Goodbye Columbia, Hello Sydney!

Hello Gamecocks! I am finally just a few days out from my departure for Sydney, Australia!

Leaving home on January 3rd means my winter break is a bit shorter than normal, so I have been lucky to be able to visit my friend in New Jersey and have a trip into NYC with my best friends from USC! I am trying to soak everything up before leaving home. I am so excited about leaving, but I expect some nervous feeling to hit me closer to departure. I am preparing by making many packing lists and to-do lists of things I must get done before leaving. Packing for this is my biggest worry right now, but I think it would be better to underpack because I know I can buy anything I really need when I get there. I am going to stick to more basic clothes, with a few fun pieces. I plan to bring one backpack, a carry-on suitcase, and a checked suitcase.

Spending time with my USC friends before saying goodbye!

I am doing the CIEE open-campus program, where I will spend 6 weeks each in 3 different cities! I chose my cities to be Sydney, Rome, and Paris. Since I start the semester in Sydney, where it is summer, I may try to buy clothes for colder weather once I arrive in Rome because it will be a lot cooler there and I do not want to take up all the space in my bags with bulky items! In the next few days, I also plan to spend some time researching the cities I will be going to and making lists of the top things I want to do, see, and eat. I can’t wait to get there and be able to meet people to start going on adventures with! I am going into this with an open mind, ready to try new things and remember that things abroad are not weird, just different!

Spending quality time with family during the holidays