Last September I applied for to the Rotary Youth Exchange program. I was the only one in Ironwood and Hurley to even apply so... I got the spot! Yay! I was officially the fifth one in my family to be an outbound! In October I went to the first Rotary Conference as an outbound student and it was really fun. At the conference I got my long application and over the next month I filled it out (with blue ink only!) and did all the requirements. I put my countries in order of preference with my first choice being Japan! Once the application was sent in in November the waiting began...
Finally, on January 15th, I got an email from the outbound coordinators asking if everyone had received their country assignments. I emailed back saying that I hadn't but I'll probably know in a week or two. About 20 minutes later, they emailed back telling me that I had gotten my first choice! I am going to Japan! This all was happening in school during second hour, and when I found out I started crying because I was so happy and excited! I was still crying when I walked into English (my third hour class) and people kinda looked at me funny, but I couldn't help it.
Now I am very impatiently awaiting information on my city, host family, and departure date for Japan. I know my departure will be between August 17 and 24, and I am pretty sure it will be on the 17th. Last night I came to the brilliant realization that that is just over 4 months away! So then I started panicking because I can't speak Japanese... or understand it! I've been working on it, but it's hard and I have a feeling that as soon as I step off that plane I will forget everything I have learned so far. :) I'll have to work on that with AnnaMarie!
