5 Things You Hear When You're A Future Exchange Student

Ciao amici!

We have T-minus 6 days until summer vacation, but more like 5 since the last day we all just sit in the gym and no one takes attendance so no one shows up. Whatevs.

This idea for a blog post came to me on the walk home today while blasting the Italian National Anthem (Inno Nazzionale Italiano is what it's titled on my phone). Whenever people here make me sad/mad/frustrated, I just think about Italy and get myself pumped. But today, I thought "what are the dumbest things future exchange students hear from other people before they leave"? And here's what I came up with.

1. "Are you excited?" It's really not to give a sarcastic answer to this, but it actually is a hard question to answer. I'm not really excited. More like anxious. It's such a big concept to grasp and it seems like such a long time away, I can't really say whether or not I'm honestly excited. But I am very anxious. I'm waiting for it to hit me 2 weeks or so before my departure, when I start freaking out  because it'll hit me out of nowhere.
2. "Where are you going?" This one doesn't seem to be as annoying as the others, but when you are eagerly awaiting for the call/email/announcement that you've been picked by a family in Italy to live with, it gets irritating. 
3. "Are you going to go to school there and stuff?" I'm not really sure why people are beginning to think this is going to be a 10 month vacation or something. Exchange student, thank you very much.
4. "Do you speak Italian?" This one isn't that bad, but I have to explain how Rosetta Stone works immediately after it. So a question turns into a 10 minute demonstration and description of the set up of the program. 
5. "How'd you get it?" Normally I just say I got a scholarship, to shut them up. For those who really want to know, it's called the Speedwell Scholarship. The Scholarship is given to 30 kids in the Susquehanna Valley (the area of Pennsylvania which I live in), and what we had to do was fill out our AFS application and write 4 essays about why we'd be good exchange students and how we'd go about problems abroad, etc. Only 36 wrote in for the scholarship, and 4 didn't accept it. So there are only 2 kids in the whole scholarship program that weren't offered the scholarship at all. If you'd like to know more on the scholarship and live in Lebanon or Lancaster counties, or the Susquehanna Valley, hit me up! (woah chronic teenage girl syndrome).

Well, that's the most that I could come up with so far. I'm sure I will have a plethora of odd questions once I'm in Italy. Ciao for now!

Arrivederci!