Money. money, money!

Excitement on the Australia front! After receiving my student loan on Monday, I purchased my ticket to go from London Heathrow to Townsville, Australia this summer! Leaving on the 16th of June (the day before my brother's birthday - sorry, Rob!), and returning on the 21st of August, that means 2 months of amazing Australian awesomeness! (Notice the alliteration? (; )

The only thing I'm having trouble wrapping my head round is the time differences... I leave the UK at 9.30pm on Sunday, but land in Oz at 2.15pm on Tuesday, even though the total travel time is only 31.5 hours. For example, when I fly from London to Dubai (the first stop), it's 6 hours on the plane, but I land at 7.20am, 10 hours later. Bizarre.

Also, in other news, my shiny new Panasonic Lumix G3 camera is winging its way towards me as we speak, so expect a post soon expounding on how fantastic it is! It's an early 21st birthday gift from my lovely maternal grandparents, so much love and gratefulness to them for funding my bombardment of pictures that is sure to follow! Plus, on the subject of thanking people, thanks to my amazing aunt and stupendous paternal grandparents for both helping to fund my flight to Oz, it was definitely appreciated! 

(On a side note, I don't think I've ever spent that much money that quickly - £1300 for a flight and a camera in 40 minutes!)

Finally, I've sent of my signed registration form for Grenoble, so I should hear back from them soon and be applying for accommodation pretty sharpish after. :)

Justine

xo

p.s Sorry for the overuse of alliteration and adjectives in this one!

So I guess I'm not insane

Another update so soon after the last one! Everything is happening all at once!

I realized the other day, after receiving my confirmation of my place at Grenoble, that I hadn't applied for my visa to travel into Australia. What followed was a massive flurry of panic, when I worried that I wouldn't have enough time to apply and get my visa approved before I would buy my flight tickets! Luckily, when I researched on the Australian visa site, the visa I needed was all done online, and only took between 2 and 10 days to approve. After applying on Wednesday lunchtime, I got my email today stating that I had been approved for my eVisitor visa, so I'm golden to travel to Oz! (They must have decided that I didn't have a dodgy record, and didn't look shifty enough to deny entrance.)

Justine
xo

And we're away!

So excitement abounds today, as I finally heard from Stendhal université, Grenoble!

I've been religiously checking my university email inbox what seems to be a hundred times a day since straight after Easter, and finally (after two weeks) it has happened! I was on my break at work when I saw the email, so I couldn't exactly jump out my seat and spontaneously start dancing, but I was so close to it. I haven't really stopped grinning since. The only downside is that it signifies more paperwork, as I have to fill out more forms for Stendhal, and as I now have my confirmation email, I sort out my application for my student finance loans for next year.

Yay for paperwork! Ugh.

On the camera front, I think I've basically decided on a Panasonic Lumix G3 - smaller and lighter than a DSLR, but still with interchangeable lenses and more flexibility than a simple point and shoot. Plus, it's not as expensive as others I've looked at, and has a decent pixel count. Now just to find it cheap...

Justine
xo

The French are slow...

... which is really no surprise!

I'm waiting to hear back from Grenoble at the moment, before I can really start planning all the stuff involved with my year abroad. The problem is, I haven't heard anything! Thus the lack of updates on here - I've had nothing new to report. :(

It's been the same on the Australia front as well - I know when I'll be buying my tickets (ie. when I'll be able to afford it) and the approximate dates of when I'll be out there (depending on when is cheapest), so now it's just a waiting game (notice how it all depends on monetary reasons - the joys of being a student!).

On a more pleasant note, I've been looking at DSLR cameras on eBay, so I'll have something to document everything going on over the next year. Plus, I'm home at the moment, with all the time in the world after handing in my last 2 essays of 2nd year, so I'm going to make the most of it. The little camera on my phone just isn't going to cut it this year! So, if anyone knows any places/websites that are good for cheap/second hand cameras, drop me a line. :)

Justine
xo