Poems of Home...

As an AFS exchange student, there are a ton of little orientation/preparation materials I have to read/go through before departing in August. (as mentioned before). Yesterday I was reading though my Culture Trek material, and there was an activity that I had to complete which I really enjoyed. It was to complete poems for your home town with a word corresponding to each letter (a word that described the town). I thought it was a really cool way to describe somewhat of what my life is like here at home, and therefore I decided to post the poems here in my blog.
          
R-ural
A-nimals
N-eighborly
D-evine
O-ptions
L-ively
P-eople
H-ome

V-arious
E-nergy
R-ural
M-ountains
O-pen
N-eighborly
T-ime

A-moung
M-yself
E-xciting
R-ural
I-deas
C-itys
A-mazing

I then decided to make one for Switzerland, and what it was like to me now before I leave. Maybe I can make another one while I'm there, and when I come home and see how their different?? (If you havent noticed I've been doing a lot of these preparation activities lately :)

S-chool
W-ide
I-nteresting
T-rains
Z-anie
E-scape
R-eal
L-anguages
A-dventure
N-ew
D-ifferent


Thanks :)

Time

x

       I just returned from vacation with my family on Cape Cod, and I must say that is going to be one of the things I miss the most next year is seeing my grandparent who live down there. Its hard when I think about all the things I will miss next year, like the Tumbridge fair in September, or my cousins new baby due in December. However I expected these, and understood I would miss them when I applied. The strange thing is all the little moments I never though about. Such as earlier this week when I went to the movies with a friend. During the previews we both found a movie we wanted to go see and were talking about it a lot until the preview ended and we realized the movie didn't come out until October. At first this didn't mean anything, but then all of a sudden we realized I wouldn't be there to go see it with them here in America. While normally my friends and I will have a quick laugh about  it, it's these things I am finding are the hardest when I sit down and think about the things I am going to miss next year.  

       

       With less then a month until I embark on one of the biggest adventures of my life I've noticed my life here at home has become more hectic than ever. Its like the past ten months of consideration, applications, fundraising, and waiting has all added up to this last month which is now just flying by. Its strange because while I can't wait to leave and start my life abroad, I also wish there was a little more time for me to spend here with friends and family enjoying the summer. Unfortunately, unlike many of friends believe, my last month in little old Randolph is not just a time for going to work at the flats, hangout with friends, getting my license, and enjoying summer like many of my peers. (okay well maybe some of it is :) ). However, in less than four weeks I have to finish a check list of things so long it beats any Christmas list I ever had. From thousands of appointments to get the final check, to learning as much German as I can, I never realized how much goes into the preparation part of being an exchange student. Ever day I get more and more information in the mail from AFS. From simple things like where to go when I get off the plane, to application info for my Visa there is so many little forms and details that go in to simply entering the country in august. I have piles and piles of information to read, and learn about what its like to be an exchange student, safety, rules, expectations, etc. etc. etc. However, while all of this work can sometimes feel out of control, in the end I can see how much it is helping me to prepare, and just gets me more excited to go!! 

        So much has happened in just the past month since school got out that its hard to remember what I have, and have not told others. Therefore I thought I would simply put all I know about my exchange here. While I may seem pretty calm about all this information I must tell you that when I first found out even the most basic information such as when my plane would leave NYC, I was jumping up and down with a huge smile on my face for days!! (which is nothing compared to how I was when I learned about my host family!!)

