First Post
Takeoff = T - 15 days!!! Holy shit! After months of preparation and anticipation, I'm now just a fortnight from my departure to Sydney, where I will spend the next 10 months of my life. Now that most of the prep work is done and I have more time to simply reflect on my upcoming year, I realize just how fast the last 9 months have gone by. I can't help but wonder how fast or slow the next 10 months will be... But whatever my perception of time, the two weeks I have left here feel at once eternally long and starkingly short. Everything is set, I'm jacked and ready to go, all I have to do now is wait. And panic.
For those who are curious, this is a short list of what you need to do before you leave the country to study for an extended period of time: get a passport; get health insurance; get visa; tell Foreign Affairs you're leaving; tell OHIP you're leaving; tell everyone you're leaving; buy plane ticket; buy travel insurance; select your courses; get your courses approved by the registrar's office; register for your courses; apply for accomodation; apply again for accomodation because they didn't get your first application; pay administration fees to have your application processed; get refunded when the first place they find you turns out to be unsuitable; apply again and repeat (if can follow shampoo instructions without getting frustrated, you should be alright when applying for residence); pay your first few months rent; pack your bags; freak out; etc...
The last thing to do, when everything else is taken care of, is getting ready to finally detach from the the world you've been a part of and accustomed to for most of your life. People, places, things you might not even know you're gonna miss yet, all of which you will be uprooted from and transplanted into a new environment. When such an event occurs in the plant world, the subject either grows new roots and adapts, or suffers shock and withers away. I hope I will be an example of the first.
This blog will be one of the few tenuous links that I have to home, and so I plan to make it an ongoing project to provide all my friends and familly with pictures, stories, adventures and insight regarding my sojourn in Sydney. This is the least I could do for the people that have encouraged me and supported me on this endeavor.
For those who are curious, this is a short list of what you need to do before you leave the country to study for an extended period of time: get a passport; get health insurance; get visa; tell Foreign Affairs you're leaving; tell OHIP you're leaving; tell everyone you're leaving; buy plane ticket; buy travel insurance; select your courses; get your courses approved by the registrar's office; register for your courses; apply for accomodation; apply again for accomodation because they didn't get your first application; pay administration fees to have your application processed; get refunded when the first place they find you turns out to be unsuitable; apply again and repeat (if can follow shampoo instructions without getting frustrated, you should be alright when applying for residence); pay your first few months rent; pack your bags; freak out; etc...
The last thing to do, when everything else is taken care of, is getting ready to finally detach from the the world you've been a part of and accustomed to for most of your life. People, places, things you might not even know you're gonna miss yet, all of which you will be uprooted from and transplanted into a new environment. When such an event occurs in the plant world, the subject either grows new roots and adapts, or suffers shock and withers away. I hope I will be an example of the first.
This blog will be one of the few tenuous links that I have to home, and so I plan to make it an ongoing project to provide all my friends and familly with pictures, stories, adventures and insight regarding my sojourn in Sydney. This is the least I could do for the people that have encouraged me and supported me on this endeavor.
posted by Ian at 6:00 PM
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