Rujan

I know it’s not the end of the month or anything or have much to say about Rujan (or september) but I wanted to blog about my experiences so far in Zagreb. As you know things didn’t go so well the first week that I was here. They started off well with good flights and a great stay in Seline but up until I got sick it was awesome. So being quarantined for about five days really sucked because it made my homesickness even worse and the culture shock was a little weird for me. Usually when I go on trips they are with friends and family and this one was…well…different because I am alone in the sense of living with a another family. But I know that there are about ten of us who are going through the same thing so I am very happy to know that we are all in the same boat.

After going out with Nora (Quebec), Victor (Brazil), and Paulo (Brazil as well), I have realized how lucky I am to be in the city that I am in and the place. I didn’t realize up until now that I am a very fornutate person to be living in a city such as Zagreb.

Today when I went out with the exchangers we just wandered around aimlessly and went to Old Town…and it was AMAZING! I love love love Zagreb and still can’t believe I am here…I mean it’s now actually hitting me that “yeah I am living in this place…and I actually like it”. I mean my experience could be so much harder than it is right now and I am truly blessed to be here. And school is about to start on Monday…and I am actually excited…for once! ahha. All my friends back at home commented on my pictures saying that they want to trade places with me because they hate school and such! And this makes me really happy because it just makes me feel like I should be here even more. Nora and I are going to the same school but she will be in a grade higher than me…I hope to see her around… and probably will since there are only 500 kids in high school! ah.

I am taking Italian and Spanish which I am psyched about because I know Spanish and Italian is really close to Spanish (or it’s one of the romantic languages) So by the end of the school year I will hopefully be fluent in Croatian (if I work really really hard at it) and know how to say a few phrases in Italian. I am telling you that the school system here has a much higher standard than America does…I mean we only have to learn one language…and it’s not even knowing the language anyway. I bet you anything that only one third of the people at school can speak a different language pretty well with being taught in the classroom. I mean I know a lot of people that love to learn Spanish and French but that is so rare in my school back in home. Here, everybody knows English and on top of that they are learning, Italian, French, German, and Spanish. It’s amazing. I mean I could be totally wrong about the students speaking other languages but if they all speak English I am just guessing they are pretty good at other languages.

SO exciting news…I rode the tram today all by myself…it was so so fulfilling! I felt so independent and one with the culture! ahhaah. And this old guy started to talk to me in Croatian and I felt like I fit in! HAha. I mean everybody looks pretty much the same here so it’s not like I stick out as American but it’s awesome to feel like your in with what’s going on in this city.

Anyway, this is a better start to a wonderful year! And I can’t wait to blog more about it!

AUGHHHH

Maybe now that I have a clear head and I am in a better state of mind I can actually blog about what has been happening in my life in Zagreb. It’s going to sound boring right now because there is not much to say.

So I arrived on the 26th and my host parents were there to greet me with lots of gifts. I was so so surprised and happy that my host family is very nice and caring. So they took me to their home and I unloaded everything in my suitcases and made things feel a little like home. Then Ivan Sr. and Jr. took me to their friends houses to visit and naturally they all were speaking Croatian. So I had no idea what they were talking about. It was a good feeling not having to pay attention to what they were saying, so I could just relax. But I saw some interesting homes and enjoyed spending time with Ivan Sr. and Jr.

The next day my host parents took me to the seaside and it was beautiful! I was excited to see Seline and go to the shore. Their house was really different from what I am used to but I was ok with it. There was one small kitchen, one bathroom and two bedrooms with no living room area. But I figured out that they spent a lot of time out on the patio instead of being inside. I met my host sister’s friend Eva, who has a house in Seline and she was a lot of fun to hang out with. It was good to talk to somebody my own age and get the down low of what’s going on in Seline.

The second day of being in Seline, we went to Zadar with my host parent’s cousins. They were very nice and Matija showed me around Zadar. I liked Zadar very much and there were so many people out and about. On friday night, we all went to Starigrad, another seaside village like Seline (actually right next to each other), and explored some more.

I got very homesick during my stay in Seline and it was quite overwhelming! On sunday I ate some bad pizza and I threw up and started to have a fever. That was probably the worst of my lows! Homesickness+Culture Shock+Physical sickness do not mix very well! Before I got sick my host parents took me on a hike with their family and we went into the mountains that over look Seline. It was very beautiful.

Then after we got back from the hiking we went to Nin, the smallest town in the world I believe. They had a lot of small things there. Like the smallest cathedral in the world and the first roman temple or something like that. So I saw a lot of history. I also went to Pag on saturday night and I loved it! There were some buddist Croatians in Pag for some reason and I thought it was very funny. Jelena and I went to the salt museum and learned how salt is harvested and such. I am so glad Croatia has a lot of english speakers and english writing everywhere!!!

Monday we returned to Zagreb because Jelena was concerned with my fever and she wanted me to rest. It’s been since sunday that I have had a fever and today I went to the hospital to check on what going on with my body. They drew blood from me which was quite an experience because I have never had blood drawn from my arm. I cried like no other! Then the doctor examined me and said that I have a viral fever and it should go away by friday. If it doesn’t go away I have to go back to the hospital on friday….great. The doctor was a little concerned about my heart and hopefully it is nothing major but if I do have something wrong with my heart I want to go back to America so I can do the procedure there. Augh, I love being sick! I am getting used to being here in Zagreb and now I don’t want to go home for homesickness but if it comes down to heart problems it would be better to go home :( and that makes me even sadder! I am just getting out of my funk with culture shock so I want to keep going! I know that God has a plan in mind for me so if it’s meant to be it’s meant to be.

keep me in your thoughts and prayers!

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!