And So Begins The Journey...

Hello!
Two months from tomorrow, August 29, I will be boarding a plane to my home for the the first semester of my junior year, Gold Coast, Australia. I am so excited!! This excursion, and soon to be 21 years of birthday presents to myself, is a once in a life time opportunity, and I am taking full advantage of it. In order to remember all of the fun things I will be doing, seeing, and learning while I am there, I decided to make a blog so I can remember what I did, and so others can share in some of the things I will be doing.

And So Begins The Journey...

A few years ago I became fascinated with Australia. I always said that someday I am going to go there. I never said why or how, but that I was going. So, when my mom got the job in the International Ed building at GAC, she said it was "mandatory" that her kids study abroad when they were in college. The "mandatory" opportunity arose and there is no better time to go, to visit a place I have only dreamed about, than now.

My freshman year of college, at Augustana in SD, I chatted with some of the study abroad advisors at the study abroad fair, and got some information about schools in Australia and how amazingly beautiful it is. I took the books home over breaks and looked over the different schooling options with my mom. During my sophomore year, I set up multiple meetings with an Augie study abroad advisor to figure out what my next steps were in order to apply. To make a long story short, it was a lot of paper work, applications, signatures, and meetings. I applied to the Education Abroad Network's program at Bond University in Australia and  was accepted in February. Funny story about that day, on the day I got the call about my acceptance I found out that I was on day 8 of having laryngitis. It was fun answering the phone with a really hoarse voice and attempting to chat with the lady about the next steps of the acceptance. Oh well, it made my day!

I was not officially accepted at Bond, but after months of waiting I finally got my official acceptance this month! I got home from work, checked my e-mail, and found my acceptance letter! I was ecstatic and did a happy dance! Now I am in the process of applying for my visa, applying for housing, and many other things.

That has been my journey, so far, in a nutshell. It is not the most entertaining but still interesting.
Anyway, keep checking back as the next two months will bring some more steps of the journey to making the transition from Minnesota living to living in the land down under!
Love, Melissa