It's Not Goodbye, It's See You Later

Rafiki: What was that? The weather - Pbbbah! Very peculiar. Don't you think?
Simba: Yeah. Looks like the winds are changing.
Rafiki: Ahhh. Change is good.  ~Lion King

Hopefully by this point you’ve read all of the preparation I went through for trekking Mount Kilimanjaro. And hopefully by this point you’ve gotten yourself prepared as per my process and you’re ready to conquer Kili.

As the end of my study abroad trip with my classmates approached, I began to get nervous. The two weeks leading up to hiking Mount Kilimanjaro that I spent in Tanzania I made some incredible memories and made great friendships. 

The day I said goodbye to those on my study abroad trip was a tough day. First of all, I didn’t want them to leave because we were all having such a good time. Secondly, I knew that as soon as they left I was on my own which slightly terrified me. 

I told my new good friends Robert and Andrew goodbye as they would be leaving for Kenya the next morning with their parents (their dad was our professor). I would miss joking around with them on safaris in the “Diddy-mobile” (our affectionate name for our all white safari vehicle), our Lion King sing-alongs (Tanzania is where the Lion King is set after all), our sad attempts at playing beach volleyball at the Jangwani Seabreeze Resort (I miss that DJ so much), and even our evening card games where they constantly killed me at Hearts or Spades.

Needless to say, this study abroad trip was incredible and I am lucky to have made such wonderful new friendships while seeing the world. As fantastic as the trip had been so far, there was still one more 19,334 foot tall task awaiting me. I am freaking out.

My whole IBUS 444 class visiting a school

The four of us in the "Diddy-mobile"

Andrew with bananas on his head at the Mulala village

Robert jumping with a Masai cattle herder

Me getting ready to dance with women of the Masai tribe