Today, was the last outbound orientation. It's really weird to think my new friends and I are going to be seperated in well, 1 or 2 months. It is sad, but I don't regret this process. I'm glad I got to meet all of the inbounds and outbounds.
Well, the next meeting time for the outbounds is Grand Rapids conference. It will be great to see them again, and the inbounds one last time. It will be sad to see them off, but I will have new challenges to face just a month after Grand Rapids. :)
I know it will be tough, but I'm still looking forward to the new experiences. I feel more secure about it.
Oh, and I still haven't heard anything about Estonia. Many of the outbounds have recieved their welcome packages and emails from host families. I have recieved neither. It's making me anxious and pretty nervous, but it's all part of the experience I guess. :)

Recently my life has been struck with an unexpected wonderful change: I will be a Rotary exchange student.

Now I wasn't totally certain about this decision until October of 2009, but I'm glad I'm doing it. My older sister was an exchange student in Mexico, so I knew about Rotary since junior high. I was definitely interested in it. I think that is what really opened my eyes to foreign exchange. I applied in November with the hopes of being placed in Russia. Though it didn't work out with Russia (they aren't accepting RYE students this year), I was placed in an equaly -or more- fascinating country, Estonia.
I am very fortunate to be doing this, especially with Rotary. I'm not trying to sound cheesy, but seriously. Rotary is awesome. They really do help you as much as they can. They supply you with all of the knowledge you need to be a foreign exchange student and they let us meet with the inbounds, other outbounds, and rebounds. So much insight with this process and it's so helpful.

Whenever I mention my exchange to people, I always get the same reaction. Wide-eyed, head nods, and "uh-huh.. wow!" I know they have no idea where this country is, most people don't. So instead of typing up a whole geography lesson, I have posted a map. I just hope you all know where Latvia, Finland, Baltic Sea, and Russia are. :)

Here are some facts about Estonia that I found really interesting.

*Skype was invented there.

*They have the best preserved Old Town in the Baltic Area.

*The capital, Tallinn, will be awarded the Cultural Capital of Europe.

*Estonian language is not related to Russian at all. It's close to Finnish and Hungarian. So it is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn. Wish me luck ;)

*The Singing Revolution. It's incredible. You all should read about it; watch some youtube videos about it.. very interesting.