Happy New Year!

Happy New Years, everyone! I hope this year brings great things to you!

Starting today, I will be writing a post at least once a week to help me get in the habit of posting things for when I am in Australia.

I have completed most of the things I needed to get done in order to travel and study abroad. I have completed the UNSW online application, submitting all the classes I want to take. They got back to me relatively quickly about the classes and only had a few classes be approved on UNSW's side for me to take. Most of the classes that were denied were because they were not offered in the semester I was asking for them. After a few rounds, I finally have 5 classes set up for each semester. I am hoping that this is enough and that I don't have to randomly pick some when I am finally in Sydney.

I have also completed getting the necessary health insurance (in this case- OSHC (Over Seas Health Care)) which I had to give to UNSW via the application site (after submitting and getting accepted in the first place). After they processed me having the necessary insurance, they gave me a "Confirmation of Enrollment" via email that I then used to complete the necessary Visa. I wish I had started this process a little earlier as I am still waiting on getting the confirmation that I have the Visa 'uploaded' into my passport. I would definitely recommend getting this process done as soon as you can. The main reason I could not get started earlier was because I had to wait for my parents' funding to go through as they are my main source of income for paying for this exchange program. If you are in a similar situation, don't worry about pestering your parents to get their side of the funding done. Even if you aren't in a financial position where you or your parents cannot help, and you are waiting for funds to come through, do not be afraid to ask the necessary people when you will get funding. Start early!

As I wait for the Visa to come through, I still had to think about how I would get communication overseas. My parents and I have determined that I will probably go through Telstra. I will probably be getting the $40 per month plan that has unlimited texting throughout Australia, gives a $1000 allowance for minutes within Australia, and has a 5 gigabyte data allowance per month. We thought this would work fine for me since I don't really talk a lot on the phone and the highest I've gone on data was 4 GB and usually, it is about 1-2 GB. I will also be getting an International Call pack for $10 per month. This allows me unlimited talk and text to any of 10 countries, with the USA, China, Canada, and Mexico being on there, among others. That being said, I do not get charged for anything on my end, but anyone I call abroad in any of those countries will get charged unless they also have an international plan. Please keep that in mind.

Most everything, at this point, has been taken care of. I think all I have to do now is think very carefully about what I want to take with me while I am in Sydney. After going through Pre-Orientation at NAU, I know that I should not pack as much as I think I need to pack. I should only pack basics and get the rest when I am in Sydney. It's a lot to think about, but I'm going to start thinking about it now and will probably make a post once I decide what to take with me.

This is the end of my first post and I hope it helps! Don't hesitate to ask questions and if I can't answer them, I will either direct you to someone who can answer that question, or I will ask around and get back to you! Happy New Years once again!