Africa Update: T-1 Week!

Less than 6 days!! 

This past weekend was great & very long, which in all, was a good one. 
Saturday, was the big packing day! (Yes, I began & practically finished one week before my departure) Of course, in honor of Mother's Day on Sunday, my mom helped me pack, make sure everything was on & checked off the list, and ready to go. The day before, I ran errands to pick up the last few things I needed as gifts for my host family and toiletry items. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to make another trip to Wal-Mart while packing Saturday, but that never fails.

It took about three hours to pack my big suit case, fill 3 oz. bottles, my carry-on, and "purse" bag. I made sure to call Delta to ask the weight limit for an international flight & said 50 lbs. Any pounds over would be $200 fee. (WHOA!) So, while packing, my biggest concern was the weight since I was packing more liquids, a full jar of peanut butter & heavy items for my host family, that it would weigh over. To see how I was doing, I grabbed my scale and weighed myself. I stepped back on while holding my suit case and had my dad quickly look at the scale since I couldn't see the numbers and calculated that the bag weighed 48.6 lbs. That was still a little too close for comfort to actually rely on just my WW scale to tell me how much my bag weighed, so off to FEDEX Kinkos I went. I was pretty shocked to see that the scale at Kinkos showed 48.9 lbs, so my WW scale was pretty darn close!

That was a HUGE relief & could breathe just a bit easier. 

I still have a duffel bag and a towel to add in my suit case, but I'll be moving stuff around from my big suit case to my back pack so the weight won't differ. After these two items are packed, I should be ready to go!


Saturday night, my friend Rachel celebrated her birthday with the girls at Groovy's! We had a wonderful time dancing and people watching :)

Alli, Rachel, me, Quincee and  Beth

Yesterday, was a great day to celebrate Mother's Day with my wonderful mother & family. We all had dinner together at my sister's house and had a delicious meal, then we all played a hilarious game of"Wild Bore Hunt." I also started my Typhoid vaccination pills! These were the pills that must be kept refrigerated. There are four of them & are to be taken a week before I will be in the exposed area, so I should finish the vaccination by this Saturday.


This evening, my former PR Campaigns professor, Dr. Carstarphen (a.k.a. Dr. C) hosted an information session, in Gaylord Hall, that informed us about her trip she took last December. She shared some good advice for what we should expect in Ghana. (Side note: I was super excited to go tonight, for many reasons, but for one...I haven't stepped a foot into Gaylord since my graduation day. The good old blender, which is now my new degree building, is just nothing like Gaylord :(... ) Anyways, it was great to see Dr. C & meet some of the girls...AND GUY (yes, we were incorrectly informed that this is not an all female trip!)


The weekend I return is Father's Day weekend! My family's tradition for Father's Day is to head down to the lake and have a bit of R&R and well spent family time. I've already made the decision to head directly from the airport down to the lake when my parents pick me up. I know this will mean even more things to do (oh, like laundry!) and more time to wait to upload my photos, but it will be a much needed rest and family time. Yes, I already have another bag packed for my parents to grab on the way to the airport.

 

OU Expedition to Africa- Created by Paradigm PR :)

Anyways, I'm not sure if I'll have time to write again, or really have much to write about before I depart, but please keep me and the rest of the group in your thoughts and prayers. We are all so excited for our upcoming adventure. 


Love.