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.
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| Here's a picture of the parliament all lit up! |
Wonderful post!
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