The beginning - 2014
I should probably do the welcome as an entry, but as the blog will be updated the entry will disappear, so I thought it better to just do it as a page.During Spring of 2015 I attended Glasgow Caledonian on an exchange agreement between my university and Glasgow.
Originally, I was supposed to attend Shippensburg University in the United States, but that agreement fell through a week before I was supposed to leave.
Why exchange?
I chose Shippensburg because the thought of going abroad always have been very tightly connected to the idea of going to the United States. I contemplated going to New Zealand, South Africa, and other countries as well. I never even contemplated Europe because I felt like I should just stay home if I did that.So in the beginning of April 2014, my 10 month preparation began. I started looking at universities to figure out where I wanted to go.
In July 2014 we got the preliminary list of possible universities and I took a long, hard look at it only to find out I had no idea where I wanted to go.
In September we had the introduction meeting followed with a study fair. I got a nice chance to talk to a lot of students, and among those, a student from Shippensburg.
Shippensburg was already high on the list at that point, but him talking nicely about it convinced me.
So it began
The deadline for the application was September 15th, and I knew I would be out of the country on that date, so I had two days to decide and apply. I was later on allocated to Shippensburg University.Going abroad is not easy. That is something I discovered pretty quickly, because there are millions of things you need to prepare, remember and simply do. All of these preparations can be viewed on this list (link).
Today - 2016
This blog was used during my stay at Glasgow Caledonian University. I used it when I had been traveling around Scotland or England in order to see the country. This blog came to serve a way of keeping family and friends updated, but also a sort of memoir for me.Change happens
I had thought that blog would be finished when I finished my stay in Glasgow, but I haven't been ablt to let go of this blog yet.I bought a domain, and I changed the former exchange blog into a travel blog. I think that's actually what it was all along.
I have not and will not delete the Preparation page, nor will the posted entries disappear. This was originally a blog with a different direction, and I think it's important to not forget that.
You can read about the unfortunate events surrounding my exchange in the following entries - just click on them.
Jan 14th 2015 - Where I was supposed to go...
Jan 23rd 2015 - Destination no longer unknown
Feb 12th 2015 - Across the pond
