First post

Well,this is it. I'm down to 5 days before I leave for my first adventure. I'm pretty busy gathering everything I need and trying to figure out the confusing parts of international travel: money & food. But it's hard not to be really excited. I've created this blog so that I can write about my experiences for my friends,family & their friends to read about. I can't promise it'll always be interesting,but it'll be here. It's not going to be the ins & outs of my personal life while I'm there,this will be my record of the cool people I meet,neat places I go and amazing things I learn.

Here's the general overview of my trip if you haven't already heard it one million times:
On January 28th I fly to New York City
January 29th I take a 17 hour flight to Johannesburg. From there we have an orientation & then start our studies & homestays in Cape Town one week later. I'll be living with 3 different families while I'm gone: 1 Xhosa speaking black or "colored" family, 1 rural Xhosa speaking family, 1 white Afrakaans speaking family and then one probably Muslim,Xhosa speaking family. After this I'll spend 1 month doing a research project. I am hoping to study some aspect of women within the labor movement,but it's very possible my interests will change when I get there.

I'll be posting here as often as I can,but I'm not sure how often that will be. Pictures may or may not be included,who knows what the internet situation will be!

I'd love to hear your comments,ideas,etc. I think there's a button somewhere on my page where you can "subscribe" to this blog.

Love,
Lila