Almost...

Tomorrow is finally the day. I'm feeling pretty chill about it. After having 5 different friends do the same program the last three semesters, I've gotten a good feel of what to expect. As a result, I haven't had much anxiety. It probably won't hit me that I'm actually going to be in South Africa until I'm over the Atlantic tomorrow.

I've been packing up today, and somehow I have too much room. I'm bringing one large duffel bag and a small backpack, and I can't even fill up the duffel bag. It's pretty backwards...can't complain though.

I'm really excited to meet the group that I will be studying with. There will be 20 of us American students (4 of us are Valpo-ites). Basically, we will be living and doing everything together. We all live in the same house and classes are taught at the house. So I imagine it might get a little intense, but nonetheless we will probably grow pretty close bonds.

I probably won't update this again until Namibia (which is in a couple of weeks). Supposedly internet access will be harder to get in Johannesburg. Once in Namibia, our house has wireless.

Here's a map of Southern Africa (thanks Kim). I will mostly be in Windhoek, Namibia, but I will also be spending a week in Johannesburg and another one in Cape Town. (click on it to get a clearer view)

I don't know exactly what's going to happen on this blog, but we'll see where it goes. I normally have trouble getting motivated to sit down and type this type of stuff. So I might be making posts every couple days or I may go a month without updating.

So here's the tentative schedule...
Now...Valpo, working in admissions
Jan 24: home, MN
Jan 27: leave
Jan 28: Johannesburg, South Africa
Feb 7: Windhoek, Namibia
March 11-30: rural homestay and travel
April 1: Windhoek
May 6: Cape Town, South Africa
May 14: MN

Well, there's not much else to say for another week.