Ok so, it's a little while until I actually leave but I'm going to share my journey from the total beginning, and that means I'll blog my story before I've actually stept on the plane! There's still a mountain of preparation I need to do e.g. applying for my visa would be a good start!

My Gap Year placement was set up through a British charity organisation called Lattitude Global Volunteering, and like many Gap Year placements you have different stages of interviews so that you get the absolute most out of your Gap Year. I started my application back in March 2013 where I was invited to Lattitude's offices located in Reading. Here I had a one-on-one interview with Sergio, a VC memeber of Lattitude. A week later I was congratulated via email to tell me that I had been accepted onto the programme and to expect a call from Jo Walsh, (the in-country leader for Australia). After a 30 minute phone call with a lady I found out after wasn't actually Jo herself but a different lady, I got another email to tell me to start saving because I was 100% going to Australia in July 2014! How exciting!!

This had all happened within a month of my finding Lattitude's website, to sending off my application, to going to their offices in Reading and then having a phone call with a lady from the Melbourne offices. At this point in time I was still in Sixth Form preparing for my final exams about to take place that summer. Skipping forward a chuck, New Years rolled around - Hello 2014! The year I'll be leaving behind "sunny" old England and starting my adventure in Australia for a whole 12 months!

Not much had happened during the beginning of January, I was just busy working to save for the £5K that was required per volunteer to fully pay for flights, health checks, travel insurance, visas etc - the list seems endless. By no time January was ending, and February was just around the corner. I got a call one morning from Rob, my Volunteer Coordinator, informing me that there was a possibility that I could leave earlier than expected because another volunteer had dropped out of their placement. I accepted his potential offer and told my closes friends and family that I would be leaving sooner than July, that was until my mum bought me back down to Earth and we discussed that I actually didn't have near the £5k need for the placement so leaving in March would be impossible!

With the disappointment of not leaving early, I began emailing my new Penpal, Luisa. She is the current volunteer over in Australia at the moment, doing the Outdoor Education at the same placement I would be going to in July - The Cathedral School in Townsville, Queensland. Since first emailing her in January, we've continued to email weekly and become really close friends. She's told me all about what to expect, and how she spent her xmas/summer break travelling around Oz on multiple roadtrips as well as spending New Years in Sydney with another volunteer who was also located in Townsville.

So... With 4 months still to go, there's a lot of excitement building inside because Luisa has expressed in detail how amazing it is out there. A couple of days ago I also got a Facebook request from a girl, Valentina, who turns out is going to be my volunteer partner and will be doing the Outdoor Education at The Cathedral School too! I can't wait to meet Valentina at the orientation in Melbourne in July a few days before we both go up to Queensland and spend 11 months together