Application Status: Done

Woo! No more applications! I just sent in all of the contracts for my Morocco application today. All I needed was a signature from the study abroad office and it took a week for it to finally happen. But it is all done! No more applications!! Well, for now anyways. I also got my t-shirt and first packet from USAC for India and I should get my housing assignment soon.

It is all becoming more real, but still really far away. I leave for Morocco (hopefully!) in 6 months and four days (186 days) and I leave for India in 10 months and 12 days (316 days). Too long!! I want to go now!! However, if you talk to me in 6 months I'll probably be whining about how I need more time and want to leave later... C'est la vie!

Bon Voyage,

Erika America

Divided by Partition, United by Language?

So, I found out a very interesting fact recently. Did you all know that Hindi (the national language of India) and Urdu (the national language of Pakistan) are essentially the same language? They come from the same spoken language but split off because Hindi uses an alphabet based on Sanskrit and Urdu uses a Persian-based alphabet. It all has to do with linguistic influences in the classes. As much as I've looked into India and Pakistan, I never knew that. It is so helpful! I've wanted to work in India and Pakistan for a while now and if I learn Hindi, combined with my knowledge of the similar Arabic alphabet, I can communicate in Urdu as well. How convenient! What I thought was really amazing is that the only language that can be used to communicate with more people is Mandarin. If I work hard and get at least a solid knowledge of Hindi while I'm in Bangalore, I will be able to communicate with over a billion people! How cool is that!!

Okay, I'm done for the night. I just wanted to share that fact with all of you. The more you know...

Passport Photos

Has anyone ever taken a good passport photo? I don't seem to have any luck. My original passport picture makes me cringe. I was 16, 15 pounds heavier, I had a spray tan left over from a pageant, and a zit. It is a time in my life that no one wants to remember. So, this time I thought it would be different. I had to get another picture taken to send in with my contracts for India. I made sure that my hair looked good and my makeup was done and thought it would be okay. Of course not... The camera that the woman used is one of those that takes forever to take a picture. I smiled, she pressed the button. The shutter closed, I dropped my smile, and the flash went off. So my picture is me with this weird smile that kind of looks like I'm puckering my lips while trying to smile. Not very flattering. Oh well...
On the bright side, I'm not horrified by this one. Instead of feeling embarrassed, every time I see the new picture I can't help but laughing. What a dork! I think we are all destined to take horrible ID photos so I might as well accept it and laugh at myself.

Welcome

اهلاً وَ سَهلاً

Welcome everyone!!! I am Erika and I am leaving America. I am a student at Seattle University and next year I am planning on spending a semester in Meknes, Morocco and a semester in Bangalore, India. I knew I wanted to write a blog after leaving, but I've decided to start early. For one, I just really don't want to wait until September to start writing and I don't have any other topics to write about. Also, I thought it would be interesting to write about my entire experience studying abroad. For any of you who have never studied or traveled abroad before, it is a long process. There are a lot of steps and a lot of emotions behind the entire process. So, I want to share my experience with all of you from the very beginning. The excitement, the applications, the panic attacks, the culture shock, and everything else that might come my way. Hopefully my journey will inspire some of you to travel abroad and give you all some advice along the way! Yay!