Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Pre-Departure Orientation
I suppose I should write about the PDO I had to go to back in May before I completely forget what even happened. It wasn't terribly boring, but it wasn't too exciting either. There were only six or seven students that were going to be outbound this year, and there were a couple of adults who were holding it there as well. One of the supervisors was actually the same woman that interviewed me before I got accepted to the AFS program. The interview was pretty quick; I just had to answer a few questions that were supposed to help them place me.
Anyways, when I first got to Arrowhead High School (where it was held), no one else had arrived yet so I just kind of talked with the supervisors by the doors. Once we got to the library, most of the students had already arrived through a different entrance, so we had basically been standing there for no reason at all. It started off kind of slow and no one seemed to want to talk, but as the day wore on, it got better. We had to introduce who we were, where we were from, and what country we were going to. Seeing as I've waited so long to type this, I can't exactly remember what country everyone was going to, and who it was that was going there. From what I can recall, Karen was going to Germany; Lucas was going to France; another boy was headed to Japan; one girl was going to Hungary; another girl was going to Spain; and I can't for the life of me remember where the last girl was headed. We did a couple of corny exercises that were supposed to give us an idea of what the culture shock was going to be like. We had to write a few things with our left hand (which I was hilariously terrible at), and it was supposed to be the whole thing where it feels so awkward at first, but after a while you would get used to it until you don't even see much of a difference. After that, we drew pictures of what we expected to gain from foreign exchange, and then what we were worried about. I think I did something lame and generic like Perspective and Not Knowing the Language. In between eating bagels and drinking lemonade, we wrote a letter to ourselves that our parents are supposed to send us when we're halfway through our exchange just to see how things have changed, and how we had felt at that time -- this was probably my favorite exercise. Lastly, we did a quiz on how well we knew the AFS program and its history; we were supposed to read a booklet they had sent us a couple of months ago, and I ended up reading it the night before the orientation at 11:00 at night -- hooray for procrastination!
With around an hour left, our parents showed up as well as three people who had returned from foreign exchange in the last couple of years. One had gone to France, another to Argentina, and Mikhail -- who went to my school -- had gone to Austria. Luckily, the parents left for a while and talked with one of the supervisors, because the returnees had to start doing these cheesy role plays to try and show us how to handle potentially dangerous situations. It was pretty hilarious. One was about not letting someone of the opposite sex lead you off into 'the sand dunes' alone. I assume you can see where that one went. The rest was mostly about drinking and hitchhiking; those of us who were headed to Europe were basically told that we can expect a lot of alcohol during our foreign exchanges. I had jokingly told my mom prior to this that I was sure to come back as a complete wine-o. We started making jokes about all the drugs we were going to encounter, and so some of us started asking really stupid questions about what we should do. Someone asked what would happen if our host parents turned out to be drug dealers, and the mattress they gave us was stuffed with pot. I couldn't stop laughing at that one.
After their exuberant theatrical skills were displayed, everyone sat down to ask questions about how the returnees' foreign exchange experiences had gone. After that, it was pretty much over. With all things said and done, it took around 3 hours. It was worth it in the end, and it made me look forward to this experience that much more. I wish I could freeze time, though, because I don't want it to end and it hasn't even begun yet. I'm not even sure if that makes sense, but maybe it will in a year.
Tot ziens en Hou van Altijd.
