First Musings

You've made it! This is a little test to make sure my family, friends, and professors are paying attention.

To answer the question probably bouncing around in your head, I am spending my fall 2007 semester at the university in Hanoi, Vietnam instead of Hobart and William Smith Colleges. This is in order to spend time away from our supposed democracy and seek out some communism. Just kidding. I am going abroad in order to fulfill one of my internship components necessary for my minor in Peace Studies. The Vietnamese people, language, religion, and country are all about to become extremely important and equally as fascinating to me as well!

I'm not in Vietnam yet, though. In fact, I still have roughly two days before I say my goodbyes to the USA and board my first plane for many, many hours of flight. I have, however, had to leave most of my wardrobe behind already--any t-shirts that mention Jesus, peace, or the government have been left behind in storage in upstate New York or sent to Florida. Things like "Ask me about JESUS," "Save Darfur," and "Less war. More hockey." tend not to fly in comnmunist countries like Vietnam.

If this blog is going to be of use to anyone involved, I figure I must be as honest as possible (AHAP?).

I'm starting with the fact that I'm closing in on my last Wednesday in the states (for a while), and I am pretty sure that I have never been this nervous. I play extreme sports, skydive, eat bugs, and openly critisize the current administration and this is still alot more nerve-wracking than all of those risky behaviors combined.



I've spent the last few days in my own little world. Every mundane activity turns into a barrage of questions such as, "Laundry. How will that work in vietnam? If I can't drink the water, what will it do to my clothes? Will my charades version of 'washer for clothes' be good enough to get me pointed in the general direction of something other than a river?" At least I know there'll be American things such as Coke and McDonald's over there. What a comfort. Geez it's so hard to convey sarcasm in text.

So keep me in your thoughts and prayers until December, persist in your checking of my blog in order to be entertained with crazy antics and pictures, and EMAIL ME at caitlin.seadale@hws.edu.

Miss you all already! :)