Welcome

Hello!

Welcome to my blog. I'm not big on blogging, but it seems like an appropriate time to start one of these-you know? Traveling to Ghana for five months will probably be a pretty defining experience in my life. :)

So where exactly am I in life and how did I get here?

Earlier this year, right after winter quarter ended in March, I decided I was going to travel or study abroad. How? Not sure yet, but I felt that studying abroad was one of those college, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. It was also one of the few remaining things left on my college to-do list. With the start of my senior year spring quarter, I knew it was time to make some decisions and figure out what I was going to do with my life. I had already decided to stay an entire fifth year, but what I wasn't sure of was how I was going to spend this fifth year at UCLA. After weighing various options from all angles, I decided to finish up my last four classes during fall and spend the remaining two quarters abroad..somewhere. I wasn't ready to graduate and to exchange my happy UCLA bubble for the "real adult world." The pieces seemed to fit together very nicely.

After deciding this, I remember going to the study abroad offices on campus to take a look at the list of programs they had to offer. First, I went to the career center. They have a travel study office on the second floor that basically acts as a liaison for independent and private travel study programs. From my understanding, travel study give you a very hands on experience while you're abroad. At first, the hands-on, field study experience was very appealing. Then I asked for the cost, and ouch, my wallet hurt. Plus (or maybe moreso of a minus), FAFSA financial aid could not be transferred and used for these programs. Other sources of aid (like scholarships and such) could be obtained... but I felt like a loan was inevitable.

I wanted a program that was affordable, something unique, and something that would offer some new perspectives to my life. From the career center, I traveled to UCLA's International Education Office in Murphy Hall. There, I found programs that were much more in my range financially. Class credits from these foreign institutions were much easier to transfer over. FAFSA aid could be applied toward these programs.. I felt like I found a gold mine. I eventually selected the University of Ghana program. It would give me a change to volunteer in a developing community, something I have always wanted to but could never afford to do, while taking classes at the University. Horrah. By this time, it was mid-May and finals week was approaching. I began my application, but senior year nostalgia and hanging out with friends prevailed. Everyone was in the "let's-hang-out-because-we-will-probably-not-see-each-other-for-a-while-since-we-are-all-graduating" mood and thus, much fun was had and little work was done.

Before I knew it, it was the middle of June. I was officially done with my fourth year at UCLA. Many of the friends I had entered college with was graduating and I still wasn't done with classes for my major. The thought of graduating and being completely done with my undergraduate career was extremely daunting- there were so many things I hadn't had a chance to do yet. I was enrolled in an MCAT course and had planned for social isolation for the coming summer. (Ah, I remember being so anxious for the exam.) Plus, it was time to start the application.

The application process was not too difficult, but it required a personal statement, taking a course on Africa, and getting two letters of recommendations. Admist studying for the MCAT, getting all this stuff done was a drag. Luckily, my wonderful boyfriend was very encouraging and made me finish the application :)

So here I am.. in my last quarter at UCLA. Holy cow. Hopefully it'll be a good one. :)

-Alice