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!