Ready! Set!....Go?

I figured I would begin my blog (and my study abroad journey, too, I guess) with some words of wisdom from the Chinese in an attempt to at least appear that I am calm, level-headed, and fully emotionally prepared for my semester abroad (currently all debatable).

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
- Lao-tzu

So.

I leave for South Africa in one week, on January 18. I fly from Boston to Amsterdam, and then Amsterdam to Cape Town on what will probably be the longest flight humanity has ever had to face (melodramatic, I know...I'm all done now) as I scale the entire continent of Africa. I land around 11pm in Cape Town on January 19th and have a few days of CIEE orientation at UCT (University of Cape Town). For that, all of us international students are housed in one dormitory on the edge of campus for all the orientation sessions. We get our housing assignments at the end of it as far as I know, and move into our permanent dorms then. With concern to living arrangements, my sole knowledge on the subject is that I am living in an on-campus apartment-style dorm (kitchen, bathroom, & four small single rooms in one suite-type arrangement) with three other students, all African/South African. I won't know a thing about them (names included) until I show up at my new home. Then we have UCT orientation for ALL international students (not just CIEE program kids) for a few days, and classes officially begin on February 8th. Yikes! I still have almost a month before sitting down in an academic classroom...and AU classes started today! Weird. So weird.

Christmas break in my beautiful, teeny tiny ocean state has been wonderful. Uncle Albert + Aunt Virginia both made it to RI, and with Nanny + Grandma Streit both living with us now...we had every (as we crudely refer to it as) "blood relative" gathered around the tree on the 25th. Alllll ten of us on the planet - for the first time EVER, too. (Kristen, you are as good as "blood" considering you voluntarily married my brother.) Of course, knowing us, it was with chaos and typical Streit family antics, but amazing and comforting and oddly relaxing at the same time. We criticized/gawked at Christmas lights of VERY diverse presentations, from the tacky to the elaborate mansion displays. We watched Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas. We belted out Christmas carols whether Dad made faces or not. We did not eat goose. (Success.) Almost all my friends (except for poor Katelyn, who's here until February 11th!) from home left pretty early this year after break, either for January terms or RA training or special research institutes or funny semesters, so for the short time everyone was around, it was great to see everyone. Other than spending lots of time with the family and friends, I have been busy this break tying up loose ends, dotting my i's and crossing my t's, and drinking copious amounts of iced coffee from Dunkin' Donuts before, once again, I am forced to leave my favorite source of caffeine (DD is sparce in DC). But I hear Africa is pretty well-known for its coffee, so I'm relatively certain my withdrawals will be few and far between.

I rang in the new year and said hello to 2010 with my dad (poor mom conked out around 9:45pm), my brother Andrew (Adam and Kristen - the other brother and sister-in-law - celebrated their first new year in their very first HOUSE!), and one of my best friends from home - we actually figured out we had spent new year's eve together since we met freshman year of high school, when we were just a couple of 14-year-olds. She's now a nursing major at Catholic in DC & probably reading this now and rolling her eyes at me. Hi Sarah!

In terms of preparations, I have fully recovered from my three shots recommended for travel in sub-Saharan Africa (yellow fever, typhoid, and hepatitis A). I have made lists upon lists of things to pack, things NOT to pack, things to get before I leave, etc...the actual packing has not yet commenced, but I still have a good week to get that done. My South African VISA came in the mail a few weeks ago and I did a little happy dance around my room in Rhode Island that morning. Paper proof in a passport that I am spending the next 6ish months in Cape Town. Pretty big stuff. I have also painstakingly put together a very full, sub-categorized binder for my family that contains a copy of ANY form, paperwork, or piece of paper that could prove useful, necessary, or just to answer questions. A large part of this was to calm parental nerves and put the Streit family at ease. Of course, now that I have made it, no one has really gotten a chance to look at it, and yet the questions have coincidentally subsided. Hmm...

So I considered putting together a large list of people and things I am going to miss madly when I'm studying abroad, from RI or AU or down in DC, but ultimately decided against it when I estimated the list would add at least 10 pages to what is turning into a very long blog post as it is. Therefore (this is to all of you reading this, so pay attention! haha): I AM GOING TO MISS YOU SO MUCH. I return in early June + ecstatic reuniting will most definitely be occurring (here I am going on about coming home - I haven't even left yet!) in the Boston airport, or soon therefore, or in the fall. As for actually LEAVING, what I should realistically be focusing on, it has not yet really hit me, but I'm going to assume that's pretty normal.

I shall return! Next time you hear from me (on here, at least) will be from South Africa. I probably won't have time for a long update (as all my friends sigh with relief..if they have even read this far, that is) what with orientations and limited internet access, but as soon as I can, I'll post on here that I have safely arrived. For now, Totsiens! (That's goodbye in Afrikaans, the second most common language in South Africa after English. There are actually 11 official languages of South Africa, and in Cape Town - especially at UCT - English is predominant, or so I have read/heard. Good thing too, I have no prior language experience with Afrikaans, though I am looking forward to perhaps learning some?)

AU kids:
Oh, also, while you are all here, 7 good friends of mine are also studying abroad this semester! If they all had blogs, I would list them here but unfortunately only two of them do at the moment. (If you guys would just hurry up and make them, then I could link us for the entire world to see, I'm sure you'll love it...haha.)

Anyways, here are the wonderful friends of mine who are also going abroad this spring:
(Not to leave out my other incredible friends who are back at AU this semester..I love all you guys too!)

Tanya Grinblat (college roommate) - London, England
Katelyn Birs (RI&AU best friend...yes, really) - Brisbane, Australia
Melissa Elgendy (DC apartment-mate) - Rome, Italy
Kendra Rychlick (DC apartment-mate) - Istanbul, Turkey
Ali Iannolo (basically a DC apartment-mate) - Florence, Italy
Andrew Carson - Beijing, China (BLOG: http://adjectivechina.weebly.com/)
Chris Guizlo - London, England (BLOG: http://chrisinengland.wordpress.com/)