Acceptance!

So after an agonising month of waiting for my acceptance package to arrive from Estonia, I decided to bite the bullet and ask Piret (UT's International Coordinator) if she knew what was going on and if she could help.

Her response was simple, "It might have just got lost in the post" and with the email she attached a scan of the acceptance letter and online versions of everything else.

They like me! They really like me!

However, the email excitement didn't stop there! On Friday I received another email, this time from the mysterious Ülle Tensing, an email completely in Estonian!

I was extremely excited until my mate Janno translated it and I discovered it was just confirming the details of my monthly scholarship I get while I'm there, which I already knew about.

The most exciting thing about the email was the reality of the task of having to learn Estonian finally dawned on me. With words like 'majandustoetuse', 'tegevusvaldkonnad' and the multi accented 'Vahetusüliõpilaste' I've been confronted with the fact that this is not going to be as easy as I would like. But as I've said before, it's not fun unless it's a challenge.

Three weeks, Three days!

Meet My Travel Companion!

Often when I tell people about where I have been or plan to go, they comment on how brave I must be to travel by myself. The simple answer to this is that I don't really think about how scary travelling alone is, I think more about how boring everyone else is and how they don't really want to come to where I want to go and if I waste all my time trying to convince people to come with me, I'd never go anywhere!

With all this in mind, I cannot say that I travel alone entirely, for there is always someone with me wherever I go. Let me introduce you to Horace Giraffington III

Horace and I enjoying the pyjama themed night at Soden's - 2007

Horace is a plush giraffe purchased from the Myrtleford post office in mid 2007 while I was on a road trip with my good friend Shom. Ever since then he's accompanied me on all of my big adventures around the world for a couple of good reasons.

1) He's a good ice breaker.

Horace enjoys a beer and a chat with Holly - 2007

Now don't get me wrong, I don't take him everywhere, but while I'm bored and sitting around in an airport, train station or in a hostel, people will often comment on how cute he is, launching me into a conversation with someone I may not have had the chance to meet otherwise.

2) He reminds me of home.

Horace says goodbye to rainy Melbourne on the way to South Korea - 2008

I love my hometown (although Myrtleford isn't really Wodonga, I got him while I was still living there) but there isn't a lot these days that ties me to it, so having Horace with me is a little memento from home that I can carry with me everywhere and it reminds me of good times.

3) He takes good photos.

Horace in the town square of Herceg Novi, Montenegro - 2008

Most people come back from their travels with a bunch of boring old photos of tourist attractions, old towns and interesting people, while I come back with the same photos with a toy giraffe in them! It's what makes great photography people!

4) He's a comfortable emergency travel pillow.

Horace makes the most of the second bed in my hotel room in Seoul - 2008

Most of the time I have to travel pretty light, and when you're stuck on an uncomfortable bus that is going to take 12 hours to reach the next country, you need something to use as a pillow! Horace's hooves fit neatly around my head and I can just lie into him against a window and enjoy a less shitty transport experience hooray!

In conclusion the main reason for this blog post was to show off a whole lot of cute photos of my giraffe, I hope you find him as adorable as I do!

Four weeks, four days...