All my bags are packed, etc

It occurrs to me that I haven't explained what I'll be doing in Northern Ireland yet.

I'm going to Northern Ireland as part of an Earlham College study abroad programme. N.I. is a Peace and Global Studies program; I'll be studying conflict resolution with professors from the University of Ulster and taking part in field placements with organizations that contribute to the peace process. We spend the first half of the semester in L/Derry and the second half in Belfast, with a weeklong excursion to Dublin thrown somewhere in the middle. I'm not sure where I'll be living or what my internship is yet.

Tomorrow's the big day. My next post will probably be from either Belfast or L/derry.

I'm a little scared, very sad to be leaving my friends and family (and DC, because I really love this city), and extremely tired (because it's nearly 3 am). I'm also very excited. I love that I've got the chance to do this.

Once I get there, I expect to be updating much more frequently. Blogging about trip prep is like blogging about watching paint dry, which is why this place has been mostly dead so far. Once again, please allow me to direct any interested eljayers to the blog's livejournal feed.