Officially Packed

So I packed everything today and the day seemed to fly by. I can’t believe that my adventure will truly start tomorrow. WOW. I can’t even explain to you the emotions that are running through my veins at this moment. It still seems so so surreal to me that I am going to be traveling to this unknown place and spending almost a year there. AUGH.

I have been reading everybody else’s blogs who have already left and I envy what they have already encountered being for not even a week! It’s insane and I can’t wait to meet my host family and get to the seaside. When I look back all that has happened this year with Rotary I see how everything has fit into place but as I think about it in the present nothing is adding up to be reality. If this doesn’t make any sense, sorry, but I just don’t know how to explain it any further.

I am so excited to see what God has in store for me this year.

Tomorrow at this time I will be on the plane to Zurich, Swis. AH!

ps. this weekend went too fast!! My goodbye  party was amazing and I am going to miss everyone! And my friend Hannah’s going away party was awesome too! I met so many cool people there and got to hang out with my RYE buds.

5 days?!?

AUGH. That's how I feel right now. It's a good AUGH and it's a bad AUGH. It's what I want to say over and over again as I pack and prepare for my next big adventure. I can't believe summer has flown by this fast and I am already saying goodbye to the people that mean the most to me.

Tonight is my "going away" party and I am very excited and yet very sad. This might be the last time I see my friends but then I think about the exchange it all becomes worth it. I am having it at my mom's house which is (what else?) great but depressing because I have lived and grown up in this house for almost eleven years! Many of my neighbors are coming and they have known me since I was seven! It's going to be alittle weird having all these people coming over and saying "good luck" and "good bye". It's going to be an awesome night and I can't wait to see all my friends.

So I finally got my Dell Inspiron Passion Purple laptop the other day and I love it!! I also got skype so I can talk to all my friends across the sea and with my family too. AUGH...and the packing is going great even though I have packed all my clothes and have nothing to wear for the next five days! ahha.

The Predeparture Life

Okay so my blog hasn't been much help about the process of applying for RYE and only has really been about my thoughts and feelings about LIFE in general.

ANY OF YOU WHO HAVE A SLIGHT INTEREST IN DOING THIS DO IT!

ANYBODY READING THIS APPLY EARLY AND IT'S A MUCH EASIER PROCESS FOR YOU AND YOUR ROTARY SPONSER CLUB!

So the application is about 15 pages long...WAIT don’t run off! ...yes it's long but you can get it knocked out in a weekend if you really tried hard enough. BE PREPARED...

THINK about where you want to go BUT don't have a set idea about a place or country you really want to go to. Odds are you probably will not get the country and if you do you'll probably be disappointed because of the set expections you had for your imaginary "vacation" country.

THINK about why you want to go on the exchange. Is it because you would like to be more culturally aware or decided to go a different educational path that not many people are doing?

I felt so lost during my application process because I thought I had to majorly impress people to get into the exchange program. YES, being impressive will most likely get you into the exchange program but I let that rule my perspective of how I should be at all times. What Rotarains really like is you being yourself most of all and showing that you have confidence in yourself means you will have confidence in going abroad.

You should familarize yourself with the FOUR D's because that's what you will be expected to follow on the exchange.
1. No Drinking
2. No Drugs
3. No Dating
4. No Driving (...why would you do this anyway?)
OH and if you are in the ohio-erie district you should know that there is a fifth one..... 5. NO DUMB STUFF

So after you have done your application, you will arrange to give it your Rotary club's district chair for youth exchange. They should email you about times and dates for the interview and that's the fun part!

THE INTERVIEW was nerve racking.
Be prepared to answer:
questions about your family and how you will feel about leaving them for ten months
curveball questions that might be a little personal
questions with "how will you deal with this is if happens"

BASICALLY be confident and be yourself.

OKAY so here's a concern that many people might have: MONEY

So I come from a divorce family of four years and yeah, money is not the best subject to bring up at the dinner table. Just imagine bringing up me leaving for ten months to a foreign country that nobody has heard about! and somebody needs to fund my little adventure. But if you REALLY want to do this you will find a way to do it.

Well if that is an issue for you, Rotary is very supportive and giving so get to know your Rotary club and address the fact that you might not have all the cash to dish out on your exchange. You don't know if you don't ask.

