Earlier today: 2/12/06

I've decided to see my advisor around mid-term. I need to find out what my old classes transfer and count as for my major. I decided I would also bring up my interest and intent of interning abroad next summer with the Dept. of State. Hopefully he can help me with it.

I'm happy, because I've found my dream scholarship! It's the NSEP, National Security Education Program. For a semester abroad it pays $10,000! Well, up to, I guess. But that's a lot of money! They prefer people who are studying abroad for a year. It said you could combine an internship and studying abroad a semester to make a full year, which made me get excited - except it then went on to say that it had to be an unpaid internship with a non-governmental organization. :( I don't understand that because one of the stipends for receiving the scholarship is: "The NSEP service requirement stipulates that an award recipient work in the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, State, or the Intelligence Community." (This is another reason why I thought this scholarship was perfect, because I want to be a Foreign Service Officer.) Since this is a requiement, I don't see why you can't use a government internship to count. Makes me sad.

Another reason why it makes me sad is because they also have a rule stating that you can't have been in the country you're studying abroad in for more than four weeks (within the last five years) before going to study abroad (if that makes sense.) (note: I was just looking at their website and I could not find this. Maybe I got thise mixed up with a different scholarship I was looking up... Yep, I was right, it's the Freeman-Asia scholarship.) That's great, because I want to do both in Japan, though it would be okay, if it was true, only because then I would just study abroad in South Korea. I'm starting to get more interested in Korea. I guess once I decided that Korean didn't sound whiny and that I actually like it, it opened up my interest in Korea.

Studying in Korea would be good also, because then I would have a better chance at getting the scholarship. Hmm... Makes me think about looking into studying in Korea for a fulle year. I tink my parents would freak, though, me being gone for around 12 months (internship and study abroad.) Yeah, a lot of wishful thinking on my part. I don't even know if I would like Seoul. Well, we'll just have to see. I wish I knew what credits I still need for all of my requirements.

Back to the internship. I can apply for two different departments. I've decided to apply for the European one and the East Asian/Pacific one. With the A/P one, I'm going to request Japan or South Korea and with the European one, I'm going to request London or Amsterdam. There is a scholarship available for the London one. Amsterdam was chosen because it's in the Netherlands. and there will be free housing. Well, one can hope. ^_^

Back log: 2/8/06

Monday, during my 15 minute break at work, I went to the Study Abroad Fair. Japan wasn't there, but there was a booth about being a Global Ambassader. Sounded interesting, so I went to an information session today. I'm not as interested now. I would have to pay for everything and find my own housing. Sounded like a lot of work and trouble.

Guess that means I'm going to be sticking with a summer internship with the federal government. Looked up information on it again. Found out that my deadline for interning next summer ('07,) which is when I want to, is this November ('06.) Getter start working on it now. I need to talk to my advisor and find out what credit I can get from this internship and what scholarships he might know of.

Interning is definately my first choice, but I would love to be able to study abroad in Japan, too, if possible. Maybe if I got anough scholarships for it I could. I would have to go Fall '07 or Spring '08. Spring would be preferable, but (credit-wise) I should be graduating Spring '08 and you can't go abroad for your last semester. I could just work it out so I had one class left or something for that summer. Of course, all of this is mainly wishful thinking on my part.

Back log: 1/18/06

I'm very torn about what I should do. I would love to do both, an exchange and an internship, but I don't think that is feasible or, perhaps, logical. I know that an internship is the best way to go and that will probably take top priority, but reading the course descriptions of classes available, want to go on the exchange, too. The subjects sound so interesting and I'd have the oppurtunity to stay with a host family. It would be great if I could do both. I hate having to choose. Maybe I could do the internship during the summer and then study abroad for a semester. That could work well. Of course, there's always the pressing matter of money. The only major reason I see why not to do both. I guess we'll see.

Back log: 1/13/06

I've come up with a partial solution to me saving money and my mom agreed to it. She's going to open up a savings account and I'm going to give her money to put into it. That way I don't have any access to it except through Mom. Good thought, right? I thought so.

Back log: 1/12/06

There are two things that I want to do while sstill in college. I want to study abroad in Japan and I want to intern abroad with the Dept. of State- at an embassy or consulate. This is my first semester at USF. I've transferred from UCF with 39 credits. I'm taking 12 credit hours this semesters. I haven't decided yet when I want to do these two theings, which can, possibly, be combined into one trip. I haven't really done anything except read about them and decide I want to do them. The biggest obstacle and worry about being able to do these is money. I suck at saving. I apparently don't know the word. But, I'm going to try.

Explanations

This, my first post, shall be a post of explanations - why I choose the names I did and what I'm going to use this blog for.

First off, this blog's purpose. I am a sophomore university student who wants to do two things: study abroad and intern abroad. I intend to record my progress (or lack there-of) for each of these endeavors here, in this blog. I have already started a paper journal for this, but then I decided I would use the internet for it, too. My first few posts will be back logs from my paper journal.

Next, the names. The title of my blog is "My Yeo-jeong." Yeo-jeong is Korean for journey. I thought this was appropriate because this blog is recording my 'journey' through the processes of interning and studying abroad. My name (and url) is Ga-eul. This is Korean for autumn. For some reason I'm obsessed with the name Autumn (love the full name Autumn Summers.) I've recently gotten into a Korean craze, you could say, and so I decided to use the Korean version of this word as my name.