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!