So, after yet another horrible Monday (for those of you who don't know, Mondays tend to be long and hard because I have 6 hours of statistics classes straight), I arrived home to find another contribution of $200 hanging out in my mailbox. To the person who sent that to me, thank you very much, as I know you're prob. checking this blog a lot :)
I am only 10 days away from leaving and I know it will fly by quickly (or at least I hope so because I really want this semester to be over)! We have our two pre-trip tours on the schedule for good. On Thursday of this week, we are visiting Warm Hearth and on Friday, we are visiting Adult Day Services (ADS) on-campus. Because some of us who are going have been working in ADS this year, our professor wants us to lead the tour. I'll be talking about activity planning for the adults with varying levels of cognitive functioning.
After much confusion with dog sitting (having people who could do it and then not) I was still going to have an issue with a friend who was going to watch my dog. However, today, I just got confirmation from a student on a research team with me that she can watch him the entire time I'm gone (which means I won't have to deal with sending my house key all over the city to different people). I'm super excited because she is a fun person and this again is saving me about $300.
So remember, only 10 days left to send in contributions. I really am so grateful, appreciate, and just amazed with all of you who have helped me out so far. I get so excited thinking about how many people truly value this learning experience for me and it makes me feel good to know that you all care that deeply!
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Fundraising effort as of 04/28/08
$4450 total cost
-1060 (tuition that was reduced)
-1000
- 50
-100
-100
-200
-------
$1940 still needed
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
VT intergenerational program in the news
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-sou--youngandold0427apr27,0,3406999.story?page=1
This link is to an article that was written about our intergenerational program at Tech (which apparently can and might be picked up in various news sources across the country). This article describes the work I do here with our intergenerational program and that was actually an activity I was facilitating (the stepping stones) that she mentions (if you look closer, you'll see mention of me but only as the "doctoral student"). Just wanted to share this with everyone because it partially relates to the Sweden trip and also talks about the professor (Shannon Jarrott) who is leading our trip.
This link is to an article that was written about our intergenerational program at Tech (which apparently can and might be picked up in various news sources across the country). This article describes the work I do here with our intergenerational program and that was actually an activity I was facilitating (the stepping stones) that she mentions (if you look closer, you'll see mention of me but only as the "doctoral student"). Just wanted to share this with everyone because it partially relates to the Sweden trip and also talks about the professor (Shannon Jarrott) who is leading our trip.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
New contributions
After having spent many unpleasant hours in classes today, it was nice to come home and see that two checks were waiting for me in my mailbox. In total, I received $200 in contributions today from two different people and I would like to give a huge "THANKS" to those people. That really will help me out and provided a good boost. In other news, I turned in all my forms today. Liability, travel reimbursement (we may be getting reimbursed a small amount), health insurance (and yes, I'm covered on this trip), etc. I also think I just solidified a dogsitter, which was becoming a pretty big issue. It was going to cost me $300 to board him at the vet (plus the unpleasant thought of leaving him there for 3 weeks). I went to a friend's house yesterday to see if he could stay there but I was a little afraid of how country it was out there (weird reason, I know). My friend Deepu who lives just across the street said he might watch him so I feel like that is good progress. Today, I also paid the second deposit for this trip and will not have to pay anything more until I actually get there. Unfortunately, April has been a whirlwind of a month and I haven't really had any time to get excited for this trip yet and it's just over 2 weeks away. I think once I get past May 2nd, I won't have much to do here except prepare for the trip and then I'll prob. get revved up. For now though, I just have to focus on getting through the next week and a half.
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Fundraising effort as of 04/21/08
$4450 total cost
-1060 (tuition I had reduced)
-1000
- 50
-100
-100
-------
$2140 still needed
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fundraising effort as of 04/21/08
$4450 total cost
-1060 (tuition I had reduced)
-1000
- 50
-100
-100
-------
$2140 still needed
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Nothing too new
Nothing new has really been happening with trip stuff mostly because we're all trying to survive April. We've still been checking on weekend trip places and have found a couple of smaller, European airlines that look to be way cheaper than the bigger companies. I also just got international health insurance for the duration of the trip and will be printing that and all my other paperwork out next week so that everything will be finalized!
One last thing.... if you have contributed to my trip (or even if you haven't) and I can give back to you somehow when I get back, please let me know. For those of you who know me well, I take pictures of absolutely everything and document all aspects of trips I take. I would love to share my knowledge of what I will learn from this trip with community members around the country. If you are involved in any way with older adults or want more information about how to be involved (or help others be involved) with older adults, I'd love to help you out!
I'm still $2,300 down..... if you have spare change lying around, please help me out! I guarantee I will return the support!
One last thing.... if you have contributed to my trip (or even if you haven't) and I can give back to you somehow when I get back, please let me know. For those of you who know me well, I take pictures of absolutely everything and document all aspects of trips I take. I would love to share my knowledge of what I will learn from this trip with community members around the country. If you are involved in any way with older adults or want more information about how to be involved (or help others be involved) with older adults, I'd love to help you out!
I'm still $2,300 down..... if you have spare change lying around, please help me out! I guarantee I will return the support!
