Tuesday, August 3, 2010

What is this?

I am Erica, a junior at Kalamazoo College in Michigan.  I'm about to embark on a six-month study abroad program in Dakar, Senegal (in west Africa).  I'll be taking classes, meeting people, doing an internship, writing a research paper (in French), learning a new language (Wolof), and staying with a host family.  I'll be leaving the country on September 5th, 2010, and returning in early March.

Keep checking in over the next 7 months to find out more about my adventures--I'll do my best to post regularly.

Here's some background into my college experience thus far:
I am in a circus club called Cirque Du K, where I do aerial silks, partner acrobatics, plate spinning, and fire eating.  I am double majoring in French and International and Area Studies with a focus on African studies.  I'm particularly interested in poverty reduction, and since I was sixteen I've been traveling to Washington, DC every summer to lobby for poverty reduction measures (particularly legislation improving healthcare for all, universal education, and microfinance).  I did a 4-week internship this summer at a farm in Kalamazoo.  I decided to leave early (the internship was supposed to be 6 weeks) because it was socially isolating and the farm was poorly run by people who were not farmers.

I guess that's all for now; I'll write later about some of my study abroad preparations and concerns.  Thanks for reading!

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