The downside of blogging after everyone else, is that most everything already gets covered. As the others discussed, we had a busy yet adventurous day in London, taking a double decker bus tour as well as a river tour taking many pictures along the way. And of course a jet-lag filled day of touring the city wouldn't be complete without a few people falling asleep on the Tube. As Jeremy mentioned in his blog, there was a cute little boy sitting a row ahead of us on the flight from London to Nairobi. His enthusiasm, free spirited attitude, and his curiosity got me even more excited about the trip and working with the Art of Conservation.

We are now preparing to go from Nairobi to Kigali this afternoon where we plan to have lunch and rest as well as meet with members of the Great Ape Trust at the Mille Colline. At the moment things are calm and we are all resting in the Nairobi airport. Virginia taught us a Rwandan folk song that we will teach to the children. We might need a little more perfecting before we debue. Well that's my input for now; I will hopefully have fresh information to contribute in my next blog.

Blogging.....from Africa

After a bit of a delay in Chicago, we finally made it to London. We ended up only an hour and a half off schedule. We were lucky enough to still have time to spend touring the historic city. We jumped on the tube (don't worry, we minded the gap) and headed to downtown. Virginia led us to a church where we ate lunch in the basement which also served as a crypt. After lunch, we boarded a double decker (but convertible) bus and took in the sights. We chose a busy day to be in London as it happened to be the same day as the running of the London Marathon. Most of us chose to not run the marathon however Virginia and Alicia could have kept up with them while they were looking for a restroom. ;-)

We loaded back onto the tube, along with everybody else and their dog, and headed back to the small city otherwise known as London Heathrow Airport. A couple members of our team tried sleeping while standing on the tube but luckily were saved by some empty seats. During our ride we had a nice chat with a college professor from Australia who wished us luck on our mission.

After checking through security again, we boarded a Kenyan Airlines plane and waited for departure. A super cute, super funny boy sat ahead of me and kept me entertained throughout the flight. We landed in Nairobi, Kenya a little before dawn and made our way to a transit lounge. We managed to find a wireless Internet connection and put together an adapter set up to keep the computer charged. After a few hour layover we will be off to Kigali, Rwanda!!!! Until then........stay posted.

A Tale of London from Africa

Hello from a rainy Nairobi, Kenya! We arrived around 6AM and our next flight does not board till noon (we are 8 hours ahead of Iowa). London was really cool! We ate lunch in a church crypt turned into a cafe. After lunch we took a double decker bus tour where we, of course, sat on the open top. James Bond was filmed in London in case you didn't know, which we were made aware of at pretty much every other building. Evidently they filmed all over the city. We got off to check out Buckingham palace which wasn't as elaborate as I expected it to be. And we didn't even see the gaurds with the fuzzy hats:(. The London marathon was going on so there were tons of people and you would occasionally see a runner with a medel that signified they had finished the 26 mile race! Ah! I don't think I could run the first mile! :) We also got to see London bridge, the tower bridge, the London tower, and, when on our boat tour on the river Thames, Big Ben. We pretty much got to see all the major sites of London within our 10 hour layover (it would have been 12 but our flight out of Chicago kept getting delayed every 20 min because of weather). Highlights of London for me: a truck that was a bubble machine because it blew bubbles out of the front of it as it drove and the bus tour took us onto Fleet Street! Yeah Sweeny Todd! Next stop is Kigali, Rwanda! Much love from Kenya!

AHHHH!!! WE'RE FINALLY HERE!!!!

Can't believe today is the day!!! We're on our way to...Africa! I loved going on my last Walmart runs and telling people we're going to AFRICA! Their expressions were priceless :) This morning I woke up about 6:00 to make a bulletin board for my first-year girls. It was a great visual of our journey!! I'll have to up-load the pictures when I get back! Leaving Indianola was hard because I was saying goodbye to friends, my boss, my dorm-room, and my amazing dorm-life experience I've had the last two years. Said goodbye to my parents over the phone and it was nice to hear their voice for one last time. I know we'll be thinking about each other over the next three weeks.

The Des Moines airport was kind of stressful trying to check-in all our bags but we got it done! Yay!! The flight over to Chicago wasn't bad, rainy, but it was nice to be back in a plane! I slept the whole way, I guess planes make me sleepy, well and a rainy day. I sat by a nice woman who was on her way to Washington. She was stressed out trying to catch her next flight in 15 min! Hope she made it in time.

