Alright guys, I totally owe you all or anyone who reads this an apology. I've been slacking--but no more!
Let me start by getting you all up to speed:
1. I graciously received a need-based scholarship from the AFS foundation for over 8,000 dollars, which was phenomenal, to say the least! That, rallied together with funds from family and friends helped me get the job done in terms of the main tuition :)
2. Did I ever mention that I'm going to see Olympic events, Ireland, and France this summer for three weeks? Cause that's happening! I'll be leaving on July 19th (we're stopping in New York for a day of fun as well!) and returning on August 10th--I'll make sure to keep anyone or everyone who's reading posted!
3. Still haven't heard anything about where I'll be living in France, or my host family. So I'm antsy as ever.
4. We finally have an appointment for a student VISA!
5. Because this is happening my senior year, I'd like to warn anyone reading this trying to decide whether or not to become a foreign exchange student: beware the stresses of college applications in other countries. It's by far possible, but, still rather nerve racking--and unless you're highly organized, it's also a lot to keep on the calendars and notebooks.
Okay, now that you're with me for the most part, I'll let you know that I'll be posting mainly once a week or so while actually living in Europe, and otherwise I'll be posting maybe twice a week or once every two weeks--it'll all be dependent upon what happens and when things get sorted out!
Right now, I want to keep it short, but that's not going well. It'll be a long one this time, but I want to really talk about friends. Because, for those of you wanting to know how things are going for me so far (family) or those of you looking to become AFSers yourselves, I want you to be aware of how your friend pool can either diminish, or, in extremely unexpected cases, grow.
I had basically one tight friend group this entire year, and once summer came along, I was suddenly not invited to anything else, because I was never coming back! It was the freakiest thing, and kind of off-putting at first, but I guess I'm just a recluse so it didn't hurt too badly. I understood I would probably lose a lot of friends by leaving for my senior year of high school--I had picked my poison and I was fully aware.
The really interesting part was how I gained two totally new totally great friends! One of them, my good friend, is actually trying to get her parents into coming to France for Christmas vacation to see me (her family loves travel, so it isn't all about me, but it's still an overwhelmingly kind gesture I wouldn't have ever once expected). And another friend who's just been incredible in helping me through the less fun part of losing a friend group!
I just want everyone looking into this to know, that going away can sometimes be a gamble with friendships. But, the truth is that the friendships you lose by one extra year away--those are the friendships you would have lost in college as well. It's not like this changed anything, it just speeds up the process. So, if you're seriously thinking about this, be prepared to leave some people behind--and, remember, you're going to make friends in your new home, too! This experience is going to be worth a LOT more than weak friendships which fall apart anyways. Just understand what you're doing first. :)
I'll keep you posted with more--definitely uploading photos once the mother and I go on vacation! Three weeks of Europe? Yeah, I won't miss a moment with the camera!
