In one month and ten days, I'll be starting my trip from Warren, Maine all the way to Antananarivo, Madagascar, and I cannot wait. I'm studying abroad on what is sometimes called "the eighth continent," since 80% of the species found on the island aren't found anywhere else in the world, and yes, some of those species are lemurs! :)

Right now I'm sitting in my dorm room at GW, and I've just packed up most of my stuff because my mom is on her way down here to help me move out. The last day or so has definitely been hard. I'm having a lot of mixed emotions. I've left a job that I loved and co-workers who had become like family to me, and now I'm in the process of wrapping up finals and saying goodbye to my besties, which is definitely hard. Knowing that I won't see them for possibly a year (because I'm planning on studying abroad in France in the fall) makes saying goodbye really hard. But even though I'm sad to leave DC, I am so excited to start an amazing adventure. I'm hoping that studying in a country so different from mine will help open my eyes to different experiences. I know that parts of the trip will be difficult, like dealing with sickness, and fleas, and cockroaches...ugh. But I hope that in the end it is all worth it and that I will have made wonderful friends and learned more than I can imagine.

So those are just a few of my thoughts for now, but after packing everything up, I think I need a nap. Keep checking back though, because I'll be posting all about my adventure, the good, bad and ugly, for the next five months! :)