It’s my last semester at TCU. In
exactly 59 days, I’ll be leaving Fort Worth and not come back until graduation
in May 2015. No, I’m not graduating early, just taking a May class and then off
to India and Senegal for Summer and Fall. Why India and Senegal, you ask?
India: Going on a Critical Language
Scholarship from the State Department to Chandigarh (north India) to study
Punjabi. Yes, it’s very random, yes it’s also free. Here, I can learn a random
language, well it’s the 10th most spoken language in the world… and
study human trafficking and have lots of adventurous, courtesy of all of the
taxpayers in America. I just decided to apply and then somehow wound up getting
this. So, I’ll be in India June 10-August 10.
Some fun facts (considering I spend
too much time reading about it): The Dakah border with Pakistan is 2 hours away
from Chandigarh and has a changing of the guard- type ceremony every night.
Chandigarh is in the foothills of the Himalayas and really beautiful. It’s 3-4
hours north of New Delhi and is the cleanest, safest, richest city in India and
has approximately 1 million people. My personal favorite picture I found,
(looks like something off of pinterest) J
Senegal: I’m going to Senegal with
CIEE, a partner program of TCU. Here I will take classes and study French. It’s
kind of a stepping stone, first India, more developed, people speak English,
then Senegal- not very many people speak English and less developed. More fun
facts coming later.
In the upcoming blogs, I’ll talk about
some small epiphanies I’ve had in the last 3 years of being in college.
- When I first came to TCU, I thought
it was going to be radically different from high school. In some ways it was,
in the culture and environment, it wasn’t (isn’t)
- Yes, many (most) of my favorite
college memories have taken place outside of TCU, and I will never exactly
consider Fort Worth a home. And yes, I’m okay with that.
- No, I have not exactly had a “typical” college
life, if there is such a thing, but getting to spend time on the cross country
team, in DC, Haiti, India, Senegal, and only 2.5 years at TCU and working with
professors is something I would never change.