Ecuador, here I come!

Bienvenidos to this, my first blog posting, all about my experiences this coming semester! I will be student teaching in Biology classrooms in the British School Quito in Tumbaco, Ecuador (~25 minutes east of Quito, the capital). The school is private and small, made up of 65% Ecuadorians and 35% international students. They follow the British IB programme that involves rigourous coursework and plenty of community involvement.

Quito is 2.850 meters above sea level (9,300 feet for all you non-metric folks) in the Andes mountain range that runs north-south through the center of Ecuador. Quito has a population of 1.865.541, but I will live with a host family in Tumbaco, that is significantly smaller. The currency is the dollar (a recent change that has had detrimental effects on the economy) and the weather is actually cooler than I would like: low 50 ºF, high 66 ºF.

Western Ecuador is coastal, eastern is amazons, and the Galapagos are 1000 km West of the coast. Although insanely expensive, I absolutely must go to the biology hotspot that are the Galapagos and meet Lonesome George!

Now that I've done a little of the research for you, feel free to ask more questions or comment on my posts at any time.
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I leave the U.S. on January 20th and return June 7th. I teach from January 22nd to May 4th, and then I will be visited by three lovely ladies (Amy, Elizabeth, and Christie) for a month of South American adventures! Although there's no time for a bike tour from Colombia to Chile, maybe I'll ride a bike at some point. Machupicchu might be on the agenda, and all additional recommendations will receive full consideration!


So, again, I welcome you all to join my amazing experiences, frustrating challenges, emotional rollercoasters, and personal growth!

Nos quedamos en contacto!