The Chicago airport was huge! So many people with so many accents and styles! I loved all the little shops and fancy foods along the way! Shannon enjoyed a Chicago style hotdog! Go Shannon, those are the best! We all relaxed at a food court and Shannon started her journal with her sharpies! She's recording our trip in pictures! Oh how exciting! I really loved the details of the airport and I was took it all in--Hah! We haven't even made it to London, let alone AFRICA yet!!!!! Oh I can not wait!!! We rode these escalators--but they were flat, i guess so if you're running a little late! They were amazing! There were these escalators that had these sweet deal lights on them! I can't describe them to you, making another group member can :P

Unfortunately, because it's raining we're delayed which is cutting into our London time. All well, we're entertaining ourselves!
Stay tuned :)
~Alicia

My First Blog

Here we are, sitting in O'Hare with our flight delayed... It's been an interesting day hanging out in airports. I'm excited to move on to London and eventually Rwanda, but this delay isn't so bad; I get to text my family :) We have just realized that Virginia is on the ball, she has already thought ahead on where we will store our luggage while we are touring London. Not much else to blog about now. Hopefully, the rain will stop soon and we'll be on our way.

Here we go!
We are sitting in the Chicago airport right now waiting for our next flight to London! We have a 12 hour lay-over there so we will be touring the city! I'm excited for London, don't get me wrong, but I'm so anxious for Rwanda that I wish we were just going straight there! So far our adventures include a t-shirt in the Des Moines airport that reads, "not everything is flat in Iowa" and roaming around the Chicago airport on the moving walkways in search for hot dogs and smoothies. Mission accomplished in case you were at the edge of your seat wondering :)

The Big Day

It's 7:49 a.m.... I just rolled out of bed 15 minutes ago and what am I doing?... Surfin' the web. I didn't get to bed until about 12:15 because I was still packing. Packing for Africa is one of the hardest things to do. You don't know if you are packing to go camping or packing to go sight-seeing. I have figured its a little bit of both! My packing process atleast a good two hours and that was even with my mom helping! I know I'm probably taking way too many clothes and toiletries but you never know what's going to happen and what's going to be available!

This is the furthest away from the US I have ever been and surprisingly I'm not nervous! I am so excited... minus the two day trip to get there!! No worries though... I've packed my traveler's pillow, I-pod and my DMMO music that I have to memorize by the time I get back!... oh and don't forget the Dramamine!

Yesterday we had a packing party which was a lot of fun! Virginia bought some awesome pizzas and we ate and talked to Virginia's friend who taught us some useful Kinyarwandan phrases! After eating we began our packing process that I thought would take hours... only took about a half hour! Some many people contributed to our school supplies drive that we almost couldn't pack it all! In the end we came out with 7 huge duffel bags filled to the brim with notebooks, t-shirts, frisbees, and lots of crayons!!

While I know that Africa will be amazingly beautiful, the thing that I am most excited about is learning about an entirely different culture and being able to give my service to those who will really appreciate it.

Next stop Africa!!

One week...

So I figured that I would be the first to write a post.....so here it goes.

First off, welcome to our blog! This is my first time blogging so please don't expect fireworks to go off after you finish reading this.
Today marks the one week countdown until we leave for Rwanda, Africa. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to this trip and how excited I am. The thought of leaving has been in the back of my mind for the most part due to other school business. This week is finals week and I have been busy preparing for those and other wonderful end of the year stuff.
But now the time has come to begin thinking about what to take and how to pack it!! We are allowed to take 2 bags weighing 50 lbs. each plus a carry-on. Each one of us is using one of the 50 lbs. bag to take things with us to leave there for those who are less fortunate. We all have been gathering stuff like shoes, school supplies, and games to leave with families. We will be there for almost 3 weeks and will be doing a wide range of activities from working in the rain forest, to helping in the schools, to taking safari and gorilla treks.
A few weeks ago, I went to the county health department to receive all the necessary vaccinations and even some malarial pills......yum! Now it is down to packing, working out and gathering a few more donations. But of course, there is voice and piano juries, a recital audition, 5 finals, my education portfolio, and my student teaching application which will all be done before I leave........in one week.