I should have started this blog a bit sooner so that I could share the entire process of study abroad. Life happened though, so I will just have to summarize.
Before I get started, I must mentioned I have officially 31 days until I will be on a plane, leaving the country. 31 days. It seriously snuck up on me. It's so surreal to think about but I'm very excited.
Maybe it is best if I just start from the beginning.
I have always wanted to go to London. I don't know when it really started but I just remember always thinking the best things came from Great Britain. I mean there is the Beatles, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones...Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Lewis Carroll...Peter Pan lives there with Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes. The British have fabulous accents and have tea parties with crumpets. Haven't you seen MTV's SKINS? Princesses live there. I mean my list can seriously go on for a year. The point is, everything I love seems to originate or happen there.
So roughly four months ago, my dear friend Morgan and I were having coffee at Fourth Coast. We were talking about her second study abroad trip (which she is currently on) and I confided how much I have always wanted to go abroad. Over the last five years I have spent too much time switching my majors- Pharmacy to Nursing to Pharmacy again, then to Photography and Accountancy to Advertising and English- and therefore stayed to long at KVCC which did not offer such an opportunity while I was enrolled. Now I am at WMU but at this point I had only started my second and last year here and my goal was to hurry up and graduate. I mean I transferred to the school with Senior status and I will be graduating with over 200 credit hours...I need to be done. My point is that I initially didn't have the opportunity to go abroad and now that I did, it didn't seem feasible with my graduation deadline.
Morgan checked out the different abroad trips to England through ISA and there was a Summer II slot that I could apply for. At that point I looked at what classes I needed to take to still graduate and mapped it out between Summer I, Fall, and Spring semesters. Eliminating Summer II classes and piling them into Summer I, I would be able to study abroad and graduate on time. And that is how I ended up with 4 summer classes right now.
Words from the wise...don't EVER do that.
I mean, unless you have to, of course.
After I realized that I could actually do this, well I just did it. I started the application process and began trying to learn how to do this on my own. I had no idea what I was doing but I kept working on it. Once I started the process, I just kept going. It's really bizarre to me now thinking about everything that I have done... learning the process on my own with little guidance and support, filling out massive amounts of paperwork and paying even more in money.
And soon I will be there. It is insane to think about.
Especially if you know anything about my background. In fact, I don't even need to say that. If you know anything about the events that happened to me in 2012, you might know how surreal everything has been, but especially this. In the past couple of months, I have been especially discouraged on so many levels and have thought so many times that this trip was tainted. I probably have spent over half of that time wishing that I never wanted to go on this trip in the first place. Wishing that I never had that interest or desire. After all of those setbacks and adversities though, I can officially say that I am the MOST excited. I have worked so hard for this experience to happen and I have done it on my own AND I did it when each day was a new negative event or impact on my life.
Did I tell you about the time I owed $9000 in a week? Yea, that happened.
Anyway, I have my ticket. I have my hostels. I have paid all of the people (except my parents). I have my itinerary.
This is actually happening. It has been happening and now I am in the home stretch. One month, 31 days and I will be living the awaited experience. I will only be in London from July 6th to July 30th (I wish it could be longer) but I will make every minute count. I even said in my housing questionnaire that if this is the least amount of sleep I get my entire life, I will be okay with that.
My next concern is packing. I'm making a list so I can get started on shopping. I'm trying to pack as little as possible yet cover all my bases. So far I have Muppet Band-aids. I think that is a solid start, if there ever was one. I have books and maps and journals (I'm currently making a scrapbook travel journal with my sister). I just need these classes to be over with or at least get all of the work that I can out of the way right now. Next week I have my friends who have moved away all coming home to visit (not because of me, it's actually weird how all of them are coming at the same time) and I am just ready to have some fun before I go and focus on study abroad stuff.
Anyway, I must end this first post and get some sleep, but I will leave one last fun fact. Naming this blog was difficult. I tried to not to use a cliche title or something that didn't pertain to what I was doing. My potential titles were good but not for a blog (so you will see them for my post titles for sure) and the only thing that was standing out in my mind for awhile was that youtube sensation, "Charlie Bit Me". Anyway I ended up with "Curiouser and Curiouser" from Tried-and-True Alice in Wonderland. BUT I couldn't use that for my link. In fact any form of curious was taken so that is how I ended up being your snogger-blogger. Thank you, Katlin ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE4FJL2IDEs
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