When I decided to attend Tufts in the spring of 2012, I simultaneously made another life-changing decision -- to not go to Tufts. Right away, that is. I deferred my admission until the following year and signed up to spend a year in Ecuador with...
Three weeks. Three seven day spans before I leave Ibarra. Before I leave my siblings, my students, the Andes, everything that was once new but is now familiar. As this intense, raw, and wonderful experience wraps up I find myself spending a lot of time reflecting on the past eight...
Dear Reader, Below I arranged a combination of rules, guidelines, and recommendations on how to make friends. These skills were learned in a local market in a city of 100,000 in northern Ecuador. They are results of trial and error, embarrassment, laughs, and smiles. Most steps were learned while making friends with...
The following link is to a video that I made documenting the incredible life I am living down here. It is important to watch and process images of life here without judgement, but instead with curiosity. Why does that work? Are those people happy like that? What...
The first week in my homestay here in Ibarra, Ecuador I felt myself riding an emotional rollercoaster like never before. The days were filled with random spurts of intense waves of realization of my situation. I am here. In Ecuador. I will not see my family for eight months. ...
