Once Upon A Time

I wasn't really sure how to start this thing, so I figured I'd begin in the same manner as my favorite stories. So here is the premise of my little tale: I am going to Parys, South Africa to work with cheetahs. Why? Because I love cheetahs and I need to expand my world beyond my little bubble here in America. Where did I get the time? I am taking a gap year to reorganize, reset, rediscover, rewhatever. I wasn't where I was supposed to be a year ago and I lost sight of myself a wee bit. So this is my adventure. This is my story to live.
Truthfully, going to South Africa to work with cheetahs seems so unreal to me at this point that it might as well be a fairy tale story. Plus I keep thinking that it's SO far in the future, like my flight isn't ACTUALLY 52 days, 21 hours and 32 minutes away (Yes, I did just check on a countdown timer I found on Google). I leave on March 30th, 2012. It's a 5:30 PM flight.
While I keep telling myself that I am extremely excited and not at ALL nervous, my subconscious feels differently. Due to a tenacious cold, I have been taking copious amounts of Nyquil recently. Now, I don't know if this happens to anybody else, but I get right strange dreams when I am sleeping under the influence of Nyquil. At any rate, a good deal of these dreams have been focused on my cell phone coverage while in Africa. You may be thinking something along the lines of: "Of all the things she could be worried about while in Africa (kidnapping, crime rates, crashing planes, being mauled by a very large spotted feline), her nightmares choose to focus on cell phone coverage?". And those are all good thoughts.
But let me explain myself, because I feel that some explanation is needed. The last time I exited the USA to frolic with some acrylic paints in Italy, I discovered the hard way that not all cell phones have what it takes to make international calls. This may have not been too bad of a situation; after all, there were other people in my group with functioning cell phones, and there was wi-fi for me to e-mail with. Add in a non-functioning debit card, however, and you've got one distressed 17 year-old stranded (not really) in a foreign country with no cell phone and no money.
Now that you understand that about me, perhaps my nightmares about cell phone coverage in Africa may not seem so silly to you. At any rate, these Nyquil-fueled dreams have spurred me to actually get some preparation work done. You know, move this project right along from the land of fairy tales into the real world. Thus, today I bought my hotel room that I will stay at the night before I get picked up by the Dell Cheetah Centre Representative. I went to the bank to inform them that my credit card would be used abroad and asked them very nicely NOT to cancel it while I am there. I went to the Verizon store and was fed a bunch of information about global phones that turned out to only be partly true and mostly confusing--apparently phones and I are not meant to get along. I registered with the US Embassy. I felt very accomplished until I looked at the long list of things I still have to do, which includes but is not limited to:
- Seeing a doctor to be deemed medically sound
- Visiting a travel clinic to get lots of fun shots
- Figuring out this whole cell phone business
- Researching South Africa
- Researching/buying travel insurance

Basically, I have a lot of stuff still to get done. And only 52 days, 21 hours and 18 minutes left to do it.

Okay, but I have done some stuff before today. I just need to put that out there to make myself feel better. For example, I bought my plane tickets two days ago. Yes, I know, very organized. I went to the Cincinnati Zoo to meet Cathryn Hilker, who started the Angel Fund (program to save captive and wild cheetahs). While there, I also met Tommy T., the zoo's newest ambassador cheetah. I even got to pet him. It was pretty amazing, not going to lie. He even licked me, which is like a big thing of really coarse sandpaper being rubbed along your arm. I also got to hang out with some older cheetahs. That's right. I was there while the cheetahs were being walked. No biggie. I also was told how woefully ignorant and naive I am, in the nicest manner possible. I kind of knew it all along anyways. Below is proof of my interaction with cheetahs. The first of my spots in the sun!