by Seth Martin
Hey all! My name is Seth Martin and I’m serving as one of the student bloggers for the Australia 2012 study abroad program for the University of Washington! I’m from the small, scenic town of Gleed, Washington (right next to Yakima and Selah for those of you East-Siders). I love adventures, outdoor sports, science, and meeting new and interesting people wherever I go. I’m a bit of a two-sided coin when it comes to being social and being studious. On one hand, I’m an active member in my fraternity Beta Theta Pi and love the social scene that comes with it. On the other hand I’m going into engineering and thus can be very studious. As for my intended major, that’s a bit funny of a story. I’ll actually be going over to Cornell University next year to pursue a degree in Applied & Engineering Physics. That’s not to say I don’t love the UW and the vast number of opportunities available here (and believe me, they are vast!). I’ve been other places in the world before including: Canada, Mexico, China, and Japan! However, I’ve never been gone quite this long and can say that I’m thoroughly excited for it.
To prepare for the trip, I actually made my packing list three or four days before the flight just to be sure I had everything. Packing is the easy part though. You really have to stay on top of the requirements to study abroad. Between group meetings, visas & passports, plane tickets, and funds allocation there was a lot to keep on top of! The staff at the study abroad center made this all a breeze though and I can assure you that studying abroad isn’t as daunting a task as it seems. One of the biggest things I’ve done to prepare for the trip is absolutely messing with my sleep schedule (not to say that you college students don’t already have a crazy one)! I started going to bed and waking up Aussie time. Though I’m sleeping at odd times, I know from experience that I’ll skip over that nasty thing known as jet lag.
That’s about all I can think of at the moment. Hope you enjoy reading! You can expect about a post per week from me with all sorts of photos and interesting stories. Who knows, maybe I’ll make some web account to post all of the pictures for your viewing pleasure (you can never have too many photos).