1st Host Family

Well it seems like everything just keeps getting better and better! I've been talking to my 1st host family, and they are great! I have a mom, and two brothers. One is older, and one is my age. Unfortunately the one my age is leaving for Argentina 3 days after I arrive, and I have been talking to him the most. But he told me for those 3 days before he leaves, he is going to show me all of Berlin, and the day that he leaves we are going to Frankfurt for him to catch his flight. Hopefully we go early! Other good things, I received my guarantee forms! Also, I finally finished my essay! I wrote 17 pages total, and I was glad that it was done. I also made my business cards to give to Rotarians and I bought my pins. They are pretty boring, but I'm passing out the wrist things as well. There really isn't too much more exciting things to talk about. It has been extremely nice actually being able to tell people where I am going! And I also don't have to explain them where it is at. The question that I get now is,"What side are you on?" I really don't mind that question though. At least I can tell people are interested too. It is going to be really weird going to such a big city! I feel like I'm in the smallest city in America, and then I am going to the biggest city in Germany.

There is exactly 7 more weeks until I leave! I will post more when I find out more. The central states conference in Grand Rapids is in two weeks! I am sooo excited for that.

Berlin!

I finally got an email about where I am going! I received an email from the travel agent saying that they had received a bunch of stuff, and they listed it, and one of the things was my guarantee forms, received 3 days ago!! So I emailed the correspondent for Germany, and sure enough she had received my guarantee forms. She sent me the name of the club and my district! I was so confused because I plugged the name of my club into google and nothing was popping up. So I went to the District 1940 website and sure enough, it was a club in Berlin!!!! My club name is Berlin-Schloss-Köpenick. It is located in Southeast Berlin. For now that is all that I know. My forms were sent to Canada, so I still won't have a contact for about a week. Hopefully they contact me first. I really want to know my family and my school. Hopefully I receive the information on the trips soon too. But I already kind of have an idea about that. I am so relieved that I have finally received some information! Now I can finally calm down and just be content with the information that I have this far. It will be weird going from what feels like the smallest town in America to one of the biggest in Europe. But it will be a great experience.

This is one of the oldest areas in Berlin. This building specifically is what my club is named after. It is a castle was built in 1558, it is one of the oldest landmarks in Berlin because most of it was destroyed in World War II.

Nothing's Changed!

It's getting really irritating now that I still know nothing! I've been trying not to let it bother me, and it hasn't really, but now it is. Everyday I hear the same questions, "Where are you going?", "When are you leaving?" and "When are you gonna find out?" It's really irritating because I just don't know. I figured I would know in March, but then I found out it wouldn't be until May. Now I just don't know when. And I'm sort of getting nervous. I'm worried that I will get stuck with a Rotary Club that doesn't care about me at all because if they really cared wouldn't they of made contact with me by now? I hope it is just the district, but now I can't say it is a specific district because I have heard of somebody going to every single district. I also hope that I am not going to be switching countries, I've been learning way too much about Germany, and Rosetta Stone is nearing its 6 month return date! I actually had a dream last night that I was going to Thailand instead of Germany. I don't know why I would be dreaming about Thailand, especially because no exchange students are allowed to go to Thailand next year, but I did. I'm pretty sure that I am going crazy not knowing! Tomorrow is the last day of school, and I was not able to provide my counselour with any information. Hopefully he will be willing to work with me this summer, but he isn't exactly the type of guy that would do this. It would be a miracle if I found out tomorrow morning right before school! The kids at school have been the people annoying me the most about where I am going, and it would be nice to finally announce it tomorrow. Also, my sister's grad party is Saturday, and there will be so many family members annoying me about it, asking the same irritating questions! I honestly don't think this would annoy me as much if I wasn't associated with people, because they are the ones that are making this difficult. I am trying not to think about but they keep bringing it up. But there isn't really anything I can do.

Haha anyway, instead of making pins I bought 168 of those stupid shape wristband thingys. I specifically got U.S. ones, and they are shaped like the U.S. and some of the major states. Hopefully those go over well, and hopefully no one else steals my idea. I will probably have to buy more though.

