Back to the beginning

My last two posts have been sort of about what Rotary is, and specifically the day I found out what country I was going to, however I really want to describe the beginning, everything it took to get to this point. So that’s my blog for today, the lead up to now!

My club level interview was on Tuesday October 8^th, and I still remember exactly the night. I have this song by Avicii called Hey Brother, which reminds me of exchange every time I listen to it. I was listening to that song the night of interviews, and I remember thinking in the car on the way that "this is it." Everything else about exchange is determined tonight, right now in interviews. This thing that has turned into a dream bigger than life itself is determined tonight. I knew I wouldn't actually find out if I was going on an exchange at all until around Saturday October 12^th (again, this may vary for each club or district).

I found out on Friday October 11^th, three days after my interview, one day early! For those who know me, you know that I can get very fired up, or very hyper when I'm really nervous or excited. For those that don’t, there was a brief description of my personality. I was hanging out with my friend that night, but of course since it was Friday I had to go to school. I was secretly hoping the whole week that I would find out a couple days early. On Friday at school, I was walking around and acting like it was a normal day, keeping my composure on the outside. On the inside, though, my head was like alphabet soup - everything scattered around. One minute I would have my mind on classes, or jokes I was making with friends, and the next I would just think of the word “Rotary” and my stomach would flip.

After school was over my friend walked home with me, and as soon as we got home I checked my cellphone for any missed calls. Of course, there was loads of false hope running through my head, and no missed calls. I tried to put it out of my mind for a couple minutes, but of course I couldn't. I ran into my kitchen, got the portable land line, and brought it back into my bedroom while running and jumping onto my bed. My friend yelled at me “GRACE. You are going to find out TOMORROW. Not today, TOMORROW.” Of course though, again, I wasn't going to accept that fact. I started clicking through caller ID, and got all the way through July 2012. Don’t ask why I looked that far, my mind was running on excitement, not common sense. I gave up realizing that there was only one missed call for the day, and it was a telemarketer…

And then the next couple minutes happened like a home movie on fast forward. I threw the land line halfway across my bed, and sat for a couple of minutes with the nervousness beginning to die down in my stomach. I finally picked up my cellphone and tried to bring down the notifications bar in the top of my screen. All of a sudden my phone froze… and then it started vibrating. And all of a sudden the green “accept call” was in the bottom left and the red “deny call” was in the bottom right. My eyes darted to the contact screen, and sure enough, it was, *drum roll please* my Rotary Youth Exchange officer. I literally screamed and yelled out, “IT'S MY YOUTH EXCHANGE OFFICER.” My friend, looking at me wildly, screamed out like it’s all common sense, “WELL ANSWER IT THEN!” I anxiously picked up my phone and answered the call. I ran down the stairs, my legs shaking like Jell-O, and from there I found out I was going on an exchange. By the time the call was over, I literally couldn't stand still. As much as I tried, I couldn't stand still, and I wasn't even making any movements. I was actually shaking that much; I was so nervous, and excited.

And to this day, I sometimes still can’t believe I’m going on an exchange. One minute everything will finally feel so real, unlike the first couple months. I’ll be thinking “can I just go to Denmark now?” Then I realize I’ll be there in 8 months, and I tell myself “oh, 8 months will fly by so fast, soon you will be Denmark.” Then after that mental self-check that I've done so much in the past 2 weeks, I pause and think “wait…I’m going to be Denmark in 8 months?” As the realization AGAIN sets in that I’m going on an exchange.

On a more recent note, I was invited to a party this past weekend with a bunch of exchange students!!! I met a girl from Sweden, and a girl from Indonesia, and I got to hang out with some of the current and previous exchange students who I've met before through my Rotary club, and through another one in our district! Overall there was students from Sweden, Indonesia, Denmark, Austria, and one who was an outbound to Hungary a couple years ago!

I also learned my first couple phrases in Danish!

• Jeg er en rotary udveksling student fra America = I am a Rotary Exchange student from America
• Unskyld = sorry (which I learned right after I accidentally spilled sparkling cider…whoops!) 
• Hvad er = what is 
• Hvordan = how
• Hvor er = where is 

Big Changes

Last weekend (December 7^th) I had my district interviews for Rotary. They were hosted in the wonderful city of Victoria BC, Canada, and honestly, the interviews left me wishing time would change by rewinding instead of fast forwarding. That weekend was by far one of my most memorable weekends I’ve had in a long time. Saturday morning I woke up quite early for the weekend, at 7:30. A teenager waking up at the same time she does for school, on the weekend? Talk about hard. Nevertheless, it was definitely worth it.

At 9:00 AM, I checked in at the Rotary desk, and waited until I needed to be back down in the main lobby at around 10:20 AM. There was a small orientation that lasted for about an hour in the east ballroom of the hotel, and after that the interviews got started. We were all divided up into groups since every kid in the entire district was being interviewed before 4:00 PM that same day. I was put into group 3, and so I had another orientation, mostly summarizing the Youth Exchange Program as a whole, the differences between primaries and alternate candidates, and prices for your exchange year. We broke for lunch, and soon after that I walked up to the second floor of the hotel and waited excitedly for my interview. It certainly wasn’t as I had expected it to be, however I suppose I did better in my interview than I originally thought I did.

