Salut! Welcome to my blog.
My name is Wasa, and I'm a 14-year-old student from northern Indiana. As a youth ambassador for the Rotary Youth Exchange program, I'll be keeping this blog to share my experiences throughout my year abroad. Some of you reading this may be beginning this journey with me now, and others of you may be reading this in the future; either way, I'm happy to have you here!
I've decided to post my first blog entry today, because I just found out where I'll be studying abroad! For those of you unfamiliar with the Rotary program, we apply for a year-long exchange without knowing where we'll end up. It's almost always unpredictable, so the country reveal is always a highly-anticipated event. Usually, outbound students find out about their host-countries at their local Rotary Club meetings, but I found out over the phone (I'm the only outbound from my city club–and there weren't any students last year–so I didn't expect this tradition).
Here's a brief timeline of my week:
Monday, January 8th - I found out in the morning that I would most likely be notified of my host-country on Wednesday, during my local Rotary Club meeting. I was excited and nervous (mostly excited), and couldn't help but think about where I would be spending the upcoming year. Out of around 50 countries that Rotary offered for exchange, I had absolutely no clue where I would end up. All I knew was that I wanted to be in a non-English-speaking country (I'd love to visit England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc. but I was determined to learn a new language).
In my Rotary District (6540), I'm one of 12 outbound students. As of Monday, I was the only one left who had yet to find out their host-country. The others had been assigned to Germany, Taiwan, Brazil, Peru, Hungary, Argentina, Italy, Japan, Thailand, Romania, and Mexico, so it was safe to say I wouldn't be placed in any of these countries.
Tuesday, January 9th - I was sitting in my 6th-hour Algebra II class, when I was called down to the office. Confused, I went downstairs, where I was told someone from Rotary was trying to reach me. As I answered the phone, I heard Don (a local Rotarian) tell me he had some good news... I had barely a second to understand what I was about to hear, when he exclaimed, "you're going to France!"
This definitely caught me by surprise, as I wasn't expecting to find out until the next day. Regardless, I was thrilled! I had always wanted to learn French, visit France, and discover life in Europe... Don kept on talking about attending the Wednesday meeting, other details about steps moving forward–but I think I spaced out because I couldn't hear anything he said. All I could think about was this opportunity before me, as I awaited my year abroad in France.
Wednesday, January 10th - That's today. I'm just sitting here on my computer (still trying to navigate Wixsite), indescribably excited about everything ahead of me. As it's my first time blogging, I apologize in advance if my story-telling/recounting of experiences is confusing at times. I'm sure that as I get in the habit of writing (and uploading pictures of course!), I'll eventually find myself getting the hang of this.
Anyway, this is my blog! It has a wide range of purposes:
- updating friends and family back home
- allowing me to keep a record of my experiences
- providing some helpful advice for future exchange students
All in all, I don't know what to expect or how this blog will turn out, but I look forward to finding out! (The picture below is from our last winter conference.)
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