Anyways, when I first got to Arrowhead High School (where it was held), no one else had arrived yet so I just kind of talked with the supervisors by the doors. Once we got to the library, most of the students had already arrived through a different entrance, so we had basically been standing there for no reason at all. It started off kind of slow and no one seemed to want to talk, but as the day wore on, it got better. We had to introduce who we were, where we were from, and what country we were going to. Seeing as I've waited so long to type this, I can't exactly remember what country everyone was going to, and who it was that was going there. From what I can recall, Karen was going to Germany; Lucas was going to France; another boy was headed to Japan; one girl was going to Hungary; another girl was going to Spain; and I can't for the life of me remember where the last girl was headed. We did a couple of corny exercises that were supposed to give us an idea of what the culture shock was going to be like. We had to write a few things with our left hand (which I was hilariously terrible at), and it was supposed to be the whole thing where it feels so awkward at first, but after a while you would get used to it until you don't even see much of a difference. After that, we drew pictures of what we expected to gain from foreign exchange, and then what we were worried about. I think I did something lame and generic like Perspective and Not Knowing the Language. In between eating bagels and drinking lemonade, we wrote a letter to ourselves that our parents are supposed to send us when we're halfway through our exchange just to see how things have changed, and how we had felt at that time -- this was probably my favorite exercise. Lastly, we did a quiz on how well we knew the AFS program and its history; we were supposed to read a booklet they had sent us a couple of months ago, and I ended up reading it the night before the orientation at 11:00 at night -- hooray for procrastination!
With around an hour left, our parents showed up as well as three people who had returned from foreign exchange in the last couple of years. One had gone to France, another to Argentina, and Mikhail -- who went to my school -- had gone to Austria. Luckily, the parents left for a while and talked with one of the supervisors, because the returnees had to start doing these cheesy role plays to try and show us how to handle potentially dangerous situations. It was pretty hilarious. One was about not letting someone of the opposite sex lead you off into 'the sand dunes' alone. I assume you can see where that one went. The rest was mostly about drinking and hitchhiking; those of us who were headed to Europe were basically told that we can expect a lot of alcohol during our foreign exchanges. I had jokingly told my mom prior to this that I was sure to come back as a complete wine-o. We started making jokes about all the drugs we were going to encounter, and so some of us started asking really stupid questions about what we should do. Someone asked what would happen if our host parents turned out to be drug dealers, and the mattress they gave us was stuffed with pot. I couldn't stop laughing at that one.
After their exuberant theatrical skills were displayed, everyone sat down to ask questions about how the returnees' foreign exchange experiences had gone. After that, it was pretty much over. With all things said and done, it took around 3 hours. It was worth it in the end, and it made me look forward to this experience that much more. I wish I could freeze time, though, because I don't want it to end and it hasn't even begun yet. I'm not even sure if that makes sense, but maybe it will in a year.
Tot ziens en Hou van Altijd.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Dall'America a Italia
So I finally booked my flight from Milwaukee to New York a few days ago. It was kind of a weird feeling to be booking a one-way ticket, but it was still exciting.
The plan is to catch my flight in Milwaukee that leaves at 6:55 am (let's add lack of sleep to the insanity that is sure to ensue) and arrives in New York at 10:00 am on the 3rd of September. This should give me plenty of time to grab my bags and find the AFS volunteers that are supposed to meet us at LaGuardia airport. At some point between then and 2:00, we'll have to make our way to the hotel that we'll be staying at for the gateway orientation in NYC. The gateway orientation is overnight, so on September 4th we'll catch a flight from New York to Zurich, Switzerland. We won't get there until the next day because the flight is over 12 hours long! From there, we have to catch the connecting flight that will fly us into Rome, Italy. If I remember correctly, we'll have a 2-day orientation in Rome, and then it is on to our host families. I'm not sure if I'll have to catch a train or maybe even another flight since Crevoladossola is over 6 hours from Rome. By this point, it's likely I'll be completely deaf from my ears popping so much, haha.
From what past AFSers have said, the gateway orientation in NY is really boring, but Rome should be a blast. It will be so surreal to meet everyone that has been talking about going to Italy for months now. I'm still freaking out about the Italian, probably because I hardly know anything. Between now and September I'll have to find the motivation to get through my Berlitz tapes AND read all the materials I bought. Should be fun...heh, heh.
Au revoir et Aimer Toujours.
