On Friday, May 29th, after making the 30-minute trek from Corrymeela to downtown Ballycastle, we made our first voyage using Northern Ireland’s location public transportation system TransLink. After Jessica purchased 17 tickets we took our seats on the...
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Despedidas
Feb 22 2026
It is a bittersweet weekend as we said goodbye to our Quito host families and each other and ventured off to our service placements. Our study portion in Quito culminated with a despedida (farewell) fiesta on Friday to thank our host families for their generosity and hospitality. We also performed various presentations to demonstrate everything we’ve learned these first six weeks, including a prayer in Kichwa, a comparison of Ecuadorian and American Sign Language, and skits or songs from each Spanish class. It was a beautiful evening filled with heartfelt words of gratitude for our families, who have given us so much love and truly welcomed us as members of their own families.
Saturday morning, we said goodbye and departed for various cities across Ecuador: Ibarra, Otavalo, Mindo, Latacunga, Pujilí, Salinas, San Simon, Riobamba, and Puyo. Our new host families welcomed us with open arms, and service placements begin on Monday. We are nervous but ready for this next part of the journey!
Study AbroadFirst Translink Trip: Giant’s Causeway
Study AbroadLiving History in Cuenca
By Hillary Harder This week our travels took us to the beautiful city of Cuenca in the south of Ecuador! Because it’s a long ways from Quito, we broke up the drive and spread our travels over the whole week,…
Study AbroadVisit from N. Irish author Tony Macaulay
On Saturday night, Northern Irish author Tony Macaulay visited our group to answer student questions and read from his book Paperboy, which the students were assigned to read before the start of the class. Paperboy tells the story of Macaulay’s...