5 weeks to go!

I cant believe its only 5 weeks til I go! Its gone so quick, only seems like yesterday when I first found out I had been accepted onto the programme. I thought I would use this post to write down the different things that I am excited about and nervous about! Just because I am bored and I have so many things that I keep thinking about so thought it would be quite good to write them down :)

Excited for-
The sunny weather and the warm rain!
Trying some of the amazing food in the restaurants over there.
Pancakes at IHOP!
Shopping at the Malls and clothes and things being much cheaper!
Getting to spend more than just one day in the Disney parks
Going to Universal again
Being in Florida for my Birthday
Just basically living in America!

Nervous for-
Having to leave all my friends and family for 3 months!
Saying goodbye to my boyfriend :(
The plane journey there on my own with no family.
Moving into the apartment with randomers!
Getting to my first day at work
Getting homesick and missing everyone
Spending all my money when I need to save it!

Hopefully I will be fine once I get there and Im sure everyone else is feeling the same as me! I still have so much to do! Still need to buy a suitcase and get all my money sorted! Anyway this was a random post but its only 36 days to go!

7 weeks!

I really need to start posting on here a bit more, but I have been enjoying my time off Uni too much, but now I am back in the lovely town of Preston so I thought I would write a post because I'm bored of Uni work!

Over the last week not much has happened except from getting my passport back from the embassy. It took a week to get back to me but that was because of the Easter weekend. I thought the Visa would be an actual page in my passport but its just like a sticker stuck on one of the pages :/ My picture is disgusting! It's a right mugshot, I look like a criminal haha. I've put a picture below.

Now that I have my Visa sorted its starting to feel a bit more real but it still feels like its ages away but its only 48 days! Just under 7 weeks! Its gonna come around so fast. I have also started doing a bit of summer shopping cos Im gonna need to take a lot of clothes, even though I will probably buy a lot out there. Now all I have left to do is my medical insurance and programme assessment fee which I will do this weekend when I go back home :) I think I might also need to buy a suitcase, I already have a biggish one but I think Im gonna need a much bigger one with all the clothes Im gonna take, I'll also need room to bring the stuff I buy out there back with me so I think I'll have a look for a bigger suitcase.

Looking at the miserable weather outside makes me really excited for all the sun, only 48 days left!!

London time :)

Its been quite a while since my last blog post cos I have now moved home from Uni and have been too busy relaxing haha. This post is just about what happened with going down to London to the embassy to get my Visa :)

So on Wednesday I got up at 5.30am :( to get the train down to London. My appointment wasn't until 11.30am but I wanted to get there in plenty of time and it takes about 3 hours to get to London from where I live anyway. I met a girl called Laura who had her appointment at the same time as me and we headed to the embassy together, we got a bit lost but ended up getting there in the end. After a bit of breakfast we dropped all our electricals off at the pharmacy down the road which cost £3 which isn't too bad. The embassy says not to queue for your appointment more than half an hour before but we decided to just go early anyway to see if they would let us in...and they did :) So after going through security, just like at the airport, they let us into the building.

I then got given a number and was told to wait for this number to be called. So we then went into the waiting room which was very full! My number was called after about half an hour which wasn't too bad and I just had to go up to a desk where a woman took my documents off me and took my fingerprints. She then told me to sit down again and wait for my number to be called again. After hearing stories about being in there for hours and hours I was feeling quite optimistic. The numbers before mine were being called quite slowly but a man kept calling numbers for the J1 visa's, which is the one Im getting so it would be much quicker because there were loads of us. He was calling numbers higher and higher so I was getting ready to be called, but then suddenly the whole of the embassy decided to go on a lunch break between 1pm and 2pm so no one was called in this hour at all, everyone was getting very frustrated!! However at about 10 past 2 my number was finally called so I went to another desk where I had to verify my fingerprints by doing them again, then they man said "thank you, I am going to process your visa today". AND THAT WAS IT! I waited for 3 HOURS just for someone to say that!!! Then I had to queue for another 10 mins to pay for my passport courier fee which was £14.80.

Anyway I then went to get my electicals back then headed to Oxford street to do a bit of shopping :) I then met my mum and sister and went for a nice meal for tea before heading back to Euston to get the train home. My passport should come on Tuesday because of all of the bank holidays this weekend. Nearly done everything I need to do now :)

Only 58 days to gooo!!!!