6/23/14

Holy moly, how has it been over a month since my last entry already? 

And yet, no AFS news. So, I suppose I'll just fill you in on what I've been doing in the meantime. 

I finished the driver's ed course about 3 weeks ago, and now all I need to do is get in 6 hours of driving with the instructor. Although this will be useless to me while I'm away because driving is prohibited for abroad students, it's comforting to know that all the requirements for getting my license (except for the actual test, that is) will be completed before I even go to Iceland. 

Almost immediately after the class ended, I went to drama camp as a counselor for a week. And while herding small children is by no means my specialty, theater was something that I have--and will--miss(ed). 

That's me on the left--the theme for camp this week was "wacky weather".
"Ah, and here we see a portrait symbolizing an individual's separation of theirself from their loved ones (and also that camp counselors basically get to waste time whenever)."

There's another week of that in mid-July, and it's crazy to think that by then I'll know who my host family is and where I'll be staying. 

Most recently, I went to Florida with my family and a friend. This, unlike my previous summer endeavors, was a gold mine for photography, so here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for:

Excerpts from the second-to-last day (a.k.a. "whoops I forgot to use my camera until now"):

About to head down to the beach for a walk down the shore.

Heavenly.

 

Hmm...it's getting kind of cloudy...

Oh, no.

And...cue the rain.

It was around that point that we were forced to go back inside, and unfortunately--and despite my best efforts--I wasn't able to capture any pictures of lightning. However, I did get a lot more photos on our last day, which I'm going to put in a separate post considering how long this one is already. Until then, stay safe and keep it classy. 

A Summer of Bliss and Things I'll Miss

5/26/14

School has ended, and with it, so has a decent amount of motivation. After an exhausting--though rewarding--freshman year, it's hard to make myself do anything other than lounge around all day (see: "All the other kids are doing it!). Still, I know that when it comes to, among other things, studying abroad, you get out of the experience what you put in. So, with that, it's time to blow the dust off of my Icelandic textbooks and get cracking once again.
As for "Things I'll Miss", the reality of studying abroad is beginning to hit me: there's a lot of things I'm going to miss out on. And while that thought is difficult to accept, it makes me value the experience that I'm having in place of the alternative even more.

5/12/14

Forgot to mention: I'm going to try including more pictures with these posts if at all possible (or relevant), which is something I've been meaning to do for a while. Here, as a sample, is a picture of the crescent moon I took at my cousin's wedding about a week ago:

(It was prettier in person, but you get the gist.)

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.

Dressing Up and Coming Down (...with some sort of illness)

5/4/14

Sorry for not updating in a couple of weeks, though it's not out of laziness. The only AFS-related event coming up is the PDO this Saturday (which I will be sure to document extensively). 

Regarding the title, I traveled south this weekend--4 hours south, in fact--for my cousin's wedding. While I thoroughly enjoyed visiting my relatives and the vineyard where the ceremony took place was lovely, I'm feeling kind of under the weather today, and I'm not really sure why. Could just be exhaustion from the 8-hour round trip and having to get up early. Anyway, I bring this up b/c I'm hoping travelling by flight won't have the same effect. Fingers crossed. 

Busy, busy, busy

4/23/14

I suppose I've accepted that the paperwork for studying abroad will never end. I kid you not, right as my dad and I finished mailing my visa paperwork today, I got an email about other things to take care of (immunizations, secondary medical coverage, etc.). It's like playing Whack-A-Mole.

Okay, enough complaining; I'm actually in quite a good mood. The Pre-Departure Orientation (PDO) is in just 17 days, and I can't wait to reunite with some of the AFS volunteers and students I met at the Christmas party. I've been a bit worried about budgeting since I have zero experience with this level of independence, so this'll be a good opportunity to ask some questions. 

Bless bless until next time!

Studying Icelandic with Prudence and the Other Student(s)

4/18/14

Fun fact: my science teacher informed our class that this is "palindrome week"; in other words, 4/18/14 backwards--if you move around the slashes--is still 4/18/14. This works for all days that begin with a 1 this week. 

As for Iceland, I've made a pen pal! (Her name will remain undisclosed since I don't know if I have her permission to use it, so we'll call her "M".) While we don't live anywhere near each other, at least we're both from and going to the same countries. She's still in the application process, but I'm crossing my fingers that she gets accepted.

Lastly, I came across a grade A Icelandic resource that combines two of my favorite things: clever wordplay and, well, grade A Icelandic resources. If anyone is in the market for that kind of thing, it's called Nicelandic and the link is here. Enjoy!