Battle...?

Question

I'm 14 years old and my best friend is almost 15 years old. We're both from Ireland but moved away to different countries when we were 8 and 10 years old. My best friend now lives in Australia and I live in Portugal. We miss Ireland greatly, we've been through so much together that it's unbelievable. I miss her so much. We have a plan (that our parents know of) to go to Ireland during Christmas and stay for a month, by ourselves, in a rented apartment, with my parents coming and visiting every so often. I'm very organised and made a spreadsheet including every single little cost possible, the total cost would be 2800 euro, give or take a few. I've raised about 600 euro so far by saving and working in my aunt's shop. I am also about to start selling some of my clothes online, and making and selling clothing online. Also busking (I play guitar and sing). I hope to have about 750 euro in total over the next month or so. My BFF has only 100 dollars but it looks hopeful that she will get

Answer 1

It sounds too ambitious for a bunch of kids. stay at home and watch TV till you are older and have a proper job. There is nothing useful to do in Ireland. You should be glad you are out of there. All the kids just go binge drinking and fighting. No prospects at all.

And woolworths in Australia? They are going bankrupt soon

Answer 2

I have to agree with guy above ... it does sound too ambitious.  I'm sure you could raise that amount of money if you wanted to but there are so many flaws in your plan.

How are you going to rent an apartment?  Usually, the minimum lease on an apartment is six months.  If you need to stay there less than this then you need to be looking at hotels which are obviously very expensive.  Plus, what landlord is going to rent an apartment to two underage girls who don't have parents in that country?

Also, if your budget is including airfares, then I think you'll find you've understimated.  If your friend is coming all the way from Australia, then her airfare will be well in excess of 1000 EUR ordinarily, but of course prices go up around Christmas.

Plus, you say you work hard in school, but most schools in this hemisphere don't give you a whole month off over Christmas, so if you are planning on taking extra time out then clearly you don't take school that seriously.

I moved to a foreign country when I was 8 and I left all my friends behind.  Yes, it's hard.  But everywhere has somewhere good about it and you should try to focus on the good parts rather than complaining about it and missing Ireland.  Make more of an effort to make some new friends - certainly don't forget about your old ones, but you need to have friends that live close by.

If you can save up some money, why don't you go and visit your friend in Australia?  Or why doesn't she come and visit you in Portugal?  That way you don't have to pay for accommodation nor worry about if you'll be able to find any, and you'll still have parental supervision.

The other thing is ... I notice that you say your parents are very supportive.  You don't say that your friend's parents are.  Clearly, they're likely to have more reservations.  If anything does happen, your parents are only an hour's flight away.  Your friend's parents are a 24-hour flight away.  So this will probably make them more hesitant to allow her to go