Sunday, May 31, 2009

Pre-Departure Orientation

On Saturday, my mom and I drove to Storrs, CT for my pre-departure orientation. It was really fun, there were several returnees, some of which were still in high school, that we got to talk to plus I got to meet a bunch of kids who are going away next year also. Actually I was one of the few who was going for the whole year, there were a lot of people only going for a summer. Several girls said that they really wished they'd signed up for a year now because they are getting more and more stoked about this experience.
So. The returnees were definitely the most helpful- they told us loads of stories about their experiences and what they had to deal with. There were definitely a lot of hard things they had to go through but overall they all seemed to have a really great time!! One girl, Samantha, went to Belgium and couldn't stop talking about it!!! She really bonded with her host family and became a part of their culture, which I think is the coolest thing EVAH. Another returnee, Christine, went to Germany as a college student, and she says Berlin is the best city ever!! Plus in a conference call last week I realized that I will be in Berlin for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989). So that will definitely be an enormous party!!! I'm totally psyched. I am hoping to find out more about my host family though- most people who know about theirs have received official notification of some sort but I've only gotten an email from my family. I really hope I get to stay with them though, they seem really nice!!!
As soon as the school year is over (14 more school days + finals!!!!!) I am planning to get Rosetta Stone for German and get some practice in. I've already put up vocab stickers around my room, which help a little (although they tend to fall off things).
7 days until my 16th birthday!!!

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