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!!!

Phone Calls, Pre-Departure, and Host family!!!

So things are really starting to shape up now! Last week during my dinner break at rehearsal, I had to call into a conference call about receiving the scholarship and all the details. So basically it was a guy who told us congrats, but don't accept the scholarship if you think you want to travel around while you're there or if you want to leave early to go to prom or a wedding or if you want to come home in the middle for some event or something. It was a little intimidating, but there is no way I'm not accepting (plus I signed the papers weeks ago).
Yesterday I got an email about pre-departure orientation, held at UCONN on Memorial Day. I think it's for everyone in New England who's traveling with AFS next year though, not just to Germany. So I'll get to meet some other kids, and that will be fun!
But the most exciting news is that I got an email last week from a family in Germany who wants to be my host!!!!!! I was so excited (although I haven't heard back from them yet and nothing is certain). But I'll tell you what I know about them and change this later if it doesn't work out or something. The parents are Daniela and Sebastian, and they have 4 kids, but only one of them lives at home. Judith is 21 and is living in Spain, Simon is 20 and completing his mandatory military service, Jakob is 16 but he is coming to the US next year through AFS, and Clara is 10 and is living at home. So I get 2 older brothers and an older sister! Although who knows if I'll actually get to meet them or not. Also, 3 of the kids are rowers!!!! So I'll be staying buff while in Germany, I hope. I really hope they email back soon, I am getting quite anxious to hear back...
In exactly 2 months, I'll be 16!! Which actually doesn't affect anything really, because I haven't even gotten my permit so I can't get my license, and the only other freedom I can think of that comes with 16 is the ability to get a body part pierced without parental consent. But I'm not planning on going on any piercing rampages, so I guess I'll just celebrate with the fact that I get to go to Germany next year (and drink beer, because the drinking age there is 16). Woohoo! But I can't think about celebrating right now because I have an A.P. Modern European History test coming up in less than a month!!!!! aaaahh!

P.S. My mother has now started to frequently remind me that I wrote in an earlier post that I would never doubt her again if I got the scholarship. Well, I guess I dug that ditch for myself. Oh well. I think I can withstand another few months of that, then it's off to Berlin!!!!

Congress-Bundestag Scholarship

I. Got. It.
I got the scholarship.
I am suddenly eased of the burden of almost $10,000.
I can call myself a Congress-Bundestag Scholar.
I am going to Germany with a full scholarship.
I just got a full scholarship to Germany.
Oh. My. God.
Wow.
I am so happy.
I am ridiculously happy.
I still can't believe it.
That is all I have to say right now.

Global Leaders Scholarship

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank AFS-USA immensely for the Global Leaders scholarship they have awarded me. I am so excited for this adventure, and I am so grateful for the support I have received from AFS, both financially and emotionally. This experience has been my dream for such a long time, and it seems absolutely amazing that it is actually happening. Even though I don't even know what country I'll be going to for sure, I am so happy that I am even getting this chance to be immersed in another culture for an entire year. I have become even more inspired to fundraise on my own in order to fund this year abroad, and when I return from my adventure, I want to be able to help and support others who have a dream of living in a whole other world. It is my dream to become fluent in a whole new language and become comfortable in a brand new culture, and AFS is helping me to achieve this. Thank you, AFS, for letting me be a Global Leaders scholar.

Interview...

Yesterday Mom and I drove to Schenectady, NY for a 4-hour session in which I had an individual interview and got to meet several other Congress-Bundestag applicants, as well as one of last years recipients. It was kind of stressful- I thought they would ask me about my reasons for applying and why I wanted to go to Germany and all that jazz. Instead they asked totally philosophical questions about impossible situations (their words, not mine). I think I did all right, though, although I kind of spaced out during one of the questions and kept repeating myself. The other applicants confessed to doing that, too, though. Each individual interview took about 20 minutes, so while one person was getting interviewed the rest of us would talk. Last year's recipient, a German guy named Tim, told us a lot about Germany and what it was like to be an exchange student. He was really funny. The other kids were nice, too. I have some really tough competition, though- one of the girls was a senior, and she already got accepted early admittance to Dartmouth!!! I really hope I'm good enough to get one of the 50 scholarships... Anyway, after we all finished our individual interviews, we had a group "interview"- that's what they called it, but it turned out we had to build a tower out of a few sheets of paper, a paper bag, some straws, and some pipe cleaners. Oh, and a roll of scotch tape. Then we sat down afterwards and had a discussion in which the interviewers all wrote furiously. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Yikes!
I have to wait until early March to find out, so I'm going to spend February working like a maniac to earn money as though I wasn't getting the scholarship. Just in case. Mom says it's like a snow day- if you don't do your homework and prepare, fate will make sure the storm goes the other way.