Crunch Time!

Author: Liz Posted under:
Only four more days til I leave for New York City! Like many of the other exchange students I'm totally freaking out on the inside. Right now its crunch time, I have 4 days to do everything before I leave. That's not a lot of time at all!! Right now these are my priorities//agenda:
-Spending time with my family and friends
-Go to a rave tonight with all my friends = )
-Go to a big family dinner that's a going away/birthday for my dad and little sister/ welcome to college for my sister and welcome back to college for my brother dinner. (September is kinda a big month for my family)
-Pack my mountain of clothes into one yes one suitcase 
-Get host family gifts
-Call all the grandparents, aunts and uncles
-Get an ID card
-Have my school sign and fill out AFS papers and get my transcripts

So the first day of school was on Tuesday, Sept. 2nd. Normally I would be starting my senior year of high school that day. But since I'm going on this exchange my principle didn't want me to come to school. He told me I would be a very big distraction in class and it would be pointless coming for a few days. He even said that he erased my schedule. Little did I know that my name was on class roster, and all my friends were for once in my classes. They told me that when my name got called they would say the classic line "she doesn't even go here!" So while my friends were at school I was pulling out clothes, cleaning my room, organizing my stuff, picking up my visa, laundry.... aka not very fun stuff. 

At least its a four day weekend in  my town so I get to hang with all my friends that I'm not going to see for well... a very long time! Tonight there's this wicked cool rave that my friend Roman Perry dj's which is called Audiophile. We wear crazy clothes like neon fish nets, wicked short skirts or shorts, neon tank and sports bra. And your body always some how gets covered in glow stick goo. The music is wicked awesome, cool lights, overall its a great time! I'm so glad that its happening before I leave!! = )

Its weird to think that I'm doing and seeing things for the last time or for a year. I feel like i look at things a little different. When ever I go places I try to remember them, take it all in, and record it in my mind. These last few days have been very bitter sweet. So many mixed emotions.... Until next time,

Arrivederci!


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About Me

Author: Liz Posted under:
Ciao!



As you might have been able to tell, my name is Liz and I am going Italy! Im 17 and I am going to be a senior in high school. I leave in about 10 days for a little town called Castel Rozzone, about 45minutes outside of Milan. It crazy to think that I will be leaving my little town of Duxbury, Massachusetts and flying across the Atlantic and living with a new family, in a new town, going to a new school, making new friends... its going to be an amazing adventure.



I have known about the organization of AFS for a few years. My freshman year of high school my mom made me join a club at school and I remember looking at the long list of choices and choosing the first one, which was AFS. I ended up loving it, hosting kids my age from places like Germany, Thiland, Greenland, Norway, Indonesia... After many talks with my parents I figuared out that maybe I could go abroad with AFS. I remember looking at the many, many options and narrowed it down to 5 countries. Australia, New Zeland, Italy, Argentina, and Spain. After weighing all my options with the countries, and trying to figuare out which one would work best. I finally picked Italy as my first choice, New Zeland as my second and Australia as my third. With my pre-application I was constantly changing my choices thank goodness for white out!



After a lot of paperwork and time I got an email from my advisor saying "Congratz you have been accepted to Italy!...." I was so excited, finally I knew I was going somewhere. To me there are three parts of becoming an exchange student:

1. Getting accepted to a country

2. Getting a host family

3. Getting a visa and passport

After being accepted to Italy I had to do a lot more waiting to get a host family. The entire time your waiting people will say "oh ive heard your going to Italy, where are you stay?" And you have to sadly tell them "Im not sure yet, I dont have a host family yet..." It makes you feel like a puppy waiting for a nice family to take you to there home. Fortunetly I found out in about 4 or so weeks that I had a family that live near Bergamo, Northern Italy.



I was sooo excited that I would be living in the North, I dont mind the cold weather, being from Boston and my town is near the mountains and Ive always wanted to ski. I got a sweet email from my host family saying welcome, and that they were very excited to have me as a part of their family. I have a mom, a dad, an 18 year old brother named Alessandro and a 14 year old sister named Ottavia. My host brother had spent a year in Michigan with AFS so his english is great and knows how AFS works. He also plays lacrosse like I do. My host sister is the same age as my sister, and she love to dance and travel. My parents both seem very kind, sweet, fun, and hard working people. They love to go to the mountains in the winter to ski and to Venice on their boat to see friends. I am so excited that I have a great family, I couldnt be happier with everything!



The last part in waiting is getting your visa and passort. Luckily I already had my passport so I got to skip a few steps. But getting a visa, is the hardest and most annoying thing I have ever had to deal with. There is so much paper work, phone calls, and signings you think to yourself "is this ever going to end??" I had to call the Boston Consulate for about a month and no call back from them. Thank goodness for AFS they really helped me get an appointment and get all my paperwork. Today I picked up my visa, and the biggest rush of relief came with it. I thought to myself, finally I did it, I have everything I need now. =)



For the next 10 days I will be organizing and dividing up my clothes between my sisters who are going off to college and my sister who is starting high school. We are all the same size so splitting up our clothes wont be easy. My summer job as a junior counslor at a kids camp is over for the summer and school starts in few days. All I want to do is spend time with my friends and family and go to the beach while Im still here. Until next time...



Arrivederci!!

Liz
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