Thursday night (which would really be Friday morning in Adelaide), I got an email saying I was supposed to be at an International Students Orientation starting Feb 16 (Wednesday). Well, most of you know that my flight is not scheduled until Feb. 18 putting me there on Feb. 20. I have had this flight booked since the beginning of January. So, anyway, I emailed the university and asked what I would be missing since I wasn't scheduled to be there. Long story short, I am supposedly missing a lot of helpful sessions for International Students. Now, I got the response email on Friday morning (before my parents left for work). Along with this email came a complete and total breakdown. I try not to have many of these (especially not in front of anyone), but this breakdown surprised me before I could stop it. I tried my best to explain to my mom that I was not having a breakdown because I was leaving but I was having a breakdown because they were messing with my plans and schedule. (A little sidenote about me: I am a control freak and do not like surprises.) I could not just change my departure date this close to time. However, I did not want to start off behind and completely lost.
Anyway, I went to my dad's school to substitute for half the day and he came to the rescue. My parents decided that if they had to pay a couple hundred dollars extra to make things easier on me then they would. So, my dad and I went to work on trying to get my flight moved up to Monday. So, I called and talked to the company that I ordered my plane ticket from and started the process. The person I talked to said that I would have a flight leaving Monday and we would have to pay $300 plus the flight difference. Now, I didn't think that the flight difference would be too much, after all it's only a difference in a couple of days. So, off I went to try to get things packed and say my good-byes, etc.
So, here comes the freak-out and panic mode. I completely panicked. I hadn't even started packing, still needed to get several items, and was not completely prepared to leave everyone for 5 months yet. It came really fast at me and I thought I was going to have this whole week to prepare. Well, anyway, after I had my minor freakout (or major), I got home to an email from the company that said they could not complete my flight change request because it was going to be too big of a price difference. Apparently, the flight went up $5000 when I tried to change it. No, I did not add too many zeros there. You read it right. 5 thousand dollars. Even if the company would have allowed me to change it, that was way too much money.
So, after all of my breakdowns and freakouts, I am back to my original plan of leaving on Friday. Whew. Friday is coming fast though, and I am getting extremely excited as well as a little nervous. I have my suitcase packed (only 1 suitcase and it is 45 lbs... I'm pretty proud) and I have almost my whole carry-on packed. I just need to add my computer and other small things. So, now that I'm almost completely packed and ready, I still have my good-byes left and way too much time on my hands. I had prepared to have to do lists and lists of things this week with little time to think about leaving home until the day actually came. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely excited and still can't believe that I'm going through with this and that my parent's agreed to this. But, I'm also extremely nervous to be leaving the comfort of home and leaving all of my friends and family. Yes, I will be back, but 5 months really is a pretty long time.
So, God really does know what He is doing. He knew that I still needed time to prepare and closed that leaving early door right in my face. God can be so blunt sometimes and so quiet a minute later.
This whole trip is completely God's doing. I don't know if I have actually told the story of how this trip came about. So, hmm... let me start out by saying that I never in a million years thought I would study abroad. I loved the idea of it, but I never thought I would have the courage to go through with it, and I definitely did not think that my parents would agree. However, I kept getting this nagging feeling that I couldn't just settle with a week away. I needed a little more time than that. So, first I went to the study abroad office to talk about summer programs. Not too long, but longer than a couple of weeks right? I thought that sounded like a perfect idea to me. However, God doesn't give up that easy! I still could not get a semester abroad out of my mind. So, I decided that I was going to talk to my parents about it. I had a whole list of things to tell them about why this was a wonderful opportunity and how it would help me in the future. I went into this knowing fully that my parents would never agree to a semester in another country. Boy was I wrong! The idea didn't thrill them, but they were actually okay about it.
So, from there I went to talk to the study abroad office again. I went into the office thinking that I would apply for next Fall. The deadline had already passed for this spring and I didn't want to miss my last semester at PC (or my own graduation!). So, I went in with that idea. After talking with the person, I left with an application to study abroad for this spring. That flew at me from nowhere. The deadline had already passed, but there was still an opening in Australia. I called my parents and went on with the plan. My passport came back in only 3 weeks (without being expedited), my Visa was accepted in less than a day, and everything has just fallen into place. So, with that being said, I don't know what God has in store for me but it has got to be something BIG and I can't wait to find out what it is.
Countdown: 2 days
You are just going to college. :)
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