I have been looking forward to studying abroad for most of my life; now it is so close I can feel the excitement building as each day takes me closer to the start of the program. It will be so good to be able to practice my Spanish outside of the classroom. I am incredibly excited to experience another way of life: a different language, different people, different sights and sounds and smells. I have been fortunate to have traveled a lot in my life so far; it will be exciting to get to know this new place a little bit better than I may have others by living in the community with a family and for some time afterwards on my own.
I plan on staying in Ecuador for several months after the program. I have around six different internship-search tab open on my computer at any given time which I refresh a few times per week. The incredible biodiversity also lends itself to biology-research diversity, with eleven field stations I have found and many projects from ones focusing sustainable food practices, to categorizing abundance and diversity of different reptiles and amphibians, and many more*. I’m also thinking about the Dinah Dodds grant, which would be based on a project I come up with during the program. I’ll keep looking and keep an open mind!
Can’t wait for the adventure.
*http://www.iobfs.org/fslink.html#sa