Greetings from Ghana

Just a year ago, I was starting a pretty average sophomore year at Tufts. I lived on the first floor of Metcalf Hall; I juggled work-study, an internship and classes; I climbed the hill to Olin three days a week and hated every minute of it.

The beginning of my junior year could not be more different. Since late July I have been in Ghana with the Tufts-in-Ghana program, as one of seven Tufts students studying here. Instead of Metcalf, I am in the International Students Hostel; instead of the flu we’re watching the Ebola outbreak; instead of Beyoncé, people are dancing to Davido, Castro and Shatta Walle. (Don’t worry, people like Beyoncé too.)

Let me set some context: In case you don’t know, Ghana is located in West Africa, tucked against the Atlantic Ocean and between Burkina Faso, Togo and Cote D’Ivoire. We are studying at the University of Ghana in Legon, a suburb of Accra, Ghana's capital.

UG is about as different from Tufts as it is possible to be, at least physically: the student body is about 40,000 and it can take half an hour to get to class. (Where’s the Joey when you need it?) Oh yeah, and I don’t mean to rub it in, but it never gets cold here. Like, ever. It's 75 degrees in the 'winter' … Okay, maybe I do want to rub it in. Endless summer doesn’t get old very quickly.

For weeks before I left for Ghana, I was terrified at the prospect of spending five months – the longest I have ever been away from home – in a new culture, on a new continent, with a group of Tufts students who all seemed to be friends already. I had a full-on panic attack the night before I left and I cried in the airport. But the past two months have been the best of my life. The experience is not without its complications and challenges, but I feel grateful to be here every single day.

Writing this column is a part of processing that experience, passing it on to encourage other people to attend Tufts-in-Ghana, and generally sharing the massive personal growth and perspective changes I am undergoing. The biggest lesson I can hope to convey to anyone reading this column is that life is life everywhere: as much as we were warned about culture shock, as much as Ghana or Chile or Hong Kong might seem to be an entirely different world when seen from home, it feels very normal to be here. People eat, talk, dance, laugh, fight, work, suffer, succeed, love, learn and play here just as they do anywhere, even if the details are different.

Within my framework of personal growth and perspective change, I hope to cover overarching issues and recurring themes in my time here. I will tackle topics like food, language, race, the experience of time, gender, drinking culture, cultural norms and more. Join me here every week for a taste of Ghana!