Molweni, or ‘hello’, in Xhosa!
I am Melissa Peterson and I am a sophomore studying geography here at Penn State! I am getting so excited as the countdown progresses to January 16th, aka the day I leave Philadelphia for Cape Town, South Africa! My small group of PSU professors and students is starting there to begin our traverse of the eastern Cape!
There are about fourteen of us students on this trip, and after meeting a few times in the Walker Building, we’re establishing a great group dynamic. Some of us students have also gotten together outside of these meetings and I definitely think we’ll get along well. We’re all bringing in extremely diverse backgrounds, from the military, from other study abroads and internships. The range of majors is everywhere from geography to film to biobehavioral health to history to statistics to meteorology (sorry, I’ve left out a few). It will be fascinating seeing how our interdisciplinary group projects progress as we set out on this journey.
A little more about me, since you’ll be hearing a lot from me this semester. I’m in my second year at Penn State, but I’ve seen a few different angles of the school. I started out as a freshman in meteorology, but after figuring out that my passions lie more….spatially (excuse the geography puns!)…I switched to Physical/Environmental Geography after my first semester, picking up another option in Geographic Information Systems (like your GPS). I am also doing minors in Climatology and African Studies (thanks to this coming semster). I have been loving my geography classes, and become more of a geek on a daily basis, so expect to hear and learn lots of geography-related vocabulary on this blog!
After my first year, I did the inaugural Maymester voyage with Semester at Sea, another study abroad program. In 26 days, we visited the Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize. I learned so much and came away with a lot of service learning background that I think will be useful on this semester in South Africa. We did a lot of community work and really delved into what it means to be a Global Citizen. If you’re interested in my explorations from that trip, I will happily enclose a link to that blog at the end of this post!
Aside from Penn State and Semester at Sea, I would also like to bring up my previous travels. I am no newbie to seeing the world, checking off over thirty states, thirty countries, and all seven continents (yes, even Antarctica). Needless to say, travel is a huge part of my life, and has shaped much of who I am. I have a tendency to look at the world on a more global scale, as opposed to a singularly American perspective.
My hometown is Doylestown, Pennsylvania, which is 45 minutes north of Philly in the beautiful Bucks County. For reference, pull out the history books and flip the the revolutionary war: I live right near Washington’s Crossing (famous for GW crossing the Delaware river on Christmas). It’s also five minutes from New Hope, or fourty-five minutes south of Easton, PA. If you ever get a chance, it’s a cool county to go leaf-peeping or on a colonial history adventure!
On a more personal level, I like to read, write, draw, play Mah Jongg and Words with Friends, and hang out with my friends from home and school. One thing I will miss on this upcoming adventure is my family. It’s one thing to go to school 3 1/2 hours away from home, but 3 plane rides and 17 hours across the Atlantic in opposite hemispheres for 10 weeks, could potentially be a shock to my system. I think as a group we will figure out how to overcome any homesickness though, and become somewhat of our own family.
So excited to write more in the future once the program gets started.
Until then:
hamba kakuhle,
Melissa
The link to my SAS blog: http://meliofthesea.tumblr.com/ Enjoy 🙂
Location: Irvin Hall, University Park, PA 16802