23 days until Switzerland

Hello People of the World,

         Happy May Monday! It's so hot today! Well where I live, perhaps not where you are. According to the weather report on my phone it is 88 degrees Fahrenheit. For my readers who are not from the  U.S. , that would be 31 degrees Celsius. Now it's time to fill you in on my week, so sit back, strap in and enjoy the ride.

Tuesday-Thursday:

This week I actually was fairly busy. I was babysitting a friend's little sister. Nothing really too exciting. I did a lot of Germans lessons on Rosetta Stone. Now I only need to finish one last overview, then I'll be officially done with the required part of my German. Still have plenty to learn though.

In other news, my fondness of cats has returned. My friend who's sister I was babysitting has three cats at her house, so I had plenty of time to bond with the cats. I really liked cats growing up, I even had one for a couple years until it passed from old age. I haven't had one for a while though, so I forgot how cute and adorable cats are.

Look at that cute face!

Friday:
This was the day my best friend was going to finally come home from her little college camp. She'd been away three weeks to a college camp in Rhode Island. Her mom took me to the airport where we patiently waited for my friend's arrival. I do not have any pictures from our little reunion since she didn't want to take any due to just being on a long plane ride and being sick.

Just to give you a mental image of when we were reunited, we looked something similar to this

Saturday:

I was at my best friend's house because I slept over from the night before. I watched Glee while waiting for my jet lagged friend to wake up. She slept for twelve hours straight, so I waited for a while. Eventually she did wake up, but we didn't really leave her room and just watched various movies and TV shows on Netflix.

We unintentionally spent all day watching Netflix. Next thing we knew it was 8:40 pm, so I stayed the night once again.

Sunday:

Sunday was yet another lazy day. However, we did manage to get out of bed, and stop watching Netflix. Another friend came over to the house. We all played Monopoly Disney Edition. The game went on for a while until I went completely bankrupt and lost.

Look at how cute the game board is

Upcoming Events:

As you can tell from the title, my departure is quickly approaching. In 23 days, I will be in Switzerland, but technically I will be leaving for Switzerland in 20 days. It takes three days because of duration of plane flights and my orientation in New York. Tomorrow I'm going shopping to pick up some clothes for the year. I love shopping, so I know that'll be fun.

I am going to a 5 Seconds of Summer concert in TWO DAYS! I bought these tickets like a year ago, so I've been waiting for this day for almost a year, so you can guess how excited I am. It's bittersweet though because this is going to be my last big event while I'm in the U.S. until I get back. I'm just really happy to go, and I know I'm going to have a good time.

Side Note

For those who know that I'm going to Switzerland, but don't know anything besides that let me fill you in. So sometime last year I worked on an application to study abroad. I chose Switzerland because it seemed like a nice country and I like snow, even though I don't get any of it here in California. I knew that tuition would be expensive so I applied to two different scholarships to try to cover the fee. A lot of people didn't really take me seriously that I was actually going abroad.  I come from a really small town so it's not common for people to be going to big places so young. I worked through a lot of paperwork. I got accepted by AFS Switzerland which just led to more paperwork. Fast forward a couple months I received received an email stating I was granted a $2,000 scholarship from the AFS Global Leaders. I had only a couple months to cover the rest which was about $12,000 more. I was relying on the other scholarship, and I knew if they didn't pay it all I would not be able to go. It was nerve racking because I didn't get contacted until late May, but the news I received was worth the wait, which was I was granted an $11,600 scholarship from the Elita Hawley Endowment Fund. My whole tuition was basically covered by scholarships. Everything started to become more real. Around late May, I was assigned two host families. The greatest part is that they are neighbors, so when I have to go to my second host family, I'll only be moving down the street which I find awesome. I was placed in a town called Winterthur which is outside of Zurich. It feels like just yesterday there were still months until I was leaving for Switzerland now its only three weeks.

Here is a 2D visual of what my journey will look like

Here is a 3D visual of what my journey will look like

Of course I'm not going to have a direct flight to Switzerland from where I live because I have to go to an orientation in New York first. My flight to New York takes eight and a half hours, and my flight to Switzerland from New York takes fourteen hours, so I will be spending twenty two and a half hours on a plane in a matter of three days. I can feel the jet lag already.

Well I have big plans for the week, and I must go to bed. This is where I'll be signing off.

Until then....
Auf Wiedersehen (for non German speakers that means goodbye)

-May