Are you there blogosphere? Its me, Leslie!

Well, here we go, I suppose.

I've never really kept a journal before, but I feel like I should. Here's my attempt to keep my family and friends informed about my adventures, remind myself of the great stuff out there, and hopefully enlighten someone about something. I don't presume to be the best writer or even the most interesting, but I do hope that my blog with be fun and entertaining.

About me: I'm Leslie. I'm 21 years old. I'm from Tennessee, went to school at Emory in Atlanta, and am about to move to Ecuador for a year. Sounds random? Well, it is.

How it happened: Slocomb (the long term boyfriend) and I knew we wanted to do something adventurous after graduation. He already spoke Spanish, and I thought it would be good to learn, so we decided to look for opportunities in a Spanish-speaking country. Being the cynic I sometimes am, I shot down Spain because of expenses, so Latin America was the next logical choice. In some great serendipity, both my Aunt and Slocomb's RA boss Paul both suggested Cuenca, Ecuador. Paul was also kind enough to introduce us to his parents, Neille and Angel, who live in Cuenca, and with whom Slocomb and I will be living. We also were lucky enough to be hired by an elementary school to teach. So, to make a long story short, we found a country, a city, a home-stay family, and then a job by March of this year.

The only hitch in the system has been the visa. As you might imagine, it requires a lot of paperwork and verification to get a visa to work in a foreign country for a year. Even though we were hired by the school in March, we didn't receive the proper paperwork until the end of July. Luckily, the Ecuadorian Embassy in Washington is awesome. I mailed my paperwork to them on Monday and received by visa and passport back by Friday. Yay Embassy!!!

This summer has been a lot of getting ready and getting excited. And now, its almost upon us. We will arrive in Ecuador on Monday, August 17th, and then in Cuenca on Tuesday, August 18th (hopefully).

And now I must get back to packing!

T-minus 10 days.