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Thursday 8th May 2014.
Since my last blog over a month ago, a lot has happened. Not only was I faffing about trying to do a hundred and one things at the same time, I was also trying to sell some old things of mine on eBay and continued to work throughout the busy Easter holidays!!
We'll just get the admin talk out of the way with - I printed off all the documents I had previously been sent and whenever I had free time I would happily sit down to read and re-read everything to make sure it was all sinking in. Anywho, I filled out the majority of my forms this being the 956a, 1283 and 1416, and waited for the others to be filled out and emailed to me. I got as far as I could but I still had plenty of gaps in my visa application because I didn't know what date to put that I would be leaving (you're allowed an extra 4 weeks to travel for a cultural experience) nor had I yet found any travel insurance.
We all received an email from Rob about booking our flights and the emphasis on doing it ASAP! So naturally I tried to call and call but the line continued to go dead after only a few seconds, I thought I was the only one but turns out we had been given the wrong number and that lady was on holiday at the time therefore her line was on hold until she returned. After being sent a number that we would be able to get through on, I called and book for my deposit (which felt like a milestone believe me). After booking my flights I decided I should look into my travel insurance (we're probably mid April now) and decided to go with Endsleigh - the company LGV recommend. Once I had purchased that, I was able to fill in the required section in the visa and again I felt like I was slowly inching closer to Oz :D
Fast forward a little and we're now in May!! I have successfully had my DBS form returned to me, but then found out that I also need to complete and email across a Blue Card application which will allow me to work with children (only required in Queensland, the area where I am volunteering). I've sent off for my visa which was a very tedious job scanning all the documents on to my laptop to then email them on to Australia. I did enjoy making up my CV that day purely to include one with all the other required forms - highly sarcastic btw. My email to the Australian immigration was amazingly under 4mb which it had to be otherwise it would bounce back automatically and I would have had to figure out how to get the exact same documents attached in an email without their file size being too large. So I've send off my visa, got my DBS returned, paid for my insurance - only thing left now really is to pay for the flights! That I did today along with buying my internal flight which will take me from MEL to TSV via Brisbane on the last day of our orientation (24/07/14). Now all I really need to do by the end of the month is have my blue card form signed and sent off and I would have completely finished my admin!!! Yippee :D
I haven't really bought much more to take with me since I last did a post, I've got my walking boots, head torch, rucksack etc. the necessities I have so that's all good (:
I know this blog is getting long but I just wanted to mention all the new people I've started messaging who are also in the July Oz group! Sarah and I have booked our internal flights together, she's staying in a school just up the road from me in Townsville which will be nice. We've been messaging quite a lot recently. We are still debating where to travel to when we get free time and where is the best area to celebrate NYE - so far we've come up with Sydney and that's it (': it seems like crazy talk considering it's only May and we're not even out there yet but in our convos one topic leads to another and we found ourselves talking about New Year's Eve!! Hannah is also another member of the group, she's currently just finishing her last year at school in Germany, she is a good one to have long chats with about anything and everything, I love it!!
Anyways, I'll report back in a months time when it's a lot less than 72 days until my departure, not that I'm counting or anything (; I'm so excited!!! Until next time...
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