In the Beginning

      Well, I guess an introduction is in order here.  My name is Mary Boyd and I am planning a year of foreign exchange for my senior year of high school.  I'm a soon to be junior (11th grade) in high school, living in a suburban town about half an hour from Detroit, Michigan.  I've been through many blogs of exchange students, but many don't deal much with the year of prep before the exchange.  So here I am, documenting all the exciting pre-exchange happenings!
       My reasons to go on exchange?
        1) My family has hosted multiple exchange students (Karen: Mexico 1996, Ilkka: Finland 2003, Jae: South Korea 2009) but we have never sent a family member abroad.
        2) I love to travel and am fascinated by new cultures.
        3) I think that foreign languages are immensely important and I'd like to become fluent in more than just English
I'm planning to go through Rotary Youth Exchange.  Rotary is the organization that all of our exchange students came through and all of our dealings with them have been more than satisfactory.  So far I've contacted my district organizer and have a list of countries offered for the 2013/2014 year.   He said he'll let me know when applications are set so until then I wait and think over my country choices.  This is a board I've made to try and organize the choices, there are just so many!

   My top country right now is Germany because I've been studying German in high school, but the more I look at the 44 countries offered I wonder if I shouldn't try for a more obscure country like Peru, Turkey, or Iceland!  I've also looked into the CBYX scholarship because it would guarantee that I would be going to Germany and like Rotary, would cover a majority of the expenses. One advantage of Rotary though is that you get to live with multiple families so you have a wider view of the culture and if there is an issue with a host family, then you have a new one lined up for a few months later.
 Of course if you get along wonderfully with your first family, then leaving won't be as fun.  Trade-offs all around.  I'll keep this blog updated now on anything new that comes up!