...And My List Of Things To Gets Smaller And Smaller :)

So what have I been up to since to last time I posted..... quite a lot actually

I took (and passed!!) my road test. Hung out with some of my fabulous friends. Went shopping! <3 haha
Got a suitcase, figured out my carry-on. Got my license in the mail. Got my debt card for Spain in the mail. Finished my english class. Went to school took my finals (I'm now 100% done with English).

Also some of the girls I used to go to camp with met up for the first time in 3ish years... it was crazy fun (ps I love gray :) )

I practiced packing, I got just about every thing in my suitcase... 46ish Pounds.... AFS says you can have 44... the airline says 50... So I'm in the happy middle :)

AND I planning on going to Chicago to visit my sister who goes to school there :) I hoping to leave on Thursday and come back some time late Saturday. Begin packing Monday, finish packing Tuesday, have my good-bye party Tuesday night, and leave Wednesday morning :)


Check List Is As Follows:

Driver's License  √ 

English 11   √ 

Suitcase  √ 

New Clothes  √ 

Year Supple of Contacts  √ 

Planned My Going Away Party   √


9 days until I leave I have only little things left to do! :) It feels great!

Skyping Birthdays &30 days

Hey everyone!!

So I know I'm blogging a lot now (2 posts in 5 days--WHOA!)... but today is a special day!! :P


----------> MY BIRTHDAY! or to be more specific - my sweet sixteen :D

          
         In case you're wondering, I didn't take my road test. Thou, I'm planning on getting my license before I leave.... it's just a matter of learning how to parallel park, I've been practicing so I should be fine. Haha

  And because it's my birthday (and also because my family is just that awesome) my family skyped with me. We've skyped before, and they seem suuuuppper nice, especially since my Spanish is pretty horrible. But I can read Spanish a little bit better then speaking/listening, so if I'm clueless to what they are saying (which happens a lot) we use chat and they type what they want to say in Spanish. Sometimes I need google translate... sometimes I don't..... but most time I can respond without google :)

      From the fact they aren't angry, frustrated, or upset in any way with my lack of knowing Spanish; I'm pretty sure I can safely infer they are a super nice, sweet family.

Here's a picture of them:

Don't they just look like an awesome family?

30 days until I leave <3 <3

35 DAYS UNTIL DEPARTURE

HELLLO :)

Guess what guys? 35 days until I leave for Spain! How crazy is that?? It's unreal how real this is getting. But as the 'going to another country' part is becoming more real, so is the 'leaving everything and everyone I know for a whole year.'

But on the bright side today is my sister's and host sister's birthday!! Anne is turning 21 and Patricia is turning 13. -> Also FIVE days until my sweet sixteen!! :)

I've been crazy busy lately.... This week is my high school's volleyball camp <I'm soo sore>. (I really want to play volleyball in Spain) And I've been taking English 11, so I'll graduate on time aannnddd my mom got me Rosetta Stone as an early birthday present.

So I'm trying to get my English done on time, cram as much Spanish in as much as I can, and hang out with my friends as much as possible before I leave (oh and hopefully get my license).

Hasta Luego! --- Lotte

Change of Plans...

Remember that lovely post I made last week with all the pretty pictures, well it was a lie... (All that work on the post for nothing.)

For some reason or another the family didn't get me, and I got another one <100% official>!
This one lives in the city of Viana De Cega. 30 minutes away from Valladolid and 2 hours away from Madrid.

My family: Silvia (the mom), Javier (the dad), and Patricia (my 12 yr. old sister) seem really nice and great!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I also have travel info.

August 31: Detroit to Atlanta -> Atlanta to JFK (NEW YORK)
                                 -Gateway Orientation-

September 1: JFK to Zurich, Switzerland

September 2: Zurich, Switzerland to Madrid, Spain

Then once in Madrid we have Welcome Orientation of some sort then off to our families!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

PICTURESSSS-

Another overview of Spain: Viana De Cega is the 'A'

Viana De Cega.

Map of Viana De Cega- Population 2,000

My School- it´s a  Catholic school

MY HOUSE!! 

Counting Down the Days: 57 'til I leave for Spain - 59 days 'til I arrive in Spain

My Unofficial Official Family :)

Guess what guys??? I got a family!----- kinda of....


      So heres the story:

Yesterday after my weekly volleyball scrimmage,  my mom was sitting in the car and held up a paper. I knew what it was and started freakin' out.

   -----But there was a catch----
My family (a mother, grandmother, and 3 yr. old daughter) wanted me to speak English to the daughter. With this being such an unusually request AFS wanted to make sure I was ok with it.

Of course I not going to let a nice looking/sounding family go; as long as the speaking English doesn't get too out of hand and the mother and grandmother will speak (and help me with) Spanish.

So today I had to call AFS tell them I was taking the family and now I gotta wait (again) for AFS Spain to finish up paperwork before I get their names, address, contact info, etc.

But on the bight side; I know the town I'm going to: El Rompido!

I'm gonna live where the 'A' is! :)

I'm right next to a river which is right next to the ocean.

This is the map of my town. (population: 1,600)

This is a random street in  El Rompido I found on Google Map.

El Rompido is a very, very small town, 1,600 people, but 25 kilometers (or 15 miles) away is a fairly big city (148,800 people) Huelva.
And as shown on the map I'm super close to the water and according to my limited host info, my family has a pool and a house in Madrid!!

I'm beyond excited!!! :D

---Lotte

Just waiting on the world to change

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog,

So this is the start of my long journey to an unknown destination in Spain.
I'll say this in the beginning..... I'm going to try really hard to keep up with the blog .... but I kinda suck at this kind of thing.  So wish me luck.


Being an exchange student takes a lot of waiting.....

• First you wait for AFS USA to accept you
• Then you wait for AFS Spain to accept you 
• And finally you have to wait for a family to pick you before everything is final

So that's where I'm at waiting for a family.... always checking the computer, because maybe just maybe I might have an email from my host mom. But so far no luck...

               Every time I get on my AFS log in I get the same thing:

It's sad... ahh wweeell I'm just gonna keep hoping and praying a family will pick me

--Lotte :)