hello from the Drakensberg Mountains!

wow ok 10 minutes to type, eeeee!

so mom came in eshowe along with some amazing care packages! thanks! so we went to a traditional healer in eshowe which was a little creepy, but it was cool to see the contrast between western medicine and traditional healing. then we went to an oraganization called Zulu fadder which was basically playing with these adorable kids for about 2 hours, sadly all of these kids have llost parents to AIDS and the region has one of the highest infectiona rates in the world. about 60 of the kids there had AIDS already, which was pretty mindblowing. then we traveled to rocktail beach which was SO MUCH FUN! we got to see a leatherback turtle come up on the beach to lay her eggs and then go back out to the ocean. to walk along the beach at night and come upon the turtles as so many others have for generations have was an almost spiritual experience, of course that m,ay be the marine biuologist in me talking :) we also went snorkling! which was super fun, we saw an eel and we saw lots of fish, then we said good bye to the indian ocean and the parents to head out to the drakensberg mountains. let me tell you, it's nice to see some mountains FINALLY. yesterday we hiked up sentinel peak and saw the second higest ( alititude wise) waterfall in the world at about 10,000 feet. it was a really hard hike but it was rewarding as well :) anyways i''m not going to get internet until i get home but i jsut wanted to post one last quick update, see you all in bozeman on the 16th. it's been a great adventure. until next time :)

~allegra

Eshowe

wow it seems like ages since my last post!

so we went surfing. i now have a new found respect for world class surfers, because it is so hard! (and doyle, you could tell reef i didn't die from the worlds lagest white shark population) i got up once for a short, but victorious, 2 second ride to shore haha. maybe i'll just stick to boogy boarding. we went to the Billabong outlet, and we should all be sponspered by billabong because of how decked out we are in gear. we enjoyed our last few nights there and then moved onto Mdumbi. a small !Xhosa village along the coast, we stayed in a backpackers. our room had tweleve beds and we all joked that we looked like madeline all lined up in our sleeping bags. the weather was been continuously rainer, so we all just snuggled up in our sleeping bags and listened to the rain, with some classes thrown in of course. we had some talks with the people who ran the backpackers and met some people who worked with TransCape, a microfiniance program out of Mdumbi. we also went for a cultrual walk in the village and got to try on tradtional clothes and some other activites. some mixed feelings about the tour... anyways we also had a run in with some very drunk college boys that included a note thrown in the window at about 10:30.
Dear Girls,
you are all so BEAUTIFUL, we know your teachers are strict but you only live once.
meet us somewhere tonight?
write a response and throw it out the window
love Just, Mat and OC

obviously, we got a few laughs out of that as our teachers read the note and as we plastered our ears to the door to hear what they were saying to them. currently the note is taped to the cieling of our truck :) haha.

now we are in eshowe were we have seen a traditional healing ceremony, had a talk with a woman who runs an aids clinic and the parents arrive tomorrow! i get to see my mommy :):) i'll be home soon, and i won't be in touch the last 7 days, so keep in touch till then! miss you

~allegra

jeffery's baai!

so i'm in jay bay. one of the best surf spots in the entire world. life doesn't get any better than this. so where did i leave off, capetown? and my packages! they were amazing, thank you to all of you who sent me food and letters, i have been enjoying my snacks from home soooooo much. lets see, after cape town we went to a town along the coast called Hermanus, and it's one of the best places in the world to see southern right whales. the future marine biologist, lets just say, was very pleased indeed. we sat around on a hill for a bit watching for signs of whales, and saw a few breaching although they were a distance away. then here's the ironic part, the group of students who flew with us out of Dulles airport on september 2nd was also there! i specifically remember asking them to do the hokey pokey on our scavenger hunt thinking "oh we're never going to see them again, why not?" goes to show me, the world is a very very very small place :) that night was our last night next to the atlantic, and it was the first day genneieve was traveling with our group. although we all miss whit, gen will be a great addition to the group. that night i went to sleep with the sound of the ocean, and i couldn't have been happier. Then we drove to Tsitsikamma National park to begin our backpacking trip. The campsite was right near the ocean and i sat out on the rocks for a bit before bed listening to the crashing of waves and waiting as the tide crept closer and closer. the sea churned gray, and the clouds rolled mimicking the violent ocea. waves crashed against the rocks, trying to return them to the watery depths and the water slowly coroded the rocks. the next morning for breakfast a mother and calf humpback whale swam by us as we ate breakfast. and right before our eyes one of them breached. truely amazing. my first whale breach in the wild. in africa. with TTS. nope, doesn't get any better than that. we hiked in to the park with our big packs, very hard but totally worth it when i saw the green roof of our cabin over the rise of the hill. a small pool of water was at the bottom, and we sat resting our aching feet in the cool water. the water tumbled over rocks and painted them orange because of the minerals in the water. hiking over the next few days we had our day packs ( our big packs got transported to the next cabin) but the hiking was still long days out in the african sun. tsitsikamma national park could be straight out of The Sound of Music, the mountains are green, and flowers dot the landscape. in other places it's similar to a rainforest next to a shallow stream. our days were filled with snacks, sterilized water, trail games,blistered feet,sunscreen and the best smores i think i've ever tasted :). now i'm in Jay Bay, and i think tomorrow is surfing day? lets see how that goes. the parents meet up with us soon in Eshowe, so on that note all bozemanites can drop off letters and what not to the condo by this weekend and i'll recieve them soon!

