HAPPY NEW YEAR!
As my countdown to Italy is nearing single digits, I'm starting to see the little things that I will be away from. Christmas break just recently ended, over the two weeks that I was off from school a lot has happened. On the 20th of December, I had my visa appointment. My mother, sister, and myself went to the Italian embassy with high hopes that I would obtain my visa, after a whole ordeal on how I was missing one signature, we went home with our heads hanging low (not really) and a box of Georgetown cupcakes. The next day, the three of us boarded a plane and headed of to Utah. Our time in Utah was pretty repetitive, we got there at night and slept of our "jet lag". The following days were spent on trying to help my sister get situated in her new dorm and settling in at USU. Other than that we either stayed in or went to different cities. When we got back to Virginia, everything picked up in speed. The day after we got back, my mom had to go back to the embassy and resubmit my paperwork for my visa, school started again and is honestly dragging. The past week we've only had two full days of school because of the cold weather.
This weekend was my pre-departure orientation!! The orientation was in Rockville and it was over night. This orientation was not only a pre-departure orientation, it was also the mid-way orientation for all the exchange students in the DC chapter. Once I first got there, I was not quite expecting to be overwhelmed by the fact that I didn't know a single person there. Once everyone first walked in, you had to sign in on this sheet to get a name tag, I was looking at the list and saw a lot of foreign names, but mine wasn't on there. The lady running the desk noticed that I still hadn't signed anywhere and asked "Are you an American?" in a heartbeat I answered "No. Wait sorry I mean yes, yes I am an American" and she kind of just chuckled it off and told me I wasn't the first to do that. After I got my name tag, I had to go drop my overnight stuff in the little cabin. For the first 20 or so minutes I sat at a table by myself and texted my friends about how uncomfortable it was since everyone already knew each other.The event finally started and we were told to find people who had a name tag with a similar color on it. My group ended up only being about 5 people. Jim, the head coordinator, was our leader and put us five Americans on the spot and made us introduce ourselves to everyone in the room. There was Meg, a girl who just returned from her year in Spain, a kid with a really hard name to spell who is planning on going to China, Audrey who wants to go to Germany, Britni who wants to go to Italy, and then there was me! Once the awkward introductions ended, we headed off into the kitchen for a more private setting to talk about going abroad. Meg showed us a montage of her experience in Spain. I also found out that Meg was also a rugby player and was looking for a new team to play for. I HAD to tell her about the team that I played for and how amazing the team was, one thing came to another and I told the coach about her and now the West End Ruckettes gained a new member!
Once all the meeting were over, we had some free time to mingle. I met a lot of cool people, there was the bitter Hungarian Peter, a guy who wrestles that was placed in Arlington, Julie from Belgium, Patricia and Marina from Switzerland, Sakari from Finland, and a lot more people that I just can't remember their names. At about 7 there was a talent show, and the Germans did this cute little song and dance, someone played an Adele song on the piano which turned into a big sing-a-long, the Italians also did two songs and a dance, one Italian boy sang a song by the Fray, Britni and I sang along with that too, and this Arab girl did gorgeous henna on someone in less than 3 minutes. In between all of all the acts, one of coordinators had us playing games for prizes like money, bobble heads, and school supplies. Once the talent show ended we were aloud to do whatever we wanted until the morning. A lot of people stayed in the pavilion and just hung out around the fireplace, some of us went over to the sleeping area to talk, and some guys were in the parking lot and played touch rugby. After hanging out in the dorms, a group of us got hungry and went back to the pavilion to get food, we sat out on a porch swing in front of the pavilion and just listened to music. Once all of us got cold, we headed back to the boys cabin and kept listening and singing to our music. I started to doze of in one of the boys rooms and went back to my room and fell asleep. When the next morning rolled around, people were talking about how they got no hours of sleep, one hour, and even three hours of sleep, I on the other hand got five hours of sleep.
Now that the orientation is over, I have to start getting ready for Italy. I have yet to pack, get a gift for my host family, or even get half way through my Rosetta Stone course. Even though I'm leaving in 11 days, I don't plan on rushing them.
On a final not for this post, I will miss my rugby team sooooo much it's ridiculous! Meg
if you're reading this, I hope you love the team just as much as I did!
No comments:
Post a Comment