Sighs of Relief

Life can just be so hectic, it's weird to think that in just under 4 weeks I will be headed to London, it's so close yet far away. I finally got my visa in the mail, only I didn't realize it, about a week ago I received my packet of information back from the British Embassy in New York. All week I was wondering when I was going to receive my visa, however I wasn't home for a week, I was up in Buena Vista at my parents cottage. When I got home I looked for it in the stack of mail, it wasn't there, I looked up the UPS code and it said that it was delivered. This made me worried, really worried, I looked in my packet to make sure it wasn't in there, and I looked up more info about when it would maybe arrive. It occurred to me that maybe it was put in my passport, and boy I had a huge sigh of relief. Turns out the visa was just a piece of paper that was put in my passport. Now I feel a little dumb, I thought it was going to be like my passport, nope, I also should have asked my dad, he would have told me, cause he knows about these type of things. I felt dumb, really dumb, blonde moment.

So now that I have everything taken care of for London all I need to do is pack and look for a place with my roommates. We've looked for places, and we've talked about where we want to live, we've looked for real estate companies. The only thing is that we need to look at flats in person, i'm excited to finally meet the girls i've only been talking to over skype and facebook. I've also been talking to a lot of people that are going to Sotheby's in the fall, they all seem pretty cool, I can't wait to meet everyone and hang out. There is also another person from Colorado, go figure. So no more updates until i'm actually in London.

During the last month or so i've begun to realize what i'll miss in Colorado when i'm in London, aside from my family and friends: mountains, snowboarding, sunsets, hiking, kayaking, etc. This last month i've seen these amazing sunsets either in Monument or in Buena Vista, i've posted them on facebook. Anyway i'm sure I can do some of those things in the U.K. but not as much, i'm hoping I won't be relegated to the city, i'm hoping that I will have time to get out of the city and just chill. If I don't have the time, i'm hoping that i'll just spend as much time in the parks or the museums. I'll miss being able to drive to see friends that are just a couple miles away or in the next state over. I know I don't drive down to NM all that much, but when I want to, and I can fit it in my schedule from time to time, I do it. I want to now, but I can't, sorry friends. I'm looking forward to amazing opportunities and new friends.

Pins and Needles

During the last couple of months, probably since May or maybe even earlier, I have felt like i've been sitting on pins and needles. Needless to say I have been stressed, I have been worried, and I have felt like I would not get my Student Visa in time or at all.

As the saying goes, This shit just got real, I thought I had a hunch this morning when I checked my email that I would get an email for the British Embassy, but I didn't. It wasn't until this afternoon after I got home from window shopping, cause really that's all I can do. I looked in my email and there it was, it was either going to say they denied me a visa or they were granting me the visa. I opened it and i'm being issued one! 

No more stress, i'm elated to say the least, all I need to do now is clean and box up my room, set aside stuff for my parents to send me. That's it, that's all she wrote, i'm way excited for this, not that anyone could tell from the blog or just about anywhere else. So now all that needs to be done is to find a place to live with my two roommates, oh and fill out the paperwork for said flat or mansionette or whatever they have over there. Oh it's a breath of fresh air to finally get that news, no more worrying about anything, just waiting for my student visa to come.

One step forward...Two steps back

Is it really July already? Where did the time go, seriously I would really like to know, because I have till August 16 to figure everything out. I've been busy filling out paperwork for a lot of things:

• Sallie Mae - Which is totally confusing and they never send you a letter that specifically tells you that you're ok for a loan. They send a couple of papers that tell you that you've been conditionally approved...what does that mean? Also I have to figure out a payment policy and I'm still trying to figure out where I can do that.
• Visa - So I had to travel all the way to Aurora to get my biometrics, it's an hour there and 5 minutes of getting a picture and fingerprints, and then an hour back home...waste of time
• I had to fill out a ton of paperwork in order to get the visa in, like someone had said, it's about a pound of paperwork showing that you have everything you need for the visa.
• Here's the two steps back, yesterday I got an email from the British Consulate saying I didn't have the sufficient funds for London, either for school or living costs. Yes I do, apparently they didn't look through all my paperwork to see that I have all the loans for school and I have up to 9 months of money to live on. ugh I really hate it when it looks like I did something wrong or if they didn't look through the huge stack of paperwork. I was stressed until I sat down with my mom so she could explain and go through everything with me. Ah the joy of parents

So the visa is the one step forward and two steps back, I'm crossing my fingers for everything to go well this time around. With that resolved i'll be able to breathe again until the next obstacle, because everything that I have to do in the next 7 weeks is easy compared to the visa. I have roommates/flatmates - Drew from Texas and Emily Jean (EJ) from Ontario, Canada <----funny story about Ontario, when telling my mom about one of the girls being from Ontario, she said, "Oh, which one?" That confused me to no end, there isn't another Ontario, talk about having a blonde moment. 

Compared to the Visa everything else should be easy as pie, finding a cheap, one way, plane ticket should be easy, reserving a bed at the hostel should be easy. I have almost everything in order, well maybe except my life :P I'm looking forward to exploring London and am looking forward to finding a place to live, cheaply, i'm also looking forward to classes, even though right now there are a lot of people, including myself, that have no idea about the schedule. So as I figure everything out i'm hoping everything runs smoothly from here on out.