live in the moment. life is short and sweet

~allegra

Clubbing in Capetown? It's only the beginning :)

Well i realize that I didn't know what to say about my teacher Whitney last time, so I thought i'd write a little bit about her, she's leaving us today and Gen is coming in to teach for the rest of the semester.

Whitney- One of the most humble people ive ever met, we didn't even know she placed 5th at world, for kayaking not too long ago until two weeks in. She has a calm zen about her, and her experience in the field is greatly appreciated. It's sad to see her go, but our group was blessed to be touched by her awesome spirit.

ok anyways. cape town. wow we've done so much! ah!

Langa Township- we went to a township, and man. there aren't words. we got to go into a new house, still being built. but my favorite part by far was being in the church, we were part of a service and it was AMAZING. very welcoming and homey the voices of the choir filled the hall, soaring above the rafters in a chorus of harmony. little kids dozed on their parents shoulders, and woman swayed gently to the music. even being there just made me feel more spirtual then i could have ever felt at home. we walked around the township, smelling trash and seeing shacks that were people's homes. to see the stark contrast of the township against the cushy condos on the waterfront, crazy.

hip hop tour- we were part of a hip hop class which was part of Heal The Hood , a program which gets kids to participate in dance and get them off the streets and doing something constructive. we did some break dancing and then got a talk from the co-ordinator. he talked about being ourselves, and how important that is for people in "the hood", for kids who are in gangs and carry knives around concealed under their clothes at 8 years old. the hip hop tour was fun, but also gave us a little bit of a slap in the face at life "in the hood"

CASE- Community Action toward a Safer Enviroment. A program similar to Heal the Hood, but it has many outlets instead of just dance. We were led to a room, and given free reign to turn it into a place where the youth could spend their time and have clubs. Over the next couple of hours we cleaned the tables, threw away things, organzied the random piles of intems, painted quotes on the walls and re arranged the furniture. After a while, it was looking more like a room and less like a storage closet. We then had a short walk/ tour of Hanover Park, a sketchy neighborhood close to the CASE office. As we walked Joderich ( a CASE youth volunteer who lived in Hanover) pointed out some harmless graffitti on the wall. it was a crown with a B under it, and then informed us that it was a tag from one of the local gangs in the area called the Brits. " oh yeah" mike ( anopther youth volunteer) said "don't say your american, say your from america. american is one of the largest gangs in cape town" hmm..... as we walked you began to wonder what all the graffitti on building really meant. "what about the police?" we asked. he laughed and told us they were scared of the gangs, so they were no help. lovely. although we didn't venture far into hanover, we got a small taste of life there as we walked. the smells of trash wafted up to my nose, and men called suggestivly from behind corners, we ignored them heads low walking forward. joderich told us about how even he was afraid to walk around at night, and he lived there.

the next day we were organizing a program for 7th grade girls. at first it was hard, to get them to listen to us and for them to try the somewhat embarressing activities we asked them to do. after about 20 minutes it got better, we played games like little sally walker and Wa, which was fun but most were too shy to participate. we then had them write a dream or hope they had on a piece of paper and then we would chain them all together and hang them in the room we had cleaned the day before. along with the chain the girls also got to put their handprint beside the qoutes we painted the day before. about halfway through, we looked at the wall. handprints covered the wall in all different colors, some paint was splattered between them and on the floor. it looked spectacular.

right now i'm with my homestay family looking around cape town for the weekend, no big halloween plans sadly, but we are headed up the garden route next and after that we have a backpacking trip planned so i'll try and keep you updated :)

miss you!

allegra

The Girls~!

