Thoughts on Going

I'll give this blogging thing a go.  We'll see how long it lasts.  My New Year's resolution was to write more, so I guess thats a start right?  I know I've kept saying 'No...I won't blog, I'll never keep it up', but I'm going to Australia aren't I?  That managed to move from a nice idea into a reality, and so can this blog.

Why am I going to Australia?  That is a great question, and one I wish I had a good answer to.  Originally the concept of a study abroad had come from my youthful desires to see the world.  Every country, every continent, every culture by the time I leave this planet for good.  That enthusiasm died pretty soon after college started however, and especially after my summer in St. Petersburg.  It is impossible to see everything, and to a certain extent, the more you see the less you really experience because you don't really take the time to learn about a place.  Places on a map become superficial and trips are just another chance to take pretty pictures.  Certainly this doesn't mean I don't want to continue traveling, but I think I've managed to reign myself in a little and realize that I don't want to see everything there possibly is in the world.

The next decision then, and a question many people have asked me, is "Why don't you go back to Russia?"  This is a country that I have visited, it is a language I have spent countless hours on and it is a place that I fully intend to return to and hopefully spend a few years in after graduation.  The answer to this may seem too pragmatic.  I'm a chemistry major.  There are no options to take chemistry classes in Russia and have Yale accept it, nor is my insecure grasp of the language up to the challenge.  Chemistry therefore pushed me back into the English speaking world, and I must confess that the weather might have been a deciding factor between the UK and Australia. 

This decision to study abroad even though it is not in the former Soviet Union is something that I have wrestled with quite a bit, especially now that I've determined I will not be taking any classes that could count for my major.  Why now, am I studying abroad if it is not to further my experience and understanding of the former communist bloc?  Am I going just to play in the sun all semester?  That is a thought I don't really feel comfortable with.  A break from Yale is certainly needed.  Already I've felt so refreshed even with my extended winter break.  I've never heard of someone who studied abroad and didn't find it an incredible experience.  It is something I can be sure of that will challenge me, break me in some ways, but will be ultimately teach me things about myself and about my life, values, beliefs etc. that can only be classified as 'invaluable'.  Perhaps the word is overused, but it seems to fit.  So the conclusion I seem to be coming to is that study abroad at the University of Melbourne, Australia is something I am not doing for my career, not something I am doing for my intellectual advancement, not something I am doing to prepare for my future, but rather it is something that I am just doing for me.