I don’t know about the rest of
you, but I’m pretty new at this… and I’m not just talking about blogging! Yes,
I have travelled. I have been on a whirlwind trip through parts of Europe,
parts of the US, and on a luxurious vacation. None of these experiences have
been anything like this! Our team has been brainstorming this trip since our
first year of vet school.
For those who don’t know, Global
Vets is a veterinary student initiative that takes place in the summer between
2nd and 3rd year of the DVM program. Students form groups
of 2-4 and submit a detailed application for their top 3 countries and
projects of interest. We generally choose locations that students have visited
in the past, but it is not necessary.
After our long application and interview process we were accepted for
the opportunity of a lifetime! Our team was chosen to travel to Thailand, our
top pick!
We have asked many questions in
the past 8 months, big questions and little questions. Questions like:
·
“What country should we go to and when?”
·
“What projects would we most like to contribute
to?”
·
“What size of backpack do I need?”
·
“How many Bahts in a dollar, how many dollars in
a Baht. How many Bahts is this many dollars…”
·
“Wait, HOW MUCH is Japanese Encephalitis
vaccine??”
·
“How am I going to pack for 7 weeks in one backpack??”
·
And the big one, “How am I going to pay for
this?”
We have been very supportive of
each other’s questions and suggestions. That is the beauty of planning a trip
like this with your best friends. We may not have always agreed with the best
ways to plan our time, but we heard each other out and made decisions as a
group. We are now two weeks away from our departure date, and the packing panic
has begun. I ask myself a thousand times a day if I have the right things and
if I am forgetting anything important.
One thing I know for sure is that
this is going to be the adventure of a lifetime. That is if I survive the
anxiety of waiting the next two weeks!
Until next time..
Steph Pierre
- p.s. how do you guys deal with pre-departure anxiety? Have
you ever done a trip like this?
