Ready, set, go!

Five days until take off. It doesn't seem possible, and yet I've been anticipating this time for months. I started making travel plans for this summer as soon as I got back to Houghton in the fall. I immediately started asking professors for suggestions for internships - or really any opportunities abroad. For a long time it didn't seem that much was working out. I actually had an offer to go to Paraguay and teach at a school for the summer, but after some skype interviews and really slow facebook correspondence, details weren't coming together. So not knowing what would work out, I looked into the Mayterm course in Costa Rica - this would at least guarantee some time in a Spanish speaking country and I could be reassured that Spain wasn't my only study abroad experience ever. My wonderful parents said yes to Costa Rica and that became the first plan. After that decision, some doors opened for me to volunteer in Ecuador - the first being to volunteer at an international school's summer ESL camp. It turns out that I will actually have my own class in which I will be teaching English as a foreign language. I will also be volunteering with MAP International, a health development organization, in Quito. The details of this are still unknown to me, but that isn't unusual for me.

As I write this post I'm reminded of a similar post I wrote before going to Sevilla. In a way, I find myself in a similar situation; I had no idea what lied ahead for my semester in Spain - as I really don't know much of what is to come now. I was given an opportunity, to which I boldly said "Yes!" and really had to exercise my trust in God's plans and his promise to go on ahead of us (Psalm 23). I started praying for His will in attempting to figure out these plans almost a year ago. I decided I would have surgery done on my foot last summer, when I didn't have any plans and was working and staying home, in the hopes the He would do something big with this summer. He has prepared the way for everything to work out this summer, and I know He has prepared me for this next adventure.

It's still sinking in that a week from now I'll be in San Jose. I have a lot of packing to do - which will be last-minute as always (but that's how I prefer it to be). I'm very excited to travel again and to be immersed in new Spanish-speaking cultures. I'm anticipating a lot of growth, personally and in my relationships. I can't predict what's to come, but I eagerly await the experiences the next 3 months will bring.