One Step Closer!

My passport finally arrived to my home in Maryland! It's making this all seem so real. 

(don't mind my ugly passport photo!)

T-Minus 32 days till my adventure begins! 

My Journey

As many of you reading this already know - I am taking a big step in my life in the very near future.

In January 2012 I will be moving to Tehuacán, Puebla, Mexico. I will be going there to teach English for the Heslington Language Program.

I am currently in the works of finalizing the trip. I have done the essentials so far, but I feel like there is still so much to do! I go through waves of excitement mixed with nervousness. I've never left the United States before and this will be a big trip to take alone. 

During last semester here at BYU-Idaho, I received an email from the Language of Letter and Arts department, which is the headquarters for all the majors that have anything to do with language. The email mentioned an opportunity to go to Mexico and teach English and improve your Spanish. This appealed to me as a Spanish Education major and TESOL [Teacher of English to Speaker of Other Languages] minor. I attended an interest meeting sometime in the end of June. Everything being said sounded great, but I had a lot on my plate so I wasn't able to research more until I got home in late July. 

I officially applied for the volunteer-study program with HELP! in October. I anxiously awaited an email to find out if I was going to be having a life changing experience. Sure enough, a week and a half later I got an email telling me that I had in fact been accepted to the program! Since receiving that email I've been doing all I can to try to prepare. I bought my plane ticket from Philadelphia to Houston to Mexico City! 

I leave January 2nd and I will be returning April 2nd.

 Tehuacán will be my home for 4 months. I am going to miss my friends and family during that time, but I am so very excited to follow my dream of studying abroad. 

Cathedral of Tehuacan Puebla, Mexico, outside view at night