after six hours in the car...

katie and i have made it to cape cod.

i can't believe i'm down to almost a month before my departure.
honestly, where the fuck did the time go?
right now, it's raining obscenely hard outside and katie and i are listening to jaymay on my ipod.
it's the perfect day.

i've already compiled a list of what i will miss at school, but home is much more extensive.
here is a list of what i'll miss (besides my friends and fam, of course) from home while i'm down under:
1) my kitties. (orly, of course, is so much better than austin)
2) tivo
3) big red couch
4) my bed
5) abbey road vinyl
6) the hot tub and outdoor shower
7) gas fireplace
8) doing laundry for free
9) lola
10) the quarry
11) the triplex, martins...GB in general
12) the apple tree
13) cider donuts
14) tibetan prayer flags
15) the outside furniture on the deck
16) my pink 'italian' beta fish, guilio
17) my lovebird

to follow comes a bunch of pictures of what i've been up too for the past couple of months. i've been maximizing the time i've had with friends since i won't see a huge majority of them for four and a half months.

home

it only took me two hours to get home from school! i couldn't believe it--honestly NO traffic on the pike whatsoever.

Now that i've been home for a couple of days now, though, it's definitely sunk in that i won't be going back to bridgewater classes until september. kind of sad in a way.

BUT the closer i get to february first, the more excited i become...

ridiculousness

ready for this?

Hills and I have to run to the heritage room in the BSC library for a mandatory meeting with all the people studying abroad this semester.

I sat between Matias and Hills and tried to pay attention.

We were given this binder from the Study Abroad Office ("do we really have to read all this shit?"-Matias) and I immediately start looking at the table of contents (because i'm a nerd?)

Anyways, I turn to page 16 where there is a list of cultural stereotypes. Apparentally, other countries hate us. I mean, they have every right to dislike us right now because of President Bush, but hopefully a bunch of these stereotypes will go away come ObamaNation.

Here are the stereotypes about the US:
-All Americans are wealthy, greedy, and materialistic
-We expect everybody to speak english
-We are ignorant of other countries and of current events
-Americans are independent
-We have a strong work ethic
-The United States is a land of opportunity
-We are prone to violence; many carry guns
-We want everything done our way
-Everyone eats fast food and drinks coca-cola (yes, they used the word coca-cola. outdated?)
-We are friendly
-Americans drink to get drunk
-We are loud

This prompted Matias to laugh (especially at the "greedy and materialistic" stereotype) and say "i'm so glad I'm not American". Now would actually be a good time to say that Matias is from Argentina, haha.

I packed up a bunch of my stuff today. Lola (my car) is honestly full. I only have a couple of clothes in the room and a few bare essentials.

our room is so empty that it echoes. I kid you not.

Also, my roommate just gave me my hannukah presents! Abbey Road vinyl and a Beatles calendar! I LOVE HILLS!

honestly, i'm looking forward to leaving here but I know I will miss my friends. I'm just glad I will get to see a lot of them before I head down under.

And when I'm down under, I'll get to see a whole lot of other friends (and make a bunch more)

signing off.

every once in awhile when i'm walking to class or taking a shower or doing homework, i'll stop and think about the upcoming trip.

i get surges of excitement

today, a guy named Adam facebook messaged me. He's from cape cod and he's part of a facebook group that brings study abroad students that will attend murdoch university together, and he's going the same time I am! Apparentally he just found me from the group because I posted a message saying I would be attending Spring 2009. He was like, we might as well connect before we leave so we'll know each other before we go down under. CRAZY THING IS, he actually knows a bunch of people that go to bridgewater, one of them being a friend of mine who actually lived on my floor lastyear and who lives in my building this year.

weird how the world can be so small.

Since I got my flights, I've been a little nervous about who I'll stay with after my classes end, etc. Of course I'll stay with Hills and Ant while I'm in Brisbane, but I had no idea who I would stay with in Sydney. My friend Erin and I were talking online and it turns out she lives in Sydney and invited me to stay with her from June 11th to the 18th. YAY!

Also, My my two friends Talia and Julia are going to be in Australia for the summer and they will be in Melbourne while I'll be in Sydney visiting my other friends Manon and Julia. We are planning a huge get together and I couldn't be happier.


On another note, though, I am a little sad that this is my last week at Bridgewater. I mean, of course I'm excited to go to Australia, but the fact that I won't be seeing a lot of my friends until september kind of upsets me.

As for break plans (I leave on Thursday), I'm working over New Years. Hills and my friend Mal are visiting western mass for a weekend in January, then wisdom teeth removal, and then up to Bridgewater to see some friends one last time before my February departure.


let's get the show on the road, baby

confirmation

i confirmed my flight!

like, actually called them up and paid and everything!

