Hi everyone, my name is Kelsey E. I\u2019m from Dalton Georgia and I\u2019m a graduating senior studying horticulture. This is my pre-departure post, and I\u2019ve been asked to talk about issues I\u2019ve faced while preparing for my study abroad trip!
\nI\u2019m taking part in The Art and Gardens of The Grand Tour study abroad which takes place during Maymester. I\u2019d heard a lot about this program from Dr. Smalley who is my advisor, teacher, and a coordinator for this trip and decided this was the right semester to participate. The Grand Tour was a tradition in Europe and was considered the completion of a young adult\u2019s education. During this tour, students visited historic gardens and monuments, and in that same spirit, I will be lead to these same locations.
\nI\u2019m very new to the travel experience. My travelling experiences have been limited mostly to the south, and always within a good day\u2019s drive. I\u2019ve never gotten on a plane or even applied for a passport previously, so this is all very new! The way my airline booking worked out, I will be flying solo until I arrive at my first hotel, a day before my classmates. But, with plenty of printed maps and directions, I know I\u2019ll get there just fine.
\nMy family was always very supportive of this trip and the internship I will complete in France after Maymester. I\u2019ll be working in estate gardens at chateaus and living with the owners of the chateaus! It will be wonderful to see so many historic gardens and then have the opportunity to work in three! Back to my family, they\u2019re only slightly sad I\u2019m leaving because they know how much I\u2019ll gain from this trip and the internship, but will still miss me. My boyfriend Scott and I have been inseparable since we got together 4 years ago. Our cat, Westen, has been with us the past 3 years, so it\u2019s going to be really hard to leave them both for 3 and a half months.
\nAs for anxieties or fears I\u2019m confronting at the moment, I wouldn\u2019t say I have too many. I am fully equipped with technology gadgets (thanks to Scott\u2019s very wonderful knowledge of tech and travel necessities), such as a very handy external battery. I\u2019ll add 2 pounds to my pack if it means I\u2019ll virtually always have power! I also got a Google Chromebook as a graduation present to myself from my mom, haha. It\u2019s a pretty cheap, ultra light laptop with everything I\u2019ll need (Google docs, a front facing camera, access to the internet, etc) without adding any weight to my pack. I\u2019d say that was the biggest stress for me leading up to this moment. Just trying to find everything, especially in the tech-field that I know I\u2019ll need access to so I can stay connected to my family and find my way if I ever get stranded. I think it’s easier to find these types of items prior to a trip rather than during. Toiletries aren’t very important since everywhere I’m going sells them somewhere.
\nI\u2019m very excited about my upcoming trip and can\u2019t wait to put my knowledge of horticulture to the test with some of the best professors from UGA!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi everyone, my name is Kelsey E. I\u2019m from Dalton Georgia and I\u2019m a graduating senior studying horticulture. This is my pre-departure post, and I\u2019ve been asked to talk about issues I\u2019ve faced while preparing for my study abroad trip! I\u2019m taking part in The Art and Gardens of The Grand Tour study abroad which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,35,23,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-faculty-led","category-maymester","category-the-grand-tour-art-and-gardens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":597,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions\/597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}