Things I did at 22

Today is the last day of my time as a 22-year-old. It's also the first time I've spent a whole year of my life away from home, let alone on another continent. I'm counting Bard as home because I could throw a stone from my house and it would land somewhere nearby campus. The longest I'd been away before was my semester in Manhattan doing BGIA in spring 2011. And now, I've spent 365 days, one full year of my life in Africa.

I've been thinking about the things I've done this past year as a 22-year-old and decided to compile a big-ole list to share some of my more memorable adventures.

This past year I:

- fell in love with 68 sixth graders
- experienced full-scale dehydration
- ate a cooked caterpillar
- did NOT succumb to tick bite fever like over 2/3 of my cluster has
- got a scarring sunburn
- tamed a dog
- read by candlelight
- had a malaria scare
- let my hair grow back to a recognizable length after shaving it all off last August
- laughed at myself and was laughed at more than ever before in my life
- picked up a guitar for the first time in years
- shared this country with my family
- drove on the "wrong" side of the car, on the "wrong" side of the road
- rode a train across the country
- told Will I loved him
- canoed the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe
- ran a 10k
- taught the incoming education PCVs how to lesson plan
- got the equivalent of poison ivy's cousin from eating a mango
- felt afraid of a thunderstorm
- walked into 5 countries
-spent a night in the same hotel as Obama in Cape Town just days after he left
- took control of a classroom
- attended an international soccer game and sang the South African national anthem with a stadium full of people, including President Jacob Zuma
- took on several new identities, including but not limited to "Miss Dinah," "Miss Thandi," "sisi," etc.
- read 21 books (and counting…)
- used my tile floor as a cooling source for my body
- planted a garden
- swam in the Indian Ocean
- hiked in the Drakensberg Mountains
- ate a jam made of a disgusting fruit called a monkey orange (just this afternoon, actually)
- became a member of the teacher family at school
- called this place that I live "home."

I probably did more stuff that I'm not remembering here, but these are things that stick out in my mind. Despite having tried, I just can't get myself to keep a daily journal, so I feel like this is a good activity to do every so often to keep tabs on what I've done and what I've seen. Check back this time next year for a similar list :)
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!