One week til Rio!

Hey y'all (...I'm still in Savannah) I have decided to set up a blog to keep everyone posted on what I'm up to while I'm in Brazil. I am very excited to get to be a of a Fulbright-Hayes Projects Abroad Program, funded by the US Dept of Education through the University of Notre Dame. As part of the program we will be required to develop curricular materials for middle and
high school students by incorporating our first hand learning experience in Brazilian society
about its culture, education system and dynamics of youth. In short, the project I am a part of will help develop a sustainable knowledge repository about Brazilian society and Brazilian-
Portuguese language for implementing curricular enrichment of American high school students.
I head to Notre Dame next Tuesday for 3 days of pre-departure orientation and then we fly out of South Bend next Friday June 11th en route to Rio de Janeiro. I will be traveling with a group of 13 people including another ACEr (Dmitri, who was teaching in Austin, TX during his ACE term), some Notre Dame undergrad education majors, a few master teachers from the state of Indiana, and our program director, Tamo who has been involved in research collaboration with education and youth development NGO-s, Government agencies and higher education institutions in Brazil over the past ten years. I'm sure you will hear much more about the people in my group throughout my travels...!
Anyways, please check back starting next Friday as I begin to post about my adventures. I hope you enjoy reading and looking at what I hope will be some beautiful pictures. :) Until then... get excited for the World Cup which starts in ONE WEEK. (Congratulations if you just made the connection that I will be in the soccer capital of the world during this month-long soccer extravaganza....!USA!USA!USA!)