Orange, anyone?

As in...I'm going to peel. I have a sunburn. An irritating one that will probably be aggravated tomorrow when I'm at Darien Lake for the entire day. Ah well.

Nothing new to report about where I'm going in 79 days. Between 79 and 86 days from now, I will be getting on a plane and going....somewhere in distrikt 1940. I just wish I knew where.


Don't we all just want to know? Know where, when, how, who, why? It's a philosophical thing, I'm sure. The desire to know. To..know.

So, go in search of knowledge. Go in search of explanations, of undeniable fact. Go in search of happiness and contentment, in search of your future and your destiny, go in search of your tomorrow.

Blerg

Nothing new. Except for these cupcakes that my best friend just sent me a picture of.

Noms

I really want them, but I realize that I wouldn't be able to eat them, they're so darn adorable.

Plodding Along....

Amazing weekend with my favorite peeps from all over the state. I love History Club Conventions. :) I noticed that the local Rotary clubs met in the hotel we had our convention in, so I left one of my business cards with the front desk. :) Welcome to my blog, Owego Rotary Club[s]!!!

But now the thing I was really looking forward to is over, and I have a month left of school before the Bike Trek, and I have no more news about where I'll be getting off a plane in less than three months.

Rotary makes it really hard to think about anything but Rotary. It's like....a...virus. A really wonderful virus that makes its way into one's system and...will not, for anything, get out. On the way home today, I thought about having my computer again and being able to go online and check my email. The reason I wanted to check my email? So I could see if I'd gotten anything from Friedrich. I hadn't. :( I haven't. :(

All you outbounds out there....keep strong. All you inbounds....stop laughing at me. :P

Change of Plans.

Well. Just had an absolutely amazing weekend with all the inbounds and outbounds from District 7090 at the Jamestown weekend. Loads of fun meeting kids from the other Temagami weekend. It was fantastic. I knew where I was going, I had lots of friends, I met lots of new people. Told good stories, heard good stories, got my business cards (my picture is fantastic.), exchanged business cards. All was well.

And then I got home and checked my email.

Friedrich,

Are you able at this time to provide us with Sarah’s first host family contact info? 

Dave,

Sarah will go to District 1940 which is Berlin and the larger surrounding. I will check with the District if they already have the host family appointed.

Friedrich

Yep. There it is.

I could be going to Berlin. Me. In Berlin. With three million other people. Yeah. Three million. Me. From little old cowtown. Kinda...scary. 

But the distrikt is HUGE. Like...huge. I'm talking 360 kilometers north-south, 250 kilometers east-west. I could be on the Baltic Sea, for Pete's sake. 

I guess...the biggest thing is how I'm feeling right now. I'm utterly wiped out from this weekend. And it's getting to me, because I was tired when I got home and now I have all this...insanity, overwhelming crazy going down and it's...exhausting. The thought of me in Berlin is...exciting. Scary, but exciting. I called my cousin and had a little freak-out session. The Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, seeing the Magic Flute in Berlin, hearing Wagner in Berlin...soooooo much that could be. 

But then there's also the fact that I could be in a small town, too.

In any case..I feel sort of...homeless. I did all of that research for distrikt 1860 and now everything's changed. I don't know nearly enough about my new Distrikt. It's so much bigger. I was thinking I was going to be in the Southwestern part of the country, now I'm going to the Northeastern part. My biggest city was going to be Mannheim, but my new biggest city is 11.7 times that size. There's just a slight difference there. 

And there's a little bit of a sense of loss, too. I found the other day that the Sabres are playing Mannheim in Mannheim in October. How cool would it have been, if I were living in Mannheim and went to see my homehome hockey team play my hosthome's hockey team? I could have been in the city where Gutenberg invented the printing press. I wanted to go to Idar-Oberstein. Of course, I could still do all of these things, but it's not as likely as it was. Idar is 930 kilometers from my eastern-most club in distrikt 1940. 

Loss and homelessness....it's scary. I know I'm not really homeless, but...going from knowing everything I could find about my distrikt to knowing pretty much nothing is...the equivalent of homelessness in this waiting game. Right now, that's what it is. A waiting game. And I don't have much patience. It's...not cool.

Until later, amigos. 

Insanity - MWUHAHAHAHAHA.

Okay, so I've decided the most insane thing about an exchange that happens before you actually get on the plane and leave for a year. It's the fact that there's a piece of paper that you sign, and your parents sign, and your club and district people sign that is then sent ACROSS THE OCEAN to your host country, where it's signed by: your host family, your school, and your [new/other] club and distrikt people. And then, it's sent ACROSS THE OCEAN AGAIN, where it will eventually end up in your hands. Yep. One little piece of paper (actually, it's a two-page sheet) pretty much ends up circumnavigating the globe, was held by lots and lots of people, and will end up in your hands at the end of its travels.

In other words, somewhere out there, somewhere in Distrikt 1860, is a Guarantee Form with my name on it. It's four o'clock in Distrikt 1860 now. Maybe someone is leaning over their desk, with a pen in their hand, glancing at a piece of paper that has MY SIGNATURE ON IT, and is preparing to put THEIR SIGNATURE ON IT. Kinda heady, no? Hopefully, in a month, that Guarantee Form will be put in an envelope with my address on it.


So...this post is completely...random, and unnecessary, considering the fact that I've explained all of this at least once in this blog. Please forgive an outbound's excitement and realization.

*rant over

It's Alive!!! Or is it....?

Hmm. I feel the need to blog. But I have no clue what to blog about. I have nothing to report regarding my placement. Yes. This is a post practically bereft of any reference or connection to Rotary. Except for the fact that this is mostly a blog about Rotary. Hmmm....something is going wrong in this post.

