Preparations for leaving...

I'm really not sure where to start with this so I'll just tell it how it is from today!


Well there isn't long to go now (a week tomorrow until I fly to Norway) and I just feel like I have so much to do. I finally got insurance for my laptop sorted today, just another one of the mundane things you HAVE to do when you go away. When I first decided to ask my lecturers about the possibility of an exchange programme, obviously I had thought about it, but I never really realised all of the cost and preparations involved should I actually do it. You have to consider:

• funding (what can I get and how can I get it?)
• travel documents and what I need to do when I get there
• insurance (travel, health, laptop)
• alot of work over the summer to save up money
• intense Norwegian study (which involves me annoying my fiance, Hans, with v.bad pronunciacion), packing
• booking the travel
• sorting accommodation
• and so much more!

I don't regret it (yet!) but I feel quite stressed at the moment. I don't like moving or big changes at the best of times, and this is particularly hard. The background to my current situation is that I am going to Norway (Bergen) to study for a semester (all part of my bg clever plan for when we move there) and up until I got accepted onto the course, an exchange seemed like a really good idea! I guess my aim (as well as the obvious benefits of adding an exchange onto my degree) is to get much better at the language and understand the culture, enabling me to get a better job easier and faster when we move there. At the minute it just feels like a stupid idea, I am going to be on my own in a completely new place, listening to lectures in Norwegian, no friends around and worst of all, over 1200 miles away from my fiance!

We have been together almost 3 years and lived together almost the whole time, we have lots in common and we are very happy, so in love (aww) and incredibly comfortable in each others company. It will be so difficult for both of us to be apart but we do realise it is a good opportunity and will make our future better. At least thats what I keep telling myself. I feel like I should be getting excited (and I am to an extent) but I am sad and nervous and have been feeling quite panicky since Saturday night.


As I said, I leave in 8 days and we will be flying directly to Oslo. From there we will be going to stay with Hans mum which I am really looking forward to - I get on really well with all of his family and feel so at home there. They live in the countryside in South East Norway (close to the border of Sweden) and it is so beautiful and relaxing. I am looking forward to just spending a few days together there with no work, no packing or anything - just each other. It will be a really lovely way to spend our last week together. After that, Hans will come with me to Bergen to help me get settled in. He can only stay for 2 days due to work commitments so after that I'll be on my own...


I know that the first couple of nights will be awful - I'll want to come home but I wont! I'm just glad that I actually start my course soon after, I'll be busy and therefore be able to throw myself into it!