Visa, check. One week til take off!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog. I'll be updating here for the next two years while attending the University of Cape Town (UCT) and completing a Masters in Public Health (MPH).

The primary purpose of this blog is to keep in touch with friends and family back in the States. I will, thankfully, be living with one of my best friends and partner, Thomas, after spending three years in different countries. This is both of our first times living in Cape Town, so he'll be the only person I know there when I move. I'll certainly be missing you all!

If you followed my blog from when I was living in Durban and attending the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) for four months in 2007  ( you can read it here), you might remember that my posts came rather irregularly. I am following the lead of my friend Ashley whom did weekly updates while completing her Masters in England. Once I decide on a good weekly time in my new routine, I'll let y'all know when to expect posts. I should have fairly reliable internet to keep up.

The name of my blog came originally from reading one of my favorite quotes (from Rubyfruit Jungle), but it's coming to have a little more meaning for me. Sometimes I feel a little bit like a cliche--young American woman wanting to change the world, heading abroad to learn about HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa (HIV/AIDS won't necessarily be my focus, though I certainly have a strong interest in it). However, I like to think that this decision is being made for many good reasons and that I have my head on straight going into it. If I have time, I'll write another post this week about the "why" of going to UCT.

The list below my blog title (top of the page) summarizes what I plan on addressing on here. Admittedly, many of my posts might be quite mundane, just catching up. I hope to also reflect on what I learn about public health, the challenges of finding employment and a niche in the feminist scene, and of course my stumbling through South African culture. :) For Thomas' sake, I won't delve too deeply into our relationship on here, although I think addressing the joys and challenges of going from open long distance to living together is certainly an important piece of the next two years.

I'd like to have a bit of fun with this blog, so enjoy! To your right you can visit my virtual pet fish and below them is a little survey--answer it, why not! Comments are welcome on all posts. Anonymous comments are fine, but please put your first name at the end (if you're comfortable) so that I can think of you and respond!

My visa and passport finally returned home to me today, so it looks like after three years of thinking about it and eight months of intensely preparing for it, this is really happening. Here we go!