2012-05-22
For my last blog I wanted to write on returning to America, saying goodbye to my Global Citizen Year family and being back in the South. Arriving to America was just unbelievable that we were actually back, getting into a car where we actually had to wear seat belts and seeing everything as we were...
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2012-05-22
When I had first arrived in Ibarra, I thought that it was going to be the longest 7 months of my life and when the time came for me to get ready to leave, all I could think was, “Where did those 7 months go?” Was it really time for me to leave? At that...
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2012-05-21
Carnaval is five days of pure craziness and fun, be prepared to get very dirty and wet and when you leave the house, leave the house prepared to fight. Carnaval started the first weekend of February, kids were out of school and there was no work for that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The first day...
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2012-05-21
“La Caminata del Quinche,” is a pilgrimage that started over 400 years ago, that the people of the Catholic churches participate in every year. I´m not Catholic, but I thought it would be a great cultural experience and cool to participate in, so two other Fellows and I met up around 3p.m. Friday afternoon at the...
Read More 2012-04-17
Who can believe that it has already been eights months since I left my small town in Florida and came to live and volunteer in Ibarra, Ecuador. Only 18 years old and just out of high school, I was entering a whole other world and life than what I was used to. My first month...
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2012-04-17
In any country you go into you are more than likely going to run into problems, some may be bad or just plain funny. I have my share of problems here in Ecuador, which I like to call Ecuaproblems! First, one of the problems I struggled with when I first got to Ecuador was the...
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2012-02-16
Every Wednesday, I get up at 5a.m., get ready and I’m at the bus terminal by 6:15 am to take a bus that goes by the road to the school about 30 minutes outside of Ibarra. I have to pay attention to make sure I don’t miss my stop, because the school is in a rural...
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2011-12-30
When I first arrived in Ibarra for my home-stay week, I was filled with mixed emotions of meeting and becoming part of my second family in Ecuador; the family I would be living with until returning to the United States in April. I was excited, anxious and nervous, but my first week there was good: my family...
Read More 2011-11-08
We had been in Quito for four days and the next day, we were meeting our Quito families, who we would be living with for the next month. The night before and that same morning, we were filled with excitement and nervousness, wondering how our stays would turn out and what living with a family...
Read More 2011-11-07
Sometimes you may be looking, but not really seeing. This was something I had experienced during my first visit to Ibarra, I was here for a week to meet my family, to visit my job, and also to see where I´ll be living over the next seven months, but even though I was in a...
Read More 2011-09-07
I live in a city that is located in a valley between moutains, it’s 9300 miles above sea level, the city is 3 miles wide and 20 miles long, this city is my current home for the next month. This city is Quito, Ecuador. A year ago today I would’t have pictured myself attending Stanford...
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2011-08-22
Stanford University is gorgeous! California weather is like Florida’s fall weather, in one day of travel I went from super hot and humid summer weather to cool, nice Cali weather. One of the more awesome things here is that all of us Fellows get along great! Thursday, during the morning session we explored Mindfulness, finding...
Read More2011-07-14
I already knew I wanted to take a year off, one of the main reason being I had changed my mind on what I wanted to do and major in at least twenty times. I didn’t want to go to college unsure and I thought a year off would be great. Now all I had...
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