Intro

Jambo rafiki! 

As promised, here is my travel journal for the next five months. In a few days (March 17th, to be exact) I'll be arriving in Tanzania, studying at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), living with a host family on campus, and soaking in all the beauties of East Africa. Anyone reading this certainly knows already how unbelievably geeked I am for the trip, so I'll try keep my pre-departure hype to a minimum.

A quick introduction to where I'm going and why I am so very excited:

• UDSM
• Most esteemed university in the nation (granted, that still puts it at about 1500th worldwide, but whatevs)
• Famous alumni include the presidents of Tanzania, Uganda, and the DR Congo
• Biology, geography, and conservation courses related to African environments (which I cannot wait to take!)
• Dar es Salaam
• Largest city in the nation
• An eclectic mixture of cultures and people - Arabic, Indian, and European influences on an African-Swahili foundation
• Important port city right on in the Indian Ocean
• Tanzania
• 14 national parks... with the savanna of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater in the north, mountainous forests of Udzungwa in the south, Gombe's chimps in the west (of Jane Goodall fame) and coastal beaches in the east, the biodiversity is astounding
• Zanzibar Island
• Eastern Arc Mountains ("The Galapagos Islands of Africa")
• The African Great Lakes (including Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile)
• Mount Kilimanjaro (the highest point on the continent)
• All kinds of fantastic animals, including 1100+ bird species, and a number of biodiversity hotspots

Sorry for the informal outline, but it was either that or gushing for pages with anticipation of what I hope to experience. Basically I like to pretend that life inside the city will sound like Paul Simon's "Graceland" album, and the life outside of it will look like The Lion King. I'm romanticizing greatly I'm sure, but that's the fun of travel. To compare your conceptions of a place with reality and see where things truly fall. And I hope this blog can give you some insight on whatever I may discover along the way. 

I'll be attending school in Dar until the end of July, and then I have a few weeks free in August to travel. I don't know where I'll go yet, but I have time to figure that out later. While internet access is questionable, I have in my mind to try to update this thing once a week or so for everyone back home.

Lastly, the title, "House of Peace" is the English translation of "Dar es Salaam" from Arabic. A simple reminder to my loving, caring, and oh-so-concerned relatives that they've no need to worry about me ;]

Lauren