Home Again

So, this is my last entry, unless I ever decide to be an exchange student again, which is a possibility. I've been thinking about just doing a summer program with a different exchange program, since my experience with AFS Iceland was not that great. The biggest problem was just that I was stuck in this tiny fishing village of about 960 people at the end of this long road between mountains and the ocean. I'm just not okay with being stuck somewhere that small and isolated. The exchange students in/near Reykjavik could at least ride the buses somewhere at basically any time of day and hang out with the other exhcange students. But, me, no. Lennart lived 20-some miles away and the bus only went from Isafjordur to Bolungarvik 4 times a day, but I had to be on it because I never knew if my host dad would be able to pick me up or if I'd be able to find someone else from Bolungarvik who could give me a ride home, so I missed the school dance and this huge party and a lot of stuff because of that. Plus, my family mostly only watched TV, whenever they were home, that is. And my little brother had NO table manners whatsoever, and that's one of my pet peeves, for sure. It just was not good. But once the school year gets started you cannot change schools, so even if I switched families I would still have been stuck in Isafjordur or some other nearby small town, which I was not okay with. So I came home. And actually, my last night in Iceland was my most fun. I hung out with Sara and Collin and we just walked around downtown Reykjavik for like 2 1/2 hours and talked. That was what I wanted in my Iceland experience. I wanted to be able to hang out with people, and not have to worry about getting a ride home. I wanted to be able to go places and get closer to the other exchange students. But I just felt so isolated from everyone else. This wasn't helped by the fact that they had welcome parties for the exchange students that arrived late, for various reasons, and I wasn't able to go because the parties were in Reykjavik and I was 7 hours away by car, 40 minutes by plane. So this was not at all the amazing experience I was hoping for. But I met people from other countries, and I still talk to some, like Burak from Turkey, and Lennart. Plus, Sara and Collin and I will hopefully keep in touch, since we were the three Americans. Hopefully someday I can travel to a different country and get really involved in the life and culture there, because this experience certainly did not change my desire to travel and learn about the world. I guess now just was not the right time for it. So, here my blog ends. At least, for now...

20 Days, I Think?

Okay, last Monday was just a bad day. But after posting that, I talked to my old youth minister, Chris, and that helped a lot. I also talked to my family, but not for very long. And my AFS contact lady, Una Þora, I think is how you spell it, came over and she, my host parents, and I talked about some basic stuff, like how I need to get involved in school and things after school, and how she´d hosted an exchange student from Italy and he just said "that´s not how we do things in Italy" if she tried to get him involved in something, and she thought that was very rude. If anything it´s been the opposite for me. I´ve tried to get involved in things at school and have just been told that there really isn´t anything that´s associated with the school. But Bolungarvik has a really good music school, apparently, so I may try piano lessons. And I have made some friends in the past week. Sorry Lennart, that post was before I knew we were going to the same school, lol. Unfortunately, I´m really bad at remembering names, so the only names I can remember of the people I´ve met are Maggi, Lennart, Anita, and Lilia. I think all of those are spelled right. Honestly, I really do feel like I could make it through the whole 10 months if I really wanted to. My host family and Una think I´m lonely or homesick, but I´m neither. I just think I´ve realized that I, along with some of my friends back home, fantasize about seeing the world and "freedom", but really if you travel anywhere, you realize that all you really want is right back where you came from. Does that make any sense? I´m not very good with words. Especially not now that I´ve been surrounded by people speaking Icelandic for a few weeks. Well, I really don´t know what else to say. Oh, my cell phone has a camera and a place to plug in a computer cord, so I´m going to see if I can get the few pictures I´ve taken with my phone up on my blog. There aren´t many, just a couple from the garden by the old boarding school we went to on a class trip last Thursday and Friday and two I took out my bedroom window where you can just see some white blobs on the mountain that are sheep. I think that´s it for now. Bæ! Bless!

13 Days In

So just a warning that this post is going to be relatively depressing. The orientations and flights were fine, and I met the other exchange students, most of which are from Europe, and that was cool. I´ve now been with my family one week, and I keep thinking that I can´t do this. I don´t speak the language, and I just found out today, my first day of school, that all of the classes for people that are actually my age are full, so I have no one to talk to, even if I did know the language, because what 18- or 19-year-old wants to talk to some stupid 16-year-old? I keep crying, and I know they say that it starts out this way because you don´t know anybody, but I wish there were at least one other exchange student at my school. But I haven´t found out what extracurricular stuff there is yet, so maybe that will help. And the counselor told me she can try to get me into more classes with other 16-year-olds. Overall, though, I just want to go home, hug my kitty, and watch a movie with my dad in his chair, my mom on one side of me, and my sister on the other. I don´t even have a stuffed animal to hug or anything here. I keep trying to find ways to break down the year so it doesn´t seem as long. Like in 5 weeks we have the 6-week camp, and after that it´s only about 7 weeks until Thanksgiving, which I want to cook at least a small version of what we eat for my family, and then about 4 weeks till Christmas. After that, my only consolation is that through the scholarships I received, we only ended up paying for a semester exchange program anyway, so what does it matter if I go home early? They say that calling home will only make it worse, but I don´t think it would be that way for me. If I could just hear my mom´s voice, that would help get me through this, I think. But it´s expensive to make international calls. So here I am, just wishing that the rough stage were over and hoping that I can make friends somehow. See? Depressing. Oh, and unfortunately, my camera doesn´t cooperate with computers and they don´t have a printer that I can put the memory card in and save them to the computer that way, so I won´t be able to post any pictures until I am back home. Home, where it´s actually warm right now. Ugh, I don´t know if I can do this...

