EIL Intercultural Learning

So I’m back quite a while now and I’ve finally found a gap of time to get some last minute blogs in. So sorry for the immense delay![img_assist|nid=2527|title=Our Mural in the Day Care Centre|desc=This is the mural that the group of Americans and I painted in a day care centre. It was part of our community work. We were given a wall and told we could do anything we wanted with it, so we decided on painting 5 children of different nationalities - American, Irish, Ecuadorian, Kenyan and Mexican. We chose these countries because they were the 5 nationalities painting the mural.

Hi Everyone!

I'm back from Ecuador! But I have LOTS of stories to fill you all in on! 

Hi everyone!

I got home from my 4 week trip to Ecuador a week ago now and I had the most amazing time!  It has been a month of non-stop fun. I kept a journal and it's completely full now and it's so funny to look back at it and just laugh. I can't believe my journey is over. It flew by, but I definitely made the most of it. I have no regrets. I enjoyed every day.

While it's fresh in my memory I thought I'd write a bit about what I missed and things like that. It might be useful to future winners too.

What I missed most about Ireland: 

I'm half way through my stay here in Ecuador now. It flew by! I hope the next two weeks drag out! I really don't want to go home now! 

I arrived in Riobamba on Monday. It was sad saying buy to my Quiteña familia but I'm sure I'll see them again. I would have loved to have seen more of Quito, but my stay there was so much fun. I'll never forget it, and I know I'll be going back there soon! (besides when I'm staying the night there before I fly home!) My family in Riobamba are so nice! I'm really loving this place! It's quite a personal city, not too big but it has everything you need. 

Well, I have so much to catch up on. So much has happened! 

On Saturday, my host family was getting another student, Brianna. She was from the Pennsylvania and she was staying in Quito for 5 weeks teaching English. It was actually strange speaking English again. We kept getting so confused! 

I´m here! Finally! It took a whole day of travelling. Well worth it though!  

I had 3 planes to get. And I didn´t go to sleep at all the night before I left. I knew I´d be too excited,and I was still packing my bags!  (I only got my suitcase the day before!) So I was shattered by the time I got to Dublin Airport. My Aerlingus flight was grand, but it got a bit complicated in Amsterdam!

Hi everyone!  I'm Damien and I'm off to Ecuador in approximately ... 3 hours! The excitement! I'm flying to Quito to stay with my host family there for around 5 days before I go to my main homestay in the city of Riobamba, just south of Quito.