As the days are approaching super fast of my departure to Italy I have been thinking of things that I will most likely miss the most.....first I will go through the people and then things....
1. My family: I love my family so much! They are a big part of who I am! I can't wait to go to Italy but not being near my family for 5 months is going to be really tough on me I think.
2. My Mom: She is probably the one person in my family I will miss the most! She does so much for me! Even though I complain that everyday I am turning into her more and more I do love her and I guess if I had to be like anybody my mom would be the best person to turn into too!
3. My Crew: I have the greatest friends a girl could ask for! They are fun, loyal, and honest and I truly am so lucky to have really good friends! I love the crew! A-Town, C-Pain, E-Son, Dr. E, Foxy Mama, and Hollywood! Love you girls!
4. My ID girls: I am done with MCC and now I won't get to see some of these girls every week and I will miss them! Lindsay, Kelli, Whitney, and Sam! Love my interior design girls!
Ok onto the things I will miss the most...
1. My bed: I have a queen sized bed that is the most comfortable thing in the entire world and I have a hard time sleeping when I am not in it! And don't worry my bed in Italy is a twin bed which my feet will probably hang over it!
2. My car: I will most definitely miss my 2001 Ford Escape! It has been a great car and I love driving and not being able to drive for 5 months might drive me crazy! We'll see.
3. My DVR: So every single show I watch I record on our DVR so I can watch it without commercials(I am really spoiled I know). I will have to watch shows on the internet like a week later that is a big bummer for me!
Well so far that is all I will think I will miss while I am gone but I am sure once I am over there I will start missing really random things!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
VISA
Today I received my visa and my passport back from the Italian Consulate! Pretty exciting stuff! It came with a note that says you have to have these documents with you at all times: My Visa and ALL the documents I had to fill out and get notarized which is like 6 or 7 papers of information on me! Intense! But it's all good I can't wait to go! Now all I have to do is get through this next month of school which is harder than it sounds!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Steps to Studying Abroad
Getting ready to study abroad has been exciting, stressful, time consuming, money consuming, and most of all exciting! So I thought I would just go through the process of all the things you have to do to study abroad.....
Step 1: Pick a country......For me it was between Italy and Australia. Italy won because it was cheaper.
Step 2: Pick a program and organization.....research the program find out what classes they have and if those are the classes you want/need. So I picked Viterbo, Italy through USAC because I liked the classes they offered. I don't need any of them at all.
Step 3: Apply......easier said than done. So the application I filled out was the easiest part, but then I had to get my transcripts from both colleges I went to; so MCC and Rio Salado(which they are only official if not opened but my dad opened the one from MCC so I had to order another one, which everytime it costs $5), write an essay about why I want to study abroad and what it would mean to me and also give them $300 which if you didn't get in they only give $200 back and keep $100 for themselves. I know totally messed up right?
Step 4:Wait.....It takes 2-3 weeks to find out if you have been accepted or not. It took mine 2 weeks and of course I got accepted. And I got all this information and what the next steps were that I needed to do.
Step 5: Apply to a university......so your credits will transfer. My USAC organization told me to apply to University of Idaho which is totally random. Well then I had to figure out if I was applying as a degree seeking student or a non-degree seeking student. Well this all depends on if you are getting financial aid through the school or not. So I was planning on it so I applied as degree seeking which meant I had to order more transcripts.
Step 6: Wait....again.....I had to wait to get accepted to University of Idaho before I could go any further with my process. So this took about a week I think to hear back and yes once again I got accepted.
Step 7: Get financial aid.......so this was a whole other process in itself, fill out a fafsa, talk to the financial aid office at U of I, send them paper work of some kind.....get approved for financial aid.
Step 8: Buy your airplane ticket.....I think this was the easiest part.
