December 16, 2010
:-D
Yesterday the fall semester ended just before 5 pm as I finished my last final of the semester. One month from today I will have landed in Senegal and my spring semester apart will have begun! Cool? I think so!
December 9, 2010
Paperwork much?
I leave in just over a month and he past month has been filled with a lot of paperwork preparing for next semester. I have signed my name, indicated my country of citizenship, given my birthday, and filled out my address more times than I can possibly remember in the past month. Besides the medical forms and liability forms (apparently if I get seriously injured or killed it is nobody's fault but my own), I have also selected possible classes and applied for my visa.
The week before Thanksgiving I shipped my passport overnight to Travisa who forwarded my passport to the Senegalese embassy. Fortunately with CIEE I do not directly pay for the cost of my visa because it is included in the general travel costs. I know many other companies require individual students to pay for their own visa,. Thus, I have been without my passport since November 16th but it was delivered back to me this afternoon with the visa in place! Yay!
The other very exciting pre-departure thing I have done over the past few weeks was choosing my classes for next semester. My class selections are based on the assumption that I will test into Advanced French (which is what my adviser expects) and are: Advanced French, Wolof For Beginners (Wolof is the local ethnic language), Contemporary Senegalese Society and Culture, History of Islam, and International Law and Crisis Management in Africa. Except for Wolof all of the classes will be taught in French.
Soon I shall be posting more frequently about actually being in Senegal!
The week before Thanksgiving I shipped my passport overnight to Travisa who forwarded my passport to the Senegalese embassy. Fortunately with CIEE I do not directly pay for the cost of my visa because it is included in the general travel costs. I know many other companies require individual students to pay for their own visa,. Thus, I have been without my passport since November 16th but it was delivered back to me this afternoon with the visa in place! Yay!
The other very exciting pre-departure thing I have done over the past few weeks was choosing my classes for next semester. My class selections are based on the assumption that I will test into Advanced French (which is what my adviser expects) and are: Advanced French, Wolof For Beginners (Wolof is the local ethnic language), Contemporary Senegalese Society and Culture, History of Islam, and International Law and Crisis Management in Africa. Except for Wolof all of the classes will be taught in French.
Soon I shall be posting more frequently about actually being in Senegal!
September 30, 2010
Who, What, Why and Where?
At least for now the purpose of this blog will be to keep you (my family, friends, and any random people who stumble upon it) updated about my semester abroad in Senegal. But first I'll devote this first post to introducing you to myself and explaining why and how I have chosen to study in Senegal.
I'm a junior in college majoring in International Studies with a concentration in the Francophone world. I've been fortunate and blessed to have visited more countries in my 20 years of life than most people do in a lifetime. Right now the count stands and 18 and in just over 4 months that will be up to 19. Ultimately I want to work for the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer (FSO).
My concentration is the Francophone world because I think French is a beautiful language and grew up in a town heavily influenced by Franco-Canadians. Contrary to popular belief French is still spoken in places other than Québec and France. Twenty-nine countries consider French an official language and even more consider it to be a language that is culturally significant. Other than English, French is the only language to be spoken on 5 continents. It is spoken as a first language by 136 million people and as a second language by 190 million people. How Many Countries Speak French?
I have known I did not want to spend my semester abroad in France for a while. I was already there in 2005. Though that visit was only a week, I feel as though returning to France would be returning to something semi-familiar and that is not what I want out of my semester abroad. I want a program that will really push me away from everything I know and that will let me see the world from a completely different perspective. I want my world to be turned upside down. Besides, for the rest of my life France will only be a passport and plane ticket away. But there is much more to the Francophone world than France. I just didn't know what exactly when I first considered my semester abroad.
When the time came to start planning my semester abroad over a year ago, I approached each study abroad company at my college's study abroad fair. I told each of them the exact same thing, "I am concentrating in the Francophone world but don't want to go to France, where can you send me?" Most of the companies gave me a look first of shock (Who DOESN'T want to go to France? Really Paris is fabulous! I know...I've been there.) then of mild horror as they realized they didn't have an answer for me. But CIEE out of Portland, ME promptly responded "How does Senegal sound?" As the representative promptly answered each of my questions, I fell a little bit more in love with the idea of going to Senegal for a semester.
"Senegal...where is that?" and "Africa, isn't that dangerous?"
Senegal is the westernmost country on the African continent. I'll be spending my semester at the Dakar campus of Suffolk University, in the capital of Senegal. Though many countries in Africa have political issues, Senegal is one of the most successful and stable democracies in Africa. I'm a bit nervous because I know things will be different but at the same time I know this will be one of the most amazing experiences of my undergrad career. So I hope you follow me as I prepare to live 3674 miles away from home for an entire semester!
Maps from http://www.ourmountzion.org/map.html.
I'm a junior in college majoring in International Studies with a concentration in the Francophone world. I've been fortunate and blessed to have visited more countries in my 20 years of life than most people do in a lifetime. Right now the count stands and 18 and in just over 4 months that will be up to 19. Ultimately I want to work for the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer (FSO).
My concentration is the Francophone world because I think French is a beautiful language and grew up in a town heavily influenced by Franco-Canadians. Contrary to popular belief French is still spoken in places other than Québec and France. Twenty-nine countries consider French an official language and even more consider it to be a language that is culturally significant. Other than English, French is the only language to be spoken on 5 continents. It is spoken as a first language by 136 million people and as a second language by 190 million people. How Many Countries Speak French?
I have known I did not want to spend my semester abroad in France for a while. I was already there in 2005. Though that visit was only a week, I feel as though returning to France would be returning to something semi-familiar and that is not what I want out of my semester abroad. I want a program that will really push me away from everything I know and that will let me see the world from a completely different perspective. I want my world to be turned upside down. Besides, for the rest of my life France will only be a passport and plane ticket away. But there is much more to the Francophone world than France. I just didn't know what exactly when I first considered my semester abroad.
When the time came to start planning my semester abroad over a year ago, I approached each study abroad company at my college's study abroad fair. I told each of them the exact same thing, "I am concentrating in the Francophone world but don't want to go to France, where can you send me?" Most of the companies gave me a look first of shock (Who DOESN'T want to go to France? Really Paris is fabulous! I know...I've been there.) then of mild horror as they realized they didn't have an answer for me. But CIEE out of Portland, ME promptly responded "How does Senegal sound?" As the representative promptly answered each of my questions, I fell a little bit more in love with the idea of going to Senegal for a semester.
"Senegal...where is that?" and "Africa, isn't that dangerous?"
Senegal is the westernmost country on the African continent. I'll be spending my semester at the Dakar campus of Suffolk University, in the capital of Senegal. Though many countries in Africa have political issues, Senegal is one of the most successful and stable democracies in Africa. I'm a bit nervous because I know things will be different but at the same time I know this will be one of the most amazing experiences of my undergrad career. So I hope you follow me as I prepare to live 3674 miles away from home for an entire semester!
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