Countdown...8 days!

 My lovely pack with tent and sleeping bag attached

So I have decided to make this blog after my sister Taylor made one for her year abroad in Argentina. My internet access will be VERY limited so I can't really guarantee that I will be updating that often, but when I get internet I will try to post!

I should also probably explain what I am doing in Tanzania this semester. I am studying abroad through a program called SIT, which is short for School of International Training. There are 24 of us in my program, and our central theme is Wildlife Conservation and Political Ecology. I will take 4 classes while I am abroad, one of which is Kiswahili. The program travels all around Tanzania, but we have 2 homestays: a 3.5 week stay with a family in a city, and a 4 day homestay in a Masaii village! When we are not in our homestays, we will either be camping or in guest houses/hostels in Arusha, the city we are based in. I plan on traveling afterwards in Zanzibar, which are the islands off of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean. After that I plan on spending four nights in Amsterdam where I plan to meet up with a friend from home.

I cannot even believe that I leave for Tanzania in 8 days, on the 24th. This summer has gone by so incredibly fast, and I have been planning for this trip for so long that it amazes me that I am already in a single digit countdown. I've wanted to travel to Africa for as long as I can remember, and its finally happening.

I've slowly been packing over the last week, and while most kids going abroad are limited to two 50 pound suitcases, I am bringing a single backpacking pack!  Pretty hard when you have almost 4 months of clothes to fit in...plus a tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad! Besides packing, I am just trying to get as many hours in at my two jobs as I can before I leave. 

I'll post again when it gets closer to departure time!