Single Digits y'all - 9 days!

Wow. Time is flying by. And of course I feel completely unprepared for leaving. So many questions and still so much to do. Leaving an apartment for 10 weeks and making sure that everything is taken care of is taxing. On top of that I'm still working at school, taking a directed study class, and trying to see friends and family before I leave.

This weekend I went home, my "real" home - Winnsboro, Louisiana. For some reason I thought that Louisiana was a lot closer to Birmingham...after 3 hours in the car, I was still in Alabama! Plugged the address into the GPS and discovered that it was 350 miles and 5 hours away!

I was only able to spend 48 hours at home, but I got to see and spend time with close friends and family. My great-grandma, Mrs. Mary W. Townsend,  is turning 100 on June 16th, and since I won't be here for her birthday celebration, I wanted to make sure to wish her a happy birthday. 100 years old! A century! She's seen a lot! Will I make it that long? Maybe so if I learn not to stress so much. My great-grandma grew up going to school and working in the fields. She led the singing at church on Sundays and spent her adult life raising two children. Maybe it's time to get serious about farming...after Ethiopia, of course.

Sleep..What's that?

Wow. I really do hope this insomnia that I'm suffering from ends soon. I thought it was related to my exams, but those are done, so I'm not sure what's going on with my body right now. It's like I just woke up. I've been making business calls and paying bills - it's amazing - the wait time is non-existent at 2:00 AM!

The exciting news today was that I was finally cleared to travel! So, I've gone ahead and reserved my plane tickets - my total cost for roundtrip travel will be $337.80 USD! That's what talking to representatives at Delta at 1:30 AM will get you! I need to find a countdown ticker for this blog so I can keep track of how much time I have left ( and convince myself that I need sleep in order to function to get it all done)!

Finals..check! Summer school...here we go!

I survived finals (miraculously), and the very next day I started a directed research study with one of my professors. I know, research, in a month, not possible. Well...it's not exactly research - it's exercise training. And it's gonna be a busy month! 

1 month to go!

I'm in the midst of finals, and instead of studying, I'm setting up this blog for my upcoming trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

A bit about me: I'm finishing up my first year at UAB ( Go Blazers!) in the MPH program. My concentration is Public Health Preparedness Management and Policy ( a mouth full, I know) and Global Health. As part of my program, we're required to complete an internship related to a public health issue. This summer I'm packing my bags and moving to Ethiopia to work with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on an HIV prevention program for migrant populations. And by migrant populations I mean, refugees, seasonal farmers, and commercial sex workers (CSW).