More Motivation





The thermometer on my laptop says that it's 19° F here in the lovely ol G burg. SO COLD!!! I should be studying for finals but all I want to do is cuddle on the couch with the hubby (who is already finished with all of his finals) and a blanket and drink some hot chocolate.

It did, however, get up to 85° this week in Wollongong!! (yeah, I googled it.) This means that this time next year (God willing) I will be studying for finals at the beach! So excited, and now... I'm motivated. Ready to tackle these last three finals :)

http://photos.igougo.com/pictures-photos-p301430-sunset_over_wollongong.html

Not Much of an Update...

Don't worry everyone!! (Everyone who actually reads this, that is...) I haven't given up on the blog, I just haven't had much time to write!! There's also not much to write about... We have not had another meeting with Off Campus Studies, but we will probably have one before Christmas break (which seems so soon!). We haven't looked into classes much more either; however, we are building up a mental to-do list of what we would like to do while we are there-- and yes, we do understand that some of these things do not seem very realistic financially speaking, but oh well!! We'll have to see later on which ones we can actually check off!

Some things we have talked about/ have been recommended to us are:

-Go sky diving/ Bungee jumping
-Go snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef 
-Go to Sydney (only an hour bus ride from the university)
-Hold a koala haha
-Visit New Zealand (prob not going to happen but a track buddy said it was his fav. part of his trip)
-Go to the Australian Outback
-Visit lots of other pretty places :)

I hope there is still time for class!!
...just kidding!!

It looks like I will be working a lot this summer so that we can make the most of our trip!!  It will totally be worth it though. And like I said in an earlier post... How often do you get the chance to go to Australia?? So with that being said, if we're going to go, we're going to do things right (without stretching ourselves too thin or making unwise decisions, obviously...)
 

Australia is my Motivation

Whenever I feel unmotivated to do school work... I think of Australia and how nicely a good GPA will look on the application. 

So, with that being said....

Time to go study for my anatomy exam!!

(sorry I don't have any more interesting updates at this time haha)

What If...

What if I don't get accepted into the program?
What if Sterling and I can't afford to go? --Sure we have enough money, but we kind of want to have money left over in our bank account for when we return!
What if we can't go anywhere and I've started this blog full of excitement for nothing??

Hmmm... but what if we CAN go??


...I'm just dreaming :)

Ahhh!! Why Did I Get on Youtube?!

I want to go here sooo bad now!! Haha I believe I'm getting my hopes up a little too high, too soon, but it's so hard not to!

Hm what's meant to be will always find a way. I hope it's meant to be! 

Look mom, it's near a lighthouse!!

Off Campus Studies Meeting

Friday, we met with Rebecca in the OCS office and found three possible universities in Australia that would best suit Sterling and myself based on our majors (Math&Computer Science and Health Sciences, respectively). Our top choice as of now is Wollongong University (seen in the photo from http://www.ranke-heinemann.at/australien/feature.php?id=21&demo=1), next is the University of Queensland, and our third choice is James Cook University, Townsville campus. Luckily, the Gettysburg Health Sciences department accepts some of the courses offered in Australia as HS electives (such as exercise physiology), which I need 4 of for my major requirement, and of course, the whole world does math, so Sterling shouldn't have any trouble finding classes no matter which one we choose. The main downers about Australia is the cost of the Visa to get in there (on top of the other costs) and the fact that they start school in the middle of our Summer so that means less time to work, (yet more time to work over Winter break). If it turns out that it doesn't work out for us, we are considering the UK as a back-up plan. And if that doesn't work, we would just stay here, which wouldn't be that depressing because we love it here!! (But let's be real... how often do we get the chance to go to Australia??)

Oh yeah, we also learned that all of the schools we looked at have MARRIED HOUSING!!! Sheesh... why can't Gettysburg have that? ...Oh yeah, we'd be the only ones in the building!

Big Plans

Ahhh where to begin?? Sterling and I have decided that it would be totally awesome to study abroad during the fall of next year. We had absolutely no intentions of going abroad when we got here last year, but from hearing so many great things about it, and the fact that it doesn't cost too much more than we'd have to pay if we just stayed here, we figured "why not?" We wanted to pick a place that interested both of us. A place that would seem like a vacation, with similar food to the US (anyone who knows me well knows that I'm not so great at trying new food), and where English is the main language. So, Australia is where we want to go!

(It's not set on stone yet though! Still planning and trying to see if it is a wise decision-- especially financially speaking!)