Hitting the Airport to Follow My Dreams...

One step closer...the flights are booked, we leave February 1, 2008 for an arrival in South Africa on February 3! Obviously the longest flight in history. I cannot wait!

Things Are Finally Moving...

Today we had our orientation. We received an overwhelming amount of information, but I feel a lot more comfortable with preparing to go abroad for so long. I have a lot of things to take care of in the coming weeks. The semester is coming to an end rapidly, but I am looking forward to the break. Unfortunately I'm going to have to work like crazy in order to support myself on this trip. I'm really looking forward to experiencing such a different country and really immerse myself in the culture. I want to travel and really see all that southern Africa has to offer...

81 days!

93 days!

Yesterday was a big day in the beginning stages ...
1. We found out when we leave (February 2)
2. I got my passport

My passport is horrible. I think that might be the law, although Grace's isn't bad, but mine looks like a "meth-addict mug shot," as Grace told me. :-) I am glad to have that taken care of. Next on the list is Visa application, but first I think Grace and I need to figure out how much longer we're staying. The program ends June 21, but we want to stay for the arts festival, which I don't think starts until the very end of June/beginning of July. We're going to need to figure this stuff out soon and book our flight.

My application was turned in last week. I picked the classes that I am interested in: Art and Visual Culture, Anthropology, Linguistics, Sociology, History 101, and Health Disease and Society. We're not sure how many classes we have to take. We heard that 2 classes give us 16 credits here, which sounds good to me, but I'm not sure. Maybe we'll find out soon.

We haven't gotten the list of attendees yet, but Grace and I have kind of figured them out on our own. There are 7 people total going, most of whom are girls. We're not even 100% sure if any guys are going. We're supposed to find out soon.

I'm getting more and more excited and really starting to plan things out and look into travel opportunities. I bought a South Africa travel guide last weekend and it's so exciting to look through; there are so many places I want to go. It seems like it's going to be pretty easy and pretty inexpensive for us to travel in and around S.A., which is good for us. The exchange rate is in our favor, but our gender evidently is not. We might have to toughen up before we leave!