What an odd first title to a blog that is going to encompass a world tour/globe trot....
I've been crying Tuesday. I don't even know why. I haven't been watching anymore grey's anatomy or watched steel magnolias or Ray (idk why that movie always makes me cry...) or Titanic or listening to cold play alone in the dark more than usual...
I think its been the nerves. I have an incredible amount of nerves.
Oh, and I've been eating all the salty yummy food I know I'm going to miss terribly while I'm abroad. So that's contributed to the saltiness of my pallet as well.
I've put off creating this blog, but the time has come. And it has been created.
Now, let me explain what I'm actually going to be doing the next 8 months.
Lucky for me, I am traveling with Katy Perry the next 8 months and will actually be featured in a new single called "The Stalker I Learned to Love and Tour With", due to come out in November. I'm also working on a co-write with her entitled... "Where the eff Did I Leave My Shoes."
Alright. Jokes over. I'm traveling as a part of a group of 11 students, 3 leaders to study development through a wonderful non-profit called Thinking Beyond Borders. I am a participant in their Global Gap Year Program. Scope their website. It's incredible.
My journey starts this Wednesday when I depart from LAX at 7 am.
From there, I arrive in Miami, meet my group in person for the first time, and we all travel together to Costa Rica.
In Costa Rica, we will hangalanga, bond, orient ourselves, have some fun, and prepare for what is yet to come.
After those beautiful and exciting 12 days, I'm off to Ecuador for five weeks to study Natural Resources and the Environment. I will be staying with a Ecuadorian family and doing a lot of physical labor to replace trees previously decimated by the global need for lumber, as well as studying effective ways to get clean water and all that jazz.
From there, I'll be off to Peru for a week and climbing Machu Picchu (that song by the strokes is awesome...) and hiking the Inca Trail. Its going to be five days without a shower. Mmmhmmmhmm. How you like me now?
After that stinky and AMAZING time, China shall call my number. There, my peers and I will be examining Education and its relationship with Economic Growth. We will work at a school (I believe a middle school, but possibly a high school) and teach English and American Culture to Chinese students. Believe me, Elton John, as well as a few other pop culture icons are sure to come up. I can't wait.
By this time, it will be Christmas and I'll spend that week in Cambodia. DIZZADAMN. (It is pretty weird to type this all out... its hitting me for about the fortieth time today... I'M ACTUALLY LEAVING AND DOING THIS SHIZ.)
By the time new years strikes, I will be in India where I will spend another six weeks. My focus there will be Sustainable Agriculture, and I am going to be spending a lot of time working on a farm. YAY COW MANURE!!!! Yummy in my tummy. What? Kidding. I will probably also become a veg or something because I hate chicken unless it is prepared in a bomb way like deep fried and covered in an orange glaze from panda express. nom nom nom nom nom. And of course, the cow is sacred, so NO BEEF. MEEHR. I will, at the end of my time in India, get to see the Taj (yup, just abbreviated a global monument... what now?! what NOW?!) and all that jazzy jazz.
My last international stop happens to be South Africa. CAN I GET A HELL YEAH? People actually say Jambo there. JAMBO. South Africa is for sure to be a doozie, as I will be shadowing a physician in a village as part of my study of HIV/AIDS and Public Health. I am so excited! I know all my watching of off the map, as well as grey's anatomy (and every other doctor show) will have prepared me for this. Okay... I'm half kidding, but I am so excited for this part in particular.
I RETURN TO AMERICA the first week of April, but my work will not yet be done. I will spend about a week in New York and a week in DC to meet with various government agencies (the UN, World Bank, IMF, some congress folk, etc...) and discuss what I have learned, and continue to learn more. I spend about a week and a half after that finalizing presentations and my globe trot will culminate in a conference and graduation. I'm due to be back... I'd say.. Around May 7th.
WOOOOOOOO.
That took a lot to type out. My little fingers are seizing.
I can't wait to update everyone next... The next time I write, I will have left Amurican soil and started my journey.
I'M SO EXCITED. AND A LITTLE NERVOUS. OKAY... A LOT NERVOUS. THIS IS PSYCHO. AND INSANE. BUT SO AM I. EEEEEEEEEEEFKDMLKAHFOIAFOJDLF EEEEE :).
I am fearful that I am hopelessly unprepared. BUT randomly, while jogging around the Rosebowl the other day, I had a moment of clarity. The song CRAZY by Pitbull came on... and I had a memory of several special ed kids grinding (some of them were related by blood) to the particular song at the LCHS backwards dance in 2009.... I know this sounds like an odd memory... but the kids were good dancers, were having a blast, and were confident enough to shake their junk on one of the giant wood boxes which served as mini stages at dances (so everyone can see you dancing....yes, we all know I loved them...) and it reminded me of something I hadn't thought of in a long time... The four rules to live by. It reminded me of the rule in particular... TO NEVER MAKE ASSUMPTIONS.
These are the rules... I must live by, when all else fails, and these rules will be of comfort to me during the dynamic next 8 months.
1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don't take anything personally.
3. Don't make assumptions.
4. Always do your best.
Learn em. Love em. Live em. Donezo.
Until the next time I have internet, (which could be a while?).....
hasta lavista bebes.
Look at that Spanish skill. Costa Rica... HERE I COME!
No comments:
Post a Comment