Getting lost in the savanna

Yesterday we had the "Amazing Race"- which pretty much meant that we sprinted up and down the mountains following clues and GPS coordinates, waded through a murky pond, and bushwhacked our way to watch the sun go down.

After all the excitement, today we were rather tired, but Kelly, Abby and I decided to go for a nature hike. We made it all the way to the edge of the property and decided to continue exploring to look for animals. We found a neat watering hole and saw some pretty amazing views of the Barberton Mountains and the sunset.  While exploring the massive property, we realized that we had no clue where the main house was and began to worry a bit- but not to worry, we found our way back just as it began getting dark. It was hilarious and quite the adventure. Only 5 more days until Skukuza!

We've been at Pullen Farm for a few days now in the Barberton Mountains just outside of Kruger National Park. It's so freaking beautiful here!! We arrived from Johannesburg on the 24th at night and stargazed because it was really amazing. Kind of chilly right now, it will definitely be warmer in Skukuza.  On our first morning, Emily and I went for a walk and saw 2 giraffes! We've also seen a multitude of birds, rhebok, and kudu. I haven't seen the wildebeest yet, but people said they saw an entire herd. There is a fence around this property and nothing dangerous can get in, so we have a surprising amount of freedom (meaning that we can go wherever we want without game guards). This is more of the academically intense portion, so we basically have lectures all day every day (our first day off will be this Friday). But we did a mini field project- which was awesome to get an intro to field work. (My group studied the frequency of a specific genus of flowering plant in areas that had recently undergone burn control vs. non recently burnt areas.)  Tonight we went for a our first sundowner after a long day of ethics lectures- it was, of course, beautiful (get used to that word).

Once I'm in Skukuza I'll get some better wildlife photos (and hopefully will have some Internet to post them!) Also, the schedule is modified slightly, but I will try to edit that later.

Arrival in Johannesburg

Well, after a day in London and a long flight, I have arrived safely in Johannesburg! I've met up with most of the other people in my program and we are leaving soon for Kruger!! Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm safe and very excited to be here!

Not sure when I'll be able to post again or contact anyone, so bye for now!!

Hello from London!

Anna and I got to London this morning and immediately went to the Tate Modern which was really cool! Then we took the metro to see Big Ben/westminster abbey and are eating lunch at a pub. We are going to walk to buckingham palace and traflagar square next and then will probably head back to the airport. We are pushing through the jet lag and will arrive in South Africa tomorrow morning!! 

Fish&chips (and beer) for lunch

Thames River

Bad picture of Big Ben

My adventure begins!

After some tearful goodbyes to family and friends, I began my journey to South Africa today! I flew from Cleveland to Raleigh where I'll be spending a night at Duke. Tomorrow evening, I'll leave raleigh for London and after a 14 hour layover, I'll head to Johannesburg to meet up with the rest of the program (arriving Saturday morning)! I'm very excited to start this adventure!!

Packing was a bit of a nightmare (not really- I just don't enjoy packing), but luckily I had my younger brother and family friend there to help me hastily get things together and packed in one suitcase (and under 50 lbs)... It's going to be interesting lugging it all over the place... 

Anyways, I'll have limited Internet for the next few months, but I will post when I can! 

See you in December, Walker! 

Getting Ready!!

The moment is finally here! I have been looking forward to starting this semester for what seems like an eternity and I can't believe I leave in just a few short days! My friend, Emily (also doing this program), told me about OTS during the fall semester of my sophomore year. I didn't really listen to her for a while because I thought she was talking about the global health program, which I wasn't interested in. She finally convinced me to read the program description and I realized that it was the perfect program for me.  I had a few meetings with the global education office, read every available resource about the program online, and talked to some friends who had previously done this program. I was 100% convinced and started my application immediately- and then started to tell my family and friends (no one was very keen on the idea at first). I turned in my application during the first week of November and was accepted about a week later. I was ecstatic (to say the least), but then I realized I still had to wait a very long time. As my sophomore year continued, I realized that A LOT of my friends were applying to this program- which was great because I could share my excitement with them.

This was 9 months ago. Around May, I booked my flights, started filling out the visa application forms and sent them in at the beginning of the summer. I ended up having a few problems getting my visa- which turned into a temporary residency and frantic end of summer scramble to get some extra forms in, but it all worked out!

I think I've gotten everything that I need together- the first thing I bought was a hat (which I then wore around the house all the time and to study for my final exam for my summer class). Here's a picture of me trying it on- my younger brother was not as excited as I was...

Getting my stuff together:

Anyways, I'm very, very, very excited for this semester and can't wait to get the adventure started! I head back to Raleigh on Wednesday and from there will fly to London and on to Johannesburg. Check out the other pages on this blog for some other information, a timeline, and an awesome map that I put together that shows the different places I'll be visiting.

That's all for now!