Friday, April 11, 2008
Pre-trip meetings
Before we leave (in less than a month!), Shannon (the main professor leading this trip) wants us to visit two adult care sites in Blacksburg. The first one, Adult Day Services at Tech, is a place I am in all the time because part of my assistantship is with them. Therefore, I know quite a bit about how they provide care and their schedule, although I'm hoping to learn more at that meeting which I think will be on May 2nd. On May 1st, we'll be going to Warm Hearth, which is an assisted living retirement community. While I have not been there yet, I've heard quite a bit about this place and I'm interested to see how it is structured.
We also received an email with the contact info. for the students coming on this trip from Penn State. Once the amount of work I have dies down a bit, I'm going to try to get an introductory email out to everyone to hopefully start a chain of responses so we can all get to know eachother before meeting up in Jonkoping.
On a travel side note, Brandy and I are super excited to not know where we will end up that first week. Although it might be scary for those of you waiting to hear from me when I get in, I hope you'll be as eager to me to read my blog that Friday night and find out where we are!
We also received an email with the contact info. for the students coming on this trip from Penn State. Once the amount of work I have dies down a bit, I'm going to try to get an introductory email out to everyone to hopefully start a chain of responses so we can all get to know eachother before meeting up in Jonkoping.
On a travel side note, Brandy and I are super excited to not know where we will end up that first week. Although it might be scary for those of you waiting to hear from me when I get in, I hope you'll be as eager to me to read my blog that Friday night and find out where we are!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Weekend Trips
It seems we've hit a bit of a snag. Brandy and I were going to book fairly inexpensive flights to Helsinki for May 9-12. However, prices have been going up and the times are becoming more limited. Therefore, we made a spontaneous and crazy decision to not buy a ticket yet and just wait until we get to Stockholm. We are getting in so early Friday morning, that we will have plenty of time to see about going stand-by on a flight or maybe getting a flight to some random other place. For someone who usually likes to have everything planned out, this should be an exciting adventure. If everything falls through (which I doubt it will), we will just stay in Stockholm and maybe change our plans for the end of the trip. As for Copenhagen, we still are not sure what time we are available to even leave that Friday so still nothing has been decided on even though we're exactly one month away from leaving! I've been so busy the past few weeks and haven't even had time to think about the trip yet. Fortunately, I am done with everything a good full week before we leave and will be able to focus on last minute details then.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Contribution updates
I've decided to keep contributions anonymous, yet will post the amount so that you all can see how much closer I am. Over the weekend I received a contribution of $50 and a sincere thank-you goes out to that person for helping! I truly appreciate it!
Brandy (the other grad. student on this trip) and I are in the midst of trying to plan our weekends now. The first weekend, we want to spend in Helsinki, Finland but now we are having a problem actually getting there for as little as we thought we could before. Plane ticket prices keep rising with the oil prices going up so we're trying to decide on something now, before things really spiral out of control. For the second weekend, I think almost all of us from Tech will head down to Copenhagen because it's a very cheap train ride down from Goteburg. We're having an issue finding a cheap hostel but I'm sure we will find something that is safe and manageable. For the last weekend, we already have everything planned out for Stockholm. We'll take the train back on Friday afternoon and spend the rest of our time there. We will stay at a hostel in the heart of the city until Monday and then spend Monday night at a place closer to the airport since we fly out pretty early on Tuesday.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fundraising effort as of 04/07/08
$4450 total cost
-1060 (tuition I had reduced)
-1000
- 50
-------
$2340 still needed
Brandy (the other grad. student on this trip) and I are in the midst of trying to plan our weekends now. The first weekend, we want to spend in Helsinki, Finland but now we are having a problem actually getting there for as little as we thought we could before. Plane ticket prices keep rising with the oil prices going up so we're trying to decide on something now, before things really spiral out of control. For the second weekend, I think almost all of us from Tech will head down to Copenhagen because it's a very cheap train ride down from Goteburg. We're having an issue finding a cheap hostel but I'm sure we will find something that is safe and manageable. For the last weekend, we already have everything planned out for Stockholm. We'll take the train back on Friday afternoon and spend the rest of our time there. We will stay at a hostel in the heart of the city until Monday and then spend Monday night at a place closer to the airport since we fly out pretty early on Tuesday.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fundraising effort as of 04/07/08
$4450 total cost
-1060 (tuition I had reduced)
-1000
- 50
-------
$2340 still needed
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Scholarship updates
Last week, I found out that I had been awarded a $1,000 study abroad scholarship. Unfortunately, I won't be eligible for the scholarship unless I enroll in the credit hours during the summer session (which I can easily do). However, I have decided to forfeit the scholarship because I know that there are other students who truly need this scholarship for their study abroad tuition. If I wait to take course credit in the fall, my department will pay for it and I just don't feel right taking a scholarship when I have a good back up plan and other students might not.
On another positive note, I just received $1,000 towards this trip. I don't have it yet, but I will soon and I'm thrilled that my financial need is slowly decreasing!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fundraising effort as of 04/01/08
$4450 total cost
-1060 (tuition I had reduced)
-1000
-------
$2390 still needed
On another positive note, I just received $1,000 towards this trip. I don't have it yet, but I will soon and I'm thrilled that my financial need is slowly decreasing!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fundraising effort as of 04/01/08
$4450 total cost
-1060 (tuition I had reduced)
-1000
-------
$2390 still needed
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