the road so far

Some time in 2011/2012: I thought about it and decided to apply for an Erasmus exchange for the year 2013/2014. When I started uni, we were told that going on an exchange in an English-speaking country (or any country, really) would be really good for a translator student. Somehow it got stuck in my mind that the third year of studying would be a good time to go. This upcoming year is indeed my third year of uni, and even though it means that I'll write my Bachelor's thesis a year later than most of my friends, this is really the only chance for me to do this exchange thing. Well, not only, maybe, but this is the ideal time. I've always been interested in living abroad for a while - somehow it feels like it was meant for me to do. It's terrifying at times, but my heart has always leapt at the word "international", so I think it's only fair that I try this.

February 2013: Finally apply. The first stage was to apply for a permission from Helsinki University to actually apply abroad... does that make any sense? Basically, you fill in forms, return them in time, and then wait for the uni people to make a choice between all the applicants. The foreign universities are quite strict about how many students they will take each year, so it's likely that someone will be left without a spot. I had to write a motivation letter for each of my three choices (Cardiff, Sheffield, and Nottingham) and also create this study plan ("Learning Agreement") to let the big guys know what sort of classes I was interested in taking abroad.

This stage included a lot of panicky emails from me to the poor amanuensis of English Philology at Helsinki. When I look back at my Sent folder, 2/3 of my emails started with "Help!" and ended with "Sorry". I'm still a bit amazed he was patient enough to reply to them all without excessive exclamation marks. I just wanted to make sure everything was absolutely right, because I wasn't going to mess this one up!

March 7th 2013: Find out that I was nominated to apply for Sheffield! I was at work when I got the email, and I remember being both excited and sort of shocked. Not shocked that I was chosen (sometimes I'm too confident and just coolly expect to get everything I go for - not so good) but shocked that I would actually do this. Me.

March 8th 2013: Get an email from the exchange coordinator of the University of Sheffield with the instructions on how to apply there.

June 2nd 2013: Submit my application and cross my fingers!

June 19th 2013: My name day and the day I got my confirmation of acceptance! Immediate Facebook status update time! Receive my Sheffield student number with which to apply for uni accommodation. Apply for accommodation right away.

Between these dates, complete certain required pre-registration tasks online.

July 19th: Receive an accommodation acceptance email!

July 23th: Accept all the conditions and terms of the accommodation contract and pay a £150 deposit on the room. It's now officially mine! I'm able to move in on September 21st. However, I'm going to need to arrive earlier than that for Charlie's aunt's wedding, so I book myself a slot on the Orientation Week, which includes accommodation and meals from September 12th onwards. Perfect!

August 14th: Book flights to Manchester and a bus from the airport to Sheffield. It was a nightmarish process and a stressful day, but it's all done and Sheffield should be ready for me!