2 Days Before Departure!

Me and my special friend have been going through a lot and it's to even think we'll last through the five months. I've been putting up with a lot of stupid stuff and I keep thinking I'm stupid for doing so...........However on the day before I was supposed to leave we packed all my stuff into my mother's car and when I was time to go, I started crying, because I knew that was the last time I was gonna see him for a while. A long while.... That night my Aunt Wendy and my Cousin Tiffany came to visit. It was really good to the see them and they brought a lot of clothes with them. Then other members of my family stopped by to wish me a safe trip.

FAST-FOWARD!

July 19th: Saturday

I stayed up all night packing so I was so tired at 6:00AM when my grandmother woke me up to start getting ready.

We went to walmart at like 7:30AM and stayed for about an hour. I had some last minute essentials to get. Then I went back to the house to finish getting ready. We left around 11:30 and after parking I was walking in at about 11:50 am. There were a lot of people in the American Airlines lines. There was a desk attendant who asked me what flight I was about to catch. When I told her I was flying to Dallas, she told me the plane was seriously delayed. According to her I would not make it to Fiji on time if I waited for that plane. So I had to call a 1-800# to rebook my whole flight. Afterwards the same woman re-booked it again so that my bags would be routed all the way to Fiji.

So instead of leaving at 1:50pm. I left RDU at 3:55pm. Instead of going to Dallas, I went to St.Louis. The airport in STL was really nice and my favorite restaurant (Chili's) was right next to the gate I would be leaving out of. There was this guy who worked there trying to ask me for my phone number. It was so funny, because I was thinking "I'm not even gonna have the same # once I leave the US...." I left STl at 7:25pm and arrived in LA at 9:00pm Pacific Time. I sat between a girl with a baby and a woman. The woman beside me moved to let the father of the baby sit down, so I moved to let him be next to his family. They were a really young couple, like around my age (20). I was so tired in LA and I didnt even know where to go. Finally I got someone to show me. I had to go outside and walk to the next terminal, which was a "hike". I'm glad I didnt have my (almost 70lbs each) bags with me.

When I got there, all I saw were long lines with people going to China and Japan. While standing in the line for Air Pacific, I recognized a girl from facebook named Nina. So we talked while in line and I waited for her to finish. Then we went through security check and walked to the gate. The gate was packed with people and I didn't know who was with my group. It felt like the first day of school all over again. LOL. Eventually we started meeting people and next thing you know it was time to board. The flight was very long, but they provided us with dinner and breakfast. It was so hard to sleep on the plane. I slept for maybe an hour at night and an hour in the morning. I watched about 4 movies, listened to music on my computer, and played games on the plane tv. We landed at 5:10am, a little bit after breakfast (2hrs). We had to wait in this long immigration lne, then wait for bags. A lot of people had their bags left in LA.

We finally got on the bus to go to the hotel. We stayed at the West Motor Inn. My roommate was Mollie from New York. Mollie was one of the people who lost her luggage. So we all freshend up and went to eat breakfast at Ohana Restuaurant. The breakfast was bacon, eggs, toasts, beans, and some Wheat-Bix (which I never tried during my whole stay in Fiji). However the eggs and bacon don't taste like your normal eggs and bacon, so I ended up not eating much.

After breakfast everyone gets dressed in swimsuits and we went to Beachcomber Island! Beachcomber Island was so pretty. The water was so blue and the sand was so pretty. We had lunch on the island and it was pretty good. I made an attempt at snorkeling later on, I went on a boat ride to watch the fish-feeding. I walked around the whole island with Nina, which took about 20 minutes...lol. Then I just laid around and took a nap. I used the internet at one point to send some messages back home and then I tried to use the phone. After spending the whole day we leave the island and go back to the hotel. We had dinner later and Ohana and then we just chilled around the pool that night.

DISCLAIMER!!!!!!!!!

Hello all! This is a disclaimer post, because I have neglected the blog for almost 2 months. Partly because of the lack of stable internet connections and of course being busy. However I have been writing in my journal, so now all I have to do is transfer the entries onto here. It will take a while, but I'm gonna try! So much has happened.....I'll start the next post with right before I left the U.S. ~TIP~

5 days left! No worries? Oh I have some...

I'm currently in Florida for the Monster DLP Conference at Stetson University. I've been meeting a lot of cool student leaders. I've also been networking with some of the many sponsors here, like Target, Citrix, etc. However I can not keep the stresses from back home out of my head. I've been having so much fun here, but there are times when I completely zone out during a workshop. I start thinking about other things such as the $1340 I need to pay by 2moro, before I get my plane tickets. I don't have the money and I don't know what I'm going to do. I've also thinking about my personal relationships with people and what will happen to them while I am away......

But on the other hand, I am here having fun, meeting new people and learning a lot about leadership. I am very happy I decided to come to this conference, because I almost gave up and jumped right back on the train to go back to NC. I have always told myself to never give up on anything. There were plenty of situations where I want to give up, but I didn't and the end reward was great. I do not like to give up and I'm glad I didnt give up on Monster DLP.

