Day 0: Preparation for the Trip

Today, I finally submitted by visa application (with 3 days to spare)! For some reason, the whole process has been way more complex than I imagined…

I started getting everything in order in March: figuring out who was going, selecting dates, and submitting an application. It felt like it took forever to get all of this into action, and a lot of it happened at the last minute right before the deadlines. Despite still waiting for details, I went ahead with scheduling a travel clinic visit and submitting a registry with the university. I was all up to date on my usual vaccines, but I still received an oral typhoid vaccination, yellow fever shot, antimalarials, and antibiotics (*fingers crossed* I won’t have to use them!). Fair warning: I wouldn’t recommend taking an infectious disease course right before you are supposed to travel abroad. Mosquitoes are even more terrifying now, and there quite a few non-vaccine-preventable diseases in Tanzania that I am not enthused to have learned about.

Surprisingly, my flights were not too expensive, and I have heard good things about the airline I am taking. I just don’t think I’m quite ready to travel for over 26 hours, and I haven’t dealt with jet lag in awhile, so we’ll see how that goes!

My registry is technically not yet approved, which is a bit nerve wracking since you cannot go abroad without the approval. However, I have been assured that they haven’t even looked over any June registrations, so I am not the only one in this boat! I have also not yet formally begun packing, as the intro photo may have suggested, but I’m sure it will all get done in due time.