Hello again...

Okay, okay, so I'm not in Africa anymore... I sure do miss it though.
I've been home for almost 10 months now (where does the time go?!), and my life has changed (a lot), but I think about my time in Africa frequently, and miss it terribly. I can give a quick update on life since I last posted (I read through it - what a crazy sensation: I was in Cape Town preparing to leave)... Here's a (very) brief update on life since then:
Winter 2011-2012:
The holidays were wonderful. Truly there is nothing better than being at home for the holidays. To be with my family again, going through all the old traditions, making cookies and lefse... was perfection. I was disappointed at the lack of snow, but I got my fill in February when, after being home for over a month, I decided to leave again. This time I crossed no oceans, and only 3 time-zones. I got my fill of snow and winter in Alaska, saw parts of Washington State and the lovely Orcas Island (and even made it to Canada, eh?!), and concluded my west coast adventure tour in San Francisco. All this reaffirmed that I love traveling... I just don't think I'm meant to be stationary in a place for too long at this point in my life. Too much to see and do!
Spring/Summer 2012:
I started working a couple jobs in March, tutoring math and selling running shoes. It was really nice to have some sort of structure (and income!) in my life again. A friend and I found a place to live and signed the lease for June. I signed up to run the Twin Cities Marathon with an ambitious goal and, with the intense training plan help from a coworker, trained hard all summer.
Fall 2012:
School started! I was accepted to the Masters in Development Practice (MDP) in International Development program at the University of Minnesota (which is good, because it's the only place I applied). We've been in class since Labor Day and even though my stress level has gone through the roof, I am loving it. I'm still working at the running store (which I love); my coworkers are awesome and the bosses treat us fantastically.
Even though the MDP program is different from my background in math, I am seriously loving it. It's a completely new way to learn, and I'm re-learning how to learn. There's something really wonderful about being a student again (but it's definitely not the homework). There are so many opportunities to attend talks and symposiums in such a variety of topics. It's also been great to be around like-minded people. The other students in my cohort have such a spectrum of backgrounds and experiences; I have so much to learn from them in addition to the pages and pages of text we read.

I'm going to end this for now, but anticipate writing again soon - I've missed it as a way to keep track of my life, and keep in touch (although indirectly) with friends and family.
Love from Minneapolis (doesn't quite have the same ring... )
-K