Meet the family Last weekend I moved in with my host family in Mahajanga, a coastal town where I’ll be staying for two weeks. This is the first of 3 homestays I’ll be doing as part of the SIT program. My host family is great. They all speak excellent French (as well as Malagasy), and …
Tag Archives: Biology
Madagascar Runs on Rice
Today is my third day in Tana, and it is absolutely beautiful. The first time I saw Madagascar out the plane window I couldn’t stop a smile from spreading across my face. The first thing that struck me was the intensity of the colours: the soil here is reddish brown (in fact for that reason …
Half way there!
On Saturday evening, my plane took off from the Detroit airport. After a layover in Amsterdam, my dad, my sister Melinda, and I arrived in Cape Town, South Africa without any complications. The flight itself was quite pleasant – we watched an absolutely ridiculous but very funny French movie, listened to some Dutch pop music, …
Predeparture: Enjoying the Snow and learning Malagasy
It’s finally starting to sink in: in two weeks time I’ll be in the air, on my way to Madagascar! My program only starts on the 30th of January, so I’m fortunate to have an extra 3 weeks of vacation to spend with my family. My sister Melinda attends the University of Stellenbosh in South …
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Winding Down?
In one week I’ll be done with the classroom portion of my time abroad… nuts! I’m staying in Europe for the majority of the summer to travel and volunteer a bit, and so ready for a change of pace and fresh adventure! Recently I had the opportunity to go to Paris! With all the …
Small Time Farming
So it’s been a while! But here is a quick recap of the research project (and other random adventures) that I did in the beautiful Pyrenees-Orientales of France! For my 10 day stay, I was with a host family in a tiny village in the middle of beautiful farm lands. Unlike typical midwest farmlands …
Village Study
I’m currently in the midst of a two week village study in an even more southern region of France! I’ve been quite busy and discovering a multitude of things, so I’ll do updates in installments as not to overwhelm. The first three days were with the whole program in the most beautiful city, Collioure. It’s …
Not-So-Everyday Happenings
Time is going so quickly, my mind is perpetually confused in some non-existent and illogical time frame. My french language classes are coming to a close this Wednesday (hooray!) and Thursday I leave for a two week home stay in the mountains!!! Near the ocean!!! And a only a day-hike away from Spain!!! I’ve been …
Okay, perhaps this photo is a bit deceiving as today we got snow in Toulouse, but a few short days ago this was life after classes, sun-bathing on the banks of the Garrone. Such bliss!!! I seem to have somehow entered a glorious place in my study abroad experience: the demands of the language are …
Weekend in Lot
Last weekend I went to the Lot, a department in the south of France, with my program. Lot personifies and surpasses all the cliché images that come to mind when you think of southern French countryside. When we first arrived we explored a prehistoric cave, bison and mammoth cave drawings and all! It was absolutely …
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