As i sit in an internet cafe, the tapping of keyboards around me I realize you know nothing about the people here.

Lets start with the teachers shall we?

Leah- always enthusiastic, and kind. she makes any class fun (yes even algebra) and is so knowlegable about geology, we bombard her with questions about the formations around us.

Shannon- quirky. is the first word that comes to mind, with a lot of travel experience in Japan she always has an interesting story to tell us. A very visual teacher, there are always colorful posters depicting TJ and Language related things. She's there to help us come out of our comfort zone, and talk with local people.

Chrissie- wow where do i even begin. as mariel puts it "chrissie likes to act mean, but she's really not" under her tough, cool exterior lies a woman who is kind and caring. protective and always making sure we are never in any harm, bevcause trust me nobody would want to mess with chrissie. she makes history class so interesting and always asks us to challenge what we percieve to be an accepted fact.

now for the girls!

sarah- kind and compassionate, sarah is always quietly looking out for the group. willing to talk with the locals, she encourages us to do the same. her work ethic is beyond comprehension and can be seen working on her college essays long after lights out.

alexis- dubbed the mother of the group, our mother Nzo (elephant in shona) always lends us advice from her previous TTS semester. An independent and outspoken girl, she makes us all strive to stand up for ourselves and stand on our own two feet.

alice- at first she seems quiet, and boy were we wrong! always laughing at something in class alice teaches us to laugh at the little things in life. if you ever need a hug, or a friend to lean on alice is the person to go to, un judging she sits and listens and then dolls out advice.

amsara- proud of who she is, our resident diva is always adding a flair of spice to our group. singing and dancing come to mind when i think of amsara, she connects with the locals and helps draw us in as well.

laurel- the athelte of the group laurel wants to always be doing something. sitting around does not amuse her, so we are all encouraged to get up off our feet and experience the world around us. laurel seems to walk around enjoying life and whats going on around her.

phoebe- our resident world traveler. her dad works for nat geo and seems to know every person we talk about. from wade davis to alexandra fuller, her connections are fun and offer us insight on the authors lives. having spent a lot of time in nepal, she offers a unique perspective on the world.

margo- curious and a bit clumsy, margo is always entertaining us. She has a carefree nature and ability to laugh at herself. Always up for some shopping, or going out on the town margo brings a bit of her happy spirit everywhere we go.

mariel- loud and proud. she is loving every second here, and always converses with the locals. her flirtatious manner always leads to an interesting experience and her laugh can be heard all the way down the street.

kendall- quiet, but when given the chance she will speak her mind. with no self control she can always be seen noshing on a candy bar haha.

alexa- having recently met over the summer in bozeman, alexa is a free spirit. always asking questions and wanting to know about the local culture alexa encourages us to do the same. consistent about her school work, i can always count on her for a little homework help.

morgan- her outgoing personality is beginning to shine through. a good friend, she is very understanding and always has a unique perspective. she also has a unique sense of humour, and a slightly flirtatious nature always leads us on an exciting adventure :)

ok well thats all, hope you all have a better sense of who i'm with now. you can also read up on the girls on the TTS website.

totsiens! (goodbye-afrikaans)

hello from capetown!

ah! we have finally reached it. capetown. the magnificent. all semester we've been saying "when we're in capetown..." or "we can get it in capetown" or "you can find it in capetown" so needless to say we are incredibly physched to be here ( yes i'm aware thats spelled wrong. ignore it) wow it seems like forever ago I was in Luteritz, i think i went over dune 45, and i'm pretty sure i went over komanskoppe ummm... that leaves Fish River canyon and the Orange River. needless to say, midterms are pretty stressfull and right now i'm thinking about my history analitical essay i have to write, bleh. Anyways Africa, right. um we went to Fish River Canyon and had science class on top of the second largest canyon in the world, awesome? yeah i know. we had some hikes thrown in, early of course. not that i care, it's coller then anyways. then we made our way to felix unite where we would shove of for our Orange River kayaking trip. let me get this staight, they were notkayaks. they were canayaks (canoes kayaks). anyways basically midterms was jumping out of our canayak, naigating rapids, sleeping under the stars, talking to our guides, learning some afrikaans, swimming down some rapids, having ice cream and getting the best chaco tan ever :) do midterms rock or what? yeah it's kind of difficult to concentrate when the stars are so amazing, but hey you do what you have to right? haha ok well i only have a couple more minutes

sending good thoughts home from capetown!

