385 Days and Counting!

So today was a fabulous day.

I’ve set a goal to study abroad for a semester next year, well, actually one year from now I will hopefully be doing the last of the leg work and taking off. Taking off…I am so excited. I mean, I know it is a year away, but after meeting with the Study Abroad department today, one year certainly does not seem so long!

Basically, in four months time, I am to have made a final decision on where I want to spend four months of my schooling. Although a seemingly easy task for such a long amount of time, it is really a big one for me. I mean, for Pete’s sake, I want to see the whole world and now I am making a head start on it—for me to decide where I want to start is one very hard decision. However, the nice lady in the International department helped me narrow down some of my choices.

For starters, UCFV does not yet have any partnerships with Latin America, which is the one place I would jump to if the opportunity presented itself. But this whole experience is about broadening my horizons, so I am excited at the opportunity to whet my appetite for yet another culture. The first thing my adviser asked me was what kind of place I was interested in going to; my immediate and unrestricted response: “Somewhere that doesn’t speak English and has an entirely different culture.” A smile bust upon her face.

Three options were given to me to consider, though please know, there are far more places I could go (http://www.ucfv.ca/international/MOUs/Web_MOUs_per_country.pdf). These three options were, in this order: Turin, Italy, Surabaya, Indonesia, and lastly Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Italian school, I knew about already and was already interested in, and it, of the three suggestions, is the one which will most likely work best for me. The last two are schools which focus more on business, while in Italy I can take more political science; please do not think that I have in anyway already ruled out any of the three schools listed above.

All in all, I have a good four months of consideration ahead of me. Italy would be…so amazing, and an Asian school would be…so amazing too, and cheaper! Oh, so much to think about. But either way, I am defiantly going to go full-steam ahead with the semester abroad thing; my adviser encouraged me that I am a perfect candidate, and that although the process may seem daunting (even when I apply, I am not guaranteed an acceptance, and I have to keep a great average), with the field I plan go into, with my future goals, and for my interests, this is not only the perfect time for me to be considering a semester abroad, but the perfect “program” for me to really look into.