Bubbling excitement!...

On the whole, I'd say I'm a fairly relaxed person, even arguably too relaxed. Given that by Monday morning, I'll be stood in front of a black chalkboard, looking ahead at over 50 kids not even that much younger than me, all eyes and ears paying attention to my words and the algebra that I scribble down on the black chalkboard, I'm still feeling fairly lax about it all.

Maybe in 24 hours time, while I'm sat in Heathrow Airport watching Belgium pull off a shock victory against Brazil in the Quarter-final of the World Cup (Heard it here first), will the jitters and nerves finally kick in.

So, now that 85% of the packing and preparation is done, perhaps it's a perfect time to reflect on why exactly I decided to spend 6 weeks 6000 miles away home.

Ultimately I was left with a huge block of time from mid June to the start of September in which I had zero plans. After spending last summer on an internship in London, I really wanted to do something a bit different from this, particularly since I'll almost certainly be making similar commutes every day post graduation from university.

Then, walking around campus, posters for Warwick In Africa just seemed to pop-up and before I knew it, I was sat in a room listening to previous volunteers chat about their incredible experiences and stories from their work in schools last year. I remembered feeling pretty buzzed after it and from then, I researched, applied and fortunately was selected to go help in Morogoro, Tanzania this summer. As you can imagine, the decision between whether to spend my summer being engaged, focused and seeing a new side of the world versus sat at home in Burnley with nothing to do really wasn't that tough.

Yet, I still have this little feeling that I haven't fully intercepted the weight of what I've signed up for and I can't wait for the roller-coaster of highs and lows that will inevitably come between now and my flight landing returning back to Heathrow. Nevertheless, I'm excited, ready and positive to take on what's in store!

Josh