Getting started

This blog will be my "travelogue" for the coming fall semester, which I'll be spending at the University of Idaho.

When you start thinking about a semester abroad, you think you just apply and that's about it. The closer it gets, the more you start to feel that it actually really would be easier to just stay home :) Well, by now, with a bit over two months left here in Finland, I'm really excited about seeing something new for a change.

So far I've managed this:
- made two sets of applications (first for my own university and then for the host university)
- filled in medical forms etc. when I got accepted
- renewed my passport (now I've got the EU passport that's stupid red instead of blue, and it has one plastic page, which makes it difficult to close)
- bought health insurance
- bought plane tickets
- applied for housing and paid the fee for that (have now received a single room in a 5-person apartment)

A major thing not completed: visa application. I haven't even received the papers yet. I'm going to be in trouble if I don't get the visa for the same date with my flight... As for the Visa with a capital V, I've proudly received a student Visa credit card after completing 60 credits at the university. Haven't had the courage to use it yet :)

Next, I'm going to meet with my home university coordinator and hopefully get those visa forms and then I'll have to start thinking, which courses to take. As easy as it is to find info in the Internet these days, course descriptions aren't that readily available at least before the semester starts. So I'm relying fully on course names, which probably isn't such a good idea.