The Waiting Room

Whats is it about visa applications that makes you want to rip off your head?
I'm really not sure, but somehow this pile of papers have managed to get me feeling exactly like doing that. I'm still trying to call my travel agent, but she seems to have forgotten how to pick up a phone..

This time of the exchange year feels the same as being in the waiting room; no progress, no knowlegde, and blindly anticipating whether that person around that corner is going to greet you warmly or stick you with a big needle. You just don't know.

Niagara, Erindale, Papers, Oh My!

Oh my! I've been too busy to update lately, with a flurry of ISUs, finals, culminatings, and exam prep...sure signs of summer.



a LOT of stuff has happened in the last...month?
There was our Niagara Falls trip, which was a busload of crazy foregn and canadian kids on a schoolbus th the falls. We started all together, but then split off. Who knew that gift shops would be so fun??
Oh, and not to mention sitting up about all night with the worst sunburn of life. Good thing I'm not going somewhere overly sunny :P



Then there was Erindale weekend, the 23-24 of May. We all crammed in the hall to get our stuff into our rooms, then embarked on an all day mission of presentations. But it was fun of course, because all of us were together again. No words can describe the atmosphere of a room so filled with...happy?...friends? Not a word for these events. All the outbounds got the very attractive Rotary blazers, too. All super-size and super-red. We had some pictures.
We also had a great mission of how-many-exchange-kids-fit-into-a-tree, with many pictures to go along with it.


Once the nightly action was dying down, a few of us sat in the offic-y room, talking about just about every imaginable subject until the early hours of the morning, while finishing last-minute projects for school. The weekend was great, until the parents squashed the mood. After another day of presentations, it wound down with the inbound appreciation, and of course Luis' AMAZING song.
The room swelled with emotion, realizing it was the last time to be officially all together :(

It was after that that my parents shuffled me out of the room into a car to soccer, where I quickly fell asleep



In other exciting news, I GOT MY PAPERS from France! The whole pile of them, mostly in french, now sitting in the computer desk. I haven't ventured into the visa applications though.
I've got 4 host families, who all sound GREAT, a school, a town, my new home.


Ooooh, I could bubble over in excitement, but I'm too busy worrying about the last full week of school, and exams to do. NO MORE UNIFORM FOR A YEAR!!! Sorry, that excites me :P

1720

So a couple of days ago, I got an email welcoming me to France district 1720. Naturally, I am super excited, but at the same time thinking OMG I'm really going far away...
Apparently I hould get some papers in the mail maybe this week or next. Kinda makes me want to check the mail more often :P

I've started talking to a few other Francebound kids, they're soo great. I hope I'll see them all up there.

And to everyone in Europe, we definately need to meet up. Maybe a party..:)

Country Announcements

So after much anticipation from probably everyone, February 22 finally came around.
After driving up to Brampton, and helping set some chairs and flags set up, everyone arrived, excited to find out their home for the next year, and of course excited to see everyone again.
Standing and talking to all the other exchenge kids was good and all, but all I could think about was the country that I would be going to spend the year in. Pretty soon after everyone came and sat down, the Rotarians talked a bit about the program and themselves to the parents, and the insurance guy talked a bit too. Then the first few envelopes were opened.

Now, this wasn't just standing, pulling out a page, and saying a country. This really was a lifechanging moment. (well actually I'm probably just being too dramatic, but hey, it was pretty important!)
Pretty soon, my thoughts were interupted by my name being called out by Norm, to come up to the front for my envelope. All I was thinking was "Omigod, where am I going!". Then, peeking into the edge of the page, I started to see navy blue, white, and red. Where is that? I shakily opened the page, and read it. "Congratulations Megan, The District 7080 Rotary Youth Exchange is very pleased to advise you that your home away from home for one year will be located in FRANCE ..."
France?! I could just feel a swell of excitement as I found my way back to my seat to announce my happiness to Jackie sitting next to me.
Person by person recieved their new home name and took their places again, too. After all of this was done, the group split up, Asia and South Africa in one corner, South American in another, and Europe in yet another.
I found myself talking to Eva and Clarisse from France, Hayley, a rebound from Canada to France, and all of the other Euro exchangers as well.
As much fun I was having talking to everyone, we had to leave because my sister wanted to go home :( Oh well. I'm sure all of us will be getting together soon enough.

Gettin everyone up to date :P

After pages and pages of applications, and interviews, our days as exchange students started in the little town of Bolton.
This is where we started off some amazing friendships, lots of laughs, and of course lots of interviews. We also spent the night at the house of a very nice family, Tom and Lynda. We stayed up pretty late laughing, talking, and listening to music.

The next part of our exchange lives took place up in Haliburton, at WANAKITA!

The perfect definition of this experience, as Avery put it, is international love <3 . It was 4 days of snow shoeing, cross country skiing, quinzhee building (and sleeping!) and living in the cold Canadian winter, but it was also talking to new friends for hours, hanging out in the cabins after lights out, campfires, dance parties and just being together

The days spent at Wanakita were just wonderful, and I definately won't foget anything from there soon. :)

11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Country Day!!

First post on a new blog. It's almost like the first footprint in the snow after a snowstorm, but less cold and sparkly. It is kinda hard to know what to put up on the screen, but all I know is that it's going to have to be pretty amazing, cause this is what is going to keep everyone from my chilly home, my host country and my wonderful exchange friends informed of my exciting life.

Just like probably any other exchange kid, right now I feel a mix of eveything. Happy, sad, nervous, excited...but mostly excited!

Pretty much my only worry at the moment is that what if the country I'm sent too doesn't like me..?

But still. Anywhere is exciting. I've still got a list of countries I really want to go to.
The top ones are:

1.Brazil! It's warm there, it's laid back, and it looks like it's a party all the time over there :) kidding

2.France It just seems like such a cute country, and who wouldn't want to learn french?

3.Austria Apparently it's the better Germany :P and in europe, there's eurotrip!


I'll get you guys up to date later!