The end is nigh...

We're about halfway through the second term here at TIP this summer, and as predicted, it has been a very different experience. Not better, not worse, just different. Easier, in the sense that I already understand the schedule and how to address several challenges that working in this environment can offer. Harder, in the sense that I'm adapting to a new style of class with new students, and change is not always something I accept easily.

However, as always happens with time, I've grown to enjoy Term 2 quite a bit. Selfishly, I've acted as a student as much as an instructor this term. Running simulations has required a much deeper knowledge, particularly of the American Revolution, than I had, and rising to the occasion has been equally demanding and rewarding. As my class sits silently researching for the next phase of the class - simulating the JFK administration - I'm pleased with where we are. I acted as John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, during the first week of the term. Now I've moved into a more hands-off role for the second week, bequeathing the presidency to one of our students.

Outside of class, I've enjoyed a lovely meal with one of my amigas from Ecuador, celebrated the birthday of a fellow staff member, upheld our Thursday night froyo tradition, watched the new Spiderman movie (Batman tomorrow!), spent an afternoon reading at Barnes & Noble, and driven a group of students to the mall for an evening activity. Tonight, froyo returns for a fifth Thursday night to celebrate the final evening study session of the week. Five times, five different locations - we take our yogurt seriously around here. This weekend I'll be attending another Durham Bulls game and will start packing a little for the long drive next weekend, crazy as it seems.

This summer is still flying by and I couldn't be happier will the new experiences I've enjoyed and the lessons I continue to learn every day.

It's already July?

I've seen a not-quite-Broadway-ready production of Cowboys! The Musical, I've ventured through the world's largest tree house, I've fished (but not caught), and I've honed my badminton skills. Yes, another Fletcher Family Vacation has passed and we all had a wonderful time in Crossville, TN together. As I await my flight from Nashville to Durham, I'm excited and simultaneously exhausted just thinking about the impending start of Term 2. This getaway with my family has been the perfect chance to relax and escape from Duke for a little bit before my second and final three-week stint with the Talent Identification Program for the summer.


I'll be a Teaching Assistant for the same class, International Relations: Global Conflicts, but with a different instructor who will be taking the course in an entirely different direction. It will definitely keep me on my toes once again! We'll be adopting a much more historical perspective in addressing global conflicts, which means I'll be needing to bolster my own knowledge to be fully prepared for the students' questions. This also means my role in the classroom will probably look a little different operating within the new structure of the course, so I'm looking forward to that development in the first few days of class.


Outside of class, I'm still hoping to spend my few weekends left here on mini-trips and am starting to make plans for the end of the summer drive back to the Natural State. What's more, my own education is starting to creep back onto the horizon. The looming fall semester has it's own challenges to offer. With a thesis and post-graduation plans to be crafted I've certainly got my hands full from now until who knows when, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

YOLO so call me, maybe?

As crazy as it sounds, with the close of classes today we've wrapped up Term 1 here at TIP. These past three weeks have flown by a breakneck speeds and it has been a true joy to see the students' progress. 108 hours of instruction with 19 gifted students has tested my creativity, energy, and patience day in and day out, but the rewards have far outweighed any cost. These students have made my introduction to TIP something very special and I feel very privileged to have met each of them (shout-out to you guys!!).


But what in the world have I been up to for the past week or so? I've made it to a Durham Bulls game, danced the night away as a Ninja Turtle, enjoyed two Thursday night excursions for frozen yogurt, visited the mall three times with students and staff, roller skated it up with a group of students, and somehow managed to squeeze in some class time between extracurriculars. I also had the chance to visit some of my family in the region and eat some homemade food. Tonight was the talent show, TIP's culminating event, and the staff got to show off some of our own special talents by performing MJ's Thriller.


I can't believe Term 1 has already concluded. It's been a wild ride - so challenging but equally rewarding. I'm keeping my eyes on the road ahead, with an exciting week of family vacation in Tennessee before I'll be back at the grindstone for Term 2. It seems impossible to top this first introduction to TIP, but I have high expectations for the rest of the summer here in Durham.

The only constant is exhaustion.

Hi friends, I'm so happy to be posting from Durham! I've been looking expectantly towards my time at Duke TIP for several months now and, let me tell you, it's been a crazy first week or so. My roughly 15 hour drive over from the natural state was long, but smooth. I enjoyed a night's rest in Franklin, TN and finished the bulk of the trip the next morning with a chipper start somewhere around 4am. I arrived at Duke's East Campus tired, but ready to start the adventure. I'm living on campus and have readapted to the dorm life pretty easily - the morning commute is hard to beat!

Orientation sessions were long and honestly a little intimidating. We're working with some truly outstanding students, and the task of instructing them for seven hours a day is not an easy one. As a teaching assistant, I am explicitly responsible for an hour of that time each night during "evening study," but I also add supplemental instruction and an extra perspective in the morning and afternoon sessions. I'm working in International Relations: Global Conflicts, and I couldn't be more excited. The classes here are designed to be very dynamic; rarely will a day consist of just reading and lecture. Instead, we get to design simulations, debates, mock trials, and other interactive tools to deliver the material. It is really giving my creative side a workout!

