real confidence booster! I’m surprised at how much I have improved in the past week. I’ll take this time to thank my Spanish teachers, Señorita Frenzel, Señora Sebastian, Señora Polin-Silva, and Señorita Saunders for teaching me Spanish in high school and to all my professors in college. I’m glad I took those 8 years of Spanish because it has helped me connect with different types of people during this trip.

I’ll let you all know how my Spanish interpretation goes tomorrow and how the rest of my week goes! 

First day of teaching!

Today was the first day of teaching at America Latina! Alex and I taught two sections of 5^th grade and one section of 10^th grade.

Alex and I before teaching our
first class!

Our first class was with Quinto Verde, or 5^th grade green. We had them for two blocks which translates to 80 minutes of teaching. We began our lesson by introducing ourselves through pictures of our families, school, and activities we enjoy. We then turned it over to the students to introduce themselves to us. Each student had to introduce himself and his seat partner using “to be” and different vocabulary words.

As teachers, we aren’t allowed to use Spanish in the classroom, but for this class we talked with them individually in Spanish to help them understand concepts and ideas. I’m so glad I have proficiency in Spanish because it made teaching the material a little easier. The students were comfortable speaking with me in Spanish and asking me questions. It helped them relax around us and act like they do with their regular teachers.

The second half of the class was more focused on confidence. We asked the students to describe what confidence meant to them and asked them to draw pictures about times when they felt confident. Alex and I were able to learn a lot about each student based off of their drawings. Some were great singers while others were great soccer players. 

My students in Quinto Verde with their confidence worksheets

 After Quinto Verde, we had one section of conversation with Decimo, or the 10^th graders. To start off our conversation, we read out a few sentences about confidence that the students had to agree with or disagree with. Some of the statements we asked were, ”Confidence can be learned,” “I know people who are confident etc. The discussions were very insightful and made the class enjoyable. For 10^th graders learning English as a second language, their thoughts and responses were well-developed and well-thought out.

El Panecillo

 Our final section was Quinto Azul, or 5^th grade blue. We only had 40 minutes with this class so we were only able to do our introduction activities. These students were really lively and loved the activities we planned. Tomorrow, we have them for two blocks so we’ll get to know them a little more and be able to do more activities with them.

One of the many churches
in downtown Quito.

After teaching, our group left to go visit the Panecillo, which is a statue of a virgin with wings. I was able to climb up the steps of the Panecillo to the feet of the virgin. The view was beautiful and I could see all of Quito!

We also visited downtown Quito where we were able to tour different churches and the President’s Palace! The churches were made during the Baroque period and almost all of them are lined with real gold on the inside!

Tomorrow will be my second day teaching at America Latina. I hope my classes go just as well tomorrow as they did today!

The group outside of the Church of San Francisco.

The first day!!

I made it safely to Ecuador! I flew to Atlanta all by myself without anything going wrong! When reaching Atlanta, I met up with the rest of my group and proceeded with a three hour layover. So here’s the thing. Everything was going smoothly as we sat in the airport… That was until we looked out the window. Gray skies. Thunder. Lightning. Rain. It was horrible. But our flight was still scheduled to leave on time so we weren’t too worried.

The view of the skies
halfway through the flight

We boarded the plane when scheduled and we were all ready to go at 5:30. BUT we didn’t leave the concourse until 7:50. Yes, 7:50. We sat in our plane for almost 2.5 hours before actually leaving the ground. During that time, we got to know a lot of the people around us and were able to talk in Spanish. I also got to know one of my classmates, Ahnya, a little more. Ahnya and I will be leading the professional development session on special education in two weeks.

Once we reached the airport in Quito, we waited for all of our luggage to arrive and be checked. From there, a bus dropped us all off to our individual host families. All of us live about two hours from the airport, so we had a chance to take naps. My roommate Samantha and I didn’t get to our host family until 3:00 am! We did some brief introductions and headed straight to bed.

I'm in two hemispheres
at once!

The next morning/afternoon, Mama Lola fed us some breakfast- tostada con mantequilla y ensalada de fruta. Translation: Toast with butter and fruit salad. She also made us a drink, jugo de naranjilla, which is made from a fruit that looks like an orange-tomato but it’s sweet. After breakfast, we set off for El Mitad del Mundo or the Middle of the World.

I ate an empanada de morocho!

