Hello! My name is Jenna Zaremsky, and I’m majoring in Astrophysics and Environmental Geosciences. I won’t be graduating until the spring of 2026, but I was still given the wonderful opportunity to go to South Africa through CofC for my Geosciences field experience, and I was looking forward to experiencing the sights and culture on my first international trip throughout the Spring 2023 semester! I specifically chose this country because it is a great spot for paleontology lovers, and a great place to see the stars and milky way dust. I also love doing art in my free time, and plan on sketching some cool pictures of sceneries we witness during the trip (I definitely plan to post these!) Overall I feel this will be great for me to use as a boost for the rest of my classes to graduation!

I have made some major goals for the month that I will spend in South Africa. Some include being more open and social with others, and also learning to be more active in nature while applying what I’ve learned so far in my major! South Africa has a lot of remnants from when dinosaurs roamed Earth and was the country where the first fossilized dino eggs were discovered in Golden Gate National Park! It also holds the Cape Fold belts that occurred during the shifting of continents, and I look forward to hiking and studying those to discover exactly how South Africa formed millions of years ago. South Africa is also known for it’s amazing hot spot of diversity. We’ll be participating in a Safari while we are here, and we will be trying to enjoy the multiple species of animals in their natural habitats.

Keep up to date with the CIE blog forum for awesome photos and updates on the culture and awesome geology facts of South Africa that I uncover over the next few weeks! I can’t wait!