I'M FUCKING GOING!

visa

after ten pages of ridiculous questions asking me whether or not i have ever been convicted of a crime, ever been out of the country for more than three months, etc. i finally finished filling out the visa form.

success!

it was approved, which is obviously a good thing because i wouldn't have been able to study abroad without one. psyched!

before a voice lesson

i have compiled a list of what i will miss (besides my friends, of course) about school:

1) dance parties to beyonce.
2) the "good" meat at comm. cafe
3) the L-shaped couch at cody and jimmy's apartment
4) don's recliner
5) driving aimlessly with mal (while belting out songs)
6) apartment 8b
7) contruction. yes, i said it.
8) mini golf ridiculousness
9) watching tiger
10) beirut with amy, as bad as we sucked
11) watching into the wild
12) the handicap shower
13) dunkin' donuts french vanilla iced coffee (with extra cream and sugar)
14) ecc ice cubes
15) pissing off plymouth county parking

the list goes on.

flight schedule finalized

okay,

i leave for australia february first. we got that one figured out. i need to find a flight to LAX before then, possibly the 30th. (maybe i'll see perez hilton?)

don't really plan on traveling much during the first couple of months. need to have things settled down there first before i head out to other parts of the country.

classes end june 5th. i fly out to brisbane june 6th to see my beeyootiful roommate, stay there until the 11th, then find my way down to sydney until the 16th.


then fly out from sydney back to LAX, then back to new england.

to say i can't wait would be a complete understatement

with break comes flights

there really is no place like home.
thanksgiving break has been amazing so far--still have one night here before i head back to school tomorrow.


I GOT MY FLIGHT SCHEDULE!


i'm really excited about it, but i honestly cannot even string full sentences together, that's how exhausted i am. so i think i'll just hit the hay and update again tomorrow when my brain is working correctly.

i'm just glad to have everything coming together. as terrifying as this experience may be, bring.it.on.

home!

So I'm home for thanksgiving break! It's honestly so good to be here!
I faxed in my housing forms, so that's all set.
Tomorrow, my Dad and I are finally figuring out my flight plans!


Yay for the five bedroom apartment!
For those of you who want to see the floor plan of where I'm living:

it's 18 degrees here...

did i mention how psyched i was to be going to australia! warm warm warm!

i got some more paperwork off the australearn website, i need to fax some of it in before the 25th to let australearn know i accept the housing they gave me.

I am living in a single in a five bedroom apartment, and i am psyched!!

Today, i need to go to the library to fax the information in and then i need to make a copy of my health insurance card!

Lastnight, i applied for scholarships and signed up to do a volunteer weekend while abroad. Hopefully everything works out and I get a scholarship. I'll go to Murdoch with or without the scholarship, but recieving money would definitely be a big help.

I'm honestly so exhausted right now, after I fax the info in, I have to go to CVS because I have an ear infection and I need ear drops. exciting, i know.

I honestly cannot wait. There are so many beaches around perth, and I'm imagining me lying on the warm sand right now...

little bird, brush your gray wings on my head

first off, i got my computer back (pause for applause)

so I'm psyched. Finally a new keyboard with a new shift key!
and I can listen to my music without my computer freezing. choice music right now, the weepies.

I've been working out the kinks in scheduling the flights. I got in touch with my boss at Camp Jewell and told him I wanted to work there again, but he still hasn't gotten back to me about staff training.

I'm thinking of heading to Brisbane on the 6th and staying there until the 12th, maybe heading to Sydney for the 13-14th, and then heading back to the states on the 14th. It seems like a perfect plan--seeing my roommate and ant for a couple of days, maybe seeing a couple more people in Sydney, I don't know, it just seems like a good idea. It all depends on if I will travel during my spring break, which is from April 10th to the 13th. Not quite sure if I'll be staying on campus or not or what I will be doing then. Who knows?

I am excited though, once I get the flight schedule finalized I can finish all the paper work that has taken me about a month to file through, and I can turn that into the International Programs office.

Today, I'm going to hand in my withdrawal from housing form for Bridgewater because the deadline is coming up!

can't wait can't wait can't wait.

interruption

we interrupt regular programming to announce that i, alex, got an 88 on a math exam.


yes, i realize this has nothing to do with australia. just thought i'd share the good news.

more on australia later.

seventy-nine

I am sitting in the library using the only computer i have access too. My laptop is broken and I decided to get it fixed before I headed down under. I brought it to IT because they can fix it for free. I expected the process to take no longer than a day.

It's now wednesday--I turned it in on Monday. Three days can go by so slowly.

And guess what? I just went to the IT desk here and they say it could take until monday! Something about a part being shipped and getting lost? I also don't get a loaner laptop because they ran out.

Oh how life has a way of throwing you curve balls. It's just that I want to be able to update from the comforts of Scott 311 and I don't want to have to duke it out for a computer at the library just to work on my persuasive speech due tuesday.

But guess what?!

79 DAYS

that is all.

pictures off of websites

I can't wait until I'm there to actually take pictures of Murdoch myself, but these are some pictures of the University taken off of the website.

It's seriously so pretty!

the roommate!

So, my roommate Hills is amazing and she applied to Griffith University in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago.

She got the phone call yesterday--she's going!

People always ask us if we're going to the same university. They'll say "aww, you guys are going together?"
Answer: No.

My boss lives in Brisbane and he says I will be about as far away as California is from Mass as Perth is to Brisbane.

