Last week was not only my first full week in Ireland, but also my first week of classes. I am taking four classes and also participating in an internship with the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which I’ve mentioned in a previous post. Two of my classes are about the Northern Irish conflict, one is a creative writing class about the Irish short story, and the fourth is Irish Gothic literature. From the first lessons, I could tell that I’m in for a challenging, interesting, and enjoyable semester.

I didn’t use to be such a mover. Once when I was seven years old on a family backpacking trip in Washington, I whined to my dad, “I just wanted to watch some TV!”

Look at me now. In six days I’m headed to what I have heard, and hope, is the most beautiful, nature-focused, adventurer-centric country in the world, New Zealand. I haven’t even started packing and yet I’m jazzed for five months of what the Maori natives call Aotearoa or “the land of the long white cloud.”

Welkom to my blog! I’m a junior at the University of Vermont, majoring in Anthropology and minoring in African Studies and Geography.

The fourteen hour flight to South Africa is the first chance I’ve had to take the time to reflect and compose my first blog post since I’ve been busy preparing for this semester.

I bought a little of sampler of makeup once while in line waiting to check out. Stila had 4 eye shadows, 1 blush, and 1 lip gloss, all in a pretty little package for me to try for the low price of $12! Obviously a deal I couldn’t pass up. Now which colors did I like… There was “New York” – the smoky eye. “Paris” – pastoral naturals. And then there was “Moscow” – dark gold and deep blues. I was drawn to this one and snatched it up on my way to the counter.

I’ve come to the awkward moment where I must finish my blog posts by uploading my “back in the States” post, but a glaring difficulty confronts me: I’m not back in the States. Vague memories of marking a little box on an application swim before my eyes: Semester or Year Long… such a simple decision, but oh, the consequences. So instead of writing about reverse culture shock, I’m going to look back and see how my decision to study abroad for a year influenced my first semester.

Greetings from snowy London! In addition to unusually cold weather, apparently we also brought snow over from America. And now that it’s started here, it doesn’t seem to want to stop. It’s slightly amusing for those of us hailing from states with harsh winters to see how unprepared this city is for the weather, dumping massive amounts of ice melt everywhere and cancelling trains and flights just for a bit of slushy snow.

As of yesterday, I was one of the eight Membership Vice Presidents of the Panhellenic sororities at Southern Methodist University, where Greek life is huge. In charge of Recruitment, I helped my beloved Gamma Phi Beta to the best January we have had in years. Over a year of preparation, sleepless nights, endless details and final crises, the culmination was quite something to behold. The wall of sound and joy when I made the announcement was something I will never forget.

As my plane and the first day of my program grow nearer and nearer, I’m on edge and my mind zips around, trying to fathom my life in Paris. With the holidays gone and without work and classes, there’s nothing to do but focus on the trip, the packing, the thousand little items I have to run out and get and zip into plastic baggies or shove into multicolored little sacks.