~allegra


oh PS, did anyone hear anything about a weird star that eminiated light, and was moving across the sky? we saw this crazy thing, but got on the river the next day so never heard if it made it in the news. typical africa haha

hello from the seaside town of Luderitz!

So we are back on the coast after a bit of time in the sanddunes of the Namib desert. The highlight was hiking up dune 45, of course getting up at 4:30 wasn't the highlight but watching the sun rise over the dune was awesome. We trudged up the side of the massive orange dune passing defeated tourists along the way. We sat up on the top of the dune, taking pictures and taking in the wonderful sensation of sitting on top of a dune in the desert. After some awesome photos and some time to reflect we ran down the dune, red sand squishing beneath our toes. It has been surprisingly cold out here in the desert, and i've been able to see my breath in my tent some nights. We have been hiking around a lot, in some canyons and up trails. Yesterday we awoke to go on a hike up the "mountains" ( i refuse to hall them mountains. they.are.HILLS) and it was amazing standing on the pinnacle of rocks watching as the pink streaked sky gently kissed the surrounding "mountains" around us. Not a building in sight, or a road. Truely deolate. I love how Nambia is so wide and open, and you truely feel like your the only one here. yesterday we went to a small abandoned diamond mining town called Kolmanstoppe. it is slowly being taken over by the dunes as the desrt claims the town as it's own. Diamonds were so abundant in this small town, that you could walk home and pick up diamonds on the way. Life was sweet with ice, caviar, a train, bowling alley and a restaurant. Next week is midterms on the Orange river! today is a rare, but coveted day. teacher work day, and we have all day to work on the midterms that have already been assigned. i'll talk more about the girls later, but right now i have to go! a chocolate bar is calling my name :)

bye!
~allegra

oh wait that was kilometers an hour sorry!

sandboarding. rules

today we went sandboarding! it was about the most fun i've ever had in a gym class. I don't have enough time to upload photos of it, but I ight have time to upload one of a lion or something...
anyways, sandboarding right. i have sand in EVERY nook and crannie. bellybutton, ear, hair follicle basically sand is EVERYWHERE. but i couldn't be happier! it was one of the best days. we rode down these sand dunes at speeds of about 40-80 miles an hour, my fastest has 73 and it felt like you were on a roller coaster. i now know what it's like to taste sand my friends. walking up the dunes was hard work, but thrououghly satisfying as we sped down the side.

i know i've forgotten things before, so i'm going to go back and talk about a few key points like visiting the San Village. even know i can't put my experience into words, what the government has done to these once majestic people. awhen you think of san i bet you think of tribal clothes and spears. what we saw was government control and it's side effects. bellies bloated uncomfortably from malnutricion, a ridiculously small amount of food and water and how the government refuses to let these nomadic people live the way they have for centruries. america is in a bubble, here the truth lies out open on the streets as you count the ribs of passerbys and look into the wise eyes of a girl carrying a daughter on her back. i could go on for hours about what i've learned here already, and what i'm sure is to come. i guess all you need to know is that life is amazing, and you need to go out and live it.

and i feel like i should talk about the girls here, all of them are amazing. we all bring a different aspect to the group that makes such a thriving community.

Hallo from Swakopmund!

