Start of Summer.....

Yesterday I took my last final of sophomore year!!

Take a look at the photos from recent times. (Just click on the word photos over there, its a magic link!) There should be some fun ones in there.

So about finals. I really don’t know how I did this time around. But if my grades are good, I'll post them, so if I did bad, then you'll know cause I wont say anything.

Because of my accounting major and dream of becoming a CPA after only 4 years here, I need to take a lot of extra credits to get enough to be allowed to sit for the CPA exam. So I'm taking 10 credits this Summer (including some accounting upper division prereqs, because Italy doesn’t offer Accounting.) Then next Summer I'll need to take another 6 credits. So moral of the story is, I basically never get to live at home again. Which is sad. But I'll be home in August and I'm making my parents throw a party for me before I go to Italy in September, and everyone's invited! (And note to parents: now that I put it on the internet you have to do it! hahaha)

For Summer I'm living in Burch Apartments, which is almost identical to the one I'm in now. Except Burch has air conditioning. Which is exciting! I've never lived with air conditioning before! Its a twp bedroom apartment and my friend Katie is living in the other bedroom, so I'll have an extra bed and a couch and a chair and a big floor and a small balcony for anyone who wants to come up to Spokane and see the sights!

My roomie Jenne left this morning, Alyse is leaving tomorrow and I have training for my job next week, so I'm moving rooms on Wednesday. Then I’m starting classes the next Monday (May 22). My job for the summer is working with different conferences and camps that are held on campus over the summer, and because it’s through the housing department I get free housing! But there’s no campus dining, I'll be completely on my own to feed/cook for myself for the first time.

Now, progress on Italy...

I got my ISIC (International Student Identification Card) so I can get discounts on all sorts of things all over the world! yay! I'm turning in all my Visa stuff when Mom comes to visit me over Memorial Day. And at the last meeting Study Abroad said they havent had a Visa rejected from my consulate for at least 10 years, which is good news for me! I got a travel physical from the school doctor and he signed me off, I have no diseases/medical conditions!! So start planning your trips to Florence to visit me! I cant promise I'll know any Italian other than "more wine please!" and "where’s the bathroom?" but I can try!

Here’s a little outline of my year abroad:
Sept 7 - Leave United States
Sept 8 - Arrive in Berlin
Sept 9 - 16 Opening Tour in Germany, Poland, Czech Republic (including Oktoberfest in Berlin!!!)
Sept 17 - Arrive in Florence
Sept 18 - Start Classes
Dec 20 - Last day of Fall Semester Classes
Dec 22 - Jan 2 Christmas Tour (destination is yet to be announced)
Jan 7 - Start Second Semester Classes
April 17 - End Second Semester Classes
April 18 - Must leave housing, meet up with Parents
April 18 - 28 Europe with Mom and Dad!!!
April 28 - Come Home

There’s a zillion weekend trips and whatnot I'll be going on and blogging about for sure, and posting millions and millions of pictures!!

I ordered my books we all have to read to get acclimated to Italian culture before we go from Amazon so I should be getting those in the next few days. They are mostly about manners and how to fit in and all that jazz, so probably won’t be all that interesting.

And has anyone else been listening to this singer guy Mika? I’ve been like listening to a few of songs pretty much non stop for the past week or two.