Wow! Six months in waiting, and I am finally off to Kenya today. I am so excited, but it feels a little odd because there is a void when I think of tomorrow. My past realization of Africa and my imaginings of the coming two months have come to a cliff where they will jump into being; this enormous part of my future has become the present, and it feels strange knowing I am going to apply day-to-day living to a dream I have always had. But I think I'm ready to jump in!

I have never kept a blog before; I apologize if it is an awkward read. My writing is currently going through a crisis, trying to find its place between its natural verbosity and the new concision of the science world in which I am being trained. Journal writing is something I have only ever done for myself, and I am entirely nervous writing for an audience, even if that audience is only a select few family and friends.

My plane leaves from Detroit at 7:30 tonight for an 8 hour flight to Amsterdam. I will meet up with two of the other girls going on the trip, Aureila (from Montana State) and Adriana (from Arizona State), and from Amsterdam we will fly another 8 hours to Nairobi, Kenya, where we will meet Janie (from Harvard) and be picked up by Professor Kay Holekamp, the "hyena lady". :-) As Jane Goodall would say in highest praise of an event in her letters home, it is going to be MAD. And hopefully my reputation as a pretzel contortionist on airplanes will hold up so that I can get some sleep.

Kwa heri (goodbye), Michigan! See you in August.