My life is now complete

Ok everyone. Here it is. My second biggest dream in the world has come true. Are you ready for this? Are you sure?

Well ok then. Here it is. One of the most amazing, if not the most amazing book series to have ever been written is coming to the big screen. Thats right. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis is coming to theatres December 9 from Walt Disney Pictures, the director of Shrek, and the special effects supervisor of Lord of the Rings. Holy cow. I am about to pee my pants I am so excited.

I mean this is big. Have you seen the trailer? Sweet mercy. I am hysterical.

Oh and guess where most of it was filmed. Thats right. New Zealand. Close to Christchurch. I mean I will practically be in Narnia. Oh man. This is too much for me...

I talked to my best friend's little sister yesterday about going to New Zealand. She kept asking me if I was nervous. I told her I wasn't. She asked again, "But aren't you nervous?" "No, I'm really not. I mean I'm a little anxious, a lot excited, but I really don't feel nervous." "So you're not nervous?" "No."

Is that weird? I mean I should be pretty nervous. A few weeks ago I was really nervous. Not so much about the living in New Zealand part, mainly the flying to New Zealnd part. I've never flown by myself. Trying to find my way through 5 different airports - big airports - is a little intimidating. But right now I am just ready to go. i mean I have been anticipating this moment for the last 9 months. Now I have 3 days. Wow. Three days.

By the way I'll be in Auburn saturday afternoon. I fly out Sunday morning. Yeah thats in 3 days. I'll be honest though, this last week has been the longest week of my life. That might be a good thing though. I should savor every moment I have here. I don't want time to go by too fast. Before I know all of this will be over. Sad thought.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH

It is Tuesday. I leave Sunday. AAAaaaaAAaAaaaaAHHHhhhhHHhhHHHhhh

That is me jumping and screaming. On the inside of course. Sweet mercy.

I mean of you only knew the stuff I had to crawl through to get here, to get to the place where I can say "It is Tuesday. I leave Sunday."

I can only say THANK YOU GOD because that is the only way I can possibly be here. This is what He had to do for me to allow me to go:

1) Raise $12,000
2) Convince my parents it was a good idea, and not only that but an exciting opportunity that they wish they could do as well
3) Give me motivation to fill out the mountains of paperwork (application, enrolment, acomodation, visa, AU abroad)
4) Give me time to fill out mountains of paperwork
5) Give me a dream, a desire to go, a vision
6) Have people believe in me and encourage me
7) Give me the guts to go to a different country, a different hemisphere, not knowing a soul, and scariest of all, the guts to ride on a plane (make that 5 planes) by myself
8) Work through stupid complications like my insurance not being approved, my second thoughts about going and leaving everyone and everything I knew, not being sure if the money was going to be enough, being relocated to a more expensive flat (room)

And the list goes on...but everything worked out. Against all odds. Tuition was half of what I expected, I just got another $1000 scholarship that I wasn't expecting, all of my paperwork is in, I had the most fabulous people helping me and being patient with me both in New Zealand and at Auburn. Its really amazing that I'm doing this. I've always had big dreams, but I've never been very good at following through with them. Somehow my biggest dream came true.

This is where I'll be living in ten days!!!

Christchurch, New Zealand

I mean how gorgeous is this place?

Christchurch, New Zealand

11 days and counting...

Hello my dears...only 11 more days until the big trip, the trip that is going to change my life forever. I am terribly excited, but also terribly terrified. Its a good terrified though - I think.

There have been a lot of disasters recently. The university over there didn't approve of my insurance. That was annoying. So now I have to take out a third - yes, count it, a third - insurance policy through the University of Canterbury. Its not too expensive though. Then today I found out that I have been "reallocated to a Stage 3 flat" which means I'll be living in a dorm/apartment/flat thing that is twice as expensive. That happened because I'll be going down there for their second semester, and of course no one moves out after the first semester except for the older students who graduate. Hence, i'll be moving in with older students in the expensive flat. Now everyone is gonna think I'm some spoiled rich little American girl. Well maybe not.

I was really scared about the money thing though. But then I realized that I paid like $2600 too much for tuition so that will take care of the extra money it will cost to live in the flat. I'm gonna be living in a flat. How cool is that? And it has a rubbish tin. Thats right, a rubbish tin. And I have to take it to the skip when its full. Doesn't that sound so much better than taking the trash can to the dumpster? I thought so too. I mean I might actually enjoy taking out the trash if I got to use cool words like rubbish and skip.

I'm getting anxious to leave. I've already packed most of my clothes. (Its winter there so I packed sweaters and jackets and things like that). I can't believe July 3rd is so close. It used to seem so far away. Impossibly far away. So far that I could dream about leaving without actually having to leave. But now its more like reality. I'm leaving in 11 days. I'm really leaving in 11 days.