Step 9: Apply for a visa......this might have been the most stressful of all! First thing is first fill out application(which I did wrong and had to re-do thanks to my bff Cassie who likes to read the fine print) Next get ten million papers that I had to fill out notarized. Get a statement from your bank saying you have enough money to make it over in Europe for 5 months.(I did this wrong and had to re-do as well) Then, make copies of everything including my passport which I left at kinko's for like 3 hours(I think I almost started crying from being so frustrated and mad at myself). Next get visa photos where you look like a criminal, no facial expressions all face features must be showing and then glue those onto the visa applications. Finally make sure you have the exact envelope they told you to get and make sure everything is in the correct order and mail it off. Oh and your original passport goes with it. (which you know is just a little scary)
Step 10: Pay $800 to secure your spot.......This was not stressful for me, my parents took care of it for me. So I take what I said on step 8 back, this was the easiest part.
Step 11: Wait ever so patiently......I have to wait until December to find out if I got approved for a visa and I have to wait until January to go to Italy and get my financial aid from U of I.
So there you have it my million and one things to do before I even get to live in Italy!
Step 1: Pick a country......For me it was between Italy and Australia. Italy won because it was cheaper.
Step 2: Pick a program and organization.....research the program find out what classes they have and if those are the classes you want/need. So I picked Viterbo, Italy through USAC because I liked the classes they offered. I don't need any of them at all.
Step 3: Apply......easier said than done. So the application I filled out was the easiest part, but then I had to get my transcripts from both colleges I went to; so MCC and Rio Salado(which they are only official if not opened but my dad opened the one from MCC so I had to order another one, which everytime it costs $5), write an essay about why I want to study abroad and what it would mean to me and also give them $300 which if you didn't get in they only give $200 back and keep $100 for themselves. I know totally messed up right?
Step 4:Wait.....It takes 2-3 weeks to find out if you have been accepted or not. It took mine 2 weeks and of course I got accepted. And I got all this information and what the next steps were that I needed to do.
Step 5: Apply to a university......so your credits will transfer. My USAC organization told me to apply to University of Idaho which is totally random. Well then I had to figure out if I was applying as a degree seeking student or a non-degree seeking student. Well this all depends on if you are getting financial aid through the school or not. So I was planning on it so I applied as degree seeking which meant I had to order more transcripts.
Step 6: Wait....again.....I had to wait to get accepted to University of Idaho before I could go any further with my process. So this took about a week I think to hear back and yes once again I got accepted.
Step 7: Get financial aid.......so this was a whole other process in itself, fill out a fafsa, talk to the financial aid office at U of I, send them paper work of some kind.....get approved for financial aid.
Step 8: Buy your airplane ticket.....I think this was the easiest part.
Step 9: Apply for a visa......this might have been the most stressful of all! First thing is first fill out application(which I did wrong and had to re-do thanks to my bff Cassie who likes to read the fine print) Next get ten million papers that I had to fill out notarized. Get a statement from your bank saying you have enough money to make it over in Europe for 5 months.(I did this wrong and had to re-do as well) Then, make copies of everything including my passport which I left at kinko's for like 3 hours(I think I almost started crying from being so frustrated and mad at myself). Next get visa photos where you look like a criminal, no facial expressions all face features must be showing and then glue those onto the visa applications. Finally make sure you have the exact envelope they told you to get and make sure everything is in the correct order and mail it off. Oh and your original passport goes with it. (which you know is just a little scary)
Step 10: Pay $800 to secure your spot.......This was not stressful for me, my parents took care of it for me. So I take what I said on step 8 back, this was the easiest part.
Step 11: Wait ever so patiently......I have to wait until December to find out if I got approved for a visa and I have to wait until January to go to Italy and get my financial aid from U of I.
So there you have it my million and one things to do before I even get to live in Italy!
Monday, October 20, 2008
Why Blog?
So I decided to get a blog because I am going to Italy and will have a lot to share with people and figured this is probably a good way to do that. Also because I am taking a travel writing class while I am there so I thought this could help with that somehow. And finally because blogging seems to be kind of a big deal.....so there you go that is why I have this blog now. So I am leaving on January 8th, 2009 and seriously can NOT wait!
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