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.
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.
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 ...
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 |
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!
And now I'm leaving for the US in thirty nine days on August 7 2016. Let the final countdown begin!
No comments:
Post a Comment