At the Middle of the World, we took a tour of the museum located there and learned more about the people who live in the different regions of Ecuador- the highlands, the coasts, near the Galapagos Islands, near the rainforest, Esmeraldas, etc. It was interesting to see the similarities and differences between the people and their cultures. Besides walking around the museum, we were able to take pictures at the equator and shop at the stands in the area.

Overall, it was a great experience. I mean, how many people can say they’ve been in two hemispheres at once?!

Mama Lola with her kids.

We ended the night eating dinner with our host family and meeting some of Mama Lola’s children. Dinner in Ecuador means drinking tea, coffee, or milk with cheese or toast. It’s definitely different from what we consider to be dinner in the States. We spent a few hours chatting at the dinner table and learning more about Ecuadorian culture.

Tomorrow is my first day at America Latina school. I’ll be observing the teacher whose classroom Alex and I will be in for the rest of the week. I hope it all goes well!!

Tomorrow.

In less than 24 hours, I will be in ECUADOR! It’s actually so unreal that I’ll be spending 23 days in another country. I’ve never been abroad (Canada doesn’t count), so this will be my first experience…without my family. I’ll be flying from O’Hare airport to Atlanta by myself to meet up with the rest of my group there. We won’t reach Quito until around midnight, so that’ll give me more than enough time to relax and mentally prepare myself for the journey ahead.

Everything is packed and ready to go. Mom and I packed and repacked to make sure I could fit everything I needed in my suitcase. Apparently, the weather in Quito is not as hot as it may seem. Right now, it’s rainy and the temperature varies from 50 degrees to 80 degrees, so it’s really hard to predict what clothes I may need to wear throughout the day. My solution… pack everything!

After spending three weeks in Kentucky working on lesson plans, planning my inquiry project, and making new friends, I think I’m ready for this experience. I have wonderful professors and classmates who will be with me for 23 days, shaping me into a better person and a better educator. I can’t wait to see what this experience has in store for me and what great things I’m able to accomplish in Ecuador.

Hopefully, my next blog post will be from my host family’s house in Ecuador! Until then, I’ll be spending the last few hours relaxing with my family. I’ll miss my family and friends at home, but I know these three weeks will fly by and I’ll be back before I know it!

Updates. Updates. Updates.

Of course I haven’t blogged in a week… and now that I AM blogging, there’s only one week left until I leave for Ecuador! So much stuff has been happening- finalizing lesson plans, finalizing my inquiry project, creating activities for the kids in San Gerardo, creating my packing list, making my souvenir list… etc. etc. I have two more days in Kentucky and then I head back home!!

A lot has happened in the past week that I should have blogged about but never got around to writing. I spent two days at Northaven Elementary School where Kelli works. It was the end of the school year so I spent most of my time talking with teachers and helping them pack up their classrooms, a side of teaching I most definitely will experience in the future!

Now to the important stuff. Alex and I have finished our lesson plans! We have five great lesson plans that we will be using in America Latina and Quitumbe schools. Instead of teaching in three schools, we will only be focusing on two schools, spending more time in Quitumbe. We received our Quitumbe schedule and found out that we’ll be teaching six sections of 5^th grade, six sections of 6^th grade, and two conversation sessions with 11^th and 12^th grade. I’m so excited for all this field work!!

I’ve also started to get to know my classmates a little more. Alex and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch this week, and I found out that we have a lot in common! We make a really great team and I can’t wait to get to know her even more in Ecuador.

ANOTHER exciting thing happened this week! I contacted my host mom, Lola, and we’ve been sending emails back and forth… in SPANISH! She seems like a really fun and relaxed lady with a really big family. We’ve both expressed how excited we are to meet each other and to learn more about one another. Funny story: The host mom my sister lived with in Spain two years ago was also named Lola… weird coincidence!

Besides all this fun stuff, I also met with Lauren again! If you don’t remember, Lauren was my host two weeks ago. We met up yesterday and went to the other Comfy Cow on Frankfurt Avenue. It was a great night for ice cream and we were able to catch up on our week. I feel like I’ve really connected with Lauren and hope to stay in touch with her even after my trip to Ecuador!

To end my weekend, I met up with some of my friends from college in southern Indiana. We had a great time playing Frisbee, playing Apples to Apples, and eating home-made tacos!

This time next week, I will be in my bed in Ecuador, resting up for my first day of adventures in a foreign country! It’s all starting to come together and is becoming so much more real in my mind. I can’t wait!