The plan is to catch my flight in Milwaukee that leaves at 6:55 am (let's add lack of sleep to the insanity that is sure to ensue) and arrives in New York at 10:00 am on the 3rd of September. This should give me plenty of time to grab my bags and find the AFS volunteers that are supposed to meet us at LaGuardia airport. At some point between then and 2:00, we'll have to make our way to the hotel that we'll be staying at for the gateway orientation in NYC. The gateway orientation is overnight, so on September 4th we'll catch a flight from New York to Zurich, Switzerland. We won't get there until the next day because the flight is over 12 hours long! From there, we have to catch the connecting flight that will fly us into Rome, Italy. If I remember correctly, we'll have a 2-day orientation in Rome, and then it is on to our host families. I'm not sure if I'll have to catch a train or maybe even another flight since Crevoladossola is over 6 hours from Rome. By this point, it's likely I'll be completely deaf from my ears popping so much, haha.
From what past AFSers have said, the gateway orientation in NY is really boring, but Rome should be a blast. It will be so surreal to meet everyone that has been talking about going to Italy for months now. I'm still freaking out about the Italian, probably because I hardly know anything. Between now and September I'll have to find the motivation to get through my Berlitz tapes AND read all the materials I bought. Should be fun...heh, heh.
Au revoir et Aimer Toujours.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Love Giorgia
I had some issues with the e-mail I was given to contact my family, but luckily Giorgia sent me this e-mail. It's so perfect -- I can't wait to hear from her again!
Dear Elyse
we are waiting you with great happiness and I am very happy because I will have a sister that teach me English. I wrote late this letter because I was busy with the work I'm doing at my school: I am a helper-animator and I care children at the centre of my summer school. I 'm very fun, time passes me very quickly and in the evening I'm very tired. I have spoken of your arrival to my friends and also to my teacher and I am anxious to meet you.
I leave you my e-mail so we can keep in contact and know better.
Love Giorgia
Dear Elyse
we are waiting you with great happiness and I am very happy because I will have a sister that teach me English. I wrote late this letter because I was busy with the work I'm doing at my school: I am a helper-animator and I care children at the centre of my summer school. I 'm very fun, time passes me very quickly and in the evening I'm very tired. I have spoken of your arrival to my friends and also to my teacher and I am anxious to meet you.
I leave you my e-mail so we can keep in contact and know better.
Love Giorgia
La Mia Famiglia Italiana
The day has finally come where I can actually say I have a host family, and I know where I'm going in Italy. As soon as I saw the e-mail from AFS, I pretty much wanted to jump up and down. Needless to say, I didn't jump up and down; I didn't think it would go over well in a public cafe. Ah, well. I was jumping up and down on the inside, haha.
The city I will be living in is Crevoladossola, which is a small town about 30 km from the Swiss border. It has a population of around 4,600, but it's not too far away from the larger city of Domodossola, where I will likely end up going to school. It is located in the Piedmont region in the province of Verbania. I think it's about an hour and a half from Milano, and 130 km n/e of Torino. Since I'll be in the mountains, the winter will be looong and the summer will be relatively mild. The skiing should be pretty crazy!
My host padre is a fireman and my host madre is a physiotherapist. I will have a younger sister named Giorgia who will be turning 12 in August. I'll be sharing a room with her while I'm there -- this should be fun since I've always been the youngest and only have brothers. Apparently, they speak English (that's a relief!), German and Spanish in addition to Italian, and Giorgia plays the guitar and the flute. She also plays sports like basketball and volleyball. They sound pretty active as a family, so at least I won't be bored. Still, how can you be bored in such a beautiful country?
Hopefully I will find out more once I start e-mailing them on a regular basis. They seem pretty busy, so I might not hear from them as often as I might hope. I'll probably add other random details about the AFS pre-departure meetings and other items like that in the meantime.
Auf Wiedersehen und liebt immer.
