Wednesday, March 30, 2011

(generic first post)

whoadude

Two years ago, I can honestly say I would have laughed in your face if you said I would be blogging.  And having that blog be about spending a year abroad?  Yeah, I probably would have marked you as crazy.

And yet, here I am.  For anyone that just stumbled onto this and don't know anything about me, I'm 17 (well, 18 in less than a month), and I'm a senior in high school as well as a sophomore in college.  I'm graduating with both my high school diploma as well as my Associates in Arts this spring, and then sometime in July or August I'll be off to Belgium for a gap year.

It's still hard for me to comprehend.  In less than five months I'll be in a country I've never been in before, surrounded by a language I have little competence in.  It's just crazy.  I remember when I got the email saying I had passed the district interviews and Belgium was the country I was assigned to.  I was so excited, and I felt like April, the month of the last orientation session, was forever and a day away.

Now that last orientation session is only a few days away, and yet, the departure date still seems as far off as ever.  But, still as excited and nervous as ever.  I think I'll be getting the name of my host family, information on what to pack, and my departure date.  I found out the name of the town that my host club is based in the Sunday before spring break because someone from rotary called me for completely unrelated reasons.  (The city's name is Hoogstraten; isn't that so quintessentially Dutch?)  Oh man, I hope I figure out who my first host family is on Saturday.  I don't think I can stand the suspense anymore!

I think the exchange just needs to happen now; it's already consuming my life as is.  Instead of doing homework or practicing trumpet or cleaning cymbals, I'm sitting online reading blogs from past and current exchangees, studying Dutch, or browsing reddit and telling myself I'll study Dutch after I read just one more article.  :p  But luckily, I met someone on reddit who said they'd help me with my Dutch over skype, so that should get me motivated (unless my other reddit buddy keeps up their campaign of distracting me from my work :p)

Well.  I can't really think of anything else to say right now, probably because I haven't gotten a full night of sleep recently (mainly because I keep reading those damn blogs!), and I still have quite a bit of homework to start on.

4 days till I get more information!!

Tot ziens!