Can't Wait to Go and the PDO

5/12/14

I'm a little late writing about it, but the PDO (pre-departure orientation) was a super positive, motivation-boosting experience. There were 5 other students studying abroad next year from Georgia, and their destinations were all warmer than mine (Italy, Ghana, Costa Rica, Turkey, and Brazil).. Everyone's attitude upon hearing someone's destination was more along the lines of, "Oh, that's so cool! What have you learned about [insert country]?" rather than envious or competitive, which was really nice. Also, something I was unaware of beforehand was that our PDO was the students' who came to the US this year's pre-return orientation. As a result, I got to meet people from Thailand, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Australia, and Turkey. They were lovely as well, and their English was phenomenal--not surprising considering how far behind the US is in teaching foreign languages, but I was still in awe of their fluency. 

So, yeah! Hopefully I've made some new friends, but if nothing else I learned a ton and had an awesome time. Now if I can just get through exams for a week, I'll have all summer to daydream about my upcoming adventure.