Preparing for the big day

Hello! Welcome to my blog! As you all know by now, I am about to embark upon a 10 1/2 month Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Bangladesh. Starting a blog seemed like the easiest way to keep people updated throughout the next year, so I'm giving it a try. I'd also really love to hear about you, either through this blog, email (my email address is amann417@gmail.com), or skype (my account is amann417 and there is a 14hr time difference between LA and Bangladesh).

So I'm not really sure how to start. I leave on Sept. 29th and am busily organizing and preparing my life for the coming year. I am very excited (and nervous) about this experience and can't wait to get started! The first part of my trip is a 3 month language award through the Bangla Language Institute, during which I will live and take classes in Dhaka (the capital of Bangladesh). Hopefully by the end of the 3 months I will be conversational in Bangla (Bengali). The second portion of my grant is a teaching post in the rural village of Shaturia, which is located 2 1/2 hours NW of Dhaka. I will be teaching English to middle school-aged girls for the next 7 months and living with my co-ETA Lauren. So that's basically what I'm going to be doing this year. I look forward to keeping in touch with all of you in the coming months and will write again once I arrive in Dhaka.

Oh, and just to clarify... This is not an official Department of State blog. The views, information, and pictures presented in this blog are purely my own and in no way represent the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State.

Thanks for reading!
a.m.