The final stretch

So, it’s finally my spring break! WOOHOO!!!!! And of course spring break is the last break until summer break, besides Memorial Day weekend. So with the final stretch of the school year in sight, and my countdown at less than 10 weeks until summer break, I thought I’d write a blog. 

So with the theme that the school year is almost over I’ll start by saying: it’s almost like it was JUST October, like I JUST turned in my application. Exchange is so fast approaching I don’t even have time for it to sink in that in four months I’ll be boarding a plane to a foreign country. In fact, I’ll probably board my plane still without the actual realization that in only hours, I’ll be in a different country for a year.

In literally less than 10 weeks I’ll be saying goodbye to probably half the people I hang out with at school. On the last day of school there will be a countdown among many until the bell to the final sixth period of the entire school year. For me though, sure I’ll be counting down, but I don’t think I’ll be watching the clock as avidly as I normally do for the same reasons. If I am watching the clock, it’s not so I can scream and yell summer and cheer with the others, it’s so I can make sure there’s still plenty of time for me to talk with the people I hang out with before I leave the continent for a year.

Today at the end of first period, my French teacher yelled “bonne vacance!” to us, which obviously means, happy vacation, or somewhere along those lines. So, she said that, and then I was realized that in less than 10 weeks it will be the real deal, and it’ll be summer. And I won't be back. And although the sun, and no homework, and no grades sound so ideal, especially at this point in the year, it’s also kind of scary. And exciting, but that’s kind of besides the point. 

Approximately 125 days until Denmark!!!!

Vi ses! 

I HAVE A HOST CITY!!!!

I have never in my life been more grateful or excited that I get to participate in such an incredible organization. The feeling that I get from seeing an email in my inbox from someone I don’t know, and realizing that they are from Denmark, makes me happier beyond ways that words can describe.

So today when I got an email from my Danish Rotary counselor (because every RYE kid has a counselor), and she told me that I’m going to Sønderborg, Denmark on my exchange, I couldn't have been any happier after having thought about host cities and families 24/7 for the past week. Literally. I don’t quite know my host family yet, however I am being matched with one and as soon as I have one, I will get their contact information and start communicating with them! 

I looked up Sønderborg on google images earlier and honestly think it is one of the most beautiful cities ever. I am so excited to live there. 

Outbound orientation day three

Hej, commence outbound orientation day three!

The third day of outbound orientation was honestly one of the best and most memorable days of my life. I think I will probably always remember it solely for the people who were involved in it.

The day started with breakfast (which I did not attend because however much food is served, there will never be enough to get me out of bed). I got down to the room that orientation was held in at 8:00 because that’s when the third day started. (Technically though, it was only the second day of orientation, the third day I was in Canada. That’s why it’s day three on my blog). We had our first morning lectures on more of the things that we will need to expect and remember on our exchange, and a lot of what to do about travel before and on our exchange. There was a little bit said on communication also.

We broke for lunch at around 12:00 at which point I wandered around the room we were in and “mingled” with more of the exchange students I had talked to the night before. We talked about exchange for a little bit until we were called back for more orientation type activities, and then later had a coffee break before “graduation.”

At graduation we were presented with our “regalia” is what is was called with our pins that will go on our blue blazer, with a white t-shirt representing rotary youth exchange, our business cards, and a little bit more. We also had to introduce ourselves in our language which was really awesome to hear people presenting themselves in languages from all around the world.

“Hej, jeg hedder Grace, jeg er en Rotary udveksling student fra America og jeg vil vaere hosted I Danmark.” Again, quite possible that there are some grammatical errors, however that is what I presented myself as in Danish!

Outbound orientation ended at about 3:30, and since our Rotary district, district 5020, is an international district meaning there is students from both U.S and Canada, some of had to part and say our goodbyes, for we lives in different countries. The rest of the U.S students walked to the ferry terminal and all waited together for the ferry to leave. We stood around in a circle and all talked about exchange…everything. Everything related to exchange was said, and it was really truly awesome to be a part of this adventurous group of students who are all flying across the world in less than 6 months. It’s kind of fun to think about, how we just looked like regular high school sophomores and juniors in this large circle taking up space in a ferry terminal, however really, we were all together a group of teenagers whose thoughts stretch as large as the world itself, and who are about to pack up everything we know and leave it behind for a year.

