Saturday, December 21, 2013

Homestead Preparations

I believe introductions are in order. I am a junior studying environmental science and biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. I am a lover of travel, food, learning, animals and the outdoors. As a long time reader of blogs I've never thought of starting my own. Recently however, I've been accepted to a study abroad program to the University of New South Wales for Spring 2014. This is my way of keeping my family and friends updated when I am 14 hours out of sync with New York, as well as cataloging my adventures far from home.

The prospect of studying abroad has been a possibility since the beginning of my college search. Wanderlust has been far too strong to overcome and so I'm giving in! The road to study abroad thus far has been one of paperwork and research. I started researching in the spring of this year. Looking through the list of affiliated study abroad programs offered by RPI. I found the one for me and looked at the application requirements. I spent time over the summer searching through the vast course catalogue; determining which would be relevant to my career plans, which would transfer and which would just be fun. The beginning of the semester was a fury of hunting down the right people for their much coveted John Hancocks. After the application was handed in I waited anxiously for the results. The initial acceptance was followed by a series of steps including, health care, another application form, in order to receive the important 'certificate of enrollment' in order to obtain a visa. Not to mention the large chunk of change spent on a plane ticket.

Now that the fall semester has come to an end I can really get excited. I've already started thinking about packing and planning things I 'must' see and do while I am abroad. Stay tuned for more about packing, traveling and eventually the wonders the Land Down Under has to offer!

(p.s. I promise future posts will be more interesting, I'm just getting started)