Rotary Weekend 3/12-3/14

Last weekend I went to my first Rotary weekend with all of the other students studying abroad in my district. I met most of the other students that are going to another country next school year as well as some students that are here from other countries. There were students from Mexico, Vietnam, Taiwan, Spain and France. I thought it was great to figure out what the exchange would be like from them. Their English was also very good so that encouraged me a bit about having to learn Spanish. The student from France, Ulysse, was telling me how great every part of Spain is so I got even more excited to go. What surprised me though is that I was probably the youngest kid there. Almost all of the outbound students were Junior or Seniors in high school. I thought that Rotary wanted you to go for your junior year but some people actually graduate in their host school. But they must be pretty lenient about when you go. This weekend sure did make me more excited for my year abroad.

We packed a lot into one weekend and even went to Chicago. First we met at the Pontiac Township High School around 2 (so that means I got to leave school early) and we got on a trolley right from there. We rode down to the Route 66 Museum and the War Museum where we were given a tour around both. Then we came back to the school and had dinner, Avanti’s Gondolas. We waited for about an hour until 7 and watched the school’s spring musical. Their play was “Annie Get Your Gun”. It was very good, but very long. After the play we found out who was staying where and eventually got our stuff to our houses. By the time we got to the houses it was at least 11 and we didn’t get to sleep until past midnight. That wasn’t the best nights sleep I’ve ever had but I was wide awake in the morning, excited for Chicago. It took us at least two hours to get there from Pontiac and unfortunately it was foggy and drizzling there but we still had a blast. First we went to Millennium Park and saw the Bean. Then we were all brave enough to go ice skating even though it was cold and wet. It wasn’t as bad in the end and I ended up trying to teach others how to skate backwards. After about an hour there we walked over to the Art Institute and were there for a little bit as well. The we went to Watertower Mall for shopping and lunch (after trying to find the bus for about half an hour). We all had lunch together and then were were able to walk around the mall for several hours. Its a pretty big mall so I was exhausted after about two hours of walking around. Finally we all met up, found everyone in our group and headed home. It wasn’t too late when we got back to Pontiac so we ordered some pizzas and watched a movie in one of the family’s basements. Finally we went back to our families’ houses and went to bed after a really long day. But then of course we had to get up at the crack of dawn again the next day and go home.

It was an extremely fun weekend, especially with being able to meet all of the inbounds from other countries. I cant wait for the next one 🙂

Here’s some of us at the Bean in Chicago.

Hey everybody!

I’m making this blog so anyone can follow my travels in Spain and the process of preparing for it. If you don’t know about how I got to be doing this, or even what I’m doing, here’s some background info.

During my freshman year there was an announcement about wanting to become an exchange student. So I stopped in the guidance office and got the info. I emailed the person in charge but they mailed back that I was too young to go next year, my sophomore year. So I decided to wait a bit and see about doing it my junior year. Sooner or later I completely forgot about it until  I got an application in the mail. It was just to see who was interested and so they could set up interviews but I filled it out and sent it right back. Before I knew it I was talking to the district about what this exchange would entail.

I was at my first interview when this was all very new and we hadn’t even started the application process yet. During my interview, to my surprise, I saw my best friend Libbi waiting for her interview. She was going to try to do an exchange too! Before, I knew her sister was in Germany as an exchange student but I never knew she was doing it too. She will be going to Germany as well so I will only be a country away while we’re gone. Knowing that she has been going through the same process as me has been extremely helpful too. Since her sister has already gone through it she knows what to expect and she has been able to answer so many of my questions. Having her to help has made this whole process so much easier.

I’d say the hardest, and longest part of this process has got to be the application. My mom and I had to fill out five identical applications that were each about 20 pages each. There were sections for personal information, medical information, photos, a letter to my host family, and references and language proficiency letters from my school. The most annoying section was the medical information because we had to go to my dentist, doctor and eye doctor to get every piece of information about me. It all had to be filled out in blue pen too, which proved to be an issue for my doctor, who didn’t have a single one. But eventually we got all of the info together and the application was almost finished.

I spent a lot of time trying to pick my countries; there were so many choices. We had to rate all 42 countries from 1 to 42. I knew some countries that I wanted at the bottom for sure but picking the top was hard. I had to leave out several countries because of language requirements but none were any that I was dying to go to. In the end, after some last minute switching around, this was my top five… 1) Japan 2) Spain 3) Denmark 4) Italy 5) Sweden. I think I was incredibly lucky to get my second choice. Most kids that I talked to got their 6th or 15th choice. I would have liked to go to Japan but I know all of two sentences in Japanese so Spain was probably a better choice since I’ve had about three years of Spanish. I’m really happy with my country assignment but waiting to see where in the country I will be is antagonizing. I should hear from my host family soon though.

Well after the application was done and turned in we had another set of interviews to see if we would even be accepted into the program. I don’t think anyone who was at the interviews with me was turned down. After these interviews they sent the applications to the district and then came the waiting…. They had to check over all of the 200 something applications and then assign the right countries to the right people without making the number of inbounds (students coming from another country to our district) and outbounds (students going to another country) to one country too uneven. There were some issues but everything now is good and we’re just waiting to find out what district we will be in in our countries. So yet another waiting game but it should be worth it in the end.