The Adventure Begins!

Hello all!

I am currently waiting on a bench in the middle of the Terminal 4 airtrain station at JFK for my flight to Cape Town. Amid the hustle and bustle of train doors opening and closing and people scampering about in an attempt to make it to their flights on time, I find myself surprisingly calm despite the somewhat crazy adventure that I have just embarked on. I thought maybe once I was able to stop worrying about packing and preparing for the trip, I would inevitably start worrying about what will happen once I get there. I already miss friends and family from home dearly, but anticipation and excitement thoroughly drown out any feelings of worry, fear, and apprehension that inevitably live within me. Maybe I’m crazy for not being more nervous – given the fact that I know absolutely nobody in my program or in SA, and will be scurrying around in a country that which I know relatively little about in a matter of hours – or maybe I’m suffering from delusions that I’m prepared for the adventure of which I’m about to partake. But I think the most likely scenario is that I realize that I could never be “ready” for what I’m about to experience, and so all I can really do is go into it with an open heart and mind and enjoy the ride.

After years of imagining this moment in my mind, and months of preparing the paperwork and checking off to-do lists, it’s hard to believe that the moment is actually here. Even when I was packing my bags and saying goodbye to loved ones, it felt surreal. And in a way it still does. It’s funny that before I started looking into studying away in SA (or more accurately, before I became close friends with a lovely lady who studied in SA the year before last), the country wasn’t even really in my radar. But since then I’ve found it everywhere – newspaper articles, books, magazines, TV shows and movies, overheard conversations, recipe books, etc. And every time I see it mentioned or overhear its name, I feel great joy and love well up inside me. It feels weird to love a place that I’ve never seen, to love a people I’ve never met. And if I feel that way now, I can’t imagine how overwhelming it will be when I actually do see it and get to meet them!

When I told people that I was going to study in Cape Town, many asked me why I chose that particular location. My original plan, before college and through my freshman year (and probably beyond), was to study in a Spanish-speaking country because I love the language and want to become fluent. However, when I decided to add a major in psychology (which I’ve since switched to a minor), I began looking into other options because 1) I was scared to live in a country where I hadn’t been able to study the language in over a year and a half, 2) I had to take psych classes while I was abroad in order to graduate on time, and thus my option of programs was much more limited, and 3) even if I found a program in a Spanish-speaking country where I could take the psych classes I needed, I was scared (especially granted reason #1) that taking the classes in Spanish would be challenging at best or disastrous at worst.

Then this past year I started hanging out all the time with my friend who left after my freshman year to study in Cape Town for a year, and started hearing about it all the time (which I loved :). We would be doing a chem lab together and she would bring up a story about bio labs at the University of Cape Town (UCT); or we would be watching YouTube videos and she would look up commercials from SA; or we would be making dinner and she would talk about her host family and babysitting her baby “sister”; or would be studying and her screensaver would come on with a slideshow of pictures from abroad and she would start telling me about them… You get the picture. This really peaked my interest in the country and the people there, so when I started looking into study abroad programs, Cape Town naturally made the (fairly extensive) list. And the more I started looking into it and reading about it, the more it seemed like a great fit for me. It seemed to have the perfect combination of history, culture, natural beauty, adventure, and diversity. But more than that, it just felt right. So I applied for the program and the rest is history!

So here I am, just hours away from the 15+ hour flight to South Africa. I’m excited to be challenged. I’m excited to be thrown out of my comfort zone, to experience adventure. I’m excited to meet people, to see beauty, to learn. I'm excited to be confused. I'm excited to celebrate South Africa's victories and experience their struggles in such a crucial and exciting time in their history. I’m excited for my heart to break for individuals that are sick, hungry, broken (even if that sounds strange). I’m excited to build great friendships with people who are currently strangers. I’m excited to come home a different (hopefully better) person, with an even greater passion to make a difference with my life. And I can’t wait to share my experience with you all, my beloved friends and family, through this blog and/or other mediums!

Much love!
Allie

P.S. Feel free to email me (lowar@plu.edu), skype me (allie.low), or snail mail me at the following address:

Allison Low
C/O Quinton Redcliffe, CIEE
International Academic Programs Office (IAPO)
Lovers Walk, Lower Campus, University of Cape Town
Private Bag
Rondebosch, 7701
South Africa

I’d love to keep and touch and hear about your lives as well!

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