Ready, Set, Go!

It's finally here! I leave for South Africa tomorrow. My flight leaves Detroit at 4:15pm for Amsterdam. I'll get there around 6am their time (about a 7 hour flight), then fly to Cape Town at 10:30am. After 11 hours or so I'll finally be there around 10:00pm on Wednesday. Whew! Thankfully most of the study abroad group is traveling together on the same flight so we'll have lots of company. I can't believe I'm already less than 24 hours away from leaving. The next post will be from Cape Town. So excited!

Three weeks and counting...

As most of you know, I will be studying abroad in Cape Town, South Africa for 6 weeks this summer. I created this blog to document this trip and keep family and friends updated on my experiences. I will be leaving on Tuesday, June 29, 2010 and will return to Michigan on Friday, August 13, 2010. (Friday the 13th! Oh dear.)

The program that I’m part of is called Cross-Cultural Teaching Abroad- South Africa. The 6-week program involves seminars at the University of Cape Town (UCT), 4 weeks of student teaching in a South African school, sightseeing, and cultural exploration. On top of all of this I get to earn six graduate credits. Not bad for a month and a half. J Especially exciting, we’ll be there during the end of the World Cup! The quarterfinals and semifinals are being played in Cape Town. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get tickets. (Fine with me. I’d rather not deal with the the crowds and the chaos.) But we will visit the fan park outside the stadium and make time to watch the final match on TV.

For the first two weeks we’ll be staying at a guest house in Cape Town called Deo Gratia. Then we’ll spend a little less than four weeks living with the families of the teachers we’ll be working with. My host and mentor is a 3rd grade teacher who has been teaching in South Africa for two years. Prior to that she taught in the U.K. for two years. She has only been teaching for a few years and I think it will be interesting to work with another young teacher like me and be able to learn about the experience of new teachers outside the U.S.

Only 19 days left until we leave! The whole trip still feels a little surreal right now. I don’t think it’ll quite hit me until I’m sitting on the plane heading halfway around the world. This is probably the most adventurous thing I’ve done in my life. (And I’ve had plenty of adventures.)

To learn more about everything South Africa, check out this site. It’s very comprehensive with information about geography, culture, government, current events, you name it.

Also check out my itinerary page to find out what we’re doing each day on the trip.