The One With One Month To Go

One month to go.

One month.

What a terrifying thought!

(What an exciting thought...)

One month.

After so many months of  thinking about it and stressing over the applying and then the waiting process to be accepted by Exeter; then Ottawa; then by Canadian officials, D-Day is imminent. The Toronto Road armchair where I first discovered I was eligible to go abroad seems like a lifetime ago. And, just as Exeter was the first university I viewed and wanted to go to, so it was with seeing Ottawa on that (quite rubbish) list. On thirdyearabroad.com there is quite an unhelpful 'Mole Diaries' entry for Ottawa from an Birmingham student who lamented the options available to her and seemed quite despondent about going to Ottawa U anyway. All I can say is, her options as a specific American/Canadian Studies student were probably a lot more exciting than some of the options afforded a generic humanities undergraduate.

So how did I finally settle totally on Ottawa U?

1) New Zealand's Otago is really far away.

2) All those Australia unis, who wants to go to Australia? There are ants in the toilet which will kill you! I don't want to be fearful for my life whenever nature calls. (Whoever said I'm melodramatic...was right!)

3) Southern Mississippi is far too close to hurricanes.

4) New Mexico is a desert.

5)Where the heck is Waterloo?

6) Ottawa. Capital city. Death whilst weeing would be a freak accident rather than due to native wildlife.

And it is these thought processes which go down on my CV as 'intuiative decisiveness.'

One month!



Please excuse me whilst I freak out.

Things still do to:

1) Book hotel for first night.

2) Pay whatever that compulsory health insurance thing that has come up on the Infoweb.

3) Bank account. Get one. A Canadian one.

4) Baggage and packing and all those kind of easily procrastinatable things.

Better get going then!

***

Hello to my audience, really not quite sure where most of you have come from, but hello to those of you in

-United Kingdom

-Russia

-USA

-Canada

-Latvia

-Indonesia

-Kazakhstan

-Cote d'Ivoire

-Spain

-France

-Germany

-Australia

-Ireland

Whilst I will never know who you are, nor ever know why my Kazakhstan readership is double that of my Canadian, you give me a warm, edifying feeling when I peruse my blog stats.

The One With The Official Countdown

Flights booked for August 31st! 40 days and counting!



The One With The Study Permit

Dear Readers,

I cannot tell you just how thrilled and relieved I am to be writing to you this evening. As I have previously mentioned, I do have a slight problem with superstition (a slight problem that we are giving to God for him to take because I am through with it). Anyway, I am so thrilled to be writing to you because on Saturday, I vowed that I would not even looking at my blog, let alone update it, until I had received acceptance of my study permit application. Three weeks ago, I applied for my study permit. I know, I know, I should've applied earlier. I didn't for a number of reasons which do include disorganisation, procrastination and I needed to be in Oxfordshire not Exeter in order to have maternal passport and bank details. But I merrily applied, and armed with all the timing information that I had faithfully accepted as correct from my study abroad co-ordinator, I thought no more of it. Seven weeks after hitting 'send' and two weeks before I would depart, I would, fingers crossed, be accepted.

Last Saturday, I just thought I'd log in to my application to see if I could check up upon its progress. It was then that my world collapsed. (Melodrama klaxon). The website informed me that the timings for a UK application were nine weeks. Nine weeks meant that it would either arrive a day before I would leave or it would not arrive in time.

Melodrama is my go-to state in times of crisis. I screamed down the phone to my mother that my life was over and that my year abroad was to be no more and it was then that my anal tendencies overtook and I worked myself into such a state that I got into the mindset that if I blogged before my study permit arrived, it would not come in time and my life would indeed be over.

Reader(s), to quote a person who identifies themself only as Officer:

Your application for Study permit has been approved by a visa officer.

An automated email came through 21.00pm to say a message was in my account. My laptop couldn't load fast enough; my hands were trembling violently and the PDF took an age to load. Then I handed the computer to the mother to read the verdict. AND MY STUDY PERMIT HAS BEEN APPROVED!

Of course, and dear Readers you are going to have to bear my Jesus-Freak times over this blog, such a swift arrival can only be the answer to prayer, not excluding prayer for efficiency and compassionate visa officers. I was in such distress about it not arriving in time, compounded by a church member having his visa declined by the German officials, that I sent round a prayer request begging for prayer. And it's arrived! And I am so thankful.

And I can blog again!

So, my lovely Readers, I'm thankful to you for coming to read; I'm thankful to that dear Officer and I'm thankful to God, for true faithfulness.



The One With Some More Year Abroad Practicalities

Seeing as it's July and my lectures start September 3, time is ticking perilously close to having to properly start my year abroad. I've applied for my study permit, but I can't bring myself to login and check up on its progress for fear that something terrible might happen - supersition be damned! Now it's just a case of trying desperately to find somewhere to love. You might think, as I did, that as I'm an exchange student, only over for a year, that accomodation in the university residences would be guaranteed. This is the case in Exeter, and it is the case for all the other people I know going on exchange years to North America and Australia; the case everywhere it seems, but with one exception: the University of Ottawa. To be perfectly honest, I'm more than disgruntled that accomodation from the university isn't guaranteed - it's not fair on me and other exchange students like me, it doesn't make sense when its partner exchange universities offer its year-abroading students accomodation and it just makes life that little bit more difficult.

I know there's something in the quest for accomodation that is character building: the independent searching, the need for proactivity and organisation, discernment and good negotiation; but at the same time, I am very keenly feeling the lack of support. The thing is, I'm a wuss, really. I only changed my degree to include study abroad on a whim and as part of an escape from having to live another year with one of my housemates and because I realised the people I love most at university are all doing third year away from Exeter. (So not a completely negative reason to change my degree and increase my debt. And, in all honesty, Ottawa was my first choice from the very beginning, and I have always imagined living abroad in my life.) Right now, I just wish I had everything sorted and under my control. I wish my study permit would arrive; I wish I had somewhere to live; I wish I could book my flights; I wish I could Google search Ottawa churches and have some divine revelation of where to go. Alas, I have a host university which doesn't favour speedy responses and a lot of Brazilian "friends" on Facebook including me in impossible-to-follow messages about housing.

Fingers crossed, eh!

I'm quite conscious that this post has been quite negative thus far, for which I do apologise. The thing is, people like me don't do things like study abroad years! I'm a wuss, I'm frightened of so many things, I have no confidence, I'm shy and awkward in social situations. I like my home comforts and I have an overwhelming fear of failure which prevents me from just going for things. I have so many dreams and yet I have a character which won't reach for them. Well, this year I want to change all that.

I'm going to be accountable to you, reader; I want you to make sure that this blog doesn't become an endless whinge on how scary and difficult the year abroad is but that it's one of "it's really scary, but I did it!"

My biggest hope is that I come back from the year abroad and can boast of everything I tried, irregardless of whether I succeeded at it all! I want to be brave and strong and out-going and totally up for it. I'm not aiming for recklessness - I'm not going to start tight rope walking across Niagara Falls! Resolute, not reckless. I just want to find out what I can be like without a fear of failure.

I reckon I could be great!