I have arrived!!

I’m here! After 22 hours of flight, 14 hours of lay-overs, and minimal sleep, I arrived in here in Kenya! Travel was a long tiring process, but it went much smoother and quicker once I flew out of JFK. I was finally able to sleep on the flight to Zurich. My last flight from Zurich to Kenya was amazing! It was less than half full so everyone could spread out and I was able to sleep across 3 seats. All of my flights up to that was were completely full so it was nice to have some space.


So I got in yesterday around 6pm here. Atara, a really close friend of mine who also goes to APU and is here on her global learning term, came to meet me at the airport with her Dad. Her Dad is here as a pastor for the Vineyard church in Nairobi. Anyway, traffic was unexpectedly horrible so I had to wait in the airport for about 45 minutes. It was a little overwhelming, with all of my bags searching the airport for Atara, while trying to avoid the relentless taxi drivers. Luckily a nice Kenyan woman named Anna came to my rescue. I was a little suspicious at first because I thought she would want money in exchange for helping me, but she reassured me that “we are all human beings,” and she wanted to help me out. She let me use her cell phone to call Atara. Atara said they were stuck in traffic and coming. Anna led me to the food count and sat with me for a while. She told me she was a Christian and liked helping people. I felt a little guilty that I had been so suspicious of her after she had been so nice. It was a good reminder that I need to be careful making blanket judgements about groups of people.

Atara came and it was so good to see her! I lived with Atara on LA term and she's amazing. We went to her home stay. I’ll be staying there for the next week or so. I had my first Kenyan meal which was really good and then got ready for bed. I really thought I would have no problem sleeping last night, but I woke up after two hours and I was pretty much awake more then not for the rest of the night. It’s jet lag I guess, but I’ve never experienced it like this. Surprisingly, I not that tired so I’m going to try and stay awake all day today so hopefully I can get a full night of sleep tonight.

It’s hard to believe I’m here. I keep reminding myself that this is happening.
That’s all for now. My posting might be a little off and on since I don’t have Internet at Atara’s house and I’m not going to be settled into a real routine for a while.

Here we go!

Leaving for the aiport!

Is this really happening?

So it's Saturday night.
I'm in the middle of packing.
Everything is ready to be put in a bag.
I leave Monday morning and the only thing running through my mind is "is this really happening?" It hasn't hit me yet and I'm not sure when it will. But regardless it is happening!

The breakdown-

I'm going to Kenya on my GLT (global learning term). Basically a independent study abroad program. I create my syllabi, make my own arrangements, and initiate all the learning (I won't attend any classes) I'm taking 12 credits through APU.

Family Organization- I'll be living with a family with 4 kids :) I'll basically be observing, asking lots of questions, participating in any way I can and writing about it.

International Internship- Working with a community organization and writing about it. I'm still figuring out what organization I will be working with. I have to do lots of hours for this since I will be earning 6 credits.

Global Research Project- I come up with a research question and conduct interviews, do research, and assemble all my findings in a portfolio.

So as far as traveling goes, it's basically going to take forever.

I fly out of SeaTac Monday night around 7. I have a short layover in San-Fran and then I fly over night to JFK. I get Tuesday morning around 8 am and have the whole day in New York. My flight for Switzerland takes off at 6pm. I have a another lay-over in Switzerland then it's finally off to Nairobi! I get into Nairobi on Wednesday.

So that's the basic information for now.

Check back for updates!

Preparation

So it's happening.

Next monday I fly out.

I'll be making my way to Kenya for 6 months.

It's a program called Global Learning Term.

It's required for the global studies major.

You'll hear a lot about it as time goes on.

This is just a test post.

I promise my future posts will include a bit more information!