I'm going to be honest and say that at this point I'm probably more scared than I am excited to leave. When I think about all the things there are to worry about, and all the things that could go wrong, I kind of want to cry a little bit and wonder why I decided that this is what I wanted. Luckily, everyone who has done the program that I've heard from so far has loved it, so I know I'll realize there isn't all that much to worry about, but I'm still freaking out. I'm just trying to remember how I felt on my trip to China in high school, when I left with my Chinese host family and separated from the group, and how terrified I was to be in such a different place with people who only spoke broken english, and everything was so unfamiliar. It took me a little while to adjust, but once I did it was an amazing experience. And I only stayed with them for about 5 days.
This time I won't have a host family, so it'll be a different situation to get used to, but the fact that I've had to adjust before will only help me.
I think the biggest thing that's freaking me out right now is how long I'll be away. 5 months is a pretty decent chunk of time...
Anyway, other than freaking out, not much exciting has happened in my life since last I updated this, which was probably a super long time ago and I don't remember what was happening then. Probably also nothing.
School continues to be a burden on my life, as I continue to pretend that I have a life outside of school. The truth is, I don't, unless you count watching netflix, playing guitar, and other miscellaneous distractions a "life". Ha, I just remembered this post was supposed to be about APPRECIATION OF BORINGNESS and I've already forgotten. Now appreciating....and I'm happy again.
It'll be nice to be not-bored for a long time. I'm sure there's nothing boring in Africa. That's what I'm going to assume. I mean, kind of the whole idea of studying abroad is not to be bored.
Another thing I've been thinking a lot about is what it's going to be like when I get back. A lot of people are going a lot of places, and there's a lot of possibilities for lots of things to change. Lots of people are going abroad, or will be leaving to go abroad when I get back, or are just doing super exciting things with their lives in general, and it'll be interesting to see what changes when it's all over. I'm thinking in terms of friendships, and relationships, and what have you.
I'm going to try to start writing in this more often before I go, just to get used to the whole blogging on a regular basis thing... My mom wants me to blog while I'm gone and won't be happy with anything less than hearing about my life in excruciating detail. Just a warning. Everyone else, please feel free to skim or just not read this altogether. I won't be offended.
But that won't be for a while. I still have like 40ish days or so before I leave.
that's such a wonderful thing to do. you really will miss just kicking it in madison, and feeding your fish. wait!!! what are you doing about kilgore?! i particularly like the fact that you stopped appreciating normalcy half-way through and then had to go back to appreciate it.
ReplyDeletei can't wait to read your ghana-blog. 5 months.... eeeeek
Kilgore will be staying with Alex. Hopefully she remembers to feed him. He's easy to forget about, but luckily he's also pretty good at going a long time without food...because I'm a bad mom.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, forgetting the point of my post halfway through was kind of a fail. But it goes to show how easy it is to forget to appreciate the things I will soon be missing. Like watching parks and rec while binge-eating. Or doing homework with you at the union on weeknights. Or getting coffee with people I <3.
Aaaahhhh what if people don't drink coffee over there?