Service Abroad

I'm dropping out of school and moving to Russia!

maybe:)

I've found a program called international language program (ILP) that sounds like the most amazing thing in the world! You either go to Russia, the Ukraine, China, or Mexico for somewhere between 4-6 months and teach english to little kids! It's through the "dualingual system" developed by a former BYU professor, which basically means that you don't need to know the child's native language to teach. And they really stress on the website how it's more like having a party every day than teaching because it's through things like playacting, dancing, cooking, and just playing around that the children learn--how fun! And I want to go to Russia, which runs from mid-January to June, so I'd miss both semesters but I don't really care:) Since I'm technically going to be a teacher anyways, I think this would be a great opportunity.

AND (oh man, this just keeps getting better!) though it's not run by the church, they stress very strongly that the standards they expect you and your host families to live by is very similar to that of the honor code at BYU or BYU-I. 

I've wanted to do some type of study abroad for a long time, and while I can take a few credits online while I do this, it's more of a service abroad than study abroad but I want to do it SO BAD! AND, it's less than three thousand dollars for the whole time, which is like...less than tuition alone. PLUS, when you go to Russia, you get the opportunity to travel to the Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, and Sweden! Plus bi-weekly lessons in Russian language and culture.

And then I can go on a mission to Russia in 3 years

:]

http://www.ilp.org/