I leave you with an update on The Voice: All of Team Adam’s girls made it to the top 8, along with all of Team Blake. It’s so close now that I can’t even predict who’s going to move on! I guess I’ll have to keep watching- though the finale happens while I’m in Ecuador… Here’s to hoping my host family likes watching reality TV!

It's the Weekend!

I’m falling behind on my blog posts! Let’s rewind to Friday evening after I left Lauren’s home to attend the next seminar session. My teaching partner, Alex, and I were given most of the period to work on our lesson plans… We got two of the five done! We’re hoping to finish the rest of them by the next seminar session so we can focus on our inquiry projects.

After the seminar session, I went to my final host, Kelli’s, place. She lives in the Highlands in Louisville and lives pretty close to some nice places to eat and explore! That night, we ate at Rocky’s which is an Italian fast food-ish place. The portions were huge, so I was able to save some for lunch the next day! We ended the night watching Shark Tank and went to bed.

Saturday morning was pretty relaxing. Kelli has all the seasons of “Saved by the Bell,” so I started watching that… what a throwback! Later, Kelli and I went grocery shopping for the food we planned to cook for the week. We decided to cook pasta with meat, mushrooms, and onions and rice with mixed vegetables. I actually helped cook the food, which is something I don’t usually do! In the end, our food was delicious, and we had a great time cooking together!

We ended the night by walking to Orange Leaf, a frozen yogurt place down the street. For anyone who knows me, I will never pass up an opportunity to eat frozen yogurt… I LOVE it. It was my first time going to Orange Leaf, but it was a lot better than Red Mango! They had more variety in their flavors and had a creamy taste.

Today will be another relaxing day. Kelli and I plan to do homework and will try to work ahead for this week. Hopefully, I’ll have a draft of the rest of my lesson plans to show Alex and I’ll have the first part of my inquiry project planned out.

10 days until I’m back in my own bed and 14 days until I’m in Ecuador!

End of Week 1

It has officially been one week since I’ve lived with Lauren and her family in Kentucky. This is my last blog post from my room in Lauren’s house L. I had an awesome time living with her and experiencing Louisville with her. She included me in her activities and wanted to help make my trip to Kentucky memorable. I’m sad to be leaving her, since I was beginning to get used to her lifestyle! BUT. I’m also excited at the same time because I get to move in with my third host, Kelli! I can’t wait to see what the next week will be like and what I learn from Kelli.

Zoe and Mercy

To celebrate my last night with Lauren, we all went to “The Comfy Cow,” which is a Louisville-based ice cream shop. It reminded me of Oberweis Dairy back at home in Illinois. The ice cream at The Comfy Cow was delicious, though it wasn’t as rich as Oberweis! I got “Cake Batter Up” ice cream which was cake batter ice cream with pieces of yellow cake mixed inside. We met up with one of Lauren’s friends and her dog, who is best friends with Zoe. I survived sitting and eating around TWO dogs – that’s a pretty big accomplishment for me!

After our visit to The Comfy Cow, we headed back to the house to watch TV, a routine we created this past week. However, instead of turning on the TV, Lauren and I spent the rest of the night hanging out and talking. We tried to be spontaneous and watched a YouTube video on how to side French-braid our hair…  and we didn't succeed... don't judge. We had a great last night together and I couldn’t be happier with the time I spent with her throughout the week. We’ve made plans to see each other one more time before I go back to Illinois to say our final goodbyes.

Lauren and I at The Comfy Cow!
We had broccoli AND ice cream on the same day!

Tonight, I start week two in Louisville with Kelli and begin my intensive preparation for Ecuador- solidifying lesson plans and starting my inquiry project. Dr. Herdoiza also wants me and another participant to lead a professional development session in Ecuador on the importance of special education in the classrooms. There is no concept of special education in Ecuador and the services are definitely not like the ones we have in the United States. This professional development session will hopefully address this situation and stress the need for special education, and inspire teachers to begin implementing some programs in their classrooms and schools. That’s a goal that I hope to accomplish while I’m there, along with the many other professional and personal goals I have set for myself!

16 days til the big day!

The First Session

Yesterday was my first face-to-face seminar session. I attended the previous sessions through Skype, so being able to physically see people and interact with them was great. Our sessions run for two hours and they prepare us for what to expect in the classrooms in Ecuador. Once in Ecuador, we will make trips to three different schools - America Latina, Bicentinario, and Quitumbe - and spend one week teaching in each of them. The themes of our lessons will be “confidence” and “giving,” two of the virtues that we learned about from the Muhammad Ali Center last weekend.

