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.