Sunday 9 January 2011

I'm going to FIJI!!!!!


....I am SOO excited!!




Back in December while I was at uni, a lovely lady called Jesse hijacked our lecture for 5 minutes. She handed out some flyers and and gave a really quick description of some volunteering work that was to be happening over summer. I was the first student to take a leaflet from her,trying not to snatch, I took it & must have read it word for word about 10 times ..I was almost wetting myself with excitement.
Anyway, the next day I managed to sneak out of a lecture 20 minutes early so that I could make the 'talk' she was giving at 1pm - I was there in a flash & sat right at the front of the class and after half an hour I had made the decision that no matter what was involved -I WAS GOING!!

I filled out my application in Olympic medal time & handed it straight back - she said it may take a few days to get to their office in London and then possibly a week before I may hear some news back (this was dec 7th btw!) ...so when I was in the library just 2 days later, I almost gave some poor guy a coronary when I let out quite a loud squeal! ...why? ..this is what I had just read...




'Dear Rachel,
After reviewing your application we feel that you would make a valuable contribution to the VESA program and are looking forward to having you on board this summer as we travel to Ecuador, Africa and the Fijian Islands.....
'




...I could not believe my eyes! I was nearly in tears! - It wasn't finalised by just the e-mail though, I then had to print off the agreement/contract thingy, sign it, pay the £200 deposit and then e-mail copies of these back ..PRONTO! They told me there was between 30 - 40 places available and my place now depended on who's payments they recieved first! I logged into paypal in the blink of an eye and clicked 'pay now' faster than lightening.. I have never handed over money so quickly in all my life! I almost had a nervous breakdown! lol


So understandably, It was an agonising wait.. I checked my e-mails multiple times a day to see if they had e-mailed me back but each time there was nothing! :( - I little part of me started to feel a bit miffed as I thought the other applicants had had the same frantic reactions to the e-mails as me, replied faster and had beaten me to it. However, the e-mail finally came..




'Dear Rachel,


We have received your £200.00 deposit and have secured your place on our;
Fiji Islands Discovered No. 6:
July 23rd through to August 7th 2011...'




Now I really was beside myself!! I had applied for all 3 destinatons Fiji, Africa & Equador as I didn't mind which one I was chosen for. During the 2 weeks between the e-mails though I had secretly hoped for Fiji having read lots of info on each place, so was absolutely over the moon when I had got it..and on the specific date I had chosen too!


The hard work starts here though, I have to raise £1,249 for the trip & then flights & insurance etc is on top of that, so in all this trip is going to cost around £2,000. The majority of this will come out of my own pocket ...OUCH! ..and the rest will come from sponsorship & donations (hopefully!)


So, I have now recieved all my fund raising information etc, I am ready to get started. I am waiting untill January is almost over before requesting sponsorship from family, friends etc as I understand that the festive season has cost people quite a bit and the need a few weeks to recover! lol

I will be posting more about this and my fundraising in weeks/months to come but for now, this is it! ..Thanks for reading!

Rachel.xx
-

This trip is organisised by VESA - Volunteer Eco Students Abroad


Two Thousand & Eleven...

... has been really kind to me so far! :)

Long time no blog! ...pretty much for the same reasons as when I last posted! ..no internet of my own, busy with uni, busy with work blah blah blah and all that!

I do hope to start posting more in the weeks to come. Right now I think I can only commit to once a week, like now ..as I am at work & I get plenty of free time at such times like 2:30 in the morning! *yawns!* =/

Anyway.. I hope everyone had a smashing christmas & a fabulous new year! My christmas was ok, however it could have been better..

My dad was taken in to hospital on Dec 22nd & didn't come out untill Jan 1st so apart from visting family at my mums house on boxing day, I cancelled all my other christmassy 'do's' I had planned so that i could visit my dad in hospital every day. He's out now & he's fine & things are back to normal, so onto more positive things...

  • on Dec 31st I got the e-mail I had been waiting for.. confirmation of my volunteering trip to Fiji - I will do a separate post on this as I could talk for days about it!! ..SO excited =D

and...

  • I joined my local Slimming World group in October last year (20th to be precise) and as of my last weigh in on Wednesday 5th January, I have lost a whopping 2 stone & half a pound!! I am over the moon at how focussed I am.. it has given me Ooodles of confidence! - I shall be doing another separate post on this too! so stay tuned for weight loss tips!

thats it for now, seen as though I am at work.. its about time I did a little!

Thanks for reading

Rachel.xx