My assignment is to teach 5^th graders about confidence and giving while teaching them the grammar concept of “to be” in English. In Spanish, there are two ways to say “to be”- ser and estar – and in English, there’s only one way. My teaching partner, Alex, and I will need to clarify this to the students and somehow incorporate it with confidence and giving. Our assignment for the next session is to come up with different ideas, games, and interesting ways to teach this material. We received our assignments for the first school, America Latina, and Alex and I have to teach four sections of 5^th graders and 3 sections of 10^th graders. Don’t worry, we won’t be teaching 10^th graders, but we’ll be conversing with them, helping them to improve their English while we work on our Spanish! Within our conversations, we will talk about confidence and giving and hear what they have to say about these topics.

Besides getting our assignments, Dr. Herdoiza taught us about the proper ways to interact with and teach students who are learning English as a new language. She gave an entire lesson on Simon Bolivar in Spanish to help us experience what it feels like to learn a topic in a new and different language. From her lesson, I learned that the use of visuals, gestures, and repetition are essential when I step into my Ecuadorian classrooms.

We ended our session by eating some delicious Spanish food made by one of the participants, Brent, and his father. They made seco de carne (beef stew), tostada (popcorn-ish), and a fruit juice that tasted really good. If the food in Ecuador tastes anything like the food we had in class, then I know I’m going to enjoy it just as much in Ecuador and eat a lot of it!

Update on The Voice: All of Team Adam’s girls made it to Top 10! Can’t wait for next week’s episode!! Competition’s getting tough!

In the Classroom!

Today, I observed Lauren teach in her 5^th grade classroom at Maupin Elementary School. Maupin is an inner-city, Title 1 school in the west side of Louisville. Breakfast must be served every morning, as mandated by the district. Throughout my field experience during college, I was never placed in an inner-city school, so this observation provided me with a different perspective on teaching and the education system in general.

Lauren had mentioned to the students that I would be visiting, so they were expecting me to come in sometime this week. When they saw me, I could see the curiosity on their faces to find out who I was.

During Sharing Time, we all sat in a circle and listened to a few students share interesting things about their weekend. This was a great way for me to get an idea of what student life was like outside of the classroom, but it was also a way for the students to talk and express their feelings. When it was my turn to talk about my weekend, all I could say was that I went to a baseball game and the questions began spilling out. “What’s your favorite baseball team!” “Who’s your favorite player!” “Are you really from Chicago?!” I had to break the news to them that I wasn't a big baseball fan, but that I like basketball and I watch NBA games as well as Indiana Basketball. Apparently, that was a great answer, because I was bombarded with even more questions related to basketball. Of course, I said the Chicago Bulls is my favorite NBA team and that I want Derrick Rose to come back. I was surprised to see how much these kids knew about Chicago basketball and the NBA in general! It was a great way for me to connect with them and allowed them to feel comfortable around me.

After Sharing Time, Lauren went through literacy and reading. The students were preparing for K-PREP, which is the standardized test for Kentucky, so most of the information was review. I admired the way Lauren was able to take control of the classroom and made sure that all her students were paying attention to her and the material at all times. It seemed difficult, but she built that relationship with her students in a way that they showed her the respect that she deserved. She made it look so easy to do what she did, but I know that it took a lot of time and effort to get to the point she is at with her students.

One of the great parts of the day was recess. The kids asked me to play kickball with them. I was wearing dress pants and flats, but hey, they asked me, so why not? I ran all the way to second base until one of the kids outran me and got me out. At that point, I began talking with one of the Cuban students in Lauren’s class… in SPANISH. Lauren told him that he couldn't speak to me unless it was in Spanish, just so I could practice my conversation skills. It was a great way to practice because this student was fluent and asked me different questions in Spanish. I was surprised to see that I could hold a conversation with him and understand him! I look forward to doing the same thing while I’m in Ecuador, while conversing with my host family and in the classroom. Due to confidentiality, I was unable to take pictures of/with students.

