Booked



Well, the flights are booked; I will be calling Cape Town, South Africa home for about 8 weeks this summer. Traveling overseas with two friends from high school, we will be working in a foster home and special needs school while also traveling as much as our schedule will allow. It is certainly bound to be an adventure!



Laura, Myself and Amy in  Memphis, TN



Some may view this as a rather whimsical decision, but truth be told, this trip has been a long time coming. I remember pacing the floors of my downtown Milwaukee apartment  one snowy winter evening while talking on the phone to one of my best friend’s from high school, Amy. I had just gotten home from a long night of bartending, and I remember thinking, this is it? This is what life in the 'real world' is all about? The phrase ‘working to live’ very adequately described my state of existence, as every penny I accumulated went toward rent and food. Not thrilled with her current situation either, Amy and I commiserated for a while as she grumbled over her arduous job doing payroll for a security company. Almost in unison, we decided we needed to go somewhere. We were fresh out of college and thirsting for the adventure that spontaneity brings, and knew we needed to get it out of our systems while we were still young and had nothing tying us down.

So, I took the train to Chicago that weekend to Amy’s swanky apartment off Michigan Avenue, a place far too nice for any 24 year old, but a sweet deal that Amy happened to fall into. We decided to make a video tape to try out for The Amazing Race, as we thought this would surely be our best bet for getting out of the country. I mean, why wouldn’t they pick us? Well, I’ll tell you why. Let me just paint you a picture of this humiliating little video that we created; in one of the scenes I am playing the harmonica and Amy is singing Christmas carols. In another, Amy is 'fist-pumping' as we imitate characters from the t.v. show, Jersey Shore. With a little liquid courage, we really believed we were creative geniuses, until we saw the video the next day with a clarity that accompanied the absence of wine. Needless to say, all that we were left with is some embarrassing and incriminating video footage that will inevitably be shown at one of our weddings someday.



Amy and I after we finished filming
the video



After realizing The Amazing Race might not be our ticket out, we decided to take matters into our own hands, and stumbled upon a Work Abroad program in New Zealand. Through this program, we could travel throughout the country working odd jobs, such as picking cherries on a cherry farm. This seemed like the obvious answer; why wouldn’t we take our college education and go work on a cherry farm? It’s every parent’s dream, really. We were about ready to start packing our bags when I received a sign from up above that I was meant to start graduate school at Appalachian State that fall. Disappointed, we both knew it was the right decision and we vowed that we would take a trip someday when the timing was better.

So here I am a year later with almost a year of graduate school under my belt. A few factors here started pushing me to look at alternative plans for the summer, and it didn’t take long before I was right back to the drawing board. One day, I sent Amy and Laura (our other friend from high school who will be joining us on the trip) a message. It simply said, “Let’s go to Africa.” Thinking I wasn’t 100% serious, they both played along and feigned interest so that I would be satisfied. Then I started hitting them with e-mails every day, showing them my sincerity about the whole idea and how possible it was. I researched volunteer opportunities relentlessly, ultimately finding one in South Africa, and put together a PowerPoint presentation on why we should go (My initial proposal was actually to go to Kenya, but as you can imagine, that idea was quickly vetoed). If there exists such a thing as an ideal time for a trip like this, I think that time is now. Sure, it will require a career change for Amy, a little less time for Laura to study for her Physical Therapy boards, and I might not be able to eat or pay rent for the entire next year – but it will all be completely worth it.



A snapshot of a happy 
Amy on Skype



So, a little hard work and perseverance paid off, and our flight is scheduled to depart Kansas City on June 9^th. Hopefully the hassle it took to book the flights is no indication of how the rest of the trip will go. We had a 3-way Skype session lasting close to 3 hours as we tried to buy these tickets. Of course, the first 45 of those minutes were spent trying to figure out how to 3-way Skype (and we're planning to travel 1/2 way around the world, yes). Hey, we may be slow at times, but we eventually figured it out. There's no foolin' us!



Another friendly face while
 Skyping



I promised myself that I would keep a blog the next time I traveled abroad, both for personal documentation and so that I'm able to share my journeys with others. Keep in mind that I am new to the blogging world and I’m not quite sure how any of this works, so bear with me. I was going to start this blog once we left, but I thought that it may be of value (or at least entertaining) to document all of the obstacles that an individual encounters while trying to prepare for a summer in South Africa, as I'm sure there will be plenty. So, here goes nothin'!