THE BENEFITS:

1. Exploring a new place and becoming more culturally aware
2. Setting yourself apart from people appyling to college
3. Having a new perspective and a new maturity that many of your classmates will not have because of what you experienced.

You must be thinking "what does this girl know? she hasn't even jumped on the plane yet!"

FYI: once you sign up for this program you sign up for immediate learning!


I have already met people from Germany, Thailand, France, Italy, Brazil, Chile and India! Just being with them for a weekend opened my prespective of how big the world is and how you bond with people who are going through what you are going through also!

Once you meet people at orientation and the big "oreintation" you find yourself making all these friends because EVERYBODY is going through the same thing you are and are about to make the biggest life changing move in your life...so far!

Rotary Youth Exchange can open up your whole entire life and even though I am not there yet, I can already tell you that my whole "future" has changed. I don't know what I want to do with my life right now except the exchange but this gives me hope that I'll have some purpose on this earth.

Enough with the basics....let's hear about my predepature life

As I might have mentioned, it is pretty overwhelming right now! My mom has been an angel to me with getting my forms organized and sending them to translators...GO MOM! And maybe I'll actually get to leave on time...anyway. In the beginning everything was so magical and dreamlike, very upbeat and inspirational. It seems that the past month has been very chaotic because of late forms and rushing to get things done.

I am reading "The New Global Student" and I absolutley love it! It make me what to go and do things I've always wanted to do. This is what I've been waiting for. I have been waiting for someone or something to totally agree with going against the current and not succumming to the traditional high school educational experience! I've always been about following your heart about your life and before this book I was being brainwashed by my evil school that I should be doing what everybody else is doing. (AP, IB and SATS!)

As I have said before I have no idea what I want to do with my life I know as of this year I am going to Croatia to start my new "global" education and find my undiscovered capabilities. This book is making me more excited about my future instead of depressing myself with the idea I'd be stuck as a "would you like fries with that" kinda of gal.

I know this year is going to be very difficult. My croatian dictionary is going to become my new best friend for all I know because I don't have a dang clue about Croatian.

So I kinda sorta finished my photo album for my host family and I ordered my backpack finally and I got a luggage set!! Now I just have to see how much luggage I can bring for the Swiss air lines.

So the iternary is pretty interesting! I get to fly to Chicago at 11:13 and have a six hour lay over!! WOOWho. But I atleast know one other Croat that is going to be there with me. Then We fly out of Chicago to Zurich Swis and have 45 minutes to get on the plane to Zagreb! Then at 1:10 I should arrive at the Zagreb airport to meet my lovely host family and possibly Rotary club members?

I still can't believe this is happening...hopefully once I get on the plane I'll realize that it's not a dream and hopefully not have a meltdown.

OKAY well this has been an entirely long post and don't expect this much when I get over there because I am sure that I will have a lot to do but I promise to at least update once a month!

the time is near

I don't quite know what to do with myself for the last month of being in America. This summer has been the weirdest summer I have ever had and it makes me question whether or not I am ready to leave my home. I can't picture myself in Zagreb and probably willn't be able to until I get there. All of this is still a dream and might come true if my travel agent ever calls me back! I have been talking to my host mom now for a while and she is really cool and even reminds me of my own mother. There is nothing more to talk about than my fear of being the one person in the RYE program that doesn't get to go because I forgot to get a form signed and the ambassy of Croatia will not let me in. For now atleast I can just pretend that I am not going so my nerves don't get the best of me. I have been doing a lot of traveling lately, going to D.C. to see my capital before I go live in another, went to the beach and revisited my childhood in VA. It's all been great but it's a little weird coming home and having nothing to do and finding out that most of my friends have changed a little. They have all spent their summer together and I was off traveling. I guess it is better to be deattached from the ones you love before you go and live somewhere else for a year.