Wow where did i leave off... Botswana? Well i'm in Namibia now haha. We went to Etosha and saw a bunch more wildlife (2 cheetahs, and a black rhino which is super rare) we also recieved our totems, which are sort of like spirit animals i guess. apparently we have the same traits as our totems. I am an Impala, or mhara in Shona. So as we say, I saw my family in Etosha. lots of family haha. We then went to CCF which is the Cheetah Conservation Fund for a couploe of days. We learned all about the cheetahs's genetic hardships and their race for survival. It's weirdf to think that things i learned while sitting in Mr. Gebhardts lectures ACTUALLY APPLIES TO LIFE. ah that was pretty mindblowing. actually everything we do here is pretty mindblowing. we got to see a cheetah run at CCF, where they woulod chase a lure ( a rag) around a tracck. It was amazing because tyhere were no fences, and the cheetah was just mere feet infront of you. It was sort of surreal. We did some service projects there, expanding some cheetah pens and making a nature trail, and had some lectures ( yes i know we actually had school?! crazy). Yesterday we arrived at the atlantic coast and i know somewhere across the ocean is america. We saw a seal colony (ah!! yay goes the future marine biologist!) and then had lunch along the coast. i love the ocean :) we then drove the rest of the way to swakopmund where we are staying in A frames. They have beds. Enough said. Currently i'm sitting in an internet cafe typing my little heart out. I know i'm missing things somewhere along the way. But i just can't remember because we do so much everyday! i'm sitting in my jeans which makes me so happy it's ridiculous. i guess while your here you learn to appreciate the little things a whole lot more. i challenge you to make dinner and eat every speck of it. don't throw anything away. americans (we, me us) waste so much food, my parents never played the starving kid in africa card. but it's so true. we visited a san village and it was justr... crazy. i wish i had words but even now i can't come up with any to tell you how i felt. it was heartwrenching. the government takes so much away from these people as you see stomachs of little kids cloated fromn malnutricion. ah. ok so i'lkl leave you all with the challenge. Eat everything on your plate and dont waste any of it.

best of luck!

bye bye!

~allegra

Dumela-ra (Hello!-Setswana)

There is dirt permantly encrusted under my fingernails. I can't tell whether the line on my feet is from a tan or if it's just dirt ( i suspect it's dirt), i fear looking at the mirror, my feet will never be clean again and i've worn the same clothes for 4 days. This is the traveling school my friends. i choose communication over laundry and homework be thankful! I'll start up at the salt pan, we drove out to this salt pan which is the size of switserland. It was truely one of the most amazing experience3s of my life, it was just this great vast nothingness. Just some crunchy white sand. we slept under the stars (pillows!sheets!!!!) and sat off by ourselves. I don't know how, but somehow i found myself in the nothingness. We had countless hours to just sit, and be, in the utter stillness and silence. As the stars twinkled above and the sun faded over the horizen. Our tour guides sand long into the night, their voices harmonizing with the ease of practice and skill as the foreign beat wove above our heads. The flames flickered in the night as we performed the few songs we had prepared (amazing grace, lean on me). It was truely amazing. We then headed over and saw a baobab tree that was 4,500 years old. Crazy! And then we headed off to see the meerkats, because of our chobe chuckfest ( as we've come to calling it) we had to push back our schedule a day so we couldn't sleep with the meerkats but nonetheless they scampered around our feet and stood on the hill as we crouched down in the spiky grass. They are the same meerkats that are filmed on Animal Planet's Meerkat Manor, so they are completley used to humans. Yesterday we arrived from a night out on the Okavangu Delta. We sat in macoro ( local version of a canoe) and relxed as locals pushed us along with long poles. We saw some zebras and elephants along the way, it was very relaxing! The perfect way to destress about our pile of homework waiting for us backl at camp. That night we purseuded the locals to sing for us, and they told stories and jokes long into the night. Early in the morning we awoke to sounds of elephants crashing through the brush nearby and baboons wailing. good morning africa. we headed back to camp for a half day of relaxation before dinner. Dinner was paid for by the hotel ( our campsite is attached to a hotel) and you have no idea how good it was to sit down at a nice table, and be back in my element. ah bliss! we had gone from glass plates to tupperware in one night, haha. We also had dessert an apple crumble, when you haven't had anything even remotely sweet in two weeks apple crumble is like cloud nine my friends. ok well i have only a couple minutes left but i won't be on for about another 2 weeks until i'm in Namibia, so until then i miss you all!

oh and PS, for all of my bozeman pals, my mom is sending my package on tuesday so if you want to send something drop it off at my condo just on the front step. so please send something!

miss you all! until next time :)

~allegra

Internet? Two days in a row, i'm speechless

Actually the only reason i have this internet time is very sad. our whole group is sick. the water we drank out of the tap was bad, so last night there were 14 girls puking in the bathrooms and sleeping on the floors, i had already gone through ther whole sickness thing the day before. So we cancelled our travel day, and here i am on the computer yet again. it seems like all of my posts have been pretty spotty, and its hard to remember what i've said to whom. so sorry about that. we spent the first two days (after the longest plane ride in history) on a houseboat getting aquianted, and then moved to a cmall campsite in Sinazongwe. There we got to watch a group of local woman dance, and even got to join in! We got a small tour of the village (apparently the first one ever) and then had a travel day to livingstone zambia. it was super weird to see people, because we had been in our little TTS bubble for some time, there we got town time to buy icecream and look around the local market. along with trying to call ( 2 $ a minute, by the way) our parents. we saw victoria falls and battled with some frindly baboons who liked to steal things from out of our hands. we stayed at a super nice campground and learned tons of new words in tonga, oh wait! we also visited a school in sinazongwe and got to talk about where we were from.
it was so amazing, and the kids were so much fun.
ah! out of time. love you all and miss you, i'll update in a couple of weeks or so.

