Why Puerto Rico?

So it's been a long time coming, but I'm finally in my last semester at The University of Akron, and being an education major, that means I get to spend it paying a full time tuition while holding a full time job teaching children. This backwards concept is better known as Student Teaching.

Since I'm more obsessed with the Spanish part of my Spanish Education degree and don't plan on getting a job as soon as I graduate (because I wish to travel more and get my Master's in Spanish), I decided that I wanted an experience that focused more on my Spanish.

My university shared 2 partnerships with Spanish speaking countries: one in Mexico City and one in San Juan, PR. My friend Jenn and I signed right up for Mexico since it was the cheaper option. We e-mailed with excited teachers, talked with our home-stay teacher and even learned about our classroom placements. Our magic carpet was pleasantly ripped out from under our feet when the study abroad office informed us that it would be a liability to send us to Mexico with the increase in crime there. They had shared that this had been the policy for a few semesters, but why should the College of Education keep tabs on that when they can let their students' hearts be crushed in a more personal way?

Anyways, our sights turned towards Puerto Rico, our only other hope of skipping January and February in Ohio and practicing our Spanish. I'm beyond excited for this experience! Jenn and I will be living in on-campus housing at the University of Puerto Rico in their capital, San Juan. We will be teaching 6th grade Spanish literature at the university's lab school. Our teacher sounds very nice and let us know we will be teaching grammar, then the book "The boy in the Striped Pajamas," and "The Color of my Words." (Both of which will be in Spanish, of course).

Being the lazy person I am, I am much more excited to spend hours on the beach and taking millions of pictures. However, this is going to look awesome on my resume and give me a teaching experience that will be much different than here in the States. I will learn more in these next 2 months than any of my college classes could ever teach me, and that makes it worth all of the money I have spent and plan on spending (mostly on cute dresses).

Anyways, if you can bear all this sarcasm that I can't seem to get rid of, stay tuned, and I will let you know if all this work is worth the mini vacations I plan on taking at any spare moment on the island.
Adios Amigos!