Hit the Month Mark Last Week

Hi everyone!!

It's been a long time since I've been able to justify coming onto my blog to write another post. Wifi access is incredibly limited and expensive, so I limit computer use to mostly turning in assignments, e-mails, and searching for internships for the summer. However, I've just discovered that the Sheraton in Apia allows for an hour of free internet access! So here I am, in the lobby of the Sheraton in Apia trying to figure out the best way to summarize my time so far in Samoa so that I can delve a little deeper for those reading this next time I find myself here.

To start, my group and I live in a dorm on the University of the South Pacific at Samoa campus. We attend classes at USP and lectures at the National University of Samoa, and are constantly "in the classroom" through having very little interactions that resemble those common to us as people from the United States. I hope to be able to add pictures soon, it is beautiful here.

I look forward to updating this more and talking about my village stay, learning the language, the trip I'm about to have to Savaii, and so much more!

Hope everyone is doing well wherever you are in the world- stay strong, loud, and persistent

Stitching in the Pages

I'm currently sitting in my bed at the hostel I've been staying at in Hawaii since the beginning of my orientation attempting to reflect on the past week in Honolulu/Manoa. Music and people from my program are talking outside and I can very genuinely say that I am extremely excited for what's about to come.

We'll be stepping on the airplane to Samoa tomorrow night at 10:00 Hawaii time to arrive in Samoa early the next morning and across the international date line (which means I'll be a day ahead of everyone in the US).

What started off as an experience that reminded me too much of the start of my program in Costa Rica, it's already become it's own through, quite honestly, amazing lectures, incredibly genuine and interested people, and unbelievable opportunity. As if gaining a life of it's own, this program of study abroad in Samoa is already leaking qualities of one that will stitch its own pages and leave me in the dust if I deem myself unable to keep up (not going to happen).

Hawaii Orientation: This is Just the Beginning

Hi everyone!!

I want to quickly reintroduce myself as I, along with anyone who followed this blog while I lived in Costa Rica, am now about four years older than when we all last visited this URL. In addition to that, there may be some newcomers so a quick recap is due:

I was born in South Burlington, Vermont and grew up there through my sophomore year of high school. I proceeded to do a six month exchange program through AFS to live in Costa Rica and attend public school there for the first semester of my junior year of high school (That can all be read about in the posts below this one). While there, my family moved to Tennessee, and so the adventure continued! I attended Saint Andrews-Sewanee school for the remainder of my high school years and decided to go to Sewanee: the University of the South to receive my undergrad education. Traveling continued as I got a job waitressing in Yellowstone National Park after my freshman year, and did a 6 week intensive ecology research program this past summer on an island off of Georgia. Small trips were pursued here and there to satisfy that thing some refer to as the travel bug. 

Now, I am preparing to embark on a program with SIT studying Pacific Island Communities and Social Change for the semester. I'm writing this in a hostel in Hawaii where our orientation is and by February 4th (Samoa time, so February 3rd in the US), I'll be in Samoa starting classes with my program at USP (University of the South Pacific). 

That is a brief overview of my current situation and I promise my next post will be more interesting. Just thought i'd get the ball rolling while I had the chance!

Thanks for reading & I hope whoever is reading this sticks around!

pura vida,

Tieta