And so it begins...

So.... as April 16th, my trip to Jordan and Egypt this coming August are set in stone.

I will be traveling to Jordan on a WorldQuest volunteer project and will be there for two weeks. I will be living in Amman with a host family and working at a vocational school helping to teach english. I will be in Amman from August 16th through the 30th. WorldQuest so far has been incredible. At first, it seemed a little disorganized but that's just the website. Once I was registered and ready to go, I was contacted by the Africa and Middle East Correspondant, Stefanie, and she really put me at ease. They're amazingly friendly and seem to really want me to be happy on my trip. I really feel like I'm going to fit in well with this program. But, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

This whole trip kind of was a spur of the moment thing. I have been back and forth with the idea of studying abroad in Jordan for the past year. The idea of being in a new, strange country for a whole semester was a little bit too scary for me. So, when Trisha Mason, the study abroad coordinator at my school came up to me with the idea of a Quest, I really jumped at the chance. I figured I can use this experience to determine if I'll be ok to study there in the future. And Trisha is predicting as soon as I come home I'll be begging her to send me back. Hopefully.

In addition to going to Jordan I decided to take two days and fly into Cairo and do some sight seeing. It's a place I've always wanted to see and I may never again get the chance to be hanging around the Middle East so I took it. I'll fly into Cairo August 30th and be there until the 1st. I was a little nervous about going alone so my arabic professor, a fulbright scholar from egypt, is going to meet up with me and show me the sights. I get to see the real egypt with someone who knows it. I couldn't be more excited.

Anyway, I have a little more than 3 months before my big trip so now it's just little preparations. I've booked all my flights (which was a freakin ordeal and a half- apparently it's not easy to get flights into the middle east, go figure) and I've started doing some research on what to wear and how to do certain things. So, 3 months seems like a long way away. Right now, I'm not really afraid of doing this whole thing alone. I am a little scared of getting lost in the airport or something and being trapped in a foreign country, but i'm sure that's just from watching too many tom hanks movies. I know when it gets closer though, i'll start to feel the panic. But, this is what I want to do and i'm doing it. I can't believe I'm doing it, I usually talk big and make big plans but I rarely follow through. Maybe this will be the start of something. Wah. Who knows.

Keep you updated as things happen, if not... be back in August!!


PS.
Donate to my Quest through first giving and help me
be able to afford this little project! It'd be so helpful!!!!

http://www.firstgiving.com/marissagoestojordan

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