Almost On My Way

I am almost on my way, and I can't believe it.

I feel like it was just a few days ago when i was fretting about whether I would get my visa in time, and now I have a million other worries going through my head. My packing is spread out all through my living room, and even though I made a very exact list so that I wouldn't over pack, my suitcase is still super full. I don't know what I am going to do when i come home. Everyone says you buy so much stuff that your luggage doubles. I had these grand plans to leave a bunch of space on the way over so i would have room for the stuff i bought. Ha, that didn't work out so well. Oh well, I can leave some things behind or mail things home. And besides, that is 10 months away. I can cross that bridge when i come to it.

For anyone asking the "when exactly do you leave question?" here is the answer(as I currently understand it). I fly from SFO Wednesday morning at 630 am(that means I have to get up at 400 am) and I fly to JFK with 2 other girls in my program. Our flight gets in at 312pm and then we go to an AFS orientation in New York. We spend the night there and we will get to meet the 45ish students from all over the United States that are spending either first semester or a year in France. We fly from JFK to Zurich as a big group, our flight leaving at 500pm and getting in at 800am the next morning(friday). We have a 4 hour layover in Switzerland and then we fly to CDG(Paris), getting in at 150pm. At this point, I'm not exactly sure what happens, but i think we hang out and meet all the student from around the world coming to france. i know we have an orientation on saturday, and i think we might do a bus tour of paris. and then i go to my host family early sunday morning by train. And i start school the next day(monday).  So it will go very fast and I will be jetlagged, but it will be the start of a great adventure.

I have a ton of different emotions running around right now. I am super nervous, wondering what I was thinking signing up for this. At the same time, I am crazy excited and tired of waiting. I just want to be there already. And i enjoyed visiting school today and laughing about how i didn't have to do all of the summer homework, but when the day was over and people went off to sports practice, all i wanted was to be with them. I miss the comfort of the expected and the familiarity of school and friendly faces, but I also can't wait to face all of the exciting adventures of the unexpected and to make new friends.

I will miss all of my friends, and i will do my best to keep you updated on my doings with fun (and hopefully not too boring) stories and pictures. That's it for now. I can't wait to tell you all about my year in France.

Pre-Departure Orientation

Hey Everyone,

Today I had my Pre-Departure Orientation for my upcoming trip to France. We talked about culture, stereotypes, and questions and concerns. It was lots of fun to meet the other students going abroad. Just in my AFS Chapter, there are 8 students, going to countries like Italy, Ghana, Ecuador, France, Iceland, Peru, and Germany.

We did one activity where we had to draw our concerns and expectations, and apparently most AFS Students are not artists because our drawings are just lovely. I think we should sell them to an art museum. I drew the one about friends(meaning one of our concerns was not being able to make friends and becoming depressed). The other one means that we are expecting a language barrier, but we know we will find a way around it.

Eveything is really starting to sink in for me now that i have had my first orientation and I only have a week of school left. For instance, we had the end of the year rally on Friday where the seniors walk out of the gym and all the other classes move into their new sections. I hate that rally, but I felt like I had to go because it will be the only time I ever sit in the junior section in the school gym for a rally. By the way, I start school exactly 3 months from today in a foreign country. So weird. But I get more summer vacation than all of the Rio kids so ha!

So yeah, today was sort of another practice post, but I promise that once I actually get to France, they will get a lot more interesting.

Yulia's Birthday

Ok. This is kind of a test post but I want to see if everything works. For Yulia's birthday we went rollerskating(in an indoor rink, something new for Yulia). Then we went to Chinois for dinner. It was lots of fun. That's everything, but here is a picture of me and Yulia at Chinois.

Picture number 2 is my new haircut. i donated 11 inches to locks of love.

picture number 3 is me playing varsity soccer for my school,  contributing to our 2-1 defeat of our nemesis (S.F.)