Let the adventure begin

The countdown is almost finished, only three more days until my fall semester begins. Already having unpacked and repacked a few times this summer, I’m trying to delay the packing process just a little bit longer. Probably not the smartest choice, but I figure that the eventual stress of packing will keep me from getting nervous about the fact that soon I’ll be boarding a plane and traveling to the other side of the world for my fall semester. For the next three and a half months or so I’ll be participating in an ecology and sustainability program in the Mekong Delta area of Vietnam.

Located in the southern part of the country, the Delta is dominated by the Mekong River. From what I’ve read it’s the “rice basket” of the country and the river stretches for about 3,000 miles, from the Plateau of Tibet to the South China Sea--sounds pretty impressive to me. Most of my time will be spent in Can Tho, the largest city in the delta and home to Can Tho University where I’ll be taking a few courses during the first two months there. These courses include intensive Vietnamese, a field study seminar and a natural and cultural ecology seminar. Considering my only background in foreign languages is Italian (oh and some fading skills of high school Spanish), I’m expecting the Vietnamese course to be a pretty entertaining experience. The final month of my semester will be spent working on my independent study project (ISP), during which I’ll be able to extensively pursue a topic of my choice. Last week I found out that only seven others are participating in the program, all of whom I will meet for the first time in L.A. for our group flight to Hong Kong. After a long 13 hours or so, we’ll board one last plane for a shorter flight to Ho Chi Minh City. After orientation in the City we’ll move down to Can Tho where I’ll meet my homestay family with whom I’ll be spending the following two months.

As much as I’ve read about the program and the areas in which I’ll be living, I still have a lot of nervous excitement about traveling and being in an culture completely different from any I’ve previously experienced. In the meantime though I’m going on a mission to find at least 13 hours of new music to listen to and will hopefully find some motivation to start packing!