I just emailed my Club Youth Exchange Officer regarding the upcoming Jamestown weekend. I also told him about this blog and asked him to tell the other Rotarians in the club.  I'm hoping this is the first post many of the Rotarians in my host club read!! I welcome you, Westfield-Mayville-ers.

And yes, that title....I felt like a Frankenstein reference would be cool. OH!!! Did you know there's a town called Frankenstein in Rhineland-Palatinate (Pfalz) (Pfalz is Palatinate in German. Or something like that.)??? Didja?? You need to go check it out. It's a tiny little town in the middle of the woods in the middle of the Administrative district, outside of....Bad Kreuznach, I think? Nope, it's Kaiserslautern. I was going to link a map or a webpage or something, but it didn't work. :( You can go look it up, though. It's nifty.

Wowza.....this is a very rambling post. English teachers, I again apologize. I can write with more direction than this. I promise.

Well....spring break is almost over. :( I saved all my chem for the last three days, of course. Oh well, I'm done with the one chapter. Just one more. And then a week of review, and then the exam - the day after Jtown weekend, of course. Which means I'll probably be exhausted and epically flunk the exam. Oh well. I'm going to Germany next year!!

Speaking of going to Germany next year - three months and a week, actually - I'm terrified. Yep, it's come to the point where I'm...scared. So scared. I mean, in three months I'm going to be leaving the only town I've ever known. I've lived in one town all my life, and I don't even live in the town, for Pete's sake. I'll be leaving the only home I've ever known for a country I've loved from afar for practically my entire life. At this point, a mere three months (I should probably stop saying the phrase "three months." It'll just cause more...problems. lol) before I leave for A YEAR, I don't know where I'll be living. I don't know who I'll be living with (that's you, FHF, or rather ZGF - zuerst(erstens) Gastgeber-Familie) and it's SCARING THE CRAP OUT OF ME. So...it's resulting in a Do-I-Really-Want-To-Leave-My-Home-And-Family-And-Spend-A-Year-In-Germany? sort of emotion. I don't like it. Because I DO want to leave my home and family and spend a year in Germany. I mean, it's Germany. Come on, of course I do. But then I think...it's a whole year. Well, most of a whole year. I'm not going to be able to hug my mom or dad or grandparents or cousins or Zachary for a WHOLE YEAR. I'm going to be learning a new language, eating new food, experiencing a new culture, making new friends - without my own beside me. It's scary. I'm scared. I don't like this whole being-scared-out-of-my-mind thing. I'm not usually like this.

In any case...I'll do as my family reminds me quite often - Suck it up, Fluffy.

And until later, adios, O-Wondrous-Readers-of-my-Blog.

Oh, and P.S. Sorry I lied earlier. That was a lot more to do with Rotary than I had thought.

P.P.S. I got a prom dress!!! Went shopping with my cousins on the day that we were going to go to DC but didn't because of weather. It's awesome. :)

Finally!!!

Yes...finally, there is news. Not the news, but news nonetheless. Just got the following email, forwarded from my coordinator:

Dear Fellow Rotarians,

we are in the placing progress of our Inbounds. I plan to return the completed Guarantee Forms until end of May, if no problems occur in our Districts.

Please forward the following information to the Inbounds coming to Germany.

·     We expect our Inbound to have some German language knowledge when they arrive. If the don’t learn it at school or have different sources, the online courses offered by the Deutsche Welle are very helpful and free of costs. They can be found under: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,2547,00.html

·     Latest six weeks before arrival the students have to buy the German Health and Liability insurance. They can enrol online under: http://www.rotary-jugenddienst.de/jugenddienst/versicherungen/index.php

·     We have solved the difficulties with our database. All Inbounds will receive an email and are asked to update their account and keep it current during the exchange year.

·     The arrival dates can be found on our website: http://www.rotary-jugenddienst.de

·     The Welcome Letter which all Inbounds receive with the return of the Guarantee Form can also be found on our website: http://www.rotary-jugenddienst.de/jugenddienst/06_english/longterm.php

Thank you for your support.

Yours in Rotary

Friedrich 

Yes. Well. I'll be leaving for Germany between July 29 and August 4. Unless I get news about the language camp. Which might lead to a week or so earlier departure date. And my guarantee form??? That thing that's been plaguing me?? At least I know of it's continued existence. And I still want my host family to email me. Or send me a letter. Or something. I know they have my email AND mailing address. 

My proof? The other day in school, I was über bored (yes, I looked up how to do an umlaut on the mac.) and looked at stuff. Other than maps, stuff. I found the huge epic ridiculous application that caused me much stress and looked, specifically, at the guarantee form. There is a very clearly labeled box for both the email and mailing address of the applicant. Yes, First Host Family, whoever, wherever you are: I know I will love you. I am sure of this. But right now...I'm very much an impatient American teenager who just wants to know where she'll be spending a year. This is no attack on your personal merits, just an expression of my impatience. Please forgive it. Also: I realize you may have not gotten the guarantee form yet. In that case, I apologize, FHF (First Host Family, the current and future acronym), and shall shift my irritation to....Distrikt 1860. Though, you must understand, Distrikt 1860, my irritation isn't really very deep or rational. Because, for my impatience, you have accepted me as your exchange student from District 7090. 

Summary: FHF and Distrikt 1860, I love you. I get impatient. Who doesn't? In the end, I love you. 

Other news. Senior trip = awesome. I love Chicago. Prom dress shopping: tomorrow. Maybe I'll actually have luck. Zachary: Wednesday. Our six month anniversary. :) Family visiting: wednesday night - next weekend. Going to DC. :) I love DC.

OH!!! The nation has a budget!!! Congress finally agreed on something!!!

^dwell on the amazingness of that as I wish you a good morrow and....yeah. lol. I'll be back soon enough.