With the arrival of the students, campus began to feel more alive, and classes were up and running in the blink of an eye. Now I've survived nearly the full week of classes and am so proud to be in one piece. As expected, the TIPsters are impressive. It has been so hard and so rewarding to see how far just one week has carried us. I'm learning so much about myself, global conflicts, and the ups and downs of teaching. My fellow staff members have been an amazing support system as we trek through the three-week term and celebrate each day's little victories. I'm tired at every moment of every day, but the students are so encouraging. Their discussions rival those in many of my college classes and their eagerness to learn is astounding.

I've also been lucky enough to visit with a couple of the friends I made in Ecuador who are students at Duke. It has been so nice to have some familiar faces in town; we've already made a late night frozen yogurt run to catch up under the stars. I'm hoping to make it up to DC for a weekend to visit with a couple other Duke friends while I'm somewhat in the neighborhood, give or take a couple hours. Other weekends will be spend traveling around North Carolina and recuperating for the upcoming week of classes. The summer looks long and treacherous from here, but taking everything one day at a time has been an effective strategy. I'm certain I will reach the end of this summer a more confident, creative, and compassionate individual. It's an exciting prospect.

Next Steps

I'm back at it! This will be my third summer of blogging, and I'm excited to have another adventure to share. Having already crossed study abroad and an internship off the list of undergraduate "to-dos," I started to seriously brainstorm last fall about how I should spend the final summer of my college years (it seems impossible that I'll be a senior this fall!). I feel so blessed with the opportunities I've already enjoyed, and have really challenged myself with each new adventure; this summer will be no different. I am working as a teaching assistant at Duke University's Talent Identification Program.

I will be staying on Duke's campus in Durham, NC (embracing the dorm lifestyle once again) and am definitely looking forward to living on a new campus and in a new town. Though I won't need my passport for this adventure (not even a plane ticket!), I am certain that this summer will hold a wealth of learning experiences for me, not to mention some hilarious tales of middle school awkwardness and my own teaching jitters.

As I considered various summer options, I wanted to try my hand on the other side of the desk, so to speak. I've now been a student in a few different countries with many different peers alongside me, but I have zero experience as an instructor. I'll be assisting in a course called International Relations: Global Conflicts and couldn't be more excited to challenge myself to reach gifted students, while increasing my own understanding of the subject at the same time.

My road trip eastward will begin Monday morning, and as is traditional in kicking off my blogging adventures, I have yet to make any headway in the packing department. I can't wait to get this next adventure started, and I'll check in again from Durham!

Blame It (on the Altitude)

Friends, I don't know if you've heard, but I'm headed home in less than a week. LESS THAN A WEEK. I am absolutely floored by how quickly the time has passed this semester. Of course, as with the end of any semester, things are going to speed up around here before they slow down.

This weekend was a Quito weekend, and I spent the vast majority of it squeezing a few more activities with my host family - I'm going to miss them so much. On Friday I tried to muster up some motivation to get through the remaining papers/presentations that lie between me and a departing flight on Sunday morning. My half-hearted efforts didn't yield much productivity, but I did make it out to La Ronda for the evening, a narrow street in the city's historic district filled with craft vendors and bars boasting live música típica. There, a few friends and I shared a pitcher of canelazo, a hot drink made from sugar cane alcohol, cinnamon, and fruit juice. As enjoyable as that combination may seem, it did not receive favorable reviews from our group and we choked it back before finishing our caminata through the Ronda.

Saturday morning I ventured to Cumbayá with my host parents, a wealthy suburb located northwest of Quito. Our quest? A Christmas Bazaar hosted by la Universidad San Francisco de Quito, a very new, very expensive university that is home to many extranjeros and some of Quito's elite. Coming from my own undergraduate university here, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, (much) less prestigious and (much) less expensive, I felt very much like I'd entered a different world. However, while opinions on USFQ within my program are diverse, I'm happy to have quite the spectrum of educational experiences available to me via Salesiana (a taste of Quito's nitty-gritty collegiate offerings disturbingly reminiscent of early high school years) and FLACSO (a serious, exclusive post-grad institution populated by working professionals and featuring a delicious array of baked goods). Anyhow, back to the matter at hand. After browsing through the Christmas Bazaar's costly goods imported from the United States, we picked up my host brother and ventured back to El Hornero Pizzeria for lunch. Always a trusty standby, the four of us destroyed a gigante pizza (serves 8-10, supposedly) and polished off our lunch with a stop by the neighboring almacén for Magnum bars, a life-changing ice cream encounter and guaranteed picker-upper for the tough days. That night some of the girls in the program gathered at a friend's house to watch a chick flick (Crazy, Stupid, Love=WIN) and eat obscene amounts of popcorn. It is always nice to hang out in people's homes because the logistics of getting to and from houses can be daunting, so any chance to relax together is always welcome.

