Since I started my freshmen year of college I knew I wanted to study abroad. Just the thoughts of getting on a plane to another country to live, learn the language and culture, and travel within the country and other surrounding countries has been something that I have been looking forward to doing for a long time. Here I am one week before my departure to Ecuador, and I can’t even believe this is actually going to happen. I am very pleased to embark on a life changing journey that will be filled with a lot of positive opportunities.

Planning this academic year trip to Ecuador has definitely been an experience of its own. After doing extensive research on all the different study abroad programs that are out there within the SUNY system, I realized that going to Guayaquil, Ecuador through SUNY New Paltz (NP) was going to be the best fit for me. I research the city of Guayaquil along with the university that I will be attending in Ecuador called La Universidad de Especialidades Espíritue Santos (UEES). I went on the university website to check out what kind of programs they offer such as classes, extracurricular programs, seminars, etc. I went on to youtube to see a virtual tour of the campus and the city of Guayaquil.

After getting accepted into the program, the process of doing all the necessary paper works has been a roller coaster ride. I had to speak with my advisors for class selections, making several visits to my home financial aid office, make several calls to my study abroad advisor from NP, and so on. The real challenge of making this trip a reality were all the ups and downs that I had encountered while attempting to get my student visa in the NYC consulate and all of the visits to the doctor’s office to get all of my vaccinations.

This summer was a summer like no other. I definitely had a lot going on.  Even though I had a lot of frustrating moments I knew that there was going to be a positive end result. I definitely learned a lot to make me a more successful, independent and responsible person. I must also say that both my study abroad advisors in NP and in Ecuador were important element in making this dream come true. They were able to get me through the few bumps that I had encountered and were always quick to answer me back with any question I had through email. It couldn’t have been easier without them.

There is one week left before my trip, and during this week I will begin packing, spending quality time with friends and family and prepare myself physically and mentally for what is about come.  I am very excited for the next couple of days to go on by.