Unofficial Exchange Dates

After a week of trying to contact the YFU office or otherwise find out about my departure and airport, today I learned, unofficially, the dates of my exchange!  No, not the romantic kind- the departure date!  The program in France starts August 25, so I will probably (this is where the unofficial comes in) leave August 24th.  I'll have a few days of orientation in Paris before I go to my host family.  Then I'll stay with them until July 2nd, when I return home!

Scholarship!

I bet you didn't expect anything new so quickly, but I have news!  Today I got a letter from YFU informing me that I recieved the Founder's Scholarship.  It covers round trip domestic and international airfare, and some other stuff.  I'm so happy!  Since my exchange is already paid for, though, I guess they'll reimburse us or something..  Here is the page about the scholarship. 

The letter was mildly entertaining because it assumed that I had not already been accepted and that I don't already have a host family.  It said it included the student and parent handbooks, but then at the end the enclosure part was white-outed.  :) I already have these!  It also said that information necessary for getting a visa would be coming 'shortly'.  That includes a departure date!  Keep your fingers crossed that I'll know soon!

Updated information

In December, I was officially accepted to be an exchange student.  In January, my application was sent to YFU France and within a few weeks (quick as far as exchanges go), I learned I have a host family in France.  I have a hostmom, hostdad, 13 year old host sister and a host brother who will be on exchange in the United States while I'm with his family.  They live in a city in southwest France and I learned that the school I will go to has around 900 students!

I have an outbound orientation May 23, when I will hopefully find out when I am leaving.  It's also really frustrating because by now most people know that I'm going to be an exchange student, so everyone wants to know when I'm leaving.  But I don't know yet!  I'm hoping it will be timed just right so that I can meet the person our family is going to host and also meet my host brother before he leaves for the US. 

Yes, you read that right:  my family is going to (most likely) host an exchange student while I'm gone!  We are having an interview next week, but as long as that goes okay, we'll be a host family!   I think it's awesome how I am tripling my number of siblings this year.  :)  Of course no one can replace my real sister, though.

Hopefully soon I'll be able to tell everyone when I'm leaving.  Talk to you soon!

This is my exchange blog

Oh man. Introductions are always scary. But I'm going to have to get used to them, because I am hopefully going to Europe next year for ten months! So, welcome to my blog. It's called Dix Mois, which means "Ten Months" in French. From that, you should be able to guess that I want to go to a French speaking country, specifically France, Switzerland, or Belgium (in that order). I don't know for sure yet where I'm going because *gasp* I even haven't sent in my application yet. If you are going to be an exchange student, you will realize how annoying of a problem it is when you tell someone you are going to leave them for a year. "Where are you going that's so great?" they'll ask. "Uh...I don't know..." you'll stutter in response. This is annoying! Mainly because you will want to know, so much, who will be your family and where you will live and what your life will be like for TEN WHOLE MONTHS!

I will be gone for my junior year of high school. What would possess me to leave behind my family and friends, my school and my entire country for TEN WHOLE MONTHS, you ask? I'll let you know when I figure it out. No really, it's hard to define my reasons for wanting to go. Trust me on this though, there are many reasons. Good ones, too! But you probably don't care about any of those. Oh well.

I'll keep you posted (punny!) on my progress applying, waiting, and finally someday, being in some country in Europe. But for now, bye!