Through the Association of International Development and Exchange (AIDE), Megan will live with a host family for a month in Quito and work with lawyers and other officials to set up cases against domestic abuse and bring awareness of the issue to women in Quito.
I leave for Quito in 8 days and am so excited to be going! I still can’t believe how soon I’ll be going, but little by little I’ve been preparing to go.
This last weekend I was at a conference in Tuscon, Arizona. It was pretty fun, and in order to prepare a little for Quito I bought Space Bags and tried them out on my clothes. Space Bags, for those of you who don’t know or never saw the commercials on TV, are airtight bags you can use to squish the airs out of clothes, blankets, or anything really that takes up space in your luggage. It was neat to try them. I even Space Bagged the teddy bear I have! Hopefully I can use them for my trip.
Today I went to a clinic downtown and got vaccinated for typhoid fever. My mom works in the medical field and saw on the CDC website that is what I needed to go to Quito. I probably could have gotten other vaccinations as well for Ecuador in general, like for malaria or yellow fever, but I don’t plan on traveling very far from the city. My internship restricts me in a way to only travel on weekends, so I won’t venture too far from Quito. If I do leave for a far away excursion, though, I will be careful.
It’s slowly setting in that I’m leaving soon for a while, and I’m nervous and excited at the same time. I know I’ll miss my friends and family, and it will be strange having limited communication, but the experience will be worth it. It will also be interesting to see how communication will work with my boyfriend and I. He is in the U.S. Army and is stationed in South Korea, so our main modes of communication - Skype, GChat and email - will be limited while I’m away. I do know how to call his cell phone using country codes, but with the time change (it’s about a 14 hour difference between St. Louis/Quito [somehow on the same time zone right now because they don't have Daylight Savings Time!]) I don’t know how often I want to try this with phone cards (not to mention the cost!).
Anyway, I’ll let you all go. I hope you’re having a great day!
3 responses so far ↓
1 Eric Lee // May 26, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Can you tell me who did your layout? I’ve been looking for one kind of like yours. Thank you.
2 megan // Jun 3, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Eric - My layout is generated through the Studyabroad.com web site. It is run through WordPress, so I’m sure if you contacted them, they would help you figure out a way to make a similar layout. Hope this helps!
3 Debt Settlement // Sep 4, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Sorry for my bad english. Intresting title. It attracted me to read the complete post. Thanks
Leave a Comment