Countdown

There are 16 days until I get on the plane that will take me to England. Just thinking about how soon I will be standing in another country is crazy. It still has not fully hit me that I am going to be there, even though school has already started at my home university, I have given my notice at work and I am beginning to buy the necessary items and plan what I will be packing. It is just crazy to think that I will be leaving Canada and living on my own in another country for 5 months. I wouldn't be surprised if the realization does not hit me until I get on that plane or I arrive in Nottingham. Hopefully it hits me sooner, because I do not want to experience freaking out and homesickness and jet lag and culture shock all at the same time. 

The fall semester ended on a pretty good note, I did fairly well, though I was disappointed in my grade for one of my classes. My GPA did manage to increase by 0.035, which means I achieved my goal of maintaining my GPA at a 3.2, or in this case, a 3.235! I'm glad that my semester abroad does not count towards my GPA (unless I get a D), because I will be starting my fourth and final year with a solid B+ that i can hopefully increase for graduation.

I have had two days off between working, so yesterday I got a haircut so that as my hair grows longer, it will be fine. I got layers so that all the waves are not weighed down and all at the bottom of my hair. I went to the bank and got some British Pounds. The only money I have ever seen in real life is Canadian, American and Italian, so it was a surprise when I saw that the bills grew as their denominations did. The five pound notes were teeny, so I can only imagine what the hundred pound notes look like! After looking on the online websites for drugstores in the UK, I decided to hit up Wal-Mart to pick up products I will need over there, such as shower products and contact solution, etc. The prices in the UK shocked me, it is almost as it they simply transferred the pound sign to the American price, making it cost nearly double what I pay usually. I also went to future shop to get a power adapter/converter and I was shown one that also works in European plugs, which will make traveling much simpler as I will not have to have multiple adapters! 

Someone I went to high school with is doing a semester in Paris, at Sciences Po, a school I actually considered applying to, but I was too late. I asked her what she was doing for the cell phone situation and what she is doing made me confident in what I plan on doing. All I need to do is actually get that done. I have to order a UK SIM card as well as pay off my phone plan while somehow managing to keep my Canadian number... Should be interesting. She also told me that she managed to fit all of her things in one suitcase, so I plan on attempting that, because if she can do it, so can I...? If not, I will just bring another suitcase, no big deal. That will make it much easier in bringing things home as I will not have to worry about space and weight! 

I always start these things thinking I will never get anything written, but I always end up writing quite a bit. Once I am actually in England, I will be including pictures and more fun things. I have not yet started my journal/scrapbook, but perhaps I will take a day before I leave to get it all set up! 

xx

Brianna