Once the ferry boarded we all found each other again, and all sat together on the ferry where we exchanged our business cards with our host countries and phone numbers on it, and ate ice-cream while once again talking. Once the rebound exchange students found us, we went up to the very top deck of the ferry and took a couple crazy group pictures in the pouring down rain which was a lot more fun than it sounds. We went back downstairs again after that, and later found ourselves back on the top deck in the covered area.

Why? Because we were going to “dance like exchange students.” And my gosh, that was probably one of the most crazy fun things…ever. One of the rebound students had a phone that hooked up to a portable stereo, and so we started playing music from that. American music? Of course not. We played Brazilian music, and we played Camaro amerelo over and over and over again. All of the rebound students were dancing with things they all picked up from exchange in their past years, and all of the outbound students just kind of the did there own thing. I ended making my way to the middle of the cramped circle under the cramped covered space and there again, I was just doing my own thing. When we got of the ferry though, it was said that I apparently “danced like Austin Powers, and that he wants his 70’s mojo back.” Haha!

We were on the top of deck…dancing like Austin Powers…until the boat finally docked, and when it did, it was one of the most shocking things ever. Here we were, a group of exchange students who had said maybe two words or less to each other Friday afternoon, and by Sunday afternoon were a family with a bond so unique it takes an actual exchange student themselves to understand it. We stood around all hugging each other and wishing each other good luck on our exchanges before we head off to unload the ferry, and it occurred to me, “what do you mean goodbye, good luck on your exchange. We just officially met each other Friday and now were saying goodbye? We won’t see each other again until rebound weekend AFTER our exchange? What?”

I still think that now, almost a week after outbound orientation and I still don’t get how we won’t be in the district group again until after our exchange year. The people I met this past weekend are absolutely more than just friends; they are by far an exchange family that NOBODY how hard they try will ever understand us better than ourselves. Of course though when I say that, I’m not trying to put my school friends down that I have here, you guys rock too :-P

And an update on the host family and host city: I still don’t know quite yet who they are and I found out that even though my Danish Rotary club has my guarantee forms, they have to fill out all the information on it, and then mail it back to United States and my sponsor Rotary Club. And when I say mail, I mean mail, not email. So depending on how they mail it here and when it gets here, I guess either way,  in perspective I will have a host family and host city no matter how long I wait to find out, and it will be an amazing moment whether I find out in two days or two weeks or two months. Although I don’t think it’s going to take two months to find out.

Every time I write a blog post, or go to a Rotary event, or hang out with exchange students, I remember again all the reasons why I wanted to be a foreign exchange student and it never fails to excite me even more.

Vi ses! 

I HAVE A DISTRICT

THE TITLE SAYS IT ALL. I HAVE A DISTRICT!!!!

I will be in Rotary District 1461 in the southern part of Denmark! District 1461 (or southern Denmark in general) is near the border of Germany, a ways from the Netherlands, and the especially cool part of district 1461 is that it even includes parts of Lithuania!!!

I found out that I am going to district 1461 tonight while I was standing on the ferry, just having come back from outbound orientation. I didn't have data on my phone all weekend since I was international (in Canada), and so I didn't have a chance to check my email all weekend. When my phone finally got around to hooking itself back up to my home network that I’m on, I looked down at my notifications and saw 48 new emails. I expected them all to be from Facebook with things that my friends did over the weekend, but when I looked down…I had absolutely the best surprise ever. Besides finding out my country almost a month early, best surprise ever.

I looked through my emails really fast and saw the chairman of my district introducing himself to me, saying “I am your Danish ADC” (Assistant District Chairman), and with my mind running on hyper speed, I nearly started hyperventilating. I wasn't supposed to find out basically ANY information on where I’m going until MAY.

So now you all and I have a little bit more insight into where I’m going in Denmark, and YAYYY, I have communication with Danish Rotary!!!!!!

Vi ses,

Oh and P.S I'll have more blogs on outbound orientation later this week.

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!)