Catching up on what hasn't begun

And the countdown begins...

On August 24th I'll be starting my semester abroad in Mongolia with the School for International Training (SIT). I've been wanting to write a pre-departure post for some time now, but it's been a bumpy and busy summer. Better late than never though, eh?

I had originally planned on a semester in Vietnam with SIT studying the ecology of the Mekong River Delta. Come early June, I had applied, been accepted and been busy preparing for the coming semester. Then I received a heartbreaking email: "We regret to inform you that your program has been canceled." Only two other people had been accepted into the Mekong program and I guess the semester wasn't worth it for just the three of us. My options were to apply to a different university independently, switch to another program within SIT or cancel my semester abroad altogether and spend another fall in Ithaca. As much as I love a Northeastern autumn, my housing, anticipated coursework and overall mentality were set on a semester abroad.

After a day of woe I decided I would find another SIT program. None seemed as good as Vietnam, but after eliminating programs with language prerequisites and less than thrilling program topics I found what I wanted--Mongolia: Culture and Development. Copious amounts of phone calls, emails and paperwork secured my spot in the program's fall semester and since then I've been busy re-preparing.

I'm freshly inoculated with five immunizations, my passport is now home to a Mongolian student visa, my 22-hour airline travel itinerary has been set and I'm now busy packing and reading. Our program director, Ulzii Bagsch, made her first contact with us students sending a tentative schedule of the program in addition to an intimidating reading assignment for the time allotted. I'll spend my first days with my urban host family in Ulaanbaatar acquainting myself with the city and learning the language (anticipating Vietnamese as my new language study, I admit that I know very little Mongolian right now, but this summer I taught myself to read Cyrillic and have learned a few key phrases).

This week I finish up my summer internship with the E.L. Rose Conservancy of Susquehanna County, stuff my belongings into the basement of my spring semester abode and say goodbye to Cornell (for awhile). On the 16th, I'll be departing for Dallas where I'll spend my last six days with my dad, stepmother and grandmother. The action-packed week will consist of last minute packing, strawberry-rhubarb pie baking (as per request by my father), reading, reading, reading and some nice family time. I'll depart the 22nd on a red-eye out of Dallas and my semester abroad will officially begin when my Air China International flight touches down in Ulaanbaatar two "days" later.

You can follow my travels on this blog and catch some other highlights from the links at left. Here's to my last two weeks.