The Count Down...

I'm actually only a few days (well, okay, weeks) away from heading to the airport! It's somewhat surreal that after all the paperwork I actually get to go on the trip.
There's been some more excitement, with the surprise of finding I had been misdirected by my financial aid office in the matter of where I needed to do some of that very important paperwork. Thankfully, I found out before it was too late to rectify the problem and managed to get everything fixed and tied with a bow, so I am fine.
I've been stockpiling various items for the trip, and sometime very soon I'm actually going to get out the suitcase and start packing.
My passport and ISIC (International Student Identity Card) has arrived, although my letter of entry hasn't quite yet. I'm busy copying all of the various important documents of which I will need multiple copies.
There has been an exciting addition to my trip! I will get to go to Paris for a weekend, see some of the marvellous museums there, and probably have that song from "Funny Face" or the soundtrack of Amelie stuck in my head for the duration. Ironically, the one group I had hoped to see live in Paris, Caravan Palace, will be on an American tour at the time. But I am still extremely excited about this opportunity.
Did I mention that I found out that Elephant Parade will be ending on June 30? I'm a bit disappointed not to see the actual event, but I'm still hoping to maybe look over some of the souvenirs when I get there.
You'll never guess what I found! Everyone reading this knows my last name is Coker, right? A family member once mentioned that there was a town named Coker that was somewhere south of London. Last night I did an online search and found out that there are in fact two! The neighboring villages of East Coker and West Coker are approximately 137.22 miles southwest of London, in the South Somerset district, 2 1/2 hours worth of travel, according to MapQuest. Both Cokers are evidently named after the nearby river Coker Water, this Coker evidently coming from the Celtic Kukro meaning "Crooked stream." I don't know if this is actually where my last name might have come from, but I'm certainly going to try to visit East Coker and West Coker.