I'm Baaaack!

I'm restarting my blog to appease my close family and friends as I will be embarking on yet another journey of a lifetime...
On May 8 I will be leaving to spend a month in Arusha, Tanzania working in the local schools and taking classes.  I am beyond excited to start this next chapter in my life and I cannot wait to see and live in a whole new culture!  I might be just a little excited for the safari too...but who can blame me? Yet another bit of my excitement stems from the fact that I am also returning to one of my favorite places...Amsterdam!! Conveniently enough, our flight connects through Amsterdam, so how could I resist making my layover for three days? I can't believe I am lucky enough to not only travel to a whole new land, but also revisit a favorite European city!


In preparation for my trip I have been attending two-hour meetings each Monday where we have been preparing some of our coursework, but primarily practicing Swahili--and I thought Spanish was hard! The pronunciation of the vowels and consonants are similar to Spanish which is helpful in a sense; however, the emphasis is on a syllable I just cannot get used to and the letters they put together are far  from natural noises for me...'nz' or 'mch' and 'ng'... you get the idea.  But hopefully with practice I will be able to get a grasp on the basic vocabulary.


Until I leave for my trip in less than two months, I will try and blog a little about my continuing preparation for the trip, my excitements/fears, pictures of where I will be staying, and some of my itinerary...plus, because they're two of my favorite things I will probably throw in some inspirational quotes with pictures that I have taken.


Also, to all my previous loyal readers, I am going to try my hardest to stay on top of my blog this time!! But it is just amazing how time just slips by you when you are trying to juggle travel with school.


"We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment"