17 Days...

It's 10:30 p.m. on Monday, January 4, 2010. I am currently relaxing on Christmas break and waiting for the next seventeen days to (quickly) go by. After those days I'll be on a 16-hour plane ride across the Atlantic headed for Glasgow, Scotland. With so little to do in snowy Northwest Iowa, I thought I'd start my blog for the upcoming semester. Keeping a blog was recommended to me by the study abroad office at college, and I've always wanted to try it. Since studying abroad was the inspiration for this blog, I'll tell the story of how I came to be waiting for seventeen days to fly by so I could head overseas...

To fill my non-lab science general ed requirement, I chose to take "Introduction to Environmental Science" and to my surprise, my friend Cassandra was in the same class. One sunny October afternoon, Cassandra and I were doing some last-minute studying for a test on the pentacrest just outside of Macbride Hall. With such nice weather and endless opportunities for people-watching, studying was difficult. Eventually our conversation became about our plans for the spring, and Cassandra told me she was studying abroad in Spain. I told her that I considered studying abroad the previous year but kind of forgot about it. She asked me which classes I was taking, and I was planning to start taking more English classes for my major and maybe a few electives to explore other majors, so Cassandra asked, "Why don't you study abroad?" Surprised, I didn't know what to think. I didn't think it was possible, but she told me to just go ask about it at the study abroad office. After class we walked to the office since she had to meet with her adviser anyway, and I asked an adviser about studying abroad in the spring. I wanted to go to a university in Great Britain and totally be immersed in that university. My idea of studying abroad is when an American student goes and lives in the foreign university's dorms with a bunch of international students. The University of Iowa Great Britain exchange programs were suggested to me because they were a complete exchange program cheap for Iowa residents. The study abroad staff helped me find options and explained the details, and I had a few days to decide on a program. After narrowing down the four options and selecting the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, all that was left to do was apply. I had a week to get my application finished, apply for a passport, and get letters of recommendation, so it was crazy and hectic for a bit, but getting accepted to the program and now anticipating my flight and adventures in Europe are completely worth it.

Ten days after getting the idea to study abroad, I finished my application. A month after turning in my application, I got accepted into the program. Another month after that, I'm waiting to go to Scotland. I can still hardly believe it and my excitement level is becoming unbearable. With only a few more supplies to buy, all that is left to do is wait...

17 days...