Welp, today is the day!! Those of you who know me know that I have been waiting almost 7 months for this day to finally come. It's so strange. I remember back in October, sitting on my bed w/ my roommate, Jenni, when I just randomly decided I was going abroad. There were so many criteria the program had to meet. First of all, it had to be somewhere that spoke English. Secondly, it couldn't be more than a month long--at least if I wanted to keep my awesome Pharmacy Tech job @ U of M Hospital. And thirdly, it couldn't completely drain my bank account. On top of my own criteria, I still had to apply & have them choose me!! It seemed like too many things could go wrong, and I truly doubted myself at first.
But here I am, 6am on May 20, 2009...only hours away from my flight to Australia. This will be my first time off the continent of North America, and holy crap am I going big. The program is a Tropical Marine Ecology course through AustraLearn, and today marks the first day of my journey up Australia's East coast. I'll be doing research in the Great Barrier Reef, making my way from Brisbane to Cairns and visiting Stradbroke Island, Heron Island, and Orpheus Island along the way! I'M SO EXCITED!! I will try to keep this blog up as often as possible, though I am not sure how often I'll be able to post. I'll be keeping a journal on my laptop, so I may have to post multiple entries in one sitting, since I don't know how often I will have internet access.
My emotions are soo screwy right now. I've been having trouble sleeping lately (obviously...why else would I be awake @ 6am!?!) This is the first time I'm traveling on my own. I'm not scared really, just a bit nervous. I can see myself getting turned all around in a big airport, and today I will be visiting several (DTW, Chicago O'Hare, & LAX to name a few!!) I will also be meeting my classmates today. I think there are a total of 20 of us enrolled in the program, and we all come from different places in the US. You know what they say about first impressions!! Really, though, my main emotion is pure excitement. Today is the first day of the rest of my life, right? I plan on doing everything I can to make this next month of traveling Down Under amazing :-)
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