"African't" Wait!!!!!

GOODMORNING WORLD....
Coming to you live from my bed at 2:42 AM where I am still hopelessly awake for some odd reason unknown to man... I have a 7:30 class tomorrow (or should I say today) so this is no bueno! Since I apparently won't be sleeping, I thought I'd just blog a bit and tell you a few things about my upcoming trip to the other side of the world.


The course I'm taking is called Conservation and Management of African Mammals. We are actually starting lectures this Wednesday - I'm excited but of course I have yet to start my readings (classic Erin). And then, on May 11, we leave for South Africa! I'll tell you more about our journey there later - the travel from here to there is insane, as would be expected. In the course, we will explore conservation and issues of large mammals in South Africa and compare these issues to North America. Much of this involves chemical and mechanical game capture techniques, some of which we get to watch! I'm not sure if we get to partake in them, and I'm kind of hoping we don't... I sure as hell do not trust myself with wrangling up a stampede of wildebeests with a tranquilizer gun or wrestling a crocodile in a monsoon Jumanji style (this is probably an exaggeration... or is it? Who's to say...) The course also includes learning about the rehabilitation and release of endangered animals into the wild! This is the part that I am most excited for!
p.s. An embarrassing side note: my teacher told us that in the course, we would learn how to safely capture small African mammals. Me, being the inquisitive soul that I am, asked her if she was talking about "field mice and stuff." She looked at me like I was crazy and informed me that no, a small mammal in Africa was a wildebeest or antelope or even a lion. You think everything's bigger in Texas? NO, everything's actually bigger in Africa!

I'm super excited about this trip for too many reasons to count, but some of the main ones include:
1. It's a personal goal of mine to visit all 6** continents before I die, and I can't believe that I'm able to check off Africa at such a young age! **I don't think I could handle Antarctica. Don't want to end up like Sir Ernest Shackleton and have to traverse the globe in a lifeboat after my ship inevitably freezes into place. Also the only real perk would be penguin sightings and I can just visit them in the Galapagos instead! Or just watch March of the Penguins (spoiler alert: do not watch this movie unless you are prepared for an emotional roller coaster).
2. Learning about rehabilitating endangered species! There's a lot of things that I could do with my bio major, but I would LOVE to go into some kind of conservation and specifically save an endangered species. Then probably get a tattoo of that species on my ass hahaha. But all jokes aside I can't wait!
3. Experience a different culture! My Grandma and Aunt went on a safari in Africa a few years ago (I know, go g-ma you're killin' it!) and everything that she told me about African culture was so intriguing! I don't want to say too much about it here - I'll let you in on my experiences after I experience them! There was one thing that she did stress over everything else, however: DO NOT SETTLE FOR THE ASKING PRICE. Always haggle with the vendors, they want you to! I'm planning on tuning up my haggling skills on Neopets before I go (most of you probably won't understand this but for those who do I'm only half kidding).
4. Making new friendships and experiencing crazy and amazing things with these people! To quote the great J.K. Rowling, "There are some things you can't share without liking each other, and knocking out a fully grown mountain troll is one of them." (Sub in tranquilizing a fully grown lion for knocking out a fully grown mountain troll.) There are 7 students going on the trip total, and 2 professors. Later on, I might do some character profiles baseball card-style so you can get to know them.

That's all for now, folks! It is now 3:28 AM and I'm going to *attempt* to hit the hay again... wish me luck!