Hey Everyone--welcome to my running commentary on world tour 07! Well, maybe not world tour, but at least a part of the world I haven't been to yet! Some you have gotten a copy of the below in an email to sum up what I am up to, for the rest of you..here are the details!As some of you may know, big changes are yet again in store for me. Those that have known me for a while know that this is my standard modus operandi—to get comfortable somewhere and then trade it all in for something completely new, so this is just another chapter in the continuing saga. For those of you who don’t want to be bored with the deets yet again, you can skip to the bottom and straight to the pitch for fundraising. Just kidding!
I have been in New York for 6 years now and there have been great times and some not so good times, but all in all, I have learned and experienced so much, that the move out here has been one of the best decisions of my life. I truly love New York and part of me hates to leave it, but there are many things to do and see, and life is short, so it is time to leave NY behind for a while and move onto other things.
I’ll be leaving my job at AMDA, where I have been for the past 4 years, in a couple of months and embarking on an adventure in South America. While I don’t know any Spanish (yet), the experience of learning it and living in the culture at the same time is one of the most exciting things about this opportunity, I think.
I’ll be leaving NYC on March 26th and heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Once there, I’ll spend about a month learning Spanish and checking out the city. In late April or early May, I’ll leave BA, hopefully in the company of my good friend Shannon, and begin an overland journey to Ecuador. I am pretty sure that with the distances to be covered and the fact that I actually want to see something enroute, that I will go through Northwestern Argentina, and up through Bolivia to La Paz.
I have been in New York for 6 years now and there have been great times and some not so good times, but all in all, I have learned and experienced so much, that the move out here has been one of the best decisions of my life. I truly love New York and part of me hates to leave it, but there are many things to do and see, and life is short, so it is time to leave NY behind for a while and move onto other things.
I’ll be leaving my job at AMDA, where I have been for the past 4 years, in a couple of months and embarking on an adventure in South America. While I don’t know any Spanish (yet), the experience of learning it and living in the culture at the same time is one of the most exciting things about this opportunity, I think.
I’ll be leaving NYC on March 26th and heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Once there, I’ll spend about a month learning Spanish and checking out the city. In late April or early May, I’ll leave BA, hopefully in the company of my good friend Shannon, and begin an overland journey to Ecuador. I am pretty sure that with the distances to be covered and the fact that I actually want to see something enroute, that I will go through Northwestern Argentina, and up through Bolivia to La Paz.
In late May/early June, I am planning on flying from La Paz to Quito, Ecuador to do a 2 month service at a biological preserve working on conservation, reforestation, and maybe assisting scientists with research. I am pretty psyched about that part as some of you know how sexy I find science to be! The organization, Jatun Sacha, has several preserves throughout the country and I will work at 2 others of the course of a year. You can read about the organization and see photos of the preserves here:
http://www.jatunsacha.org/
After spending the months of June and July at the Jatun Sacha preserve in the Amazon, my sister Mary will join me in Quito for some traveling around Ecuador for about 2 weeks. Then I will head back down through Peru, check out Maccu Pichu, and back to Buenos Aires by late September for my birthday. I am flying back to NYC on Oct 2 where I will spend a few days hanging out with you fools who are working for a living!
From there I am going to my mom’s place in the mountains of Western North Carolina for a couple of weeks. I’ll be flying back to Quito in mid October to do a second service, this time on the coast of Ecuador at the Congal station for another 2 months.
After that, the plan is to possibly go to Honduras for Christmas, if Shannon in there--and mom might join me (the pic of us above is in Honduras last Christmastime) or to Guatemala, and then travel my way back down before reporting on Feb 1st for my third stint at a station high in the Andes called Guandera. I should wrap that up in April of 2008 and then head back to the states. Who knows what will happen then, and I am not too concerned about it as I know life has a way of setting your next course!
Whew! So that is it in kind of a nutshell at this point. I am excited and of course somewhat terrified in moments of reality to give up everything I know to go live in a new culture. But lets’ face it, that’s what life is about, no?
Love you all and happy holidays and the very best in the New Year! May you always keep on traveling….
