As the months have become weeks, and the weeks have now become days, I decided this might be a good time to get a blog up and going before leaving on this grand adventure. Although I blogged during my trip to New Zealand last January, PLU set up the site for our whole group. Therefore, this is my first REAL blog. That being said, I am going to try to make sure that I figure out everything before I leave...in 11 days!
The Trip: On January 7th I will be embarking on a 2 day journey with 2 of my professors and 8 of my peers that will ultimately place me in Windhoek, Namibia. We will be staying at a lovely place called Casa Blanca throughout most of our trip, rooming with 1 or 2 other people. I will then have the amazing opportunity to student teach at one of the local schools--A.I. Steemkamp and Moses Garub. I am still unsure about which school I will be placed at, the grade, or the subject. However, I do know that I will be teaching 4th grade or above due to the fact that they do teaching in English starting at that grade level. After a few days of planning with the teachers and staff, and the first day of school, our group will be traveling North to visit a school and go on a safari. I cannot wait to see giraffes, lions, elephants, and other animals in their own habitat! After that, we will be going back to Windhoek to start our student teaching full time. School is only in the morning until early afternoon because it gets so hot there.
Overall, I am getting very excited, nervous, anxious, and slightly overwhelmed. It seems as though January 7th is coming a lot faster than I expected, and 7 weeks is starting to feel like an awfully long time. I will be challenged and stretched; faced with situations that I will not know how to react; experience sites and places that I have only dreamed of. However, I know that this trip is going to help me grow as a teacher, world citizen, and person.
So, January 7th, here I come.
