My bags are packed I'm ready to go

Oh fuck this shit. Where all this stuff comes from? Why do I need it all?

I'm going to die under the weight of my belongings. My packback is about to burst, my Fifi is fat as granny's cat (for those who don't know it, Fifi is my trolley bag) and my had bag could be used to press plants.. or more like trees.

I've been running around the town whole week like crazy person. My memory is full of things I need to take care before I go. Yesterday I killed couple of trees when I printed out all the papers I need (150 pages - pretty impressive). Today I've been wrestling with my stuff to get it all inside of the bags. And writing lists about what I still need to fix. Kind of hoping I would have already left so I wouldn't need to do anything anymore. And could go with the flow.

Okey. All the big and important things are ready. Only small things left to do so I'm pretty good to go. In few hours I'll go to Munabileet (Egg/Dick Party) and then around midnight I'll come home, gather my stuff and I'll be off!

In fact.. could life get any better? :D

You can go to sleep now baby, I got the world outside

About a week till I go and I've kind of lost my feeling of leaving. I'm quite tired of taking care of things and making sure that everything is okey. I still annoying stuff ahead of me, like visit to the bank and insurance company. I need to go through my stuff again, exchange some money and print out papers worth of few poor trees.

But there's also fun things to do like doing the eggs, hints and problems for Munabileet (Egg/Dick Party). I'm really looking forward to that party, shame I have to leave there early to catch my flight. Though not bad reason to leave early from a party.. :D

And more nice things! I got very, very, VERY annoying gift box that I'm not allowed to open before I've arrived to Sheffield.

If one shakes it (*ahem*) it makes funny noises and it clearly contains few different things. Very mean thing to give for an impatient person. But it's still intact! :D

Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you

Last sat/sun night IT hit me for the first time. The thing that Satu warned about. The fear of leaving, the fear of change, the fear of unknown. It hit me while I was in a bus to my sister's place after saying farewells to two of my friends and realizing it's going to take ages before I'll see them again. I realized that next three weeks are going to be full of goodbyes and leaving things behind. Leaving familiarity and heading toward new adventures. Kind of taking a leap of faith and trusting that I will make it.

Arrangements for the exchange are looking good. I've sent my student card application so I should get it during the Intro week. I also got the program for Intro week and it looked really good! There's so many things I want to go and do, going to be busy week. Yeah, and then there was funny thing: I got information mail for mature students. It was meant for all students 21 or over. Since when 21 years has meant mature. Well maybe in cheeses, scotch and wines yeah, but in people. Got me slightly alarmed of what's coming on.

There's still some things I need to take care, like change my address and make some kind of announcement of living abroad to the registry office. Oh, and of course moving, thesis and packing. We've chatted a bit with Sini and Veera about what to take and what not. And found some really funny packing lists. One said it's impossible to get good bras from UK. If that's true no wonder older British women look like Camilla Parker Bowels. Really confused about few things if or not to take them, but I think that I'll just take load of crap with me and then dump it before coming back.

Countdown: 19 days. Eeeeek! (And thesis.. what thesis?!)

Relax, take it easy

The summer has been extremely hot and it has gone past so quickly that I can't really comprehend it properly. The countdown is at 44 days left and I still have my thesis to do before I go. It's going to be hectic month and a half, but I determined to finish the said thesis before life in Sheffield.

This far things have been really easy. Exchange things have been easy. I now have a place to live and the place sounds amazing: a Victorian mansion set in a landscaped grounds! I can see myself wondering around the grounds like one of the character from Jane Austin's novels.. Though in reality it's shared flat, where I only have my own room. Living with ten other people is going to be a growing experience..

