A couple big things have happened on the CBYX front since I last
posted.
Most notably, I received my host family!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They live in a small town called Ahaus, about 10 kilometers (look
at me, already so European) away from the Dutch border. It's a couple with no
kids, and I am really excited to be an only child for a year. They have a super
cute dog named Cher and they both seem really nice and friendly. We have been
emailing in German mostly, and it is so exciting to see how well we can
communicate. It is making me a little less nervous about the whole language
thing.
My school has no uniform, so it’s pretty much everything I was
hoping for. I will get to bike to school every day, and it's only about a mile
and a half away from my house. Ahaus is only 39,000 people (as opposed to
Baltimore’s 600,000). I wanted a smaller town, so I guess I got my wish!
I am also very excited to say that, as of now, I am the only
exchange student in my town! Most people I talk to didn’t want this, but I
really think it will be the best thing for me. I’m hoping that it will force me
to make friends with my German classmates instead of the other exchange
students. And I also hoping it makes me a little cooler in the eyes of my
fellow Ahausians J
Having my host family has made me even more excited to go. There
is no part of me that wants to stay, I am just so pumped to be going. I spend
so much time looking at other blogs and people's instagrams. I even followed
AFS on snapchat :) If I could leave tomorrow I would. People keep telling me
that these next few months (73 days to be exact, but who’s counting?) will go
by fast, but so far I am finding that that’s not really the case. Now that
school has ended, exchange has been the only thing that I am thinking about. It’s making me a little crazy, but in a really good way.
I also recently had my AFS Pre Departure Orientation. This is an
event put on by my regional AFS volunteers. It is attended by all of the
students who are going abroad from the region, so it is a great oppourtunity to
meet fellow “outbounds” as we’re called. There were 3 other CBYXers there, as
well as 2 kids going to Malaysia, one going to Switzerland, one going to Turkey
and one going to Argentina. It was run by a recent CBYX alum, so it was
actually really helpful. It made me feel better to hear all of the information from
someone who has had a really similar experience. All the alums there had great
tips and advice that I know I’m going to use during my exchange.
The final new thing- yesterday, AFS sent me my travel itinerary.
At 5:20pm on September 9, I will be leaving America for 10 months. I could not
be more excited. I had known my departure date for a while, but having the confirmation
made my leaving even more real.
I know I say that a lot, but that is really how it feels. When you
start, exchange is just a concept, something that you could possibly do. Once
you get accepted, it feels a bit like a movie, something that you’ve read about
other people doing, but it still doesn’t feel quite like your future. It’s hard
to form clear expectations, so it’s hard to actually imagine yourself doing it.
With each new piece of information, the
orientation, then your host family, then your departure date, it starts to feel
more concrete. I will be going here, at this time. I will be attending this
school, living in that house. With each new specific you get, you start to form
an idea in your head. Not a vague concept of “Germany”, but an actual image of
what exchange will be like in a specific town at a specific school with
specific people. I know almost everything I can about my exchange. I have my
departure date, my family, my school. I have done research on research, and it
still doesn’t feel completely real. It’s a weird feeling, knowing you’re doing
something, but being unable to wrap your brain around it. But I guess that’s kind of the point
