One More Month

Finally, my countdown has reached the one month point.  One month from now I will be waking up at the crack of dawn, heading down to the Des Moines airport and hopping on the next flight to Belize.  Well, the next flight to Atlanta, where I will get on the next flight to Belize.  Yay!

There's still so much I have to accomplish in the next month though.  It's crazy.  And I'm not talking only schoolwork and my job.  I mean FOR the trip.  To-do list?  Okay, you asked for it.

1. Pay my parents back the $100 so I can successfully say I paid for this entire trip.

2. E-mail my mentor teacher and see what she's going to need help with while I'm there.

3. Get a health check up to be approved to go.  Really?  I'm relatively healthy.  I'll be fine.  But it's one more hoop to jump through.

4. Get some sandals.  Like, seriously.  I don't own sandals.  I've always hated them.  But we need some water-proof type ones, like Keens for example.  Do you know how much those cost?  Like $100.  I don't have that.  But, I looked online and found these bad boys:

They're only $51-60, depending on the size.  Which leads me to my next crisis.  What size do I pick?  Do I guess bigger or smaller?  My guess will be relatively close, it's just between a size 8 or a size 8.5.  I'm thinking bigger is probably better.  I should probably do that soon though so they can get here. -sigh- Money.

5. I'm spearheading a supply drive for this trip through my honor fraternity, Kappa Delta Pi.  I have to go get the boxes into the School of Education on the right week and every day I need to collect any money that might be in there.  Because let's face it, college students don't have a lot of extra supplies randomly in their room.  So we're hoping they'll donate some money so we can go buy supplies.  Sounds good right?  Well, that's up to me too!

6. Call my cell phone company to find out exactly how much it would cost if it were used down there.  Chances are, I definitely WON'T be using it once I leave the states.  But it'd still be nice to know.  I also need to look into those disposable type phones that are specifically for this situation.

7. Call my credit card company.  Let them know I'm going to be out of the country so they don't think it's fraud or something crazy like that.

8. Make copies of my credit card, drivers license, passport, health card, etc to leave at home with my parents.  Just in case something happens. *knock on wood*

So yeah, that's where I'm headed.  Not to mention the fact that there's a few other things I'm going to make sure to do/buy.

It's a crazy road but I'm only one month away from seeing the Caribbean Coast again!

Road to Spring Break

Well here it is, February 7th, 2012 and I'm ready to pay my final installment for this trip sometime tomorrow. $1,073 right out of the good ole' bank account. It's been a long road to paying for this thing. I think the total finally came up to about $2,500. Which I've paid for ENTIRELY by myself. It's a really great feeling to be honest.  Granted, I've used up almost all my credit and borrowed $100 from my parents (which I'm paying back with taxes)  It's all going to be worth it in the end though, when I finally get to San Pedro and get to see those kids. :)

I've done a bit of research about the school and it looks awesome. It's in a really high poverty area, so that's going to be a completely different experience for me.  But there's videos up on their website and I'm excited. Apparently I can't stress that enough. :P

I've also noticed that the hotel we're staying at DOES have free wifi so I'll be able to keep up this blog while I'm there. I may have to add in pictures later but you'll get updates!

The Drake Education Association (DEA) and Kappa Delta Pi are having a supply drive the last week in February because there's a giant list of supplies that the school is going to need. Hopefully that goes really well. And if any of you non-education majors are reading this and would like to help, feel free to contact me!

Introduction

Hi, everyone.

My name is Jayme.

I'm an Elementary Education major at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.  My endorsement areas are Reading, ESL/ELL, and Early Childhood.  I am also working towards a Psychology minor with a concentration in the Behavior Analysis of Developmental Disabilities.  I am a sophomore and I will be graduating in May 2014.

I am President of Drake's Education Association, Vice President of Drake's chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, and the Treasurer/Publicity Co-Chair of Drake's UChapter of To Write Love on Her Arms.

I LOVE to travel.  Every summer since I was born, my family has a taken a vacation and gone somewhere wonderful to make memories.  In the summer I turned 17, I went on a week long mission trip to Atlanta.  Then, on my 18th birthday, I ventured out with a group of friends with my Spanish club and traveled to Costa Rica for two weeks.  It was magical and it was then that I decided I wanted to travel all over the world, whenever I had a chance.

Which leads me to why I'm here.  Over Spring Break of 2012 (March 17-24), I will be visiting San Pedro, Belize with another group of friends.  This time, it's with my School of Education here at Drake.  All of us are current or perspective teachers and we are going to Belize to not only hang out and have a great time, but also to help the lives of others.  While we're here, we will be doing a practicum experience in the Holy Cross School.  I received my placement today and just have to say I'm completely PSYCHED to teach pre-school.  

Over the next month I'll be sharing new information I find out about the trip and then once we head on down to Belize, I'll be updating about what we're doing while we're there.  I can't wait.

So tell me, where's the best place YOU'VE traveled to?