The day went by so quickly and smoothly! I was also able to see a math and social studies lesson before we left to go back to Lauren’s place. After school, Lauren, Jeremy, and I went to dinner at the Bluegrass Brewing Company, where I had some chicken wings! We left the BBC and took Zoe for a walk at Seneca Park… talk about an exercise! After the walk, we came back to the house and spent the night watching The Voice. Can’t wait to watch the eliminations tomorrow night! #TeamAdam

New Experiences

Yesterday, I arrived in Louisville, Kentucky and met my second host, Lauren, her husband, Jeremy, and her cute little puppy, Zoe. For those of you who know me, I’m quite afraid of dogs and cats, so living with one will take some getting used to! But I’m working on it, and I’m starting to feel more comfortable being around Zoe. Lauren and Jeremy are great! They have given me my own room, my own bathroom, and full reign to their fridge. I was afraid that we wouldn’t have anything to talk about, but I was wrong. For one thing, we bonded over The Voice and ended up watching the latest episode together. We all like to watch basketball, so I was easily able to convince them to watch the Bulls game with me… and they watch Harry Potter. Game over. J

After settling in, Lauren and I began talking about her experiences in Ecuador. She gave me advice and ideas to help me prepare myself for the trip and how to begin my lesson plans. Hearing about the impact she and the rest of her group made in the lives of the people in the small village, makes me even more excited and motivated to go on this trip. The village we will visit is San Gerardo, which is a community of about 500 people. The program coordinator, Dr. Magdalena Herdoiza, has made 11 trips to San Gerardo and has made a name for IU-S there. Lauren says that not only has this trip made her a better teacher, but it has also made her an even better person because of the things she learned from the kids and people there. I’m excited to see where my experiences in Ecuador will lead me and how I can incorporate them in my life.

The next day, I was finally able to meet the other members of my Ecuador group at the Muhammad Ali Center, which is a museum/culture center dedicated to the life and work of boxer, Muhammad Ali. The purpose of this visit was to learn about some core values of Ali that we will be teaching to our students in Ecuador. The values we focused on were “confidence” and “giving.” As part of our curriculum, we will create lesson plans to teach our students how to include these values in their lives. Going to this center was a really great opportunity to learn about Muhammad Ali’s contributions to the civil rights movement and how he became a role model for other African Americans. I hope to visit the center again while I’m in Louisville to learn more about his other core values and to learn more about his life.

After leaving the Muhammad Ali Center, I was driven back to Lauren’s place by one of our assistant teachers, Kelli, who will be my third host next week! We drove through Bardstown Road, which is like the Kirkwood of Bloomington. It’s a long road that has tons of small shops and nifty stores. I’ll be able to explore them more next week while I live with Kelli, but it was great to see another side of Louisville.

To end the day, Lauren and Jeremy took me to my first baseball game! We watched the Louisville Bats play the Buffalo Thunder at the Louisville Slugger Field. As you can see from my pictures, we had pretty good seats! We were entertained by Buddy the Bat and the funny performances by the blown-up characters. It was a great day to sit outside and relax!

The Beginning...

For the past six months, I have been planning for my three-week trip to Quito, Ecuador with Indiana University-Southeast. In Ecuador, I will have the opportunity to teach English in three local schools, complete a research project on a topic of my choice, and engage in a service learning initiative… and that’s just the academic stuff! Along with that, I get to travel to over 16 different places in Ecuador, and experience the culture, the people, and especially, the FOOD! Talk about a dream come true!

Prior to actually leaving for Ecuador, I must complete seminar sessions at IU-S which will help me prepare for my field work. These sessions will last for three weeks, so during that time I will be living with teachers from the program. My first stop is Bloomington, Indiana where I will stay with Dr. Guerra and her wonderful eight-year old twins. As soon as I walked in, they made me feel welcome and right at home! I absolutely fell in love with her son and daughter who are amazing artists, musicians, and dancers! We talked for hours about Harry Potter, gymnastics, and their time in Bloomington. Dr. Guerra and her kids made my five-hour car ride worth it! I can’t wait to see them again in a few weeks!

Tomorrow, I head to Louisville, Kentucky to meet my second host, Lauren, a former participant in the Ecuador program. I can’t wait to meet her and hear about her experience in Quito!

I am so excited to be teaching on my first trip abroad. I hope to put eight years of Spanish to use and immerse myself in a culture that I have been learning about for so long. For the next few weeks, I plan to blog about my experiences in Indiana and in Ecuador to help remember this exciting time in my life!

23 days and counting until I’m in Quito!!

P.S. Thank you Mom and Dad for driving to and from Bloomington in the terrible weather. You guys are awesome for doing this and for making Ecuador happen J