I apologize in advance for the low audio (s/n: headphones help!) But for those of you for whom this video is too low, basically this small town girl is going to the big city and beyond! ^_^ this past fall, I applied for an internship as a faculty advisor, and after three interviews I got the position in February.

Since then I’ve been busy trying to get my ducks in a row (paying my rent up!) I’ve completed the first stage of online training, been given our first location and leave date, and am now trying to complete my last few references. I also have to pay up my rent so that I can leave with no strings and buy my ticket (woo!)

Our training location was set to be in Washington DC and was changed instead to Berkeley CA, where we will also be doing our first assignment! It would have been much easier getting to DC from where I am than it will be getting to Cali, however I’ve made the decision to travel by bus or train as it will be much much cheaper (and much to my mother’s dismay) however, A. A plane ticket to CA from NC is practically rent and B. Being a typical little country girl I’ve never been on a plane before. The thought of flying alone terrifies me. At least once I have to travel to the next site I will be flying with the other staff and students.

Speaking of locations….

First stop The University of California Berkeley

Then Stanford University

And finally, Columbia University

I just can’t believe that I’m not only going to get to see all these amazing cities, but I’m ironically going to be “teaching” at schools that I myself would only have an 11% chance of getting in to. This whole thing is blowing my mind. I’m going to try and share every step of my experience with you ladies as I go. I know that it may not be impressive to some of you veteran travelers, but ever since I was young(er!) I knew I wanted to know something outside of Greenville NC. Typical “small town girl with big city dreams” statement I guess, but unless you’ve been able to count the places you’ve been on one hand, learned to drive on dirt roads, lived in a place where the biggest attraction was its university-well-you get the idea, you wouldn’t understand what it means to me to see the places I only got to see on TV and could only dream of going to.

So I do hope you guys enjoy my journey through a novice travelers eyes as I prepare for the first of what I intend to be many milestones of my career!