Pre-Adventure Post

Well, here I am still sitting at home in CT, watching Oprah, taking a break from trying to get everything done before I leave in less than three weeks. I have my to-do list by my bed, and it seems to keep getting longer, rather than shorter.

I am getting excited to leave, but I wish I felt 100% (the day after I finished working, I found out I had mono, ugh). So I've really been resting and taking it easy, and doing as much as I can from my computer.

In a nutshell, what I will be doing is living in Uruguay on a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship grant, working as an english teaching assistant, both for teachers learning to teach, and with elementary schoolers. We are supposed to really focus on teaching about culture, where we are from, and enhancing their classrooms as a native speaker. We also all have independent projects (there are 4 other people with the same grant), and I plan to use my background in women's studies and as a counselor with victims of domestic violence to develop a project around cross-cultural female experiences.

I've been trying to gather teaching materials, but I can only bring so much, eek! Also trying to get comfortable shoes and all that jazz... It's a tough job to prepare for eight months that are still a pretty big mystery to me. I will be spending the first 3 months in one of the provinces (I still don't know which), and the last 5 months in Montevideo, the city. I'm getting excited though, also nervous. Hopefully everything will come together soon!