Nail biting stuff

This is it folks... the calm before the storm, whether that is a good or bad storm is yet to be decided. The STA WTI top 20 will officially be decided tomorrow, the 12th of April 2010! A date I’m sure I will not forget in a hurry even after it has passed and I have to say in the most polite way possible, I’m bricking it lol. I feel like I am in a movie and the coach comes up to me and says “This is it... make or break time” well let’s hope to high heavens it make time. Well all I can do now is wait, this is well and truly out of my hands and when I see that top 20, frantically looking for my face amongst the crowd, I hope to see mine, and I would be lying if I said I would not be highly disappointed if it was not there. I am not a positive or negative person, I like to think of myself as in-between... a realist, and realistically I need to shine out over 30 other people and somehow give the judges what their looking for! Would you be confident? Or would you way up the odds like I have and decide that there is a high possibility I will not realise my dream and not be in the top 20 let alone becoming the STA WTI 2010. However there is that glimmer of hope that keeps me from being pessimistic to just being a normal person with normal feelings in a situation like this.

STA Travelbuzz wine tasting

I broke up from University yesterday and what better way to celebrate a month long ‘holiday’ than... That’s right folks drinking. Now I don’t mean a night out with the girls in London painting the town red, instead I tried my hands at some fabulous wine tasting hosted by the amazingly epic STA travel buzz team situated in Victoria. From the moment I entered their impressive branch (Canterbury really doesn’t compare hehe) I was met by Fran a member of the STA travelbuzz team who welcomed us in bearing a gift of three glasses of wine for me and my two other friends. I met so many lovely people both staff and fellow STA WTI applicants and after we all got acquainted we gathered around to listen to the knowledgeable Robert McIntosh and consume the Tasty wine that is produced in Austrailia (not only France produces the goods people).

The wine was de-li-cious !!! Even the red wine was yummy and I’m not even a fan of red wine, so that has to count for something. The wine was flowing and I now feel a new light has been shed on my perception of wine, usually my thought process is... “Barman I would like a large glass of your cheapest wine, oh and are there any offers on at the moment” however now an enlightened individual, I know that wine doesn't just have a ‘wine taste’ but if you swirl the wine around the glass, take the time to smell it and take small sips, wine takes on a whole new form. Therefore I feel I will now have to educate anyone and everyone I meet to show off my new if somewhat amateur skills, eeeek exciting.

The night was also especially great because I got a chance to meet some of the people applying for the STA WTI, I have to say I felt a little bit of a stalker because I knew all of their names before I had to be introduced. After speaking to them all on Facebook, Twitter and following their blogs it was like I had already met these people despite only meeting them for the first time last night. Thankfully all the other applicants felt the same and therefore it was not necessary to cart me off to the loony bin just yet. They are a great bunch of people, so I don’t envy the job STA has... as long as they choose me as one of the top 20 that is hehe

All in all the night was so much fun, great company, great wine and great food, a combination you just can’t go wrong with(check out my pictures below if you don’t believe me). I can’t wait for the next meet up, travel buzz have already sold Australia to me, the next stop... who knows, hopefully the STA WTI can give me the answer.

The world is my Oyster

The end of an era has come upon me...at 11am on a sunny day in spring on the 8th of April I had my last ever seminar at university! Never again will I be able to get back the time I have had at university or the fun times I have had with a diverse group of amazing people. All I am left with now are the good memories and some bad, but boy was university a rollercoaster of a lifetime and I did not want to get off, but I just got too big and it’s time to get on a brand new rollercoaster and enjoy the brand new ride hehe. The world is my Oyster how I choose to tackle it is up to me. The big wide world is out there waiting for me; I just hope I can find my place in it, because right now the concept of finding a job that I want to do for the rest of my life is a very daunting thought. So goodbye Kent University you have been good to me for sooo many years, but now I must fly the nest and hope to god that saying is true because if the world truly is my oyster I’m leaving something brilliant to go onto something amazing... What that is yet I don’t know but I’m feeling optimistic.

Kick-Ass movie or just a flop?

