The Saints of Financial Aid are looking out for me!

I went and harassed the financial aid office again yesterday and although I had thought it was a colossal waste of time, today I got my program cost and financial aid information. YAY! I then called my student loan company and got approved for the remainder. Baby, I got this. I am so excited!


I will be leaving from Spokane on May 9th and arrive the next day in London. I'm doing this whole thing as cheaply as possible so I'm going to tackle the tube and head to a hostel. And no, I don't want to hear about any movies that I MUST see. I'll watch them after I make it home safe. :D Then the next morning I start my European Tour. In a short twelve days I will go from London, to Paris, to the Swiss Alps, to Pisa, to Florence, to Rome, to Venice, to Munich, to Rhine Valley, to Amsterdam, to Bruges Belgium, and back to London. Holy SHIT!!!!! Now obviously, I won't be able to explore each of the cities the way I would like to but I'm thinking this is an excellent way of finding out which cities I want to visit in the future. Once I'm back in London, I will have a couple free days to explore the City. Finally, I will leave for my Study Abroad program and meet my group in Madrid. The program will give us all a four day tour of Madrid and other cities in Spain. We will arrive in Valencia on Sunday and on Monday I will start my classes at the University of Valencia. For the next five weeks, I will be, for the most part, living in Valencia with trips with ISA to Barcelona and other cities in Spain set up for the weekends. Then it's back to London for a few more days until I come back home on the 2nd of July. 54 days of adventure and excitement! Okay, and exhaustion, sore feet, and mind blowing terror of doing all of this by myself. Either way, I am SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!


Why do I have to do this whole, finish the rest of this semester thing here again? I should be starting a paper on Admin Law right now, or finishing a case brief on Arizona V Gant (That was due a week ago tuesday), or at the very least, studying for my Spanish exam on Monday. But nooooo, I am reading all about Museums in Paris, and the glaciers in Switzerland. Uh oh.


One amusing aspect of all the financial aid stuff. Last year my student loan was a third of the price of this year's program (Costa Rica is cheaper than Spain. Go Figure) but I still needed a Cosigner. Man, I still remember how steamed I was at that. 25 years old, a credit score over 750 and I needed to ask my dad to sign my loan with me. Now, a year later, my credit score has dropped to the high 600's because of a year of student loan debt, and the total amount of the loan is THREE times as much. The only thing in my favor was that this year, my loan agent was male. Two minutes of flirting (over the phone) and I was approved. Without a cosigner.


I love being a girl!


No, I just love being me.


Life is Awesome

Study Abroad Take Two!

Here we go again! I have been accepted into the Summer Program in Valencia Spain. The only thing in my way is paying for it. :) My university is being incredibly slow on submitting a program cost proposal and until I get that I can't apply for a student loan. So hurry UP already!!! The deadline is only 20 days away. ACK!


Valencia is the third largest city in Spain and is located on the Mediterranean coast. Yup, that's right. I picked a beach town this time!!!

My hope is to leave right after finals and backpack around part of Europe before heading to Madrid to start my program. I want to join this budget tour I found online and travel on a bus with a bunch of students seeing the sights. :) Hey, a girl has gotta dream!