hello from botswana!!

hello hello, wow lots has happened since i last updated. the other day we helped buikld a school and had to mix our own cement, giving me an appreciation for cement mixers! it was so great to see this room from start to finish though. truely incredible the kids were awesome too ( yes you read right) they can't pronounce my name for the life of them but it's funny none the less. we are in botswana and we went on safari yesterday! the highlight was seeing four lions! we got within 15 feet of one, crazy. and crazy amazing pictures too! clean has become a relative term, and my feet will never be clean again. tomorrow we are headed to planet baobab where we will get to spend the night with meerkats, we ll have to see how that goes.... we went to an afican drumming class, and learned how to drum. after planet boabab we will head to the okavangu delta and canoe for a couple of days, yay!! school is stressfull, but nothing we cant' handle. i recieved the academic award at our last ceremony! woop woop! amazing things going on here, but i'm almost out of time so i'll leave you all with i miss you! africa is amazing, and words cannot do it justice. pictures cannot capture the beauty either. ok i have like 2 minutes!

bye!!

Hello from Zambia!

I have officially breached the black hole of communication. yay! i'll try to make tthis long but i'm paying for this, a concept that is new to me. There is not a lense big enough for africa, nor words to describe what i have seen. I've seen kids younger than I carrying siblings or daughters on their backs. I've seen people with no shoes aappreciate every little thing they have in life. Africa is amazing, we have been to a school where we taught them head shoulders knees and toes. And in return learned it back in their native language of Tonga, there are over 72 official languages of zambia alone. Our cook ( by the way the food is AMAZING, no not better than my mopms of course) speaks "only" fourteen as I am humbled by my fluency of only one. We saw Victoria Falls today, where the Zambezi plunges over a cliff. They call it the smoke that thunders. Classes have started and they shouldn't even be considered classes, they are so cool and fun. Schoolwork is hard and there is no slacking off but it's the kind where you feel incredible after completing the mountain (literqally) of homework in front of you. The girls are amazing, and it's so great to get to know them. I miss home alot but i'm looking forward to some care packages! I've been jonsing for some cheeseit's oreos snickers m&m's crystal light to flavor my water.... wow lots. but i' good on the peanut butter front qwe have tons of it. In our first two days we say elephants, kudu,impala,crocidiles,hippos and many other animals.On monday we are helping to build a local school and maybe volunteer at an orphanage. I miss you all and look forward to hearing from you soon.

bye!

Four, Three,Two, One...go

Hello one and all,

Thats right, we are down to single digit days here. It's truly go time now. I've enjoyed the past few days when all of my friends have been in school while I have had the blissfull pleasure of... running all around town all day long and never ever stopping. I have the worlds best biker tan right now, you have no idea. Yesterday I was at the condo for 20 minutes all day long until 6 o'clock that evening. This was the first week of school, so of course I had to go by and hassle all of my friends (meanwhile wishing I could repress the childish urge to stick my tongue out and say Na na na na na na). It's quite entertaining to walk the halls and know you don't belong to the high school anymore, and it gives you an odd feeling of confidence. I can check my cell phone in view of teachers and not care, the worst they could do was kick me off campus. And i'll just come back the next day anyways so who cares? I've been getting to know my fellow traveler Alexa, who is going with me. Between all of the little chores i've been getting done (malaria pills, press release, homestay gifts... etc. etc. ) it's a wonder I still have time to go by and see my friends for lunch. But I make time ;) I'm excited and somewhat nervous for this grand adventure to start. Sometimes it feels like i'm crazy for signing myself up for such an amazing program, but then I remember this IS an amazing program. But between all of the hectic crazy-ness I've been having the time of my life the past few days. Riding my bike around town is seriously one of the best feelings in the world, the weather here is great ( 80's 90's) and it's so nice to make my own breeze as I speed along sidewalks and backroads. I'm enjoying my last few days here, sitting in parks enjoying a lunch, giving my dogs belly rubs, eating ice cream sundaes and waffle fries for dinner, seeing my friends, walking the halls of BHS and most of all just soaking up my last days here.

