Just over a month to go until I leave the country for 5 months! It’s the first time that I’m leaving the country on my own and the first time I’ll be away for so long on my own. I’m absolutely terrified when I think about everything that could go wrong, but I’m just trying to remember that there are tons of other people who have gone through the same thing, and they survived, so why can’t I?

I have pretty much organised all I need to / want to before I go away for while I am over there. That includes flights over in September, transfer to the uni, accommodation at the uni, and flights back in February. I am also planning to do some form of Irish Gaelic language course while I am overseas, as I have been learning the language on my own for a bit and would love to get to know it better. I won’t be at uni the whole time, but I will be planning most of that when I get over there. Weekend trips, and the 6 weeks between when I finish uni and when I come back to Australia are not planned, but that is a job for English Beck, not Aussie Beck.

The biggest thing now is making sure that everything here is finished before I go overseas. That means that everything has to be cleaned, tidied, and organised. I am a manager at the tutoring school I work for, so I have to make sure that everything there is ready for me to be gone for 5 months (almost 2 terms!). Everything seems to be coming together, but mostly it just feels like there are not enough hours in the day for me to get everything done, and time keeps ticking down until I leave.

I am so excited to go to the University of Leicester, that I can’t even put it into words! I am looking forward to living on my own, travelling around Europe for the first time, and just having as much fun as possible!

Rebecca Spry, Bachelor of Mathematical Science (Honours)/Bachelor of Letters (French) student, Semester 2 2017 exchange at University of Leicester, the United Kingdom