Sunday morning started off bright and early with a 7:30am departure for a bike ride with my host dad, brother, and a friend from the program. The semester has come full circle, as I spent my first Sunday cycling through the city's hills with my host brother and got to spend my last Sunday doing the same. It was a beautiful day and we covered 34km of El Chaquiñán, a beautiful route through some of the smaller suburbs surrounding Quito to the northwest. It wasn't a very easy trek, especially with the help of a somewhat-dysfunctional rental bike, but the views made the effort well worth it. That afternoon, I rewarded myself with a huge lunch and a nap to recover from the day's adventure before plunging back into those pesky papers that remain for the upcoming week.

I couldn't be more excited about getting back to the Natural State for Christmas and seeing my family and friends again, but it will be a bittersweet departure, as my time in Ecuador has been nothing short of incredible. Here's to one more awesome week en "la Carita de Dios."

A Torta del Mar!

This weekend was the grand finale of our program field trips - to the Galapagos Islands! It was well worth the over 3 month wait and started off bright and early Friday morning with a flight to San Cristobal, the easternmost island. As soon as we arrived, we passed through inspection (as Ecuadorian nationals!) and we promptly bussed to our hotel for the first night. Within two hours we'd checked in, eaten lunch, and been fitted for our snorkeling gear. We boarded our first boat of many for the weekend an traveled for about 45 minutes to La Lobería, a sea lion colony. After slipping into our gear, our guides wished us bon voyage and off the boat we jumped. As a first time snorkeler, this was not the most comforting experience, and I oscillated between utter panic and absolute wonder at the things I was seeing. After a crash course in breathing underwater, I relaxed a little and was floored to find myself swimming with lobos marinos and giant schools of fish. After a little bit, we swam back to the boat and headed promptly to snorkel locale number 2, El León Dormido. Here we jumped right in among sea turtles, and swam between the two massive rocks that form the "sleeping lion." The group also encountered a "smack" of jellyfish (learning new things all the time here), which was reviewed less-favorably. Perhaps miraculously, we all made it back to the boat a second time (novices and pros alike) and headed back to shore where we enjoyed an extravagant dinner (this was another weekend that featured mountains of rice for me) and took a walking tour around the island for about an hour or so before crashing into bed for the night.

The next morning we departed immediately after breakfast for Santa Cruz, our second island of the adventure which lies about 2 hours westward. With the help of some Mareol to fight seasickness, I felt like a seasoned sailor traversing the open waters. Unfortunately I also felt a bit hazy, but you can't have your cake and eat it, too. Upon our arrival to the harbor on Santa Cruz, we were greeted by several iguanas marinas swimming alongside our boat. Not quite as cute as the sea lions of San Cristobal, but they hold a (distant) second place in the rankings. Our group was escorted to the Hotel Fernandina, where we spent our two final nights in the Galapagos. After settling in a bit, we departed for the Estación Charles Darwin, home to thousands of tortoises and other animales galapagueños, most famous being Solitary George, the only remaining tortoise of his species on the planet. Sadly, George was feeling a bit shy when our group of 19 came tromping up to his habitat and chose to remain safely under his shelter - who can blame him? He's well over 100 years old. That afternoon, post-almuerzo, we headed to Tortuga Bay, a pristine beach. After relaxing at the beach for a couple of hours, and trying to remind ourselves that it is December and Christmas is just around the corner, we returned to the hotel and took advantage of the hot tub before heading to dinner and finishing the evening with some extra dessert (banallana cheesecake for me!).

Our third morning, we boarded our trusty boat for the 2.5 hour ride south to Floreana, our third island of the trip. We spent the morning making friends with the many giant tortoises living on the reserve and learning about the original inhabitants of the island - a family of crazy Germans. Sadly, much of the morning was gray and cold, leaving some reservations about our post-lunch snorkeling plans. Fortunately the sun came out just in time, and we hopped into the icy water for our third snorkeling venture, this time highlights included stingrays, penguins, parrot fish, and blue-footed boobies. A pod of dolphins even accompanied us during part of our return voyage to Santa Cruz for the night. We once again took advantage of the hotel's hot tub and showered off just in time for our goodbye barbeque, or parrillada. We were served heaping portions of both chicken AND beef, and rounded out the meal with delicious slices of tres leches cake. Never one to be satisfied with one round of dessert, I was a part of the dessert 2.0 expedition and enjoyed a scoop of tiramisu ice cream to conclude the evening.

Our final morning in the Galapagos, we traveled to the only site where we were able to observe the tortugas terrestres in their natural habitat before taking a quick ferry ride to Baltra for our departing flight to Quito. We had almost the whole (giant) plane to ourselves for the flight, as most people opt for the cheaper return flight that has a brief stop in Guayaquil. It was exciting and a bit eery to be one of 40 or so people on a plane capable of carrying at least 3 times that amount, but it meant that many of us were able to take advantage of huge in-flight food surpluses and unparalleled stewardship on board.

This week is one of my final weeks in Ecuador, and I'm on a quest to cross everything off the "Quito Bucket List" in this upcoming weekend, all the while submitting final essays and giving final presentations. It's time to kick it into high gear as I round the home stretch on this fantastic adventure!