Summer Farwell Conference

Well, this weekend I went to another Rotary Conference in Fingal, Canada. It was a lot better than the last one because I already knew all the outbounds, plus all the inbounds were there too! There were 3 German Inbounds there, and two Rotex, so Emily(girl going to Germany) and I received a lot of help. We also had a lot of class stuff, but it definitely was a lot more fun stuff compared to last time. We didn't have to do a mandatory talent show, which was a relief, so fortunately only real talented people preformed. After that, we had a bonfire, which was a lot of fun. One of the only real downsides to this weekend was the fact that our parents had to come on Sunday. People definitely aren't as enjoyable around their parents. But hopefully they learned a lot this weekend. I know that I actually got a lot out of it. I am a lot more excited after this weekend to leave for Germany.

I still don't know anything about where I'm going. My dad talked to my outbound coordinator and she said that she will try to find something out, but my country correspondent is apparently the most difficult. Also, the other girl going to Germany found out, and she is 20 minutes away from Jannek, one of the inbounds. That is really exciting, but it is a huge bummer when they are getting all excited, and I'm just sitting there wishing I knew at least my district. But once again, what can you do? Eventually I will find out. I still check my email 24-7 and I check the mail everyday hoping that something has arrived. But still nothing. At least I'm not going to Thailand, because they just found out this weekend that they can't even go there because of the war in Bangkok. So they are going to get completely new countries this week. So I can at least be thankful for that.

I will make sure to update my blog when I find out something new, hopefully that is soon!

Article

This is from about a week ago, but me and Safire were in the paper for selling t-shirts for Chile earthquake relief. We were hoping that we would be able to sell a lot of shirts from the article, but things didn't go as well as planned. But we're going to Canada this weekend, and hopefully we can sell the remaining t-shirts!
http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20104290309
Hopefully it works!

Still waiting...

I know that I blogged like a week ago, but I figure I would just blog again. So far I've heard of 11 out of 14 districts, but I'm trying not to think about. I came to the realization that it won't be as exciting when I finally find out. It will be extremely helpful to know, but for now, it is more fun researching all of Germany instead of just my specific region of Germany. I will admit, I check my email literally every second, and I think I should cut back. I will try to just check it in the morning and then just not check it all day!! I don't think this will work very well though.

Aside from that, I got to go to Canada this past weekend to sell shirts at the district assembly for district 6330. This weekend we raised about $300. But the assembly in general was pretty cool. I got to learn a lot about Rotary projects and Interact clubs, which we will hopefully be starting up one really soon! There was only one other exchange student there, and he was an inbound from Brazil. It was pretty fun talking to him.

I'm still procrastinating writing my paper. It's not that it's tough. It is literally the fact that I don't know have to start it out! I can do everything else but write the introduction, but it annoys me so bad that I can't even write! I believe I will try really hard this weekend to do it.

I will keep you updated when I find out some information. I still can't wait, but I need to be patient!

Gute Nacht!

UGGGG!!!!

Seriously! I feel like I am the last person to find out where I am going. There are 14 districts in Germany, and I've heard of someone going to basically all of them. I really hope that I find out soon. With my luck, I will get my guarantee forms before I even get some form of contact from my YEO. But I will just have to be patient.

Aside from that, me and Safire, another Exchange student, have been selling shirts the help out Elizabeth Wallace in Chile. So far it has been going well. We have been selling alright at our schools, and there has been some community interest. We were supposed to have an article publish, I even talked to a guy at The Times Herald, who said this is front page stuff, but they haven't called me back in over a week. I've been trying to contact Elizabeth Wallace to email him, but every time I talk to her it doesn't work very well. Also, we will probably sell a lot this weekend because we are going Canada for the district conference. I really hope we can send as much money as possible to Chile.

This is a picture of the shirt!!! I don't care for the lime green, but the design is sweet!


Basically, nothing else exciting has been going on. I'm reading an exchange book, I can't even think of the name. I am supposed be writing a 12 page essay about Germany, and so far all I have is the title. I accidentally uninstalled Rosetta Stone, but that is under control now. I've also started going to Rotary meetings, tomorrow will be my second one. Other than that nothing exciting has been going on. I don't have another Exchange Conference until May 29th, which couldn't take any longer!! Even though I must wait forever for stuff to happen, I sill love Rotary and the opportunity it is providing. I can't wait for my exchange to finally come! Four more months!!!!!! UGG!

I really don't have anything else to say
Tschuss!!!