Yesterday I went to see Kick-Ass with my mate, armed with our 2-4-1 orange Wednesdays code I was pretty darn excited to be seeing this movie that everyone had been talking about. 2 hours later the credits roll up and to be honest I was left pretty confused as to whether or not I liked the movie, it definitely was not what I was expecting it had much more violence than I was prepared for (my friend whispered halfway through the movie “what rating is this, I swear it’s a 12, it definitely should be an 18” ha) ok so I didn’t think it was that bad, but the visuals definitely shocked me. The acting was great from Chloe Moretz; she has also done some brilliant acting in Amityville Horror and 500 days of summer. It always amazes me how these children remember their lines whilst giving an epic performance and in the case of Kick-Ass also put on an amazing American accent. The film has been deemed very controversial due to the nature of some of the scenes and also the explicit language used by 13yr old Chloe who was 11 when she filmed the movie. I can definitely understand how some people may feel this role was too mature for the little actress but she did amazingly despite whether it was correct she did the film or not.

All in all, the movie was good... not amazing, just a standard good movie, I’m glad I went to watch it but let’s just say I won’t be adding that to my 586 DVD collection. However a movie I am looking forward to immensely and I believe will most certainly live up to the original is Nightmare on Elm Street, you can’t beat a good old horror.

When all is said and done

So that’s it, the competition is once again out of my hands and into the hands of STA with the hard challenge of cutting 30 applicants out of the competition leaving the remaining 20 to fight it out (not literally I hope lol). This competition has definitely been a rollercoaster of emotions ranging from excited and happy to nervous and general abusive behaviour towards the refresh button ha, I’m sure fellow STA WTI can agree with me! I have literally put my heart and soul into this competition; hopefully it will show to the judges how much I want this. However as my mum always says in situations like this “Amanda all you can do is try your best and put a 100% into it” well god knows it I have put about 5 times more than 100% into this, that’s got to count for something right? Waiting for these next couple of weeks to come round will be like having a massive hour glass around my neck as a constant reminder of the time that is ever so slowly passing by. Let the waiting game begin.

Reminiscing on good times

Filling out these questions for the STA WTI has left me feeling very nostalgic, and as a result given me very itchy feet to go and travel ASAP... Like now ha. Therefore I may have to book a sneaky VERY low cost trip during my Easter holidays (for some reason the University of Kent has there Easter after everyone else) otherwise I may have to spend my Easter reminiscing at past travels feeling slightly depressed that I am not back on the beaten track, that has bore the weight of many avid travellers. So here are a few of my favourite photographs that can put an instant smile on my face just by looking at them whilst simultaneously remembering in a play by play format the events that occurred that day.

To be or not to be... That is the question!

The STA WTI has become my full-time job these past few months and although it has been hard work I have loved every minute of it. People say hard work pays off and in this case it really did, I made it into the top 50 applicants for the internship and I could not have been happier. However on this journey behind the one mountain I have climbed another one much larger was behind it and this time it would most definitely be no easy feat to climb to the top.

STA gave each applicant a full application form to fill out, enabling them to better decide who is most qualified for the job at hand. Answering such questions is always difficult because you just don’t know what STA are looking for, therefore the only person I can be is myself, try my hardest and hope for the best, surgically crossing everything that can possibly be crossed. One of the question on the application form was ' what is your ideal travel destination?' this question was very taxing to answer because as an individual who loves to travel, can there really be an ideal travel destination or is there only places you would love to visit at that moment in time. I believe the latter to be true because anyone with a thirst for travel would choose anywhere in the world as their ideal destination, if a place needs exploring than it’s a place I would love to visit. Consequently I could only choose countries that I would love to travel to at that moment in time, each place I choose to travel to will change as I experience new things in my life. For that reason, my answer to STA would have to be Kenya in Africa, for the past couple of years it is a place I have dreamed to explore especially African tribal life (Above is a video I made giving my full answer and also what other peoples ideal destinations were in comparison to my own).

So the deadline for the top 20 is tomorrow at midnight and god only knows when they will announce the top 20! I’m sure it will be another nail biting x-factor-esq wait, where STA keep us hanging until the very last minute. Well all I can say is good luck to everyone and I could not have done more, so in the spirit of 'may the best man win'... 'May the best 20 get through'... For the love of god let it be me *cough* *cough*.