See you later. Im not sure when later is, probably the night before. But until then,

adios!

~a

Mail

Mail, actual mail and not email is very much encouraged while I'm in Africa. There's just something different between knowing that so and so actually WROTE this letter, it's just so much more personal, because you took time out of your day to write this instead of tweeting me or emailing me, or IMing me, or posting it on my wall or, well you get the point. It's called snail mail people, thats right, get out the old stationary and write a letter! You can even seal it with some cool sticker or something. Stick some candy in there too while your at it, jolly ranchers,butterfingers,snickers,ring pops anything. Send a newspaper clipping, or maybe a cool magazine article. Or even a letter will do. News from home and some comfort food (marshmallows anyone? goldfish?) will be much appreciated. So we just received our information on mail and I thought I'd post it. :)

Overseas addresses: It takes approximately 3 weeks for mail to arrive in Africa. Even if your post office tells you it will be there sooner, the mail service is slow for packages outside of Cape Town or Johannesburg. Because if this, we ask that you send any letters and packages to the homestay coordinator in Cape Town. Your daughter will be at her homestay from October 29-November 2nd, so packages should be mailed no later than October 5. If you have additional questions about mail, please refer to the following page on our website: http://travelingschool.com/forparents_aboutmail.php

To: CUPIDO FAMILY

(Allegra La Ferr)

249, 12TH AVENUE

KENSINGTON 7405

CAPE TOWN

SOUTH AFRICA


crazy huh? So please send me snail mail, but send me some emails too :) :) there isn't anything more depressing then signing in and seeing I have no new emails!

mmkay adios!

Testing...Testing...1,2,3

Hello Hello All

3 Weeks from Today I will be off on my grand adventure. As of late I have been basically running around Bozeman like a crazy person trying to get things checked off THE LIST. Yes it's so great big and terrible, that it has a The in front of it. Did you know that it's 5 pages long? FIVE FREAKING PAGES. How is this possible, it's sort of like the never ending list. It feels like even when I get the satisfaction of checking off one of those maddening little white boxes indicating I have purchased this item, it still feels like I have so much more to do! I went and got my pack, and the guy at the store (since I was in there for so long I remember his name was Pete) said that I was the hardest person he's ever fit a pack for. EVER. Papi and I were in there for TWO HOURS. I think i'm going to be living in that store, in fact I pretty much have been. But besides all of the madness of trying to find things that are NOT blue (because everything i've purchased has been...blue) and trying to find tank tops withOUT a racerback style I've also had to face the realization that I need to get into shape. In the words of my friend Greta "Meh" Although I still haven't practiced packing my pack or been on any big hikes or athletic activity other than riding my bike around town I still plan to *gulp* get into shape. Tomorrow. In the hot August heat. I've also been getting little things ready, putting more photos on my IPod, downloading more music, reading as many books as I can get my hands on because I won't have time in Africa, getting used to Papi's camera. But luckily I have all of the forms in, all the medical forms, money forms, noterized forms, and just plain old forms.... phew. In the meantime I've been hanging out with everybody I know and I have been going to Orthodontist Appointment after Appointment because I wouldn't want to go to Africa with braces now would I ;) ? i have also been enjoying the simple pleasures of hot running water ( I expect it might be hard to come by in some places), nights when I read until 1 AM and sleep until 2 PM, my crazy dogs running around (otherwise known as frick and frack) and many other simple pleasures. Well I have to go pick up Papi from fishing, so I'll post another blog soon. Bye!

Hey

Ok so hello all. I've decided to get my blog up and running for my Africa Trip. Here you will be able to read about what i'm doing in Africa. My friend, who went on the same program I am doing advised me to not do a blog because she said she never had the time to update. Even though she only updated her blog 3 times, it was still nice to hear that she was having a good time and what not. Full disclosure right now: I probably won't update this every time I get on a computer, and will not update often. Apparently in Africa we get internet, maybe once every 2 weeks so just a heads up. As the summer progresses I will put up another post or two regarding mail and email, when I was in Peru i found out most PC's don't support .Mac Mail so I will have to get a GMail account, but in the meantime my current email is working just fine. Ok well... I'm going to get going, but thanks for taking to the time to read.

About two more months until I leave.
September First is the day!