My flight for Dakar, Senegal leaves in 10 hours and I have just finished packing – truly I leave things down to the wire. I am incredibly excited to explore a new country and a new culture and can’t wait to meet my host family in just a couple of days but first I’m going to give you an overview of the past few months…
I spent the summer interning in Boston, visiting with friends and family, and generally unwinding from a busy sophomore year. I largely put off preparing for study abroad until August but have spent the past two weeks gearing up for 4 months in Dakar. The first step was to acquire appropriate clothing (namely knee length skirts and dresses) for the hot and humid climate in this more conservative environment. I owned significantly fewer acceptable pieces of clothing than I had first imagined, but after a little shopping, and some borrowing from my mother’s closet, I’m ready to dress the part. Next I attempted to purchase Senegalese bills at the local bank, only to learn that Bank of America does not carry the necessary West African currency (not a huge surprise, but I had high hopes). I also bought several gifts for my host family, including colorful candy, photo books of my hometown and a jar of maple syrup, so that I can bring them a bit of New England when I arrive. I’ve stocked up on enough essential toiletries to last me four months (I hope), did a quick goodbye tour of all things American that I will most miss while abroad – good pasta dishes, local ice cream, my favorite movies – and now have two small, very full, suitcases lying on my dining room floor.
In only a few hours I will be on a plane with the students I will be spending the next semester with, headed to a new (well, for me) continent. I’m nervous that it may take me a little while to acclimate to speaking French constantly, and I’m worried about wearing or saying the wrong thing, but I’ve heard wonderful things about the host families and the professors, and I can’t believe I even have the opportunity to study abroad in Dakar. I’m not entirely ready to leave my hometown just yet, but I know that it will seem like no time at all before I am back again, and that the experiences I will have while overseas will be unforgettable.