Only things left to be taken care of are applying for European health insurance card and moving my stuff to my father's place. And making a change of address notification to some bureau. Really easy! Though I still have to pack my things and decide what to take with me and what to leave home.. I think that's going to be the hardest part in all of this.. :D

Slowly, but surely and inevitably

Things are progressing slowly, but fortunately pretty surely. I've found when I'm expected to appear in Sheffield (12th of september) and I know where I'm living for the first week. Minus sides: still no news about a place to live after that week, but I still got time :)

I got snail mail from the uni about a month ago. It wasn't actually much in the end but it was nice. The Erasmus exchange booklet was quite good and wonderfully simple. More valuable thing was an excellent map of Sheffield and uni buildings.

I searched my arse off for the best (and cheapest) flight but in the end I decided to take the flight with best timetable. I don't know about what other people might like but I don't find the idea of wandering in a strange city with all my important belongings in the middle of the night exactly fascinating even if I could save few euros.

Besides the flight I've used my beloved credit card to pay the orientation week and few concert tickets. The orientation week starts on the 13th of september and it's kind of the easy way to take care of things. We are even helped to move to the uni's flats if you get a placement in one :) Then on the 20th starts some kind of freshers week and there are some mandatory meetings and such. The semester and serious studying actually starts at the 27th.

So things are really progressing and the leaving date is inevitably getting closer and closer. Sometimes it's quite scary cause I got loads of things to get done before I leave.. and time is definitely running out.

Confirmation, confusion and orientation

A day after my last blog entry I first got mail from my own department's Erasmus coordinator informing that she had notified the University of Sheffield about my nomination. Few hours later I got mail from Sheffield's International Exchange Unit whit a link, username and password to an on-line application form. Filling-in the form was a bit tricky, but manageable. After I had hit the "send" button there was "don't call us, we'll call you"-information.

So I waited them to get back to me (I started to get little worried) and finally two weeks ago I got a confirmation of acceptance-letter from the uni :) I was so relieved and happy! In the letter there was some personal code for me to apply for housing via an on-line application. I just love it how they have put everything on the net so I don't need to send any papers around, I just fill-in forms :) It's easy!

Now I'm waiting for some information about orientation week. It kind of seems like I have to apply for it too and it cost something like 120 pounds. But they haven't updated the orientation pages yet, so I don't have a clue. And before I know if I got to the orientation week or if I get a flat from the campus (I don't totally qualify their guarantee-plan) I can't buy the tickets or make any kinds traveling plans. It's a bit frustrating not to know your timetable. And the flight tickets are getting more expensive as the dates come nearer.. :/

Yesterday we had JY's departure orientation session which was fine, but a little bit boring. The best part was our country-spesific group meeting. There was two students talking about their experiences and they told nice stories and shared information. I also met there two girls who are going to Sheffield Hallam University at the same time, so now I know I won't be there totally on my own :)

First decisions!

So, this blog ain't dying out yet! I got my first decisions and I was awarded placement for study in the University of Sheffield :) Just as I hoped! Perfect!

Now I'm kind of waiting for more info what I have to do next.. I think there's going to be quite a lot of red tape and such waiting for me. All the things that have to be sorted. But I'm so excited!

I think that now I have to start sending papers, applications and things to Sheffield, so they know that I'm coming. And I maybe should start to make decisions what I want to do there.. Do I take normal courses or do I try to do something with some research groups.. or what? I think I have some serious googling to do..

The beginning

This may become a very short, sad and quickly forgotten blog. But on the other hand this blog may become something longer and more precious.

I returned my application for the Erasmus exchange studying programme a week ago and now I have to wait until the middle of March before I know what I'm doing next autumn. And what happens to this blog. Luckily, the fourth season of Skins begins tomorrow to keep me distracted until late March :)

So where (I hope) I'm going? Sheffield! The blinking dream of UK.

Why? Don't actually know. I was just checking out our departments list of Erasmus partner universities and Turkey nor Italy didn't really tickle my fancy, so I decided to check out the Sheffield uni's web page and it all kind of clicked together. So there I'm going. (Hopefully!)

So. This was the beginning and I reallyreallyreally hope that something interesting comes out of this all.