Experience Gold Coast! #experiencegc

What is better than a night of friendly company and great wine? Friendly company, great wine and CHEESE. And this all came together in beautiful juxtaposition this past Thursday night at the STA Victoria travel store, where the amazing Darenberg crew came to teach us about the Australian Gold Coast, and the fantastic wines found there! Check out my video above for more.

It was a great chance to meet the rest of the STA WTI applicants, including Sophie (@somiraculous), Andrea (@andreasantoni), AJ (@spintheglobe) and Amanda (@manda_jenks). It was SO HILARIOUS - we are all massive stalkers and we knew basically everything about each other before we'd met! Is this the way society is going? Where we all become minor celebrities in our own right? Check out a later blog for more on this, its an interesting topic I want to pursue...

So what about the wine? Well, after 8 glasses of excellent expensive whites and reds, I was inclined to love them all, but my favourite was definitely the aptly named 'spider monkey'. Being a semi-health freak (read: massive health freak) I am always wary of wine and the added sugar that is found in many brands, but I am pleased to say that the Darenberg wines have NO ADDED SUGAR! Chappettes, if you are worried about your hips and bum then look no further. Put down that Lambrini and pop over to the Australian Gold Coast!

And the CHEESE. Oh, the cheese. Did I mention there was cheese? Three types, to be precise. I gave up cheese a few years ago and I would give my right arm to have it back; therefore the evening ended with a rather tipsy Kate gorging on blue stilton. Thank you STA, for giving me such an amazing evening (and bigger hips).

Easter and Results!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Good news: I made the top 50!! I'm so pleased. I was actually in Cyprus when the day came to announce the results came, suffice to say I spent a good 7 hours religiously checking the website and spent about £100 on mobile phone data. However, the news was good - thank you all for your support!

Now comes the application form... It's actually quite intense, talking about past travel experiences and my relationship with video software. From here the top 20 will be picked, and undergo a phone interview, before the top 10... Exciting!

For now though, its EASTER (hooray!) and I am spending the day with my family and Scott in York. Make sure that you eat lots of chocolate, and most importantly - remember what this day is all about.

With all my love as always!

xxxxx

Cyprus!

Hey guys! Sorry I've been terrible at writing the past month - I had my dissertation due in, as well as the Weakest Link... things have been CRAZY!

I am in Cyprus at the moment (more travelling - I love it!) with my geology field crew, we are spending our days wandering the beautiful outcrops of Cyprus and getting a little sunburnt! This means that I am actually going to be abroad for the deadline of the STA world internship (eeeek!)

Only 3 days to go! I am currently in 4th place, and I have uploaded my video (I had so much fun making it!) Please tell me what you think, it is at:]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE66g5nKcik

And as always, my profile is here at:

http://www.worldtravellerintern.co.uk/member/kate-roberts/

I have really loved this experience and even if I don't get into the top 50 I have had the time of my life! That being said, this internship was truly made for me... So I hope they realise that!

Right, I must rush off and finish my field notebook for tomorrow. Hopefully next time I update it will be with GOOD NEWS! I also need to upload some more photos, I have been in Cyprus for 4 days and taken over 200 photos so far...!

All my love as always, xxxxxxxx

Dissertastrous...

My final year dissertation (worth a whopping 40% of my final grade for university) is due in 17 days and so I'm afraid this blog has taken a bit of a back seat! The closing date for entries is on the 23rd March, so a little after then, and I can concentrate more on it then. That being said, I'm away in Cyprus for the actual deadline on a field trip!

I set off to Glasgow to film the Weakest Link tomorrow... I'm excited, but also nervous! Maybe I should take my camera with me and film while I'm there!?

I am the Weakest Link, goodbye!

The Weakest Link!!!!

I just found out I got onto The Weakest Link and will be filming my show next Wednesday!!! I'm so excited!!

New pictures, yay!

I've put a few of my favourite pics from my travels on this page... I hope you like them! The majority are from the gypsum sand dunes in New Mexico back in March... I love taking photos SO MUCH (as you know!) and I just couldn't resist doing some gymnastics in the amazing sunset!

For all the rest of my photos, check out my facebook profile and add me as a friend! I love meeting new people!

http://www.facebook.com/katiepotatie?ref=profile

All my love, time for bed now!

xxxx

Kelsey for the win!

The USA competition is almost over and Kelsey is doing well but not amazingly... Please vote for her if you have time, she is AMAZING and would be a great intern!

http://www.worldtravelerinternship.com/member/kelsey-czako/

Thank youuuu! Off to micropaleontology class now... xxx

Video disaster!

I think my video is going to have to be redone... the background music in the STA office was much louder than I thought and makes me sound so muffly! Disaster. Time to call in the troops I think...

All my Facebook issues...

I've really REALLY considered using Facebook extensively to try and increase my votes (with ~1700 friends it could really help!) but I just worry it can be annoying and I really don't want to end up spamming everyone! At the same time its such a useful, easy way to get people to vote - and seeing as voting is literally 'just one click', it might be silly of me not to use it more...

The competition is such that I have to get down to the top 50 to get to fill in the whole application form, and so far I'm 5th... You never know what might happen at the very end though! Somebody might have 5000 computers hidden somewhere... In which case, Facebook would be a very convenient help!

Speaking of which, some of the people above me have 8000+ votes!?!? Eeeek! I'm very impressed and I'm not sure if I can match that! I'M LOVING this experience though, it gives me something to look forward to checking after my dissertation work (that is taking up all my time!)

xxxxxxxxxx

PS: Looked through my videos from the STA office today... I sound so cheesy!

2772 votes!!!!!

OH MY GOODNESS, I have just checked the votes and I am up to over 2700!!! Thank you so much for everyone that is helping, I know that quite a few people did the entirety of the edinburgh university Library - I owe you all a big meal!!

I really think that this would be the most AMAZING experience, and I'm so glad that so many of you agree... Thank you!

(A very happy) Kate xxx

American Invasion

So, my friend Kelsey has spent the week here visiting from Miami - where I spent my 3rd year! She is entering the USA World Traveller Intern and so we spent a lot of time on Monday shooting our videos. They're coming along well although my camera is not very good quality and I'm worried it might affect the sound!

We also invaded the Edinburgh STA travel store, where the amazing manager Sarah gave me a glowing recommendation on my video. I have seen them a few times for insurance, especially in my gap year, and they all enjoyed making the film! STA people are always so nice!

It also rained and I wasn't sure if being filmed in the rain (to show how desperately I NEED to travel...!) was a good idea, and the whole of Edinburgh city centre seemed to want to be in the shot! I will take my camera along to trampolining this week and maybe film a bit there...

New Blog!

Hey guys!

I've decided to start this new blog to keep everyone up to date on my STA world traveller internship application! For those of you that don't know what this is (and this would surprise me as I have literally been telling EVERYONE!) STA travel are offering two people the chance to travel the world this summer and blog all about it!

My profile is here: http://www.worldtravellerintern.co.uk/member/kate-roberts/

Please vote for me if you can! Only one vote per computer so please ask any friends/family members too!

All my love for now,

Kate xx