One more month to go ...

Okay, so this is my first attempt at this whole "blogging" deal so here it goes!

I am required to keep a blog for the duration of my 5 week Study Abroad Student Internship in Belize. It is through the Watson School of Education here at UNCW. Today is exactly a month until I leave so I figured I would begin my blogging journey now as the excitement of the experience grows closer and closer!

I was accepted to be on the cohort of students to travel to belize in early October of last fall. We were supposed to find out a week earlier whether or not we were choosen but since there were so many exceptional applicants, it took an extra week for the committee to decide who was going to go. I was on my way up to Boone on a Friday to attend an App State football game that weekend when my roommate called me and told me she had be accepted to attend. I was so excited for her and immediately told her to check my email for a confirmation of my acceptance as well. After a few moments of joking with me and telling me I had not gotten accepted, she finally divulged to me the truth: I had been accpeted to travel to Belize in the Spring.

Of course the excitement was immense at first and I wore out my cell phone battery francially calling and texting everyone! However, it was not long before that excitement slowly faded. I had so much to get through before I could even begin thinking about Belize. My student internship began before I even went home for Christmas break. I observed at Codington Elementary school in a 2nd grade class before returning home. After a long and much needed month long break, I returned back to school for a semester that would be unlike any other. I started my first week of student teaching with two subjects already under my belt. By the end of the second week I had taken over all four subjects in the classroom, including Excel time and was in complete control, full time student teaching by the third week! *WHEW*

I have LOVED student teaching more than I ever imagined that I would. I have grown so much not only as a teacher but as a person as well. Teaching has taught me a lot about myself, other teachers, kids, the education system and society in general. It did not take me long to get used to at 10:00pm bed time but the 5:45 mornings are still kind of rough! I am so busy though that I have trouble thinking about next weeks lesson plans let alone my trip to Belize. I sometimes forget completely about it. Until a week ago. 

I recieved an email from Dr. Kubasko who is one of the UNCW professors that is going to Belize with us. He emailed the cohort with our school placements and I could not have been more estatic with where I was placed; San Pedro Roman Catholic Primary School. I am minoring in Religion specifically so that I hopefully may be able to one day teach in a Catholic or Christian school. I am placed there with five other Elementary school interns from UNCW. As soon as I got my placement I searched the school on the internet. The more I searched the school the more I started learning about not only where I was going to be teaching for five weeks but where I was going to be actually living for five weeks. Two hours later of surfing every website possible on Belize I was ready to pack my bags and leave the next day!

Since I have been accpted to the program, the cohort has attended manadatory meetings once a month to prepare us for the trip. Today we had our second to last meeting before we leave. Our last one will be held in March only a few short days before we hop on a plane to fly over. Today is also exactly a month before we leave. While I am beyond excitied there is still much that I have to complete here in Wilmington for my internship and there is still a great feeling of nervousness which grows along with the excitement. I have never been gone for such a long period of time, espeically without my family or anyone very close to me coming along. I know that the lifestyle there will be very different and communication to the "outside world" will be limited. I know that it will be a life changing experience and I fully intend to embrace it and go in with an open mind.

I think that this is long enough for one blog! I promise my next ones will be shorter as I continue to share with you my thoughts and feelings along my journey. Thanks for following