PDF - Pre-Departure Feelings

Did you know the acronym PDF stands for package definition file ?   Or peritoneal dialysis fluid, pretty damn funky, people's defense forces. I could on ! Well trying to be hip ( I live in Wellington after all) I'm adding my own acronym to the list - pre-departure feelings.

Pre-departure feelings for leaving to study abroad for ten months, a feeling that's had to summarize in an understandable way. It's like being on rollercoaster, not going up and down physically but all over the place emotionally. One moment you're slowly ascending the tracks, unbelievably-uncontrollably happy - America, land of the free wooo. Next moment you're carriage is plunging downwards, and fast with no end in sight - I'm leaving everything and everyone I know ! For a year ! To America !

During my interview for the study abroad program I was asked what I was going to miss. Naive, happy-go-lucky-me answered "Oh, my family I guess, maybe the weather".  I guess ! I know I'm going to miss my family like my dog Oscar when we leave him at the kennels, crying and whimpering into his mattress, and I haven't even left yet.

And the weather ? Well, it's nine degrees and raining in Wellington versus 60% humidity and sunny in Pennsylvania.  It's not a big thing.  

The scariest part of leaving is having no idea what the next ten months of my life are going to be like.    Penn State could be horrible. It could be incredible. I might fall in love with American football, become a cheerleader, take up golf, become religious.  You get the point, literally anything could happen. The only thing I know for sure is it's not going to be the same as my day-to-day Wellington student life.

Maybe this is my first challenge as an exchange student - moving past this fear, living in the moment and appreciating the family & friends cheering me along the journey.

Now I will sign off and take my own words to heart by getting off my laptop and into the kitchen to drink coffee with my Dad.

Another pic of me ! 

The Itinerary

In this blog post I'm going to give you all the necessary information to stalk me. Not because I am a bonefied crazy person crying for attention, or because I missed the class about internet safety. I'm sharing these details with you, my readers, to give you a better idea of how and when I'm travelling to the USA !

On 7^th August a plane will take off from Auckland for Los Angeles with me, hopefully inside in.  I will stay in LA for a few nights in a hostel at Venice Beach, my first time staying and travelling alone.  My heart kind of leaps in my chest at the thought of it - I'm terrified ! So many things could go wrong. I might not meet anyone in the hostel.  I might not talk to anyone for three days ( and if you know me you'll know this would be a problem).  Okay, breathe Caitriona - hopefully everything will be okay.  

After three days in LA I'm travelling to State College - the town surrounding Penn State campus smack bang in the middle of Pennsylvania.  The town that will be my home for the next ten months. I've included a map to give you a better idea of how this town basically in the middle of absolute no where.

There are no cities remotely close to State College

Luggage is obviously a huge part of going abroad, which is presenting a major challenge because I literally have no idea how I'm going to fill ten months of possessions in the Air New Zealand weight limit ...  

My luggage allowance is ..

• 1 carry-on - 7kg
• 1 suitcase - 23kg

  Some very difficult decisions are going to have to be made in order to fit a years worth of clothes, shoes, makeup and accessories in under thirty kilograms ! 

Please let me into the USA !

It's official. Obama has approved me ! My visa has arrived and I'm off in T-30 days. 

But first, let's back track over two months ago when the process of getting my visa began, because whilst it might not be the most exciting story, it is long, expensive and necessary.  

In order to even apply for a US visa you need a DS-2019. No, not a robot, but what is more fondly known as a college acceptance letter.  A letter which took two months to be signed, stamped and express shipped from Pennsylvania.  When this letter finally arrived I filled in a visa application online, paid two fees - an application and exchange visitor fee ( $400 in total) and booked an appointment for an interview in Auckland. Yes, in Auckland.  Because even though the US embassy is located in Wellington, visa's are only issued from the US consulate in Auckland.  