The city I will be living in is Crevoladossola, which is a small town about 30 km from the Swiss border. It has a population of around 4,600, but it's not too far away from the larger city of Domodossola, where I will likely end up going to school. It is located in the Piedmont region in the province of Verbania. I think it's about an hour and a half from Milano, and 130 km n/e of Torino. Since I'll be in the mountains, the winter will be looong and the summer will be relatively mild. The skiing should be pretty crazy!
My host padre is a fireman and my host madre is a physiotherapist. I will have a younger sister named Giorgia who will be turning 12 in August. I'll be sharing a room with her while I'm there -- this should be fun since I've always been the youngest and only have brothers. Apparently, they speak English (that's a relief!), German and Spanish in addition to Italian, and Giorgia plays the guitar and the flute. She also plays sports like basketball and volleyball. They sound pretty active as a family, so at least I won't be bored. Still, how can you be bored in such a beautiful country?
Hopefully I will find out more once I start e-mailing them on a regular basis. They seem pretty busy, so I might not hear from them as often as I might hope. I'll probably add other random details about the AFS pre-departure meetings and other items like that in the meantime.
Auf Wiedersehen und liebt immer.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Le Fotografie
Near Crevoladossola
Crevoladossola
Domodossola
Not Too Far Away
Somewhere in Crevoladossola
10 Days in Cabo
I guess I didn't really mention "Why Italy?" in my last post. Put simply, it was a no-brainer for me. I've always wanted to visit, always wanted to learn the language, my parents lived there for a few years and my brother was born there. I'm also half Italian by my dad's side. Can you tell? My other choices were Portugal, Spain or Switzerland.
Anyways, on to Mexico. We left on the 29th, and I won't go into too much detail because I don't know who would want to read about that. In short we spent 10 days in Cabo San Lucas, and I actually got the e-mail from AFS with my host family right in the middle of our vacation. I was paying for an hour on the computer in a cafe, so I didn't have much time to look it up. Details to come in my next post.
The main highlight of the vacation was deep sea fishing with my brothers and my dad. We got up at six in the morning and spent around 7-8 hours out in the ocean. Right away we caught a striped marlin that weighed around 140 lbs, and my brothers named him Dontrelle. I was assigned photographer for that part of the trip; the pictures are on my facebook if you are bored enough to look at them. After around 3 hours of absolutely nothing, we came across another marlin but lost it. In the same area there were tons of dolphins, so that was fun to see. Then came Clarence the 3rd [this is the phenomenal name I came up with for him]. Somehow I got roped into reeling him in. Turns out it was a Jack Caravelle, which isn't a marlin by any means, but it is by far the biggest fish I've ever caught. Again, pictures are on the facebook. On our way in my dad caught a bonita tuna, so our amigo Martin filleted it right there, and we ate if for dinner later. Haha -- now this sounds so gross, but it was really good!
Aside from the fishing, it was mostly just laying out in the sun and swimming in the ocean. I read three different books (dork much?) and managed to get a sufficient sunburn. All things considered, it was a good vacation.
Adiós y Adora Siempre.
Anyways, on to Mexico. We left on the 29th, and I won't go into too much detail because I don't know who would want to read about that. In short we spent 10 days in Cabo San Lucas, and I actually got the e-mail from AFS with my host family right in the middle of our vacation. I was paying for an hour on the computer in a cafe, so I didn't have much time to look it up. Details to come in my next post.
The main highlight of the vacation was deep sea fishing with my brothers and my dad. We got up at six in the morning and spent around 7-8 hours out in the ocean. Right away we caught a striped marlin that weighed around 140 lbs, and my brothers named him Dontrelle. I was assigned photographer for that part of the trip; the pictures are on my facebook if you are bored enough to look at them. After around 3 hours of absolutely nothing, we came across another marlin but lost it. In the same area there were tons of dolphins, so that was fun to see. Then came Clarence the 3rd [this is the phenomenal name I came up with for him]. Somehow I got roped into reeling him in. Turns out it was a Jack Caravelle, which isn't a marlin by any means, but it is by far the biggest fish I've ever caught. Again, pictures are on the facebook. On our way in my dad caught a bonita tuna, so our amigo Martin filleted it right there, and we ate if for dinner later. Haha -- now this sounds so gross, but it was really good!
