Hello Friends!

Instead of having a long email list and sending regular emails to everyone while I’m gone, I decided to make a blog for people to follow.  I hope to post to it every few days while I’m abroad… we’ll see how well I do.

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

My passport finally came back from the Brazilian consulate with my visa stamped in it, I’ve nearly finished my pre-departure assignments, I have all my vaccinations, I started reading my guidebooks, and everything is ready to be packed into my bags.  I’m ready to go!

I leave in just one week.

Here’s the general idea of what I’ll do:

Sunday, Feb. 22 — Drive to Houston to spend the night

Monday, Feb. 23 — Fly Houston –> Atlanta –> Lima, Peru –> Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Arrive Tuesday morning.

Feb. 24-27 — Orientation outside Buenos Aires

Feb. 27- Mar. 22 — Homestay and classes in BA

Mar. 23-27 — Rural Homestay in Rosario, Santa Fe province

Mar. 27- Apr. 12 — Homestay and classes in BA

Apr. 12-18 — Porto Alegre, Brazil

Apr. 19-24 — Paraguay or Uruguay (to be decided!)

Apr. 24- May 5 — Homestay and classes in BA

May 6- June 2 — Independent Study Project (I’m hoping to do mine on Sustainable Tourism.  Hopefully that fits in well with the curriculum!)

June 3-7 — Project presentations and evaluation

June 8 — I finish the program.  I have nothing planned until July 11!  I’ll be traveling around Argentina — I hope to visit the Andes to the west, maybe go skiing.  I probably won’t get all the way to Patagonia since it will be mid-winter there.  Hopefully I’ll make it to Mendoza to see the vineyards.  There’s towns all over Argentina where immigrants of different nationalities settled and created mini Germanies, Italies, etc.  I hear there’s a town you can go to that has an Oktoberfest, is full of blond haired, blue eyed people, and the architecture makes you think you’re somewhere in Bavaria.  I’d love to visit the desert up in the north too… I know there’s tons to see, I just don’t know where I’ll end up!  More info on that in June, I guess…

July 11 — I fly to Santiago, Chile with Martha.  I’ll work on a photography internship while she works on a film internship.  I don’t have many details on that yet, but more soon hopefully!

Aug. 22, I fly back to Texas.  Santiago –> Lima –> Atlanta –> Houston.  Arrive the afternoon of the 23.

So that’s the plan.  I can’t wait to go!  I’ve been home working 40 hour weeks and it has started to get a little boring… I’m ready for the change of scenery!