Pre-Departure Business

Well, after talking about it for years, it seems the time has finally come to leave the States for a whole 'nother country. For those of you unfamiliar with my trip, let me give you some information:

• I am leaving for Ecuador on August 22nd, and my return airline ticket is for May 1st, hence the 251 days. However, I may decide to stay extra time in South America, hence the "Approx."
• I will be living in Otavalo, in the Imbabura Province of Ecuador, with a family consisting of a father, a mother, and two sons, one a year older and one a year younger than I.
  
• I am traveling to Ecuador through a program called the American Field Service, or AFS. My brother went to South Africa through this program, and it went okay for him.
• I will be taking my computer and digital camera with me, meaning I will be able to write and photograph pretty easily. I do not know whether I will have Internet continuously or if I will have to use an Internet Café, but either way, I will not be online often, if at all.
• I do not know Spanish. I have taken Spanish for five years in school, but, as everyone knows, this is a poor facsimile of true fluency. Learning Spanish was one of my main purposes in choosing a Latin American country for my year abroad. Full immersion should have me fluent in Spanish by December (approx.).
• I will be applying to colleges, with lots of help from my parents, via the Internet. My dream school is MIT, and I am applying early action, so I will know by December.
• I will not be attending my high school graduation back in the States as a graduating student. I should have enough credits to graduate, though, so there will be no problems there.

I can't think of anything else at the moment. If you have any questions, email me at Jacob.Austin.Breneman@gmail.com. That's Jacob.Austin.Breneman@gmail.com.

Tune in next time for more of my exciting adventures in Ecuador. Same Bat Time. Same Bat Channel. Well, actually, it'll probably be a different Bat Time. Same Bat Time Zone, at least.