Going home...

I know this entry isn't very SAS related, but...I'm going home tomorrow! I'm officially done with my sophomore year of college at 9am tomorrow morning. All my exams are finished, but I still have a paper to submit. I just packed up most of my room when I should probably have taken a nap figuring I pulled my first all-nighter last night. Suprisingly though, I'm not that tired. Yes, I can definitely tell that I didn't get 8 or more hours of sleep, but I don't feel like I only took a 2 hour nap. I'm going to try to last without taking a nap til tonight so I can get a good nights sleep later. I have a few more things to do before my dad gets into town but other than that, I'm pretty much set.

Oh! Actually, I do have some SAS related news. I have finally finished all my paperwork for my International Programs office here at CNU. Between CNU paperwork and SAS paperwork, I have filled out more packets these past few months than in my entire life. I've heard rumors that it just gets worse as it gets closer to sailing. I have some awsesome news! Because I sent in my $1000 deposit all the way back in October of '07, when they raised the price of the trip $1520, they credited my account with that money. I guess you can say I've received a total of $4520 in financial aid from SAS alone. I don't have the exact $ figure of how much I owe out-of-pocket at the end of May, but it's something ridiculously lower than I first imagined. Less than $4,000 I believe. (That includes all my federal financial aid, money in the bank, and scholarships). That $4000 is being paid with a loan that I applied for and hopefully will receive. Now, I just have to keep pushing for sponsor money. I would love to get a few thousand more dollars. I'd be set!

Well, I wish I could keep writing, but I really should be working on that paper. God knows I could write about Semester at Sea for hours...

p.s. 112 days til departure

Financial Aid

Well, I finally heard back from Semester at Sea regarding my scholarship! I received an email from Ryan Roth around 5pm today saying that I can check my MyVoyage account to see if I received aid. I was a little aprehensive about looking because I was afraid that I wasn't going to have received anything. But, I did. 3,000$ actually. I was hoping for around 5k but I'll take 3k. That's 3,000$ less than I have to pay out of pocket now. I still have tons of things that I need to do to get everything in line...like apply for a loan, finish getting my signatures for the classes I'd like to take, filing out the online China and India Visa applications, getting my shots and vaccinations, all that good jazz...It's starting to come together slowly but surely though.

I've run a spreadsheet for all my potential costs associated with Semester at Sea and I'm looking at roughly 30,000$. That's A LOT of money. My mom has been working hard on getting addresses and such for me to send sponsorship packets out. She received a reply from one company saying that they're not in the position right now to give donations so I hope that this isn't a trend. I really would like to hope/think that there are good people out there who wouldn't mind sponsoring me. 50$-100$ really isn't that much money for a company to sponsor me with. I'd like to think that in a few years time, if I received a letter from a student asking for help to travel, I would generously give back. What goes around comes around. I just have to keep hoping that I've done enough good to receive good in return. We shall see...I'll keep this updated as the weeks start to peel away. I have 120 days til I leave! It's getting much closer! I can't wait!