Warhawks!!

Since last time I wrote a blog, quite a lot has changed. I have moved half way across the world to ski and study at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. I have already skied a lot on the site and had my first week of school. 

Being here is the perfect opportunity to get a bachelor degree whilst being able to ski any time I want. I have skied before, in between and after classes and since the first week is not that challenging at school, I have been spending a lot of time at the ski site. I thought I lived close to my ski lake back home, but now it is even closer. If I go from campus it is just a minute on the bike to get to the river. My apartment is also only 4 minutes away, so I really can go down there whenever I want. 

This has been something I have been planning and working towards for around 2 years now. I met Kate, who had skied here as well and she told me about the opportunities. Then I started doing research on how to get in and how everything works. I even took my gap year to improve my scores so that I could have a chance of skiing for the team. They offer really good scholarships as well, which get bigger per event that you can ski at tournaments. I get a partial scholarship, because only the top 5 scores count at tournaments and I can't put up a top 5 score in all events. I knew that I could also get a scholarship based on academic results. My high school scores were pretty good, but those wouldn't get me a scholarship. The school wanted to see an SAT score, which is a standardized test in reading, writing and basic mathematics. I had to do well on this test in order to get a scholarship, and even if I did well, the scholarship was not a given, because the deadline had well passed by the time I did my test. I took the test in May and results came in June, which was quite late, so getting a visa and organizing myself was pretty last minute. Especially since I couldn't spend a lot of time on thinking about it in between Worlds and Europeans. The news if I got my scholarship came even later, because some favors had to be asked so far after the deadline. I had a plan B, so I was going to go no matter what, but a scholarship would really help. Luckily everything came together shortly before I left: my scholarship, my visa and all the other documents I needed. 

When I was finally here, furnishing my apartment, it all started to feel a bit more real. But no matter how many things I bought and how many sets I skied on the Bayou, it still didn't sink in yet. It wasn't until classes started and I was all alone in my apartment that I realized that I actually did what I was dreaming of 2 years ago, but seemed unattainable. And that I will be living this life for the coming 4 years. Even though the thought kind of scares me as well, because I didn't mentally prepare for actually living on the other side of the world by myself as it all kept feeling like a dream I may not reach, I am also really excited and I can't wait for all the adventures I will have!