My Host Family

So we finally found out who my host family is, just when we were all getting worried that maybe this wouldn't happen after all. The village I'm going to be living in is named Bolungarvik, consists of about 900 people and is in northwest Iceland. I'll have a dad and mom, a 22 year old brother that studies in Reykjavik, and a 9 year old brother. I'm used to being the youngest, so this will be different for me. My mom and dad sound pretty active, they told me they cross country ski and run, so that will be cool. They have 30 sheep, and I have no idea how you take care of sheep, but I guess I will learn. My school is about 10 miles away, and apparently there can be avalanches on the road in the winter. I leave two weeks from today and I am so excited! Living there is going to be so different from my life here, but I am absolutely thrilled about that, especially since I didn't want to be living in a larger city. I cannot speak Icelandic, but hopefully my host family will help me with that. I'm trying to figure out what gifts I should buy them. I'm thinking a t-shirt from my school and other than that I have no idea. Now that we have an address, we may ship some of my clothes and stuff over there so my suitcase won't weigh too much, especially since my coat and sweatshirts are somewhat bulky. Some clothes, though, I'll need to buy over there, like boots for the winter and possibly another coat. This is going to be an adventure. I really have no idea what to expect, but I am so excited! Enough rambling. The next time I post will probably be either right before I leave or from Iceland!

Getting Closer...

So it's been almost two months since I posted anything, and I figured it was time for an update. First of all, I made my final payment to AFS in early June, and have been working on raising some spending money. We had a garage sale, which wasn't as successful as we would have liked it to be, but we made some money from it. I also had a conference call with one other girl who is also going to Iceland, a returnee from Iceland, and an AFS volunteer. Right now I am about 7-8 weeks away from departure, and we still know nothing about my host family, which makes my parents nervous, but we should know before too much longer. I decided to make a mini scrapbook to take with me, so I have pictures of my friends and family back home to show people, so I have started working on that, and we just ordered some language CD's to help my Icelandic. In addition to my foreign exchange trip, however, I have also spent a lot of time thinking about colleges, since I am going to miss the year when most of my friends will start requesting information and making college visits and everything. This means that my summer has been far from boring. I guess that's about it for now. I'll post again later!

A Little Update

Iceland is officially the country I will be in for my junior year of high school. Though I don't know who my host family is yet, I'm super excited. A few weeks ago I had my first fundraiser, and betweent it and the donations I received from people who couldn't make it, I've made over $1,500. I went online and bought a murder mystery and turned it into a dinner event at a local restaurant, and it seemed like everyone had a fun time. Next, I will be sending out a sponsorship letter to local businesses and my mom is helping me organize a garage sale. Also, we'll be having a Homemade Gourmet open house. Hopefully these fundraisers will help a lot with the remaining balance. It's stressful, yes, but so exciting! And strange to think that once this school year ends, which it does, very soon, I won't be going back to school there for over a year. My Spanish teacher asked me what this exchange would do to my G.P.A., then said that I probably didn't really care since I'll be having the experience of a lifetime. She's right. I like being at the top of my class, but in the end, I think this is much more important. So, that's a little update on what's happening with my foreign exchange trip.

A Brief Statement and Thank-You

My name's Rebekah and I am applying to go abroad with AFS for a school year in the Czech Republic, Latvia, or Iceland. I decided to go abroad with AFS because I have always wanted to expericene life in a different country and out of all of the exchange programs I looked at, AFS offered the broadest range of countries to choose from. While living in a different country, I hope to expand my view of the world, which unfortunately right now is fairly limited, learn a new language and culture, and better myself by becoming more independent and more knowledgeable about the world I live in, yet know very little about. Also, I hope to make new friends that have cultures different from my own. In return, I hope to give my host family a better view of Americans because, just as Americans stereotype other countries and cultures, I'm sure they have some stereotypes about us, and maybe I can convince someone else to be an exchange student and jump into a new culture.
My mom is proud of me for even getting this far in the process of becoming an exchange student, and is very supportive, but says she doesn't know what she will do without me for an entire school year, and my dad doesn't really understand, since he has never had any desire to travel outside of the country. My sister is sad that I will miss her 18th birthday and, unless I can get it approved for me to come back early, her high school graduation, but she understands that this is something I feel I need to do and she says she knows that it will be an amazing experience for me. Some of my friends think that I am crazy for wanting to do this, since they would never have any desire to jump into a new country with a language they don't speak, but others have been incredibly supportive, offering to help me fundraise, and one of my friends wants me to pack her in a suitcase and bring her with me wherever I end up going.
The main challenge through all of this has been figuring out how to raise the money. I have a few ideas, but have yet to put them into action. Also, I had to convince my dad that I would raise all of the money if I had to, that I do not want cost to be the one thing that keeps me from being an exchange student. So far I have saved up about seven hundred dollars from birthdays and Christmases, and I am in contanct with a lady who has helped the music department at my school fundraise money. Also, I've contacted a murder mystery group to inquire about using one of their murder mystery dinners as a fundraiser.
I would like to thank my scholarship sponsor for the $3,300 I have been given toward the Iceland year program, as this obviously helps with the issue of money. This is an amazing opportunity, and I am grateful that you have helped me make this a reality.