       It was the last day of classes at school when I learned I had a host family. I was walking to the car with a friend, and my mom told me she had some news....right away I screamed "I got a host family!?!?!?!" and ran and hugged my mom. Unfortunately, this is all I knew as the actual information about my family was sent to my e-mail at home. The ten minute car ride home lasted hours and I couldn't wait to know who I would be living with. Would I have siblings? Would they be my age? Where in Switzerland would I live? In the city? The questions flowed endlessly through my mind. When I finally did get home and checked my e-mail I couldn't believe it. I had two new e-mails that caught my eye....one from AFS with a subject declaring I had a host family, and one from someone I did not know with a subject simply reading "Hello!!". In the end I read the e-mail from my host mother before I read the e-mail with information on my family, however that e-mail was plenty. I have a host mom named Ester, a host father named Martin (who is my host siblings step-father), two host sisters (Rahel-15, and Carla-17, who just returned from an AFS exchange year in Homer, Alaska), and a host brother (Lukas-19 who is currently serving his military service.) I will live in Ormalingen, Switzerland, which is a small town (only 1900 people!) however only a 20 minute train ride from Basel (a city on the France, Germany, Switzerland border). I will attend school a few towns over at the Gymnasium Liestal which is a large school (1500 kids!!) much bigger than my own (only 350). Since learning all this information I have talked with my host family many times, and have realized that I couldn't have asked for a better family. In AFS exchanges, the host families pick their host students, and I am so thankful that they chose me. My parents couldn't be happier and have talked with my host parents a number of times. Knowing I have such a good family to stay with in Switzerland has been a huge relief.    


      In my journey abroad I am only allowed to bring one suitcase, and one carry-on (How will I ever figure out what to pack?!?!?) I will leave the Burlington, Vermont airport around 11:15am on Wednesday August 18th, and fly to JFK where I will land at about 12:40pm. There I will join other AFS'ers from the USA headed to Switzerland for a pre-departure orientation. On the 19th at 5:30pm I (along with all the other USA-AFS exchange kids headed to Switzerland) will leave the USA, before landing in Zurich  Switzerland at 7:30am. Our host families will then pick us up at the airport and take us home. The following Monday I will start Language camp, which will last for my first four weeks in Switzerland, before I start regular school in Liestal September 20th. Two weeks after arriving in Switzerland I will attend another orientation with about 25 other AFS kids from around the world. I then have about 2 other orientations throughout the year before a final one just before I return to the USA. It is strange to think that I will need an orientation to prepare me for the USA, that I will get Culture shock when I return home, however I guess when you think about it, it makes sense. :)  


      There is so much to do before I leave, and while I am very nervous about the idea of leaving my family, friends, and life behind, I also wish August 18th would come faster. I can't wait to meet my host family, and many of my fellow AFS friends). I can't wait to see Switzerland, and have been counting down the days. :) That's all for now, but I promise to write again as I go through the famous horrors of figuring out what to pack!! :)   I'm off to work!!

Here or There??

Hello!!

I'm Sarah, and I am currently 15 years old. I live in the tiny tiny town of Randolph Vermont, and am a sophomore at Randolph Union High School. I am a typical small town girl: one brother and two parents, manager of the varsity baseball team, a member of our school's drama program, and Interact club, job at a seasonal restaurant, etc. However in seventh grade, I was lucky enough to travel to Japan for two weeks on an exchange with my school's sister school, in Shizukuishi, Japan (She-zoo-kwee-she). It was an experience I will never forget as it taught me so much about the world around me, along with myself. This two week experience is what made me want to become an exchange student as I entered High School. I wanted to once again feel the nerves and excitement as I am surrounded by a culture which is not my own. Be immersed in a country where I don't know the language, yet find myself feeling at home, and comfortable among new friends anyways. In Japan I stretched my boundaries and experienced strange foods, new religions, confusing toilets, and a whole culture I had never known or understood before. Coming back, I knew there was no better way to experience a culture than to live with in it. I knew instantly as the plane landed I wanted to travel abroad again, and with my parents support, the process began at the beginning of my sophomore year.

