The Dreaded Visa

Yea... the visa appointment is just around the corner. I leave today to Houston, TX because that is where the nearest French consulate is at. That means a 6-7 hour drive of nothingness and thinking of all the negative scenarios that can happen with me not getting my visa in time :p. Well I'll update how my July 21st appointment with the frenchies goes.
My official last Rotary gathering is this upcoming Saturday, and I'm looking forward to it because I'll finally get my business cards and some other important things. Business cards are basically cards that have the student's information like email address, number, etc., and they give them out to people they meet. I like to refer to them as trading cards.
On an off note, I got contacts today, and it took me a good on and off hour to take them off... I'll make a better progress soon :))

36 days, i think...   : 3

The Form Is In !

Yes that's right, I have finally received the guarantee form (GF) that will allow me to commence the process of attaining my visa. I thought it would have been a two page thing, but it's more like a 10 page thing. Which is completely fine, since that means I get more information.
I will have a family of four: a mother named Veronique, a father named Patrick, a 20 year old brother named Maxime, and an 18 year old sister named Sophie. Unfortunately I will not spend time with my host sister because she'll be having an amazing year in South Korea. I think I've mentioned this in a previous post. I have been messaging with my host sister, but now since I have my host mother's email, I'll email her in terrible french soon :)). I hope my effort is much appreciated either way.

According to my GF, I will be receiving a monthly allowance of 60 Euros, which isn't too bad considering it's money I did not count on having. Now, about my future school. I will be in premiere, which is also known as 11th grade :/, in the literature (L) path. Now, if I didn't know better, I would be a bit upset about being in a grade with kids two years younger, but I've learned that the students in their final year, terminale, study so so so much that they really don't have time to do much; so I've heard, therefore I'm OK with 11th. Now about L being my career path... honestly I saw it coming since a majority of exchange students going to France get placed in this one out of Science (S) and Economics (ES), but I don't even enjoy English literature, never the less French literature. Not to mention I don't speak French, but I'm also happy with this because students in this field not only focus only on literature, but as well in geography and other languages.

In the end, I'm content with my placement so far. I'm really looking forward in boarding that plane on August 23rd.

:))

Hosting Club

Hi there. News about my future home is coming in... somewhat fast, so that's always a plus. I still have not recieved my guarantee form, which basically shows where I'll be staying, host familiy info, school, etc etc, and I need this form to get my visa! I'm a bit worried about the visa process because I hear it's a real pain to go through the process :p, oh well, I suppose a study visa will look nice in my passport :)). Since the past time I've posted, I recieved the name of the rotary club that will be sponsoring me, and it will be Rotary Club d'Elbeuf sur Seine. I guess I could say I'm excited to go to France just about now, but it's alright, I can wait.

flag from the club

Onto other news, this past wednesday I went to go see Los Enanitos Verded with my sister :DD. They were really great! So many of m friends are getting ready to  go to college and I'm still "attempting" to get some French in my brain. I'll see how that goes.

It's About Toiime!

The long awaiting news for the question has found an answer. The question was, "Where in Normandy was I going to recide?", and now I know the answer to it!

I will live in a town called Caudebec les Elbeuf , it's a mouth-full, but lovely never the less. It might be a village compared to my almost 200,000 population of a city, with a approxamately 10,000 inhabitants. Not sure if that incudes the farmn animals... Anyways, all jokes aside. My host sister was the one to contact me via fb, and I learned that I will have a animated mother who works in the business area, a retired father, and am older brother. My host sister will be doing her exchange in South Korea, how exotic :).
Back to Caudebec les Elbeuf, I'm not going to lie, at first I was a bit shocked that I didn't get Rouen as my city because the French girl coming to my city is from there, so it's logical to assume I was going to that city. But after some poundiring, I'm very happy that I got a town of such a size. I'll be able to get around with no problem and maybe meet more people that way. Plus, after France, I'm going to attend a University that is huuuge in population, so it'd be nice to have a peaceful town :). It's also right along the famous Seine River and about an hour and thirty minutes from Paris!!!

Where it's located

Attractive Pictures of the place

The school I'll be attending is called Lycée André Maurois. It looks and offers many lovely classes! My host sister told me there is a teacher that teaches Spanish that is from South America, something like that!

Now to the end of my high school life in the US. Today was the last day I'd take classes at school. It's bittersweet to know I graduate on Saturday :))

Happy International Exchange Student's Day! :p

A Bit of an Update

Since my last post, I did e-mail the YEO of my district in France, and he was busy to send me the info I wanted :p. So I guess I'll keep playing the waiting game...
Last weekend I went to a Rotary convention where a lot of the members of the clubs in my district attended. The inbound and outbound exchange students also had to go, so they were the only ones that made it fun. I won't say that the entire convention was a bore, because there was some interesting speeches, but, most of it was kind of boring :p. I did however find out the name of the French student coming to my city! Nobody even told me, I noticed it in a PowerPoint my exchange coordinator did :p. I also got the notorious Rotary blazer, and got some pins from Brazil, Belgium, and my district to bedazzle it :D! So that lasted from Thursday afternoon to Sunday, but I left early Saturday because all the other students left to attend their prom. When I did get home I e-mailed the French student and found out she lives in Rouen!! It's a very lovely city, but I'm still not 100% sure that I am going there. More waiting I suppose.

few inbound students and the outbound crew

French inbound and me :)

new blazers :D

So that's about the interesting things that happened at that convention. Tomorrow I have my last inbound outbound meeting/party! :o I have to do a PowerPoint over France and introduce myself in French... I think I can achieve this. I should by now. The day is almost approaching!! Woaa :))

Another Orientation

Well I had a mini orientation yesterday. We basically discussed the same information that we did on the first orientation. This one was just a one day thing unlike the first one which was about 3 days. There was just 5 outbound students there, and out of those, only two knew their first host families. I need to know pretty soon, I'll just email my YEO of France and ask him myself. Yeaa, that's what I'll do :))

French inbound and the girls from D.5930

To other non-exchange related news. My Prom was this past Friday, and it was an amazing day! Feels good being all glammed up :DD

Prom 2011

The Orientation :D

It's been a while since I got back from the orientation. I left the 25th, Friday, and left early Sunday morning. It wasn't a long orientation, but it was efficient enough to get the message across. Surprisingly, I got kind of bored at times because it all seemed to redundant. We would wake up early, eat breakfast, clean up, talk a little about expectations, have free time, eat... etc. etc. But over all, I would give the experience a 9 out 10! I met a lot great people that share the same emotions as I do in beginning this journey. My district was the only district that knew where we were going. The other districts hadn't even mailed out their applications to their countries yet. I did meet a lot of inbound students, like a girl from Australia, another from the Solomon Islands and many more. It's fascinating to meet people from all corners of the globe, it really is :D. I can't wait for the next orientation in April... i think. Unfortunately, this time my district, 5930, won't be heading to New Braunfels for the next orientation because it is just too far, so we decided to make one down here. It's still good :))

Some of my roomies

Inbounds and Outbounds