To help you out, I provided a map!

My friend Matias will be about an hour away from Hillary at Bond University. Since classes get out for me June 5th, I want to go to Brisbane on the 6th to visit them, and my boss, Ant, of course.

Then take a weekend trip to Sydney before I fly back to the states.

time difference

There is definately something to be said about a 12 hour time difference.
Could it be that I'm actually already having problems with it?

Here's the story:
"I am pleased to advise that you have been successful in gaining admission to the Study Abroad program at Murdoch University in 2009"

pause for shreiks of joy!

okay, so here's the problem. In the acceptance letter, let me just say that again--ACCEPTANCE (i feel like this experience has already changed me!!) I was told my student number. So I was instructed to go to the website and enter my student number and my birthdate (let me just remind you that in australia, I wasn't born may 8, 1989, I was born 8 May 1989--talk about confusing). So yeah, I was entering my student number and my birthdate and the system does not recognize my student number.

In this case, if it were not a 12 hour time difference, i would call them up and have them figure out why the system wasn't acknoledging me. Unfortunately, I entered my information at 5:30pm...meaning that at my future home, it was 5:30am. NO ONE WAS UP.

Thank god for e-mail, right?
hopefully they will get back to me as soon as possible and then I can get my murdoch e-mail address!

"We look forward to welcoming you to Murdoch University. The University staff will do all they can to make your period of enrolment (yes, they spell enrollment like that) here as happy, challenging, and fulfilling as possible!"

my life already feels different. let's get the show on the road.

obama!

Probably going to Sydney for a little bit while I'm down under, cannot wait!
I also need to make appointments with my two advisors to have them sign off on my classes. Good thing i don't need to make drop-in advising to create a schedule for next semester at Bridgewater, that's always so stressful.

The travel plans are coming along, I got my acceptance letter from Murdoch, and signed the consent form and sent it to AustraLearn.

Honestly, the people at AustraLearn are so nice. If you want to study abroad in Asia, Europe, Australia, etc. check out http://www.australearn.org/
They're great people. I'm so thankful to be headed off to Australia.


In other words, OBAMA IS THE NEXT PRESIDENT! I honestly feel so safe, secure and at peace already, I am so happy. I'm going to the inauguration--see you there?

a rough week

but i am surviving.

i had two exams this week so far. i passed both of them, but not well.
i just need to be home with my parents and my sister elyse.
i'm counting down until saturday.

this weekend, my dad and i will sit down and finalize my flight schedule for australia.
i cannot wait to go, honestly this experience is needed.

not all fun and games

yes, just like the title says, it's not all fun and games...yet.

the forms and paperwork i have to fill out are taking up valuable space in my desk drawer.
i've been working on them for about ten minutes a day just to get through them all.

what i need to have a complete file

-BSC application
-acceptance form from program
-power of attorney
-student waiver form
-drug use form
-copy of passport
-transfer of credit form
-travel itinerary
-emergency information form
-medical information form
-program participant form
-health insurance coverage
-ISIC application

and i still have to attend regular classes.

it's all good though, australia here we come!

the beginning

it all started in january 2008.
i knew i needed to explore

going to school in massachusetts is great, don't get me wrong.
i'm not selfish, but i wanted more.

my sister, elyse, took a year off after we all graduated high school. i'm beginning the think she had the right idea. while i was in massachusetts elyse was in south america working with orphans. while i was, once again, writing another five paragraph essay, elyse was in the mexican wilderness. to say i was envious is a complete understatement. i dreamed of what she was doing and longed to do it myself.

yes, studying abroad is exactly what it says--studying while abroad in another country. so no, i won't be working with orphans, rebuilding bolivian high schools or traveling to the mayan ruins, but i will be in australia.

let's take this one step further-could i be leaving this country at any better a time? president bush, and i use the term 'president' very lightly, has honestly ruined this country. yes, our economy sucks! and every other country pretty much looks down on us because we stick our asses in everybody elses business. i will finally be free from this george w. bush legacy, no longer be poisoned by a texan man who cannot speak english. hopefully when i return in june, barack obama will finally make something happen in the oval office.

all in all, this process has been extremely long. i started looking into australia in january 2008. picking a university was very important to me. first, i chose griffith university. i have a friend named Ant who lives in brisbane. going to griffith would mean close proximity to him and getting a great education. however, i am in no way an art student.

i have always had a thing for foreign countries. Working at a ymca camp in connecticut, i have been introduced to more great international people then i could have ever dreamed of, many of which are from the great country of australia.

i decided to go with murdoch university because of it's education program and it's location. western australia has been said to be the best kept secret in all of the continent. i have seen pictures and i am already amazed--i cannot wait to actually see western australia in real life.

what i have done so far
1) screamed from excitement.
yes, when i got the phonecall saying murdoch university accepted me, i immediately jumped on my roommate and screamed, quite literally, "I'M GOING TO FUCKING AUSTRALIA".

2) made my initial payment, and filled out my housing request.

3) got my flight details! sometimes i need to pinch myself--is this really happening?