Am I there yet?

Hello all!

I am currently sitting in the airport in DC. Might as well visit the nations capital before I leave the country, right? Anyways, I thought I would use this lovely three and a half hour lay over to tell you more about my trip!

If you haven't figured it out by now, I am going to South Africa to study abroad for a semester! I am participating in a community health and social policy program based out of Durban, which is located on the south east coast of the country, although, I guess all of the country is pretty southern.

Now, you might be wondering, why Africa!? To that I answer, why not Africa!? I thought about going to Europe or Australia, either of which would have been amazing as well, but I guess the three main selling points were:
1) the fact that its easy to take a vacation to Europe, especially from Boston, but when else am I going to get to spend 4 months living among South Africans!!?
2) the community health aspect of the program. I've always been interested in medicine and going to med school, but lately I've found that I am also attracted to the public health field, and what better way to explore this interest than to learn about it first hand in Africa! The program I am participating in also involves an independent research project. I'm not sure exactly what I want to do my research on, but something along the lines of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS and the impact that the disease has on children. I'll be sure to keep you posted on what I decide.
Oh, and selling point number 3) SAFARI!! I think that is pretty self explanatory, but who hasn't wanted to go on an African safari at some point in their life?

Well I guess that's enough rambling about that! I am nervous and excited and anxious all at the same time. After waking up at 7 to head to Logan, I still have a flight to Atlanta followed by my flight to Johannesburg (which will last a whopping 16+ hours.... ) ahead of me. Thus, my journey is just beginning!

I thank you all for your love and support and for taking time out of your day to read along. :) With any luck my next post will be from South Africa!

Much love,
Andrea