Figuring out a starving student's budget

Ok, well not really starving. But in the money department, I would rather spend less than more. I'm just now finding some sites that could help me with that, which is good.

Plus, the US dollar went above parity today with the AUS dollar, which is super good! Of course, that only lasted for a few hours, but hopefully it'll get back up within the next two weeks and stay there. I'm still not completely sure how this whole currency-exchange thing is going to go. All I know is that I can use my debit card at some ATMs over there without being charged any fees (score!) and that wiring money is really, really expensive. As in, more than $30 in fees expensive. Yikes. That's a week's worth of groceries right there...

As for cheaper options for buying stuff, I've found these websites so far. Australia doesn't have Amazon (WHAT), and so I hope I can find my textbooks cheaply enough....

Stuff for college kids (and tips on saving money!) can be found at http://www.studyadelaide.com/living-in-adelaide/eat-sleep-play.aspx

Craigslist is pretty lame in Australia, but these look like good substitutes: http://www.gumtree.com.au/ and http://www.tradingpost.com.au/

And since I can't drive, I'll probably be using http://www.dpti.sa.gov.au/communityprograms/programs/cycle_instead a lot. Once I get a bike, that is. Turns out, my dorm is a 30 minute bike ride to the beach. I bet I can get it down to 25 :)

Now, to figure out what I can afford to put on my Australian bucket list....

Australian Essays

When I was originally considering going to Australia this year, the adviser warned me that their style of learning was probably very different from ours. I blew off her advice- how can universal subjects be so different in another English-speaking country? I thought.

Well, as it turns out, they can be. I just signed up for a Renaissance Writing class, and so on my student portal there is a link for essay writing. It turns out that the essays I'll be writing are different than any essays I've written in the past 5-ish years (maybe even more)!

Here is a link to such a sample essay. They actually encourage this. My adviser was right!

What kills me is the introduction and the conclusion. All this "I will show," "as I have argued" stuff makes me cringe. All my teachers have forbidden me from writing like this since, what, the 6th grade? And I have to start writing like this now? Blurgh.

Coincidence? I think not.

So, the other day I was talking to another girl from A&M who is also going to be in Adelaide this year.

Turns out, we're in the same ecology class.

Is this real life????

But seriously. This is way crazy

I hate the way money works sometimes.

So, the thing about CISI insurance is that they don't have any plans that cover more than 12 months. This is a problem, considering my study abroad is 12 months and 17 days long. I hate how these things work. They also round up months, which I think is a complete scam but whatever. It's my health so I won't be taking any chances, thank you very much.

But it wasn't a big problem. Oh well, I thought, I'll just get two cards. One for an even period of time (in months) and the other for the rest of the time I'll be enrolled in the program. NBD. So I did just that.

FUNNY STORY IS, CISI decided to change their insurance policies effective July 31, 2012. Until then, it was 30.09 a month. After that date, it's 1.28 a day regardless of how long you stay abroad. This comes out to 39.68 a month. I was told this last semester, and it made sense.

However, what I didn't realize is that it's not when your insurance is in place, it's only when your insurance STARTS that this change matters. And this is where I screwed up (I realized this AFTER I bought my first few months, which led to lots of face palming):

By the way, nowhere on the site does it even mention it. NOWHERE. NO FREAKIN WHERE. For shame, CISI. For shame!

My purchases:
July 10 to December 10: $150.45 (30.09 rate, even though most of it is after July 31)
December 11 to July 27, 2013: $291.84
Total: $442.29

What I SHOULD have done:
July 10 2012 to July 10 2013: $361.08
July 11 to July 27: $20.48
Total: $381.56

Money I just got chummed out of: $60.73

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

TL;DR-
TIL that insurance is a scam, and I threw away 61 bucks in the process :(
With this luck, I bet I won't even catch a cold while I'm over there.

28 daysssss

Things are getting weird now. I don't know how to explain it, but everything is just...off. I guess this is just part of the whole transition thing.

Not really a fan.

31 days!

I'm not even going to lie. There's something about traveling halfway around the world by myself that is a little scary. Just a bit. Don't get me wrong, I'm so excited to see Australia and learn new things (ecology and surfing, can I get a WHOOP) and get a totally different college experience for a year, but let's be real:

In a month, I will be traveling about 10,000 miles, the equivalent of 40% of the Earth's circumference. In the following two weeks I'll have to register for classes, get settled in a dorm, and meet all new people. By myself. In a strange place where kangaroos are considered giant rats and people step on each others' heads to play a sport called "football" which is neither football nor soccer.

(Don't believe me on the last part? Watch this.)

I know I'll love it. But it's still a big change. Even with a lot of new schools under my belt, this is a lot different from any other change I've had to make.

33 days to go, and the fate of TV next year

aka how sad it will be that I will only be able to see a month of Dance Moms.


Today, I learned that Lifetime doesn't have a sister network in Australia. Obviously, this is really upsetting because that means that I won't be able to watch any of my classy shows like Dance Moms and, well, Dance Moms.


Which is ok, maybe, considering that the premiere today wasn't great. Abby seems to have lost her spark. Yawn.

But if the show gets better, I'll be the saddest Australian exchange student ever. Hulu won't work for some of my US shows over there, either! It's almost like they want me to be immersed in this new culture or something.

34 Days

...until I get on that awful plane.

I figure I'd start my blog now so that I can do an official 30-day countdown to my departure or whatever.

So yup, this should be where you guys can get the most up-to-date information about how Australia is. Let's hope I don't abandon this like I have every other journal I've ever tried to keep.