Seven Days (Said in the creepy voice of that girl from The Ring... just kidding)

As my title suggests, I leave in one week! It's unbelievable. As a result, I'm starting to get my pre-major trip jitters. Since coming home from Florida, I've gotten headaches and nausea every afternoon. I asked my mom what was wrong with me and she simply smiled and said "You always get like this before a big trip." It's been so long since I've flown anywhere other than Florida that I had forgotten. Knowing the anxiety is causing me to feel unwell has given me the power to put my mind over matter. I'm hoping to turn the anxiousness into excitement.

Here's what's happened since my last post:

1. I received my passport containing my student visa
2. I have my course selections mostly finalized
3. I received my pre-departure information
4. I started packing
5. I've said most of my goodbyes

In detail:

I received my passport containing my student visa.
When I envisioned my visa, I imagined it as another little booklet, similar to my passport. In reality, it is a shiny sticker-thing that is on one of the pages of my passport. I thought that was interesting.

I have my course selections mostly finalized.
Right now, I am for sure taking: Intermediate German One, Sexual Histories: Western Sexualities from Medieval to Modern Times and Making Disabilities: The Construction of Ideas. (Notice how in New Zealand they like to use colons in course titles too? Guess some things are universal, ha)

I'm very excited to take German since missed it dearly. I am a little nervous to take it though because it has been a little while. I've been trying to practice my German by working through an old German grammar textbook, as well as regularly considering how I would say various phrases in German. I'm sure I'll pick it up quickly though, I've always been good with languages.

The sexual histories class should be interesting. I've only taken one history class in college, which I really enjoyed so I thought I'd try another one. I'm sure this will be considered Women's Studies and therefore will go toward my Area of Interest within my Writing major.

Perhaps the course I am most interested in, is this Making Disabilities one. The course catalog describes it as:

Examines the expression of social and cultural ideas of disability in popular culture through film, television and print media. The course aims to develop skills to examine the construction and maintenance of concepts of disability and disabling identities in popular culture. The consequences of these processes are also discussed and their implications for perpetuating social devaluation, discrimination, and disadvantage.

The course combines some of the topics I am most interested in studying. I enjoy examining pop culture. When given the choice of topic, I have repeatedly chosen elements of pop culture to perform rhetoric criticism on and to research in English class. I also find the way disabilities are viewed/formed, i.e. its rhetoric to be riveting. I emailed by adviser and if I provide a copy of the syllabus and my work done in the course as well as some sort of justification as to why this course is rhetorical, it will count toward my Rhetoric major.

Finally, I will either be in an anthropology course examining People and Cultures of the Pacific, or a Film, Television and Media Studies (FTVMS) course. I'm hoping that I can find a FTVMS class that fits my schedule so it can count for my Artistic Experience Area of Interest that is required for graduation.

I received my pre-departure information.
From this packet, I learned:

• There are 25 students in total studying in New Zealand with The Education Abroad Network
• Seven of them (including my self) are studying at the University of Auckland
• How to call to and from New Zealand
• Where I will be staying for orientation (which has a kitchen, free wi-fi, a gym and a 4-star rating)
• Packing Tips
• Communication Tips

This packet is making me realize, it's really happening—and soon!

I started packing...
...and it's annoying. But somebody's gotta do it, and that somebody is unfortunately me. My grandparents lent me their suitcase scale so I can make sure it's under the limit. I'm taking the suitcase from hell with me. (Let me know if you want to hear how it got its name, it's a hilarious story actually)

I've said most of my goodbyes.
It was hard. I went to Des Moines to see some of my closest friends, as well as a guy I've been seeing romantically, somewhat casually, for the past six months or so. I had an excellent time with all my friends and finally got some closure with the aforementioned guy. As I was driving out of town, I got quite nostalgic—I really like Des Moines. It's a great city. I spent the first hour of the drive home just thinking. As excited as I am to go to New Zealand, I'm still very disappointed I will be missing a semester of living in Des Moines and of all things Drake University. It'll be worth it in the end though.

I also said goodbye to my dad. That wasn't too hard because I rarely see him. I think he was my favorite goodbye. We had a great visit and he was so interested in New Zealand that I brought him my Lonely Planet book and read him excerpts, as well as pulled up a map of New Zealand.

Finally, I said goodbye to my grandparents. While I don't see them very often either, I do talk to them at least once a week. Hopefully, we'll be able to Skype once a week so it might be comparable to our experience in the U.S.

My last major goodbye comes in a week, when my mom drops me off at the airport. I'll tell you one thing, I'm not looking forward to that one. If you know me (which I'm presuming you are since you are reading my blog), you know that my mom and I are really close. I will miss talking to her, seeing her, texting her and hugging her. But, it will also be good and increase my independence.

As the 29th approaches...
I am getting more and more nervous. But as I told my friend Amanda today:

I am definitely nervous. But I keep telling myself I am a strong, independent person with a positive attitude. I will have my hand held for the first five days, during orientation, and then I will be ready to be on my own. Everyone else will have to get used to their host city, but I will be ahead of the game since orientation is in Auckland. I can do this! I signed up for the whole experience, even if it include fear and a little bit of freaking out.

As paraphrased from an Antoine de Saint-Exupéry quote: I cannot foresee the future, I can only enable it.

Next time you'll hear from me, I'll be in Aotearoa!

(P.S. I'm sorry the fonts and stuff are so weird. I'm not sure what's going on.)