The beginning

This week is the beginning of a new year.
Today is the beginning of my 21st year. Happy Birthday to me.
Though my African adventure doesn't begin until the 14th of January, I am already preparing for the year ahead.
This marks the official start of my African travels blog. For those of you who don't know what I plan to be up to, I will give you a short road map. For the first 3 months (from January 15th until April 24th) I will be studying in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. This is a program that is affiliated with my school, Lewis and Clark College. There are 11 students going from LC and all 4 classes will be taught in French. We will take History of Senegal, Contemporary Senegalese Society, History of Islam in Senegal, and Wolof (the largest ethnic group among many and a useful native language.) We will stay with host families and travel as a group all over the country during our stay.
After that, I plan to travel with a good friend from high school named Michael. Our tentative travel plans will take about 4 months beginning in Senegal in May, traveling through Mali and Ghana by train and then flying to South Africa. From there we plan on seeing some of the World Cup before continuing our travels through Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Tanzania to Kenya by ground transportation, meaning by train or bus. We plan to end up in Kenya in August.
After traveling, I am going to take a semester off from study and get some experience in International Affairs (my chosen major). This means finding some volunteer or internship opportunity in Africa, hopefully in western Africa. I hope to volunteer for 3 months before returning to the United States on December 14th of 2010. After that, I will have 1 semester left at Lewis and Clark, allowing me to graduate in the spring of 2011.

So, that is the plan. I have a little over a week left in Boise and I plan to celebrate tonight in style. Also, go Broncos for I will surely be watching the Fiesta Bowl in a bar with Liz and my parents. Happy birthday Dad and Grandpa Norm by the way. We all share a birthday and we are each 31 years apart. January 4th is a good day for the Lodal family.
I hope to keep you all updated over the next 11 months. And I would also like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and an awesome 2010!