Packing List

       I have a stress, and that stress is packing.  How do I fit a years worth of clothes plus host family gifts into one suitcase and a carry on?!  Plus, what will I be trying to bring home two summers from now that I need to leave space for?  I'm usually pretty good at packing sensibly, but this is just crazy.  To relieve some of this stress, I decided to start my packing list.
       I'm a big fan of lists, but I have found that it is a common misconception that list makers are organized people.  I am telling you now, that is not true. Though I may make neat, structured lists, the frequency with which I lose them is very high.  So when I started to make a packing list 3 and 1/2 months in advance, I knew there was no way it was going to last until July.  Then it hit me!  Put the list on my blog!  This way I can't lose it, I can still edit it, and maybe I'll even have some helpful readers jump in with a suggestion or two as to what I'll need!   So please, give me all your wisdom as to what I absolutely have to have, and what should stay here in Michigan.  So without further ado, I'd like to introduce:

Mary's Super Duper Packing List

1. Large American flag
2. Host family gifts
3. Banners from Northville Rotary club
4. Pins
5. Large rolling duffel bag
6. Carry on bag
7. Backpack
8. 2 simple dresses
9. 2 pair jeans
10. 1 pair leggings
11. 2 pair thick tights
12. 2 pair shorts
13. Favorite pair of fuzzy sock
14. Laptop (This is still a very contested item.  If you have any experience with the worth of having a computer on exchange, please chime in!)
15. Large jar of peanut butter
16. Running shoes
17. Sandals
18. Leather boots
19. Converse (Trying to cut down on shoes is so difficult)
20. 7 shirts
21. 2 scarves
22. 2 cardigans
23. Rotary Blazer
24. Winter jacket

I still don't know exactly what luggage I'll be taking so I may have way less or way more space than all that stuff would require.  At the moment I'm trying to figure out how to maximize the amount of clothing I'll wear on the plane.  Not too bad a look, right??

This would be so much easier if I wasn't leaving at the end of July when it'll be 90+ degrees in Detroit...

~M

Distrikt and Dates

       Distrikt as in the German district of 1850 and dates as in flight departures, not romantic dinners!  So I'm already having trouble keeping this silly thing current but below you will find the narrative that I wrote the day after I found everything out.

       Wednesday afternoon, I got home and flipped on the computer.  As always, I opened my email hoping to see some news from Rotary, thinking  about how pathetic it's become to do this everyday. Sitting there surrounded by twitter notifications was an email titled "Rotary Youth Exchange".  With racing heart, I opened it, quickly skimming through a choppy email that was signed, Your German Youth Exchange Team.  It told me to follow a link to a website where they had a login for me and after searching the different tabs, in the bottom corner of the last one I found one minuscule box labeled Distrikt 1850.  Excitedly, I typed that clue into Google and it showed me that I will be living in the Northwest corner of Germany in Lower Saxony!

       The district borders the North Sea and the Netherlands.  It seems to be largely a farming community with a few larger cities like Bremen and Oldenburg.  I'm in love with all the old architecture in the area!

Old marketplace in Bremen

I posted my assignment onto a huge facebook group of rotary kids, and was automatically approached by an Aussie and an American who are in D1850 right now. I've talked to them some and I think that I will really enjoy my time there!
       A few days later, my YEO sent me an email that included all of the departure dates by district.  School in Niedersachsen starts earlier than most of the other states in Germany so I will leaving this great state of Michigan between July 29th and August 4th.  This is a few weeks earlier than I had anticipated so I will need to adjust some of my summer plans in order to fit everything in!  I have now officially started a count down, today I am 119 days away from GERMANY!!

       In other exchange related news, I've discovered Doulingo.com, a free, language learning site.  It is similar to Rosetta Stone with the main differences being the language selection and the crazy Rosetta Stone price! I highly suggest if you're learning Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, or German that you take a look at Duolingo.  I also believe they're working on a version for Mandarin Chinese so you can look for other languages in the future!

Happy Easter!
~M

Orientation +

      It's been too long my readers! (Using plural hoping I'm not being presumptuous that there is more than 1 person reading these...) Between ACT prep and the actual test, youth group, friends, and of course the inescapable school work, these last few weeks have been busy beyond belief, but I am back to bring you up to speed on orientation.  Now seeing that there is an unprecedented amount of Bs in there, but I think I like it so they're staying.  Now for orientation, which happened back on Saturday, February 16th.

