It's Leap Day and a Snow Day! However, as we are snowed in and under a Winter Storm Warning, Abu Dhabi is currently 70 degrees! Our arrival is finally within the 10-day forecast, with a high of 76 degrees and sunny. Woohoo!!
As everyone else is excited about the snow on-campus here, I am searching through my closet and making packing lists for our upcoming trip to the WAGL Conference. I'm excited to meet women from around the world and make connections and friendships that will hopefully extend beyond the conference itself. Also, one of the things I am most excited for is experiencing the overall culture and atmosphere in Abu Dhabi. The food, people, architecture, religion, and language are all so different from Minnesota! I can't wait to wander the markets - taste and smell the new foods, interact with the locals, try my best at bargaining (which I self-profess am terrible at), and hear the stories of the people who live and work there.
I feel very comfortable travelling, but I am slightly nervous about the conference. I have never attended an international conference before so I am a little overwhelmed that in 13 days I will be participating in a conference in Abu Dhabi (how awesome does that sound?!). The other day I told my friend that I was nervous about starting a conversation with someone who lives halfway around the world from me (from what I've heard the weather is always hot and sandy in Abu Dhabi, so small talk about the weather will get old very quickly), but then she pointed out that these women will most likely love to talk about where they are from. If someone were to ask me about Minnesota or CSB, I would gladly tell them all about the snow, my class schedule, what my friends and I do to past time, or hotdishes (just kidding). Also, I realized that these women are going to have a lot more in common with me than I previously thought, and now I am just super excited to meet some new friends!
Goodbye for now,
Mackenzie Lecy
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