Aside from the fishing, it was mostly just laying out in the sun and swimming in the ocean. I read three different books (dork much?) and managed to get a sufficient sunburn. All things considered, it was a good vacation.
Adiós y Adora Siempre.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
The Beginning
Finally, I've found the motivation to start this blog. And yet, I still have no idea where to start....?
I first thought about studying abroad only a few months ago; October, I think. I had talked Catherine into joining International Club, and one of the meetings was a presentation from AFS. At first, I jokingly brought it up with my mom. As expected, she flipped out. It wasn't until a month or two later -- at which point I couldn't stop thinking about it -- I brought up the subject again. This time I was dead serious; I'd finally decided I'd wanted this, or at least I thought so.
And so the panic ensued. Surprisingly enough, it was mine. For a while I couldn't grasp the idea of leaving my family for 10 months, diving head first into a language I didn't speak, and leaving Pewaukee behind for good. This was probably the reason I almost missed the application deadline, and that wasn't until the end of March! That's really how long I had to think about this before finally deciding it was so beyond worth it.
Since I was such a lame brain, I waited until Spring Break to start on the application, and just as luck would have it, I needed transcripts from school. I also needed to write a two page letter about myself (yuck!) and compile some pictures, and I had to fill out a bajillion papers. Then there was this whole issue with my doctor because he was too busy to fill out my papers, then he was on vacation, and then he called in sick! To convey just how close I cut it, we had to gun it from Kinko's to the FedEx place, and we barely sent it out by the 5:00 pick-up on March 30th -- it was due on the 31st! We even had to fax the medical papers a day late because there was such a hold up.
For some reason I was accepted a day or two later, but it is supposed to take them around a month to process it. I guess I was lucky that I didn't have to wait around worrying about my acceptance to the Italia program. Now all I had to wait for was a host family. Great.
Three months later, here I am with a host family. This post is getting atrociously long, so I'll start a new post about my family, and one small one about my trip to Mexico.
Ciao é Amare Sempre.
I first thought about studying abroad only a few months ago; October, I think. I had talked Catherine into joining International Club, and one of the meetings was a presentation from AFS. At first, I jokingly brought it up with my mom. As expected, she flipped out. It wasn't until a month or two later -- at which point I couldn't stop thinking about it -- I brought up the subject again. This time I was dead serious; I'd finally decided I'd wanted this, or at least I thought so.
And so the panic ensued. Surprisingly enough, it was mine. For a while I couldn't grasp the idea of leaving my family for 10 months, diving head first into a language I didn't speak, and leaving Pewaukee behind for good. This was probably the reason I almost missed the application deadline, and that wasn't until the end of March! That's really how long I had to think about this before finally deciding it was so beyond worth it.
Since I was such a lame brain, I waited until Spring Break to start on the application, and just as luck would have it, I needed transcripts from school. I also needed to write a two page letter about myself (yuck!) and compile some pictures, and I had to fill out a bajillion papers. Then there was this whole issue with my doctor because he was too busy to fill out my papers, then he was on vacation, and then he called in sick! To convey just how close I cut it, we had to gun it from Kinko's to the FedEx place, and we barely sent it out by the 5:00 pick-up on March 30th -- it was due on the 31st! We even had to fax the medical papers a day late because there was such a hold up.
For some reason I was accepted a day or two later, but it is supposed to take them around a month to process it. I guess I was lucky that I didn't have to wait around worrying about my acceptance to the Italia program. Now all I had to wait for was a host family. Great.
Three months later, here I am with a host family. This post is getting atrociously long, so I'll start a new post about my family, and one small one about my trip to Mexico.
Ciao é Amare Sempre.
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