Up until now.....

So this is the post where I get all my readers up to speed about this blog and everything that has happened to me in the last six months. It all started this summer when I went to Camp Ryla in Crookston, Minnesota. At camp they had some current rotary exchange students and some past exchangers speak to the whole camp about their experiences. I have always wanted to be a foreign exchange student, but I had never considered taking a year off in between high school and college. So I got home from camp and I looked up everything there was to know about Rotary Youth Exchange. The main place I got most of my information was Cultures-shocked.org. It was a very helpful forum full of exchangers. So I said to myself, if this isn't just some whim you are going through and in a month you still want to do this, talk to your rotary club. So a month came and went, and I still really wanted to do it. That is how my whole process got started.
The next thing I had to go through was the intense application process. The application is about 20 pages long and you need six copies of almost everything. You have to set up several doctors appointments and everything has to be copied and signed in blue ink. It is intense! So once everything was signed I had my club interview. Funny thing about it was, the day that I had my interview I had to get my picture taken for the local paper in my play costume. Imagine the surprise of the local Rotarians when I show up to my interview in my full Titania costume. After my local club accepted my they sent me to District Interviews. The interviews took place in Duluth, Minnesota about four hours from where I live. Ironically enough, they took place on the same day as my play performance which had affected my first interview. Well this interview was a little more stressful than the first, but it actually turned out to be tons of fun! So two weeks later I got my email that I was officially accepted as an Outbounder 2011-2012. Then the waiting game began. I waited for about two months to hear where I would be going, until last Tuesday when I got the call. To once again get in my way, I missed the first call because I was holding tryouts for the spring play I am directing! In the end though I got back to the guy who called and he told me I was going to Finland. I screamed for about ten minutes I was so excited. It was my first choice, but I couldn't care less I am so excited to be going.
So, that should bring everyone up to speed on how my process is going. I will have more updates soon as I will be talking about my first winter orientation!