Departure

There's nothing quite like that long-lasting stream of adrenaline that your body provides when you realize that it's midnight, you're not packed yet, and there's a bus waiting for you in the morning.

I was blessed with just such an experience two days ago, though, and now it's my hope that with this blog I'll be able to share the various streams of adrenaline, and conciousness, and bewilderment, and insight that are likely to accompany my coming semester abroad.

To blog or not to blog is always an interesting question. I decided that, though there may be lots of things I won't feel comfortable writing about on a blog, private email updates wouldn't make it much easier. The best stories will come in person - but the freshest ones will have to come here.

So, over the next four months IHP, Cities in the 21st Century will be taking me and thirty of my soon-to-be closest friends around the world:

• Two weeks in New York City, USA
• Five weeks in New Delhi, India
• Five weeks in Dakar, Senegal
• Five weeks in Buenos Aires, Argentina

For those of us who may be more visually inclined, here are pretty pictures of things that you might recognize in each of these countries. I've got a feeling that within a few weeks, I'll be kicking myself for posting these simplistic representations of countries while I'm supposed to be studying them in an "academically rigorous" way - but for now, I'm still allowed to plead ignorance. And I think the pictures will help people remember which places I'll be going...

The Taj Mahal - in Agra, not New Delhi

Senegal's national tree, the baobab

The Obelisco de Buenos de Aires (for whenever I start missing the DC mall)

I'm excited but it still feels surreal. So to make things feel a little more tangible, here are some nuts and bolts: enter your email address where it says "Follow me" below to get an update each time I post. For mobile users, you'll need to view the web version to do that.

Feel free to comment, either online or to me at seth.kolker@gmail.com. If you promise to let me know if things are glitchy with this site, then I'll promise to try to say insightful things and post my own pictures every time I blog!

Cheers,

Seth