Though many of the exchange students were heading home that same day right after interviews were over, my family was staying one more night. I had the chance to walk around the Inner Harbor with my mom that night and see the Parliament building lit up in Christmas lights, which was really fun because I haven’t seen Victoria for almost five years. I ate some really good paella and a pretty good salmon burger, took some pretty legit pictures, and on Sunday my family caught the 10:30 AM ferry home. Again, I had to wake up at what I believe is an hour nobody should know exists. The ferry arrived in Port Angeles, Washington around 12:00 PM, and I was only about an hour into my drive back to my hometown when I got a really incredible call.

Since I was alternate candidate, I knew that I wasn’t supposed to find out where I was going for another month. However, I did know that some of the primary candidates might find out that same day. So when I saw my phone screen light up with a call, and I saw my area code with a number I’d never seen before, my heart kind of fell into my stomach. I did a mental assessment. “Okay, it’s not someone from my job; it’s not a telemarketer because it’s not an 800 number… I suppose I should answer this call.” Lesson for the ages: always answer calls from numbers you don’t know. I slowly picked up my phone and cautiously said “hello?” The voice on the other end of my phone answered by saying that it was the country officer for the Scandinavian region and the Netherlands. I could have fallen out of my seat. And I had a seatbelt on. I was literally that excited. Still cautious though to not get my hopes up too much, I continued to listen. I was told that this weekend I had been bumped from an alternate candidate to a primary candidate, and had been taken in by another especially generous Rotary club in my district, the Bremerton Rotary Club. I was also told in that same call that I was going to a country in Scandinavia. The exact country still had to be determined, but I would find out later that same week. And I did.

Two minutes before I got home Monday night, I missed a call from my country officer. I immediately called him back, again mentally freaking out. I answered the phone, and because I was practically yelling into the phone the day before, he answers with “are we recovered from yesterday’s excitement?” Again I practically shout into the phone with a smile across my face as big as…well, Denmark. (Maybe a little bit bigger than Denmark, because Denmark is actually very small.) He says next “how would you like to go to Denmark on an exchange?” With my reaction, I’m surprised that I didn’t shatter both of our phones. So, talk about big changes. Being bumped from an alternate candidate to a primary candidate, and finding out that I’m going to Denmark all in two days? I don’t think I could have ever been any happier. 

Farvel igen :-)

Here's a picture of the parliament all lit up! 

Baby Steps

Hi! I suppose to start out my first blog entry, I might need to introduce myself…and tell the purpose of why I’m writing this blog. My name is Grace and this blog is to tell of all my experiences as a Rotary Youth Exchange student for the 2014-2015 school year (my junior year.) I am currently a sophomore in Washington state, and I am going to be exchanging to Denmark! Yay!

Now that we have that small introduction underway, I shall tell you what the Rotary organization is, and give you a little background and insight into the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. Rotary is a community service or non-profit organization that is based all over the world. They have been exchanging with countries through their foreign exchange program for over 73 years. Each year, they exchange approximately 8,000 kids between 80 countries and this year my name is fortunate enough to be among those 8,000 others. 

Rotary’s foreign exchange program consists of both a short term exchange program (STEP), and a long term exchange program (LTEP). I'll be participating in the LTEP. The long term exchange program is for 11 months, and is basically exactly what you think of when you hear the word “foreign exchange.” It’s where you leave your home country to exchange with another country, which is thus called your host country.

Now that you have background into what Rotary Youth Exchange is, onward with my personal blog experiences! I originally found an interest in Rotary’s exchange program in May 2013 when a Rotary officer came in to talk to my French class.  For years before that, I had never seen myself as brave enough to even think about exchange, however when the presentation was given something ignited my excitement. I listened to the presentation (almost less attentively as when I listen in class- if I do say so myself), however at the very end of the class period I took the first baby step to making this newfound dream of mine a reality, and picked up the 3 flyers with information on the program along with the 30 some others in my class. Little did I know, I would actually carry out my interest in this and get to the most exciting point that I’m at now. Skipping ahead, I turned in my application on September 28th at a Q&A forum. As I turned in my small, one page, club level application to the club coordinator, I realized this was it. Three months after a small presentation in my French class of 30 some kids I had gone full circle and took the second baby step to achieving what was yet to be a new most exciting future. After I turned in my club level application, I was scheduled for a club level interview time slot. That interview was what would either launch me farther into the last steps of this long process, or it could eliminate me from the process for good. Talk about suspense. So when my local Rotary officer called my on a Friday night (October 9th, 2013) and told me that both candidates ("both" being me and the other applicant) were accepted, I ran up the stairs screaming, managed to bump into a few walls on my way, and shook some of the photo frames hanging up. For both candidates to be sent out of our district, however, there needed to be both an alternate and a primary candidate. I was selected as the alternate candidate. Don’t get me wrong though, being selected as a candidate at all had me bouncing into walls. Literally.

I suppose now I should give you a brief description of the difference between an alternate candidate and a primary candidate in my district. A primary candidate will find out their host country sooner than the alternate candidate, usually around December 20^th, sometimes a little bit before that. An alternate candidate will find out their country around January 8^th, mid-January if not then, or as I’ve also been told, sometime from mid-February to late February around outbound orientation. Basically, that is one of the only differences between the two.

Disclaimer: Being an alternate candidate may vary depending on your club or district. The chances of exchanging as an alternate, and when you find out your country as an alternate may be different for each and every person. Exchange is a unique experience for everyone and no one exchange will ever be the same, especially for alternate candidates. 

"I am willing to go anywhere in the world," is what I wrote on my country sheet as an alternate candidate. So talk about unique. 


Countdown to Denmark: 8 months!!

Farvel! (Goodbye in Danish!)