!6 baby

finally I am 16 and I have the power to drive!

unfortuntly I won't be able to drive my little vovo but being able to drive is making exciting! Luckily all my friends drive so I don't need to depend on myself quite yet. My parents think it would be better if I waited to get my license next year when I come back...ugh. It's worth though. America vs. Croatia? Umm pretty hard. Hahah. I am so lucky to be able to go away next year. It's going to be insane. I have begun to talk with the people that are going to Croatia with me next year and they are all really cool. I can't wait to meet all of them. I really need to start researching and actually learning CROATIAN!! AHHHHHHHHH
The courses that I am taking next year are insane...well atleast three of them. I have to take Croatian (which is our verison of English class), first foreign language class and a secong foreign language class!WOW. I am going to be multilingi after all of this. It should be interesint how everything plays out next year. I have been reading a lot of other RYEs blogs and they are all so smart. I don't even compare to them. I will have to work really hard next year. Word to the wise...if you want to RYE, get major credits done for high school out of the way as soon as possible!

bliže!

I am basically counting down the days til school is out! There is only about 22 days left and after that I'll be counting the days to go to Croatia! It's getting more exciting now because I found out what city I am going to and my host family contacted me last week!


Zagreb! There are going to be 13 Rotary exchange students in Croatia and we are all going to be in the city of Zagreb. I am so happy. I was really hoping that there would more kids than just me! Haha. For a second I really thought I would be the only American exchange student. But there is actually 9 Americans! In the host club that I will be in there is another girl and she is american too! It's so releiving to have another american with me during this whole process.


I found some of the other exchange students on facebook and we have been talking a bit and we are all getting so excited!!! Zagreb looks beautiful! And my host family seems so nice and awesome. My host sister will be going to Florida while I am there so I will be in her room and I also have a host brother. I have not gotten to talk with the rest of my host family because they are all on a trip so hopefully I'll hear from them soon.


I still can't picture myself there. I believe it but I don't believe in it. It's all a dream to me really. Just wait. I'll be walking on the plane and they will tell me to wake up and go home. Not that I really think this is going to happen but I have never done anything like this! The look on my friends' faces tell me they don't know what to think and quite frankly I don't either. It's going to be the best time of my life and I am really anxious to see what happens.

My host sister tells me that my school is a thirty minute walk?!?!? Well by the end of this I am going to be in the best shape (hopefully). I can also take the bus or train so it's all good. I still want to test out the walking theory and see how it goes. I think my whole speaks English which is awesome but then again is that a bad thing too? All the exchange students that came over here HAD to learn English and me? I really hope I don't become lazy and only speak English over there. I think the school that I am going to is going to be all Croatian. Soooo good and bad to everything like I always say so I'll suck it up and go for it.


I am really excited because the Rotary Club wants to take us all to the coast and to the Plitvice Lakes!!! Talk about lijep! And to Dubrovik? OMG. SO SO PRETTY. We are going to have so much fun....ahhh when do I leave?

Update

hello my lovely blog. it's been awhile since I have even looked on this blog. So the update...Okay well...I still have not heard from Croatia yet but I am betting that I will hear from my host families in June. About two months ago I went to Oreintation in Asheville where I met all the outbounders from my district and as well as some others. We got to hear from a girl named Adrianne who went to France last year and she brought her rotary jacket which was cool because she had tons of stuff on hers. My mom and I had a lot of fun in Asheville and I met some really cool people. I really clicked with this one girl, Hannah who goes to Myers Park and we had so much fun at the mrytle beach trip.

At the RYE District Conference all the youth exchange student were there and 500+ rotarians! It was crazy! I met all the indbounders and reunited with Typhaine who goes to my school and she is so much fun. We were only there for a weekend but we all got along so well and I miss them all so much!



I roomed with all inbounds! It was awesome. Franz is from Germany, Kamillia is from Norway, and Ilaria is from Italy. We had so much fun in the room and just goofing around. I wish I could do it all over again!



I wish we would all be together next year, like this was our group of inbounders for next year.....

But luckily we all live close enough to see each other again. Hopefully the storms will hold off and tomorrow will be beautiful because my dad is hosting a bonfire for some of the inbounders. Typhaine, Carol and Ilaria are all supposedly coming so I am excited for that.

It is so awesome that we are all making plans to see each other again because I really do think we all have a great bond. And next year is going to be great because Franz has invited a bunch of us to go to Ocktuberfest in Germany next year!! Life keeps on getting better!