Hey Everyone!
My name is Riley and I am a sophomore at Penn State.  Next semester I will be livin life in Tanzania and Kenya, doing a wildlife study through The School For Field Studies. I am soooooo excited to start this semester, and my feet will be in Tanzanian soil in 1 month and 25 days! There’s still a lot to do before then, such as buy materials (binoculars and mud boots), pack (3+ months of my life in a suitcase) and leave detailed instructions for the girl moving into my room about how to take care of my roommate (she needs to be fed a steady supply of Chinese chicken). While I’m in Africa, I will try to describe my experiences with all of you, mostly through amusing stories (I’m one of those people that all the weird stuff happens to:)). I thought I’d start by telling you about the experience that led me to look for a study abroad program.

Over the summer, I was working as a waitress at a well-known restaurant in my hometown of Wyomissing, PA. I got to talking with one of my customers, and we discovered that we shared a love of travel. He then asked me if I could go anywhere in the world, where would I go? I told him I wasn’t really sure, but had always wanted to go to Kenya or Brazil. He told me that I should always have a definite answer, because you never know when you will get an unexpected opportunity. I smiled and told him he was right. As he was leaving he said “so Riley, where you gonna go?” and I replied “I’m going to Kenya!”. Five months later, here I am, counting the days until my plane takes off from New York. It still hasn’t really hit me that I’m actually going, but once I press my face up against that tiny little window and see the Atlantic Ocean beneath me, it probably will.

Oh and I have this crazy love for finding adventure. The picture below is about the only one I could find of me standing still! Hehe

Location: State College, PA