64 days until I take off for Italy! Well. actually I will be taking off for Zurich, Switzerland. And then to Rome! I'm actually a really big geek and pumped that I actually will be in Switzerland for under 2 hours, but I will be there!
A lot of little trinket news today. If you pay any attention to the blogs on the AFS USA website, you know that links to American kids going anywhere are located on the right side. So, this girl just got hers posted yesterday. The reason there are both arrows pointing to my name and the girl Katie below me, is that she's my best exchange friend (BEF) who will be staying in Trecase in the Naples area.
If you have any interest in looking at the blogs from past, present, and future AFSers, you can find them here.
In other news, I have been refreshing my gmail feed every 10 minutes to see whether or not my host family information has come in yet. I've also been spending a lot of time on Google Maps, playing "Where Could I Possibly Be Living" Roulette with the street view man. I just drop him anywhere within the district of Palermo and take a little virtual stroll around town. Some make me super excited, some are more ".....oh God." Time will only tell where I will be. I'm sure I will be happy and 120% pumped to go. I just want to know!!
If you are curious about culture, want to make new friends, or really really like the post office, then the website PostCrossing is for you! PostCrossing is an international website that you can sign up for and receive/send postcards around the world. I just sent my first to Taiwan yesterday!
I'm actually getting a steady stream of views now, and I know I haven't done this yet. So, if for any reason at all, questions about exchange, yada yada yada, my email is karaloveswhales@gmail.com. Feel free to email me questions about the exchange so far! (:
To close out today, I found a poem on another exchange blog from a Norwegian girl coming to the USA for a year. It's written in English, and it really sums up what being an exchange student is like. Read this, no matter if you just stumbled upon this blog, are a peer of mine, or are an exchange student yourself.
I am an exchange student.
How do you know what is a dream if you never accomplished one?
How do you know what is an adventure if you never took part in one?
How do you know what is anguish if you never said goodbye to your family and friends with your eyes full of tears?
How do you know what is being desperate, if you never arrived in a place alone and could not understand a word of what everyone else was saying?
How do you know what is diversity if you never lived under the same roof with people from all over the world?
How do you know what is tolerance, if you never had to get used to something different even if you didn’t like it?
How do you know what is autonomy, if you never had the chance to decide something by yourself?
How do you know what it means to grow up, if you never stopped being a child to start a new course? How do you know what is to be helpless, if you never wanted to hug someone and had a computer screen to prevent you from doing it?
How do you know what is distance, if you never, looking at a map, said “ I am so far away”?
How do you know what is a language, if you never had to learn one to make friends?
How do you know what is patriotism, if you never shouted “ I love my country” holding a flag in your hands?
How do you know what is the true reality, if you never had the chance to see a lot of them to make one? How do you know what is an opportunity, if you never caught one.
How do you know what is pride, if you never experienced it for yourself at realizing how much you have accomplished?
How do you know what is to seize the day, if you never saw the time running so fast.
How do you know what is a friend, if the circumstances never showed you the true ones?
How do you know what is a family, if you never had one that supported you unconditionally?
How do you know what are borders, if you never crossed yours , to see what there was on the other side?
How do you know what is imagination, if you never thought about the moment when you would go back home?
How do you know the world, if you have never been an exchange student?
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