Anyone who has known me in the last 8 months or so will have undoubtedly laughed, mocked or looked away in shame upon my reaction to seeing, what must be, the most rudimentary app of all time. To the uninformed layman this is nothing more than a small waste of storage space, as no one needs to know the exact day-count to... anything, not even those who start playing Christmas Carols come the end of daylight savings time.
But for those who have listened and myself, it marks the start of a process a very long time in the making. I tend to be hyperbolic at times, but to say that I have wanted to study in the U.S for years, is no exaggeration. I have been blessed with the oppourtunity to travel the States for 7 months; with the greater portion of my trip based at the University of Miami.
This is more than a chance to spend a semester at a different university though. Throughout my first 18 months in London, I feel I've befriended more international comrades than most people do in a lifetime. In my first semester alone I met a group of yanks I readily label as my closest friends. International students, on the whole, have a great zest for life and a mantra that is; "we're only here once, why say no?" One of the most exciting prospects about this trip is having the tables turned; becoming a tourist, living out of my comfort zone and continually questioning and appreciating the minutiae of a different culture.
So with 10 days to go to; how have I prepared for such a unique oppourtunity? I'm sure I'll be ready before I board my flight... There's still a lot of work to do in the motherland before I make my first stop in Colorado, but the back of waiting has been broken. A summer of saving, selling possessions and a semester of head-down-holy-hell-taking-extra-classes-is-tough have all been geared to give me the best chance to make this experience every bit as enriching as can be.
My earliest memory of the aforementioned app was when it read 252 days to go... To see it read single digits feels like an achievement in itself.
