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.
As finals week comes to a close, I’ve been thinking more about how I have been preparing to go to Quito and what I would suggest other people do if they’d like to go abroad, too. I can’t believe I’ll be there in a little over 3 weeks! Below are some of the ways I’ve been preparing for living in a different culture.
- Read everything you can to be prepared! This includes travel blogs, advice on travel sites, suggestions frequent travelers have for things like key spots you don’t want to miss, what the best food is, what areas to avoid, how to stay safe, etc.
- Ask questions! My program manager through AIDE has been very helpful. If she can’t answer the questions I have, she will find someone who knows the answer.
- Talk to those who have come before you about their experience. Like I said, Skylar, my AIDE program manager, has been very helpful and put me in touch with other people who have gone. Not only did this help me see how excited they were to do their program, but they loved being in the city I was going to and had some advice travel sites online did not have.
→ 2 CommentsTags: Preparing for Going Abroad
Beginning the Journey
May 1st, 2009 · 2 Comments
Hello everyone! I am very excited to begin this journey to Ecuador! I’m honored to be sharing my experience with all of you as I travel and work for a month in Quito. I will leave June 4th and return July 5th.
For now, though, it is the first day of May and nearly the end of my spring semester of my sophomore year. With this new month comes new goals, like getting my long to-do list finished before I go and, above all else, doing well on my upcoming finals!
Preparing for this trip began months ago when I was looking for a summer program abroad. I wanted to do something different, and AIDE’s program was just what I was looking for.I hope to be a lawyer someday, either in the US or abroad, and once I read and researched more this opportunity grabbed my attention, so I seized it!
The most difficult parts of figuring out my program were researching the program, getting it approved and covering the costs. Luckily, everyone at school and in my family was very encouraging and helpful during the process. I think anyone with the drive to go abroad should go. Just beginning the research can be the hardest part, but in the end, if you stay focused, determined and organized, everything can work out.
Anyway, I must be on my way. I have only a handful of classes left before finals week but still so much homework!