I am short on time now, I'm actaully supposed to eating lunch and eating with my group.....~TIP~

10 days left!!!!

Wow.....time is moving extremely fast!!! It is definitely crunch time. I'm really stressed trying to get everything together for my conference this weekend. I need new luggage and I have no idea what to pack. I'm scared of what I'm leaving behind. I'm going to miss my friends...I still have to fax my medical form and my housing agreement. I also have to get my visa, and pay my AIFS balance before the end of the week. Hopefully I will get everything straightened out so next week I can focus on my departure. This is a real stressful process! I can't wait until I'm on that plane flying to the other side of the world.

My flight itinerary is as follows:

Depart RDU (Raleigh-Durham): 1:50 pm - Arrive DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth): 3:35 pm
Depart DFW : 5:30 pm - Arrive LAX (Los Angeles): 6:40 pm
Depart LAX : 11:30 pm - Arrive NAN ( Nadi, Fiji): 5:10 am
Then ten days later.......
Depart NAN : 9:00 am - Arrive SYD (Sydney, Australia): 11:40 am

I'm so excited......~TIP~

15 days left!

I really have 16 days left, but it's almost twelve so I'm just going to say 15. I received my passport last week. I want to say it took about a week for everything to process. I'm very nervous and excited. As the time counts down I get more and more nervous. It's going to be crazy to see how I act when I have 5 days left......

I've been meeting so many people going to Australia. AIFS sent out pre-departure packets with a list of everyone going included. So now everyone is on facebook finding each other before we all meet up in L.A. for the flight to Fiji. Just talking about all of this makes me anxious......

I mailed everything for my scholarship, so now I'm just waiting for the check. A couple more loose ends to tie up and I'll be ready to go. I just think I should get some bigger suitcases and do a little bit more shopping. I made a list of things to bring and I was shocked at how long it was. I realized there is no way I will be able to bring all of the things on my list and still try to make room for stuff I will bring back. But I will try very hard to pack as much as I can. lol... I can see me in the airport struggling with all my bags!

My AIFS advisor sent me the notes for the five lectures we will have in sydney. Please tell me why there are 150+ pages total. One set of notes was 49 pages long! I was in the computer lab trying to be discreet at the printer. It was all good, until someone else had to print something....LOL! It's crazy, because I know we have to read those before we get to Fiji......but everytime I pick them up I just look at it and put it right back down. I'm going to try and read them all this weekend and then a couple of days before I go.....

Well.....this is all the news for now.....Plus I'm tired now.....~TIP~

28 DAYS LEFT!!!!!

28 days means 4 weeks!!! I am so excited! A couple of weeks ago I was worried about my passport, my CoE, my housing, and getting everything paid for. Now my only worries are finishing summer school with good grades, getting my visa, and getting more scholarships. I need to meet with A&T's Financial Aid Department, because they are giving me the run-around (as usual). Hoepfully all that will be straightened out next week and my financial aid for the fall will be applied to my account.

I have good news though........I WAS AWARDED THE GILMAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP in the amount of $4,000! I am so happy!!! I received the email around 9pm last night and I was so shocked, because I was just talking to my cousin about it earlier. Now I will receive a $500 bonus from AIFS for being awarded this scholarship. All I have to do is turn in the required documents by the deadline July 7th and they will send me the check.

Today is the day for the drawing I entered a week ago. Two friends of mine are masons and I bought 12 raffle tickets from them to enter the raffle. The first prize is a 2008 Honda Accord, the second prize is $6,000 and the 3rd prize is $4,000. I would be happy with any of these three, so I am just going to pray on it.

I appplied for my passport and I should be receiving it within two weeks and I received my CoE and approved courses through email. I also received my housing agreement and the housing rules. Each day I receive an email, I get excited! The emails let me know that this is really happening. I am really going to Fiji and Australia. I am really about to live a dream! I am really about to make a lot of people very proud.

As soon as I receive my passport, I am going to apply for my visa. The visa process is a 24-hr process and I was told it is just a number. Now all I need to do is worry about what I'm going to pack. I need to make a checklist and hopefully I won't leave anything off.

Next thing up is my trip to Deland, Florida for my Diversity Leadership Conference. ~TIP~

33 Days Left!!!

It's 1:20 am, but I can't sleep so I decided to update the blog. I am still extremely excited and nervous about Australia. It seems as the days count down, the more my excitement and nervousness increases. I finally received my flight itinerary and its super long as I expected. I have an appointment for my passport tomorrow, so I hurry up and get it expedited. I still have to get my visa, but I'm glad it's a 24 hr process.

This week is the last week of summer school and I can not wait till its over. I don't think I will do this again, because this is just a lot of work. I am excited for my trip in July to Orlando for the Monster Diversity Leadership Program. I want to get some scholarships!!!! I also need to network and the DLP is a great place to network.

I'm still trying to find some books on Australia. I found a few at Barnes and Nobles, but I need to make sure I compare them so I get the "best" one. I also plan on buying a book about Sydney too. Well I'm not tired yet, but I don't have much more to say......So I guess I'll update in July or something. ~TIP~