Welcome

First of all, welcome to my blog!

As many of you know, I was very fortunate to be accepted to study abroad in South Africa with 29 other students in the spring of last year. The excitement for this trip has been building for close to nine months now. I will be boarding my flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul on January 31st with Margaret, Norby, and Sarah. We will be meeting many of the other students in Washington D.C. prior to the remainder of the flight through both through Dakar, Senegal and Johannesburg, South Africa before arriving in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Port Elizabeth (PE) will become our home for the entire spring semester. We will all be enrolled in Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) for the duration of our time there.

I am currently on the Saint John's campus for my winter internship with the hospital, eagerly awaiting campus move-in day so I can see friends, especially those who have been abroad. It's been very quiet around here. My internship will continue through the first week of school, and so I'll be hanging around for the weekend to see everyone. That weekend however, will also be a weekend of permanent goodbyes for friends who will be graduating in the spring, and temporary goodbyes to those I won't see until summer or fall 2012.

For the most part, many goodbyes have already been said to the majority of my family. I had the opportunity to say goodbye to all of my siblings Kelsey, Ryan, Karis, and Eleanor-- who I saw in passing for a few minutes in the airport as my dad and I were arriving to see my grandpa and extended family, while my siblings were on their home. It was good to see my extended family, especially my grandpa Robert Jones, who has had some concerning health complications. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

For now, I am looking forward to this weekend to hang out with Steph and Omar, and to also take a trip to see Will in North Dakota with Joey and Bob.

Cheers,
Isaak

A few side notes:
-If you would like to be notified with an email when I post, look on the right hand side of the screen. There is a little box which will provide some very simple instruction on how to do so. It's safe, so feel free.
-Also, I'll be sure to get my Skype name, street address, and other contact information up here in the near future