That dreaded task called packing...

I'm looking around the room thinking about all the things I need to sort, pack, store, throw away, re-pack.... and it's blowing my mind. The more I think about it, the more I feel it's going to be impossible to only take the bare minimal with me for 8 months abroad. I just wanted to post this thought for now. I will give an update when I have actually packed and let you know how successful I was with this daunting task.

Cold Feet?

I don't know, can a person get cold feet as their study abroad departure date approaches? At the moment, that's how I'm feeling I guess. I'm leaving in a little more than 3 weeks, which seems crazy since I have been planning my trip to China for almost a year now. Up until now I was 80% excited and only about 20% nervous. Now it's totally taken a new turn and I'm 10% excited and 90% nervous AND afraid. I know that being afraid is supposed to be a good thing, because that means you will grow and becoming stronger from those experiences, but at the moment this fear is making me feel sick. I feel so many different emotions at once right now, all of which I was not told about among all the conversations I have had with people about studying abroad. I never knew that I would feel happy, sad, scared, nervous, and even angry at times, that I will be leaving, and being away from everything that I have come to know and love. I like my life here at UMF, and it almost feels it would be easier to stay here with my friends and the familiar place that I know. Well, I rephrase that: I know it would be easier to stay here. But the thing is, I can't take the easy way out here. I need to do this. I know many great things will be coming my way once I am in China, I'm just having a hard time to overcome these mixed emotions. :(

Help?

Preparing for Takeoff

Hello everyone.

My name is Audrey, and I am a Junior in University. My major is International and Global Studies, which requires me to go abroad for at least one semester in order to graduate with my degree. When I first started pursuing my degree, I had thought I would go to France since I had taken French all through high school and for one semester in college. But plans change. After deciding to take Chinese 101 for a challenge, I fell in love with the language, and decided it was time to dream big and go somewhere that I had never imagined I would go, Beijing, China.

So on February 15th I will be getting on a plane (for the first time ever, mind you), and jetting off into the unknown! Or at least unknown to me! I will be spending one semester studying at the Beijing University of Technology, where I will be focusing on Chinese language courses. I'm very nervous about going, but of course excited too. I cannot wait to meet new people who will share their lives with me, and I am hoping that my Chinese fluency will improve a lot from this trip.

Now you're probably wondering why this blog is an excursion which includes Vietnam. After my semester in Beijing, I will be visiting a friend in Hangzhou and then heading to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for nearly two months. There I will be doing something that is in my opinion equally as nerve racking as going to China. I will be meeting my boyfriend's family for the first time there (his name is Huy, he is from Vietnam, studying in my University in the USA). So I am happy to be going there to get to see his country and meet his family, but naturally I am nervous due to the fact that I am not anywhere close to being able to hold a conversation in Vietnamese, which may be a problem. I am trying to study on my own time, but I feel Chinese is easier, which may sound crazy. I think I need to get over the initial hump of opening my mind to the language before my brain can easily accept these new sounds.

In this blog, I will be keeping you, the readers, updated, but this is also for me to be able to look back and reflect on my time abroad. I would like to keep a traditional diary or journal or what have you, but I have a feeling that it would just be too hard to sit down and write, by hand, what is going on in my life. Plus I like the idea of being able to share my experiences with others, as well as photos! There will be many photos! Promise!

I will end this post here, but update as the time of departure creeps closer. :)