Last September I began talking with my school counselor about the many options which I could chose from in order to become an exchange student. After much consideration and discussion I settled on AFS (American Field Services), a program my mom traveled through as a Junior in High School, and one my entire family felt very comfortable working with.  After applying in December, I was accepted into the program within days. However I then waited anxiously for months to learn which country I would be accepted into. Knowing I wanted to go somewhere in Europe did not help me much in the process of choosing a country. France, Italy, Spain, Norway, Denmark, all sounded amazing to me. With the help of my parents however, I finally narrowed down the search, and chose countries I found I knew very little about with Switzerland, and the Netherlands, at the top of my list. Finally, on March 19th, the night of my schools Drama performance, I learned I was accepted to Switzerland!! What an amazing feeling I must tell you. I don't think I have ever been that excited/happy/full of joy before in my life. Like Christmas morning times 10000. Knowing your going to be an exchange student, yet not knowing which culture you will be experience is definitely not fun, as you have nothing to do but wait.  However as I waited, I spent most of my time daydreaming, and telling people about my exciting plans. 

 

 Right away, as people learned I wanted to travel abroad I got the question "Why?". Why would you want to leave everything behind, and spend a year in a place where you don't know anyone let alone the language? To this I simply laughed and answered "Why wouldn't I??"  However then I would simply answer with the reasons I had had when I first applied, which have now turned into my goals. As an exchange student next year, I hope to gain a better knowledge of both myself, and the world around me. I hope to expand my views on what day-to-day life is, and how people live. I hope to take in both the differences between my own culture and that of the Swiss, as well as the similarities. I hope to become more independent, outgoing, and confident in myself, and who I am as a person. Last but not least, I hope to make new life long friends, and learn a new language. Along with these goals, when I return, I hope to share my experiences with my community through presentations, word of mouth, my blog, etc. I hope to encourage others to learn about the world through exchange, and get people interested in learning about other cultures. Finally, I hope to continue working with AFS and volunteering my time to help students like myself understand what they are about to undergo as an Exchange student, like the many volunteers I have already met are doing for me. However, after the initial shock of learning I was going to be leaving Randolph for 11 months (WOW!!) I found that everyone seemed very excited for me, and wanted to know all about where I was going to be living, what life would be like, when I leave, etc. etc. etc. :)

While my adventure as an exchange student is about to begin, getting here was not an easy snap of the fingers. Other than the challenging, stressful task of the application and paper work, my biggest obstacle with which to over come, was the high tuition costs of the program. I managed to knock off a huge chunk of this tuition through the Global Leaders Merit Scholarship, along with a donation from my Local AFS chapter, a discount for my mother being a former AFS participant, and savings I had stored up while working last summer. However, even with all this, I still needed to fund raise $6,000. After considering a number of different fund raisers, I decided to send out letters explaining who I was, why I chose to travel abroad, and explaining the difficult situation I was in, in hope of receiving donations from my friends and family, along with local businesses around my town. Along with these letters I planned to continue my job at Onion Flats, (amazing restaurant!!), and put all money earned into my tuition. After spending hours drafting, and redrafting the letters, I started hearing back within a week of mailing. What made these donations, were the letters that flowed in with them saying how proud everyone was of me, and how nicely written my letter had been. It felt great to know that all my hard work had not gone to waist, and that I was being supported by everyone. Many people talked about how they were not surprised I was doing this as I have always loved traveling, and others wanted to know if I would take them along! I even started receiving donations from people I barely knew, who supported exchange in my community, and wanted to help me in any way they could. I know many of these people also plan to follow my exchange journey through this blog, which helps me to share my experiences and things I learn, with my community back home. (One of the reasons I wanted to become an exchange student through AFS!!!).  With all of this support and interest in what I was doing, the money I received to pay off the tuition was like icing on the cake to make me feel great about my decision to travel abroad.

 

With less then two months to go before I leave for my journey abroad there is still so much to do in my little town of Randolph. While I am so excited to leave, and start my new life in Switzerland, I can't hide the huge nerves forming in my stomach. Even so, I don't think it has really hit me yet that I've done it, I am an exchange students, and I will be spending next year Switzerland....WOW!!!  If you have any questions for me concerning anything about my exchange year/preparation, please feel free to ask (I myself have asked thousands the past few months!).

That's all for now! :)