So at 8.00am one rainy Auckland morning I found myself alone on Customs Quay, passport clutched in one hand, iPhone in the other, desperately searching online for the US Consulate. Not going to lie, I'm pretty naive and base most of my expectations off what I've seen in films. Like for instance in Mission Impossible III where the US embassy is an imposing building, surrounded by flags and security with guard dogs and machine guns at the ready. Almost inpenetrable, even for Tom Cruise.  The consulate in Auckland ? Not quite so much. In fact the consulate is located in an office building - no sign of a sniper, camera's or even an American flag. I wouldn't have believed it, if google maps wasn't telling me so.

Thanks to my wee problem finding the consulate I was late, and punished for doing so, spending the next forty-five minutes in a line to be x-rayed before even being admitted to consulate ( entering the consulate is legally like entering the US).  I queued again, twice to have my finger prints recorded and finally for my interview.  Two simple questions later and my visa was approved !

The thing about entering US territory though is that security is tight. I wasn't even allowed to bring my iPhone into the consulate.  Imagine!  But, don't worry I did it for you.  I ran out of imagination pretty quickly, passing the time in the queue reading an article about a civil servant and dinghy-fever ( conclusion: not good) and eaves dropping conversations ...

Like the grumbling when American citizens got to skip the line ahead of us.  The middle eastern family being grilled about the relatives they were trying to visit in Washington DC.  And my personal favourite - a frenchman and his Chinese wife. The husband of which claimed his wife spoke no english, her understanding so poor he even had to direct her hand over the fingerprint scanner.

This concludes my adventures at American consulates, more queuing than patriotism, more cushy-civil-servant magazines than machine guns, but now I'm (almost) set to go !

Welcome to my blog

Hello. Hola and welcome to my blog - where I post all things related to my study abroad year at The Pennsylvania State University.  

It would be awfully rude of me to jump into details of this year without first introducing myself ! My name is Caitriona Pearson, a 21 year old political science and economics student from New Zealand and for the past two and a half years I have been studying at the Victoria University of Wellington. I'm excited that you have stumbled across my first blog post - rest assured that there will be many more to come.

A picture of me so I'm no longer a stranger ( hint I'm not the dog)

I'm leaving for Pennsylvania in thirty nine days. Thirty nine days ! Fast forward through writing an application, an interview, working sixty hours a week to buy a plane ticket and I'm here.  Scared, excited, nervous, but mostly just excited.

So why leave New Zealand and head to the USA, I hear you asking ( well my Mum is asking and I know she will at least be reading this so I better answer her).

Honestly, I feel stuck on a track that wasn't my own making. This may sound like some teenage drama but for the last year or so I've been feeling like I'm living a shell of a life. I pretended I loved being in Wellington, escaping the provinces where I grew up for the hipster life in the city, without the ripped jeans and the dreads. But what I was really doing was just following what my friends did, ignoring the tiny part of my brain that wanted something different.  Well that tiny voice in my head finally said enough was enough - go out and follow your dreams  ! So I did and six months ago I applied to study abroad in the USA.

Second question ( from Mum) - Why study abroad in the USA and at Penn State ? 

Honestly I really don't know - studying in the USA always just had some crazy, Hollywood  appeal to me. I have watched way too many college rom-coms that always made college look so ... fun ( for lack of a better word). Whilst I really don't think I should anticipate college in the US being anything like it was in House Bunny or Pitch Perfect ( I really doubt I'm going an ability to sing and make music with cups) even just having a campus university will be a lot different to VUW in New Zealand


Once I had made my mind up to study in the US I looked up the universities students from VUW could study abroad at.  It only took a quick google search of the facilities at Penn State and I was sold.  100,000 seat football stadium - check. Quintessential American campus - check. Top 100 academic rating - check. I was in. I barely researched any back-up universities (VUW asked you to select three) and applied with just one university on my application. Penn State.

Here are some pics that had me drooling for the America experience ... 

Pennsylvania State University

Football Stadium at PSU

Old Main at PSU

Third question - how did I apply ? 

VUW runs an exchange program called Victoria Abroad. I filled out an application with my preferred choice of universities (or one in my case), the reasons I was applying, finances and academic transcript.  A few weeks later I had an interview before receiving an email six very long weeks later to say I had been accepted to study at Penn State ! 

And now I'm leaving for the US in thirty nine days on August 7 2016.  Let the final countdown begin!