Here goes nothing...

"But why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?" - Jack Kerouac

Hello friends, family, and acquaintances who have wound up here via Faceboook or AIM- stalking (yeah.. I read your away messages too)! I have decided that writing a blog next semester, or should I say a little over three weeks from now(!!!!!), is the best way to keep in touch with everyone while I am in Cape Town. Rather than flood your inbox with mass emails that you may or may not want to read, I will try to update this blog as regularly as possible with a recap of what exactly I am up to and what I am thinking and feeling.

For those of you who don't already know, I will be studying at the University of Cape Town in South Africa from January 31st to June 16th. I will be living in the Rosebank area of the city, which is close to the University, in a house with two or three other international students. Apparently lots of other international students will be living in the area, so that should be fun. In addition to taking classes, I hope to volunteer, either in the townships just outside of the Cape Town, or at an orphanage that some of my other friends have worked in. We shall see, we shall see.

All of this "we shall see" and "I hope to..." is very nerve-wracking at this point. Uncertainty is not something that I cope well with. I am most satisfied when I have a plan and am working to make it happen, and right now, that is simply impossible. Most of the details of my life in Cape Town, from what classes I will take to who I will be living with to how I will keep in touch with everyone in the US to what I will be doing in my free time won't settled until I arrive. Sitting in my basement of my house in Pittsburgh googling "things to do in Cape Town" or "7 Christow Road Rosebank" isn't providing many answers.

But maybe, just maybe, all of these questions without answers are a valuable part of this experience. After all, one of the many reasons that I decided to go abroad was because I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and push myself to lighten up and just let life unfold around me. I'm starting to realize that in order to be comfortable and happy this semester, I'm going to have to learn to just go with the flow. As it is written in Big Vito-ism #347, "Everywhere you go, you take yourself with you." And, not to be all cheesy, but this is my blog so I guess I can be as cheesy as I want, I am trying as hard as I can to take my very best self with me.

Lucky for my inner-anal rententive lunatic, some planning is possible. I have begun to slowly organize my piles of crap that I moved from my apartment after finals and to itemize all of the things that I need to get done before I go. I have really just started my preparations this weekend. I went back to DC to go to a Giants game with Christian and to celebrate New Years with him, my lovely Katie, and some of our other friends. It was an absolutely FANTASTIC time with much debauchery and was a fabulous way to ring in 2007. It also made me realize how much I will truly miss my friends in DC next semester.

But now, getting down to business. I was absurdly productive today, considering that my usual activities while at home consist of eating too much, drinking too much coffee, and vegging out in from of Sex in the City reruns on On-Demand. I ran some errands for my brother Andrew's birthday tomorrow, bought a power transformer/converter/electirical thingy that probably won't work, and continued my on-going cleaning project. I also went to the bank and ordered $300 worth of South African currency, the rand, to get me started once I arrive. Simply ordering the money was pretty funny. When I told the teller what I wanted, she was very suprised and asked me why I wanted to go to "a place like that." I just said that it was something I had never experienced before and that I probably would never get to if I didn't do it in college, and she dropped it at that, after informing me that I was ordering what PNC Bank considers an "exotic foreign currency" and I would be charged accordingly. Superb.

Her question, however, reminded me once again how lucky I am to have this opportunity. I would be naive (and incorrect) to assume that there are tons and tons of people that I know here in Pittsburgh or in Washington who would love to go to South Africa next semester. It's a beautiful country and has so many wonderful things to offer, but I know that it wouldn't be everyone's first choice, and that is okay. Different strokes for different folks. But the majority of people I know have never had the chance to go abroad for a semester period. I think that this too will be an important thing to remember. I am extremely lucky to have this opportunity, just as I have been extremely lucky to have so many other opportunities in life. I think that sometimes, at AU, where it seems like everyone has traveled to more exotic, fascinating places than I have or ever will, it is easy to lose sight of this fact and to take this experience for granted. It's definitely a privilege, not a right (Big Vito-ism #573).

I picked up Cat's Cradle last night from the enormous pile of books that is precariously stacked in front of my bedroom door. This pile is right next to the clear plastic bin overflowing with clothes that didn't fit in high school and DEFINITELY don't fit now. Anyway, rereading books that I love is one of my favorite things to do. There is nothing more comforting and nothing with more power to transport me back into the past than sifting through familiar words on crinkled pages, squinting to read old notes in pencil in the margins or to detect underlining and highlighting. I was captivated, as I am every time I read over it, by Bokonon's last rites ritual and its simple wisdom. My favorite quote seemed even more relevant now than ever before:

"The only way that I can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn't even get to sit up and look around. I got so much, and most mud got so little."

Lucky me. Lucky mud.