The beginning of my Ecuadorian Adventures

With the end of finals just around the corner, the summer is looking mighty fine. My Ecuadorian adventures will begin on May 18th, 2011 and go up until August 14th, 2011 where I will come straight back to ATL in preparation for Orientation 2011! No doubt, it's going to be a fun-filled summer with much more of a 'roughin it out' type lifestyle for a good 12 weeks.

First, I'll be traveling to Quito, Ecuador where 2-3 things will happen:

1) Moderately serious to serious note--I'll be taking about 3 weeks of intensive Spanish schooling and staying with a host family. Let's keep our fingers crossed that I come back with a bit more fluency under my belt.

2) Less of a serious note--After taking Spanish classes in the morning, I'm hoping to take some salsa classes in the afternoon for $5 per hour! I doubt this would make me a pro, but it sure sounds like a heck of a lotta fun!

3) Seriously--I will also be going into the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador laboratory to make sure that we are fully prepared before heading into our 4-week field sampling (in Northern coastal Ecuador) with 2-weeks in between to process the samples in the Quito lab.

A significant portion of my research will involve collecting water and soil samples to test for antibiotic resistance to Escherichia coli (E. coli), which is a common indicator used to detect fecal contamination (i.e. poop in the environment). The research project I will be participating in is called EcoDess where environmental health researchers from the US and Ecuador are interested in the intersection between diarrheal disease and environmental change. Fortunately for me, this type of research is EXACTLY where my passion lies: poop and water. Who would've thought anyone could be attracted to that combination? ;-) Trust me, there’s a ton of us.

I'm sure I'll squeeze in some time for traveling around the country/countries (keep up with the blog and you'll hear all about it!), but until then get ready Ecuador because we're gonna fall in love with each other by the end of this trip.