Those of you living outside the UK may have missed the ‘media storm’ surrounding the woefully shrunken economy and the effect it’s having on University admissions this summer but for the Brits among us it’s been impossible to escape! According to sources,  applications to UK Universities are up by 250,000, but with 6000 fewer places available than last year it is believed that up to 200,000 British students may miss out on their places, despite having secured the grades they required.
Ultimately this means lots of tears and tantrums and a …

So it’s been a couple months. You’d think I would have already gotten over the inevitable feeling of reverse culture shock, and we’d be on with life, right? Well, apparently not.  Even after two months of being at home, with friends, and being busy, Morocco seemed to invade my brain once more.  I was shopping in TJMaxx (one of my favorite shopping haunts) and out of the blue I was reminded of my host sister, and how much she would have loved some of the shirts and bags I had …

This is the last post I will write from Africa. On Saturday, I leave Côte d’Ivoire. I have a brief two day layover in Yaoundé, Cameroon (where I studied abroad last semester). Then it’s back to the USA – first Washington, DC, and then finally, finally home.
I’ve been in Africa for six and a half months. Time has been a strange thing – days feel like weeks but somehow the weeks accumulate quickly. Now that I have only days left, hours are slowing. I’m excited to get home to my …

Another stunning day on Zanzibar island. It’s so hot today — about 36 degrees I think — and the sea is so warm it’s like getting in a bubble bath…not very cooling but still one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen! After cooking in the sun for a good few hours we decide to take cover at a local restaurant for lunch which makes their own pizza…..amazing!
On our way up to Eric’s shop everyone wants to stop and chat as they’re so chilled and it  ends up taking …

Thank goodness! I have somehow managed to get through the 10 hour coach journey from Arusha to Dar (from one side of Tanzania to the other). After arguing with a man who I thought was trying to run off with my luggage for about 15 minutes, me and my Friend Fran get in to one of the million taxis and head to a hotel for the night. Cant wait for the morning to get to Zanzibar!
Yawn…I get woken up at 6:30am by the guy working at the hotel. He has …

It was the end of a long day. I’d spent several hours bouncing around in the back of a van as we drove through rural Côte d’Ivoire. We’d spent the day in meetings with community leaders in preparation for a “day of solidarity” to take place that weekend celebrating the achievements of that community in mediating land conflict. After our last meeting my co-workers and I went out to get dinner. As usual, I was the only woman in the group, and one of only a few women in the …

In February I wrote an article about being a Stay Girl, or rather, a woman with a Go Girl mentality who is, for one reason or another, in one location for a period of time. Perhaps it is her job to stay put while someone else is out experiencing an adventure.
In my case, I became a Stay Girl when my boyfriend, Marvin, deployed to Afghanistan in January and I was still jobless in Washington, D.C. So I was at home battling the flag-sewing military wife stereotype while he was busy …

When I entered the makeshift conference room armed with only a list of questions (carefully translated into French) and recording equipment, I felt a moment of panic at the sight of the assembled community leaders and members. I cleared my throat and began, “Good morning and thank you…” the faces staring at me changed from expressions of amused curiosity to confusion. “Your accent,” whispered one of my co-workers who was along to help me. “It’s too strong.” He addressed the room, “She’s American, I’ll help translate.”
Forty minutes later, I had …

The day had finally come; I was leaving South Africa and heading back to the States. I was anxious, I was excited, I had a whole lot of unknown lying ahead of me. The last time I had lived in Africa I had a pretty awful time re-adjusting to life in the States, as I am all to sure my parents and friends remember. I boarded the plane at Johannesburg airport sure that I was making the right decision to go home, but bracing myself for impact.
The transition back into …

As a true, purebred American, I know my country’s place in the sports world. We do football, we do basketball, we do baseball. We even mix a little tennis and golf in there from time to time. And hey, around Olympics time if our own countrymen overwhelmingly excel at a sport that is not so much our thing, say swimming or even hockey, then we will get behind our comrades in full force. But then there is soccer, which in the good old US of A is not exactly our …