I'm talking about a semester abroad, of course.
The next day, I went to the study abroad office, filled out a questionnaire, and spoke with a counselor there. We went over my academic goals (none) and language skills (none to speak of), and decided that I had to be brutally honest if I hoped to find myself in an appropriate program.
I told the counselor that my goal was to learn to surf.
Immediately, she said "Australia."
It wasn't as easy as that, though. As it turns out, CU offers 13 different programs in Australia. I had to choose one, and should likely choose it based on course offerings since they would be, ostensibly, why I was there. That meant looking at pros and cons, courses and classes, maybe even some real facts somewhere along the line. What a bummer.
I didn't despair. I only procrastinated a little. And that doesn't really count because the office was closed for the weekend anyway. On Monday, it would reopen, and I would be back, hopefully with a program in mind.
I found two that really appealed to me: Perth and Adelaide.
Perth is on Australia's southwestern shore. It's apparently off the beaten path for most international students, so I can say "I've been to Perth. I'll bet you don't know where the hell that is." The program offered some interesting philosophy classes, but they didn't look as good as the offerings at Adelaide.
Adelaide is on Australia's southern shore. It, too, is somewhat off the beaten path for international students. It appeared to be less Outbacky (for lack of an actual adjective) than Perth, but it offered Epistemology and Logic II.
So, what was a boy to do? I found myself torn between Epistemology and the Outback. I know that makes it sound facetious, but I was having a hard time deciding.
I had to decide quickly - the deadline to apply is March 1, and there's a lot involved in applying. I was told that once I made my decision I should email the office.
I sent that e-mail today. I took Step 1.
Now, I get megabytes of digital paperwork from the school, reams of real paperwork from our government, and (I imagine) some sort of message pounded out on drums from the Australian government because:
I'm going to Perth next semester.
