Update!

Hey guys,

A few little things have been happening lately, so this week’s post is just a general update on everything that’s been going on with my exchange and travel plans over the last week or so.

I’ve recently been added to an Ole Miss Facebook group for those going on exchange in the Fall 2019 semester, so it’s been cool to have a little stalk of the other students’ profiles and see where everyone else is from. I’ve so far seen that there are students coming from Germany, Austria, Brazil, the UK, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, China, Chile, and several others from Australia! Hopefully there’ll be some more activity in the group over the next few months so I can get to know some of them. A Deakin Trimester 2 exchange group has also been set up, but nothing much has gone on in there for now.

Yesterday I submitted my housing application! I’m choosing to stay in on campus accommodation, in a Residence Hall where all international students are put together and my roommate will also be an international student, most likely not an Australian. It’ll be cool living around people going through the same experience as me, and also to be able to get to know others from other parts of the world. I chose on-campus accommodation over off-campus because I wanted the typical college experience, living in a dorm with a roommate and within close proximity to classes and everything on campus in general. In the application I had to sign a housing agreement, pay an application fee, and answer some questions about my dorm preferences. I’ll hear back soon about whether it’s been approved and any further steps I’ll need to take.

This morning I officially confirmed my admission at Ole Miss by following a link and selecting an enrolment option:

The other week I also had to make a similar pledge on my Deakin applications, to formally accept the offer from Ole Miss and inform Deakin that I was 100% in.

Unfortunately I recently received an email from Ole Miss telling me that several of the subjects I expressed my interest in (from my Outgoing Study Plan) were unavailable to me for several reasons. Luckily, none of the units I had to find matches for were declined. So I’ve had to go back through Ole Miss’s course catalog to find some new subjects and send them off to unit chairs for approval. Luckily, they all got back to me in a few days and approved all of the new units I sent off, and so I was able to promptly send off my new Outgoing Study Plan to my departments. I’m still waiting for it to be sent back to me so that I can send it on to Deakin Abroad and Ole Miss.

I’ve started quite a bit of travel planning recently with my parents, who are both coming over to spend time with me while I’m in the USA. Dad is going to come visit me for my 21st birthday in November, and we booked his accommodation the other day as well as tickets to the home football game that’s on the weekend he’s visiting.

Mum and I are going to be doing several weeks of travel after I’ve finished college (including Christmas and NYE), and over the last week have booked our accommodation for two of the cities we’re visiting, have been planning what activities we want to do, and are in the process of organising our return flights from Australia. I’ve been waiting SO long to be able to start booking things and setting official travel plans so I’m loving all of this organising!

Considering its break week next week for Uni and I’m not working much around Easter, I’m hoping to get a visa appointment set and have that all completed and approved within the next few weeks. I have to pay a few fees and have some documents filled out before I can go to my appointment, so my next step is to get all of that sorted.

That’s all the news I have for now. Don’t forget to subscribe to be notified when I post something new. Thanks for reading!

- Emily xx