     The snow was falling swiftly as we followed the line of cars beneath the St. Clair river to resurface out of the tunnel in Windsor, Canada.  A short drive later, we had made it to the building where our meeting was to take place.  It was funny noting the differences that that short span of water and one international border created.  Automatically, I felt far from home with all the signs in English and French, a different style of street lights, and the smooth roads (had to throw in a Michigan road joke sometime :).  I love that I have an international district so we get a touch of that sought after culture mingling before we even leave home.
       A lot of the information presented during orientation I had already searched up on my own, but it was still reassuring to hear it spoken by everyone at the meeting.   We had a little time to meet the other exchangers in the middle, but over all there wasn't as much of a "get to know you" aspect as I had expected.  Here's a quick district 6400 profile:
Our district has 9 outbounds for next year with two Brazil bound girls, two girls and a boy headed for France, one girl for Italy, one to Denmark, another to Turkey, and yours truly for Germany of course.  The girl going to Turkey had it numbered somewhere in the thirties (we had about 40 country choices, so this was extremely unlikely to have happened!)  The rest of us all had our future host countries listed near the top 10, which is more typical of a rotary assignment.  Everyone seems nice, I'm excited to get to know them better over the next few months!
        Toward the end, we were fitted for our blazers, given tips on pin making, and promised a copy of The Exchange Student Survival Guide to be delivered at our next meeting in April.  We were also each assigned a topic to present on about our home country for the April meeting.  Mine is to talk for 5-8 minutes on a famous American and include what they are famous for and how they gained their fame.  The topics ranged from silly, like mine, to rather serious ones regarding foreign policy and home country politics.  The idea is just to help us become comfortable speaking in front of groups as we will likely need to present in front of our host rotary club, and that will have to be in another language!  I'm not worried about my celebrity speech, but presenting to a roomful of German adults, all in German, sounds more than a little intimidating at the moment.
         After the meeting, my mom and I had to rush back over the river to get to the Detroit Athletic Club where my dad and my grandpa were entered in a squash tournament.  It was the last night of the tournament and there is always a big banquet with a band at the end that I went to as my grandpa's date.  I got him out on the dance floor for a few songs, even though the music was a little too new age for him (It was mostly 80s Motown to give you an idea of my grandpa's musical preferences).  My parents would have danced until 2 am if they could, but with my 83 year old grandpa along, we ended up heading home by 11 o'clock.  Over all a fun way to spend a Saturday!

Bis bald!
          Mary

Country Selection

GERMANY

      An unknown number was calling me at 8:30 on Saturday night as I was settling down to enjoy an incredibly greasy burger and a chocolate milk shake at a diner in Washington D.C. (more on that later).  I picked it up and the second that I heard my YEO on the line, I was positive he was calling to tell me my country.  You see, back home in Detroit, my friend Grace had spent the whole day with exchange students at the auto show and ice skating at Campus Martius, and had been texting me that our multi-district Central States was having a  meeting this weekend to hash out the details of where we're all headed.  I wasn't expecting answers from this conference for a few days so that made the call even more exciting!  After a life time of small talk (okay, maybe 30 seconds) Mr. Sincock told me that I would be going to Germany!  I still won't know my district for awhile but I'm so thrilled that I will be going to Germany that I don't really mind waiting to find out which of the 14 districts I will be placed in!  Germany was my first choice because I've been taking German in high school and I have met quite a few very friendly Germans in my time.

Here's a map of all the Rotary districts in Germany

     So other than learning my host country, this weekend was still amazing because I spent it in the wonderful city of Washington D.C. participating in the 40th March For Life.  The point of this movement for anyone who has not heard of it is to protect the unborn and their mothers and overturn Roe v. Wade.  As it so happens, Germany has some of the most progressive laws on abortion in the world, another point that makes me proud to call it my host country!  One of my favorite speakers, the prominent Pro-Lifer Ryan Bomberger, was adopted as a baby.  His was not a normal adoption case though.  He was a child of rape, and his mother courageously chose life for the baby that came to her in such a horrific way.  His story was moving and helped show the truth that a child conceived of rape is no less human than the rest of us.  His website, www.toomanyaborted.com, is a wonderful source for information on abortion and adoption.  I know this doesn't pertain to exchange, but this blog is about my life while I am involved with exchange, not about exchange while it's involved in my life.  I urge you, no matter your views, to educate yourself on abortion, for it truly is the human rights issue of our time.

Auf Wiedersehen!

~M

Orientation Soon

       It's been awhile now since I last wrote, but there's finally some new information to share so I'm writing you all a quick update!  I received an email from Rotary that the date for the February orientation has been set for February 16th at a place called The Safety Village in Windsor, Canada.  I'll have to cross the bridge from Detroit to Windsor for this which requires passports for me and both my parents.  This is fine for me because my family has done some international travel before but I wonder if the other Americans in our district will all have passports?  It is kind of fun though that I'm going on an international exchange, with in international organization, from an international district!

        From the email that I got, it looks like there will be 10 outbounds from my district, though I don't know how many are American and how many are Canadian.  I'm already really excited for the orientation and meeting everybody for the first time!  Hopefully I'll have my country assignment by that point as well!  Also, a few weeks ago I had to re-do my country selection and my visa form because I had messed up with some signature protocol.  I will be so happy if I never have to fill out another Rotary form again...

      Anyways, still waiting, but at least I have a specific day to look forward to now!

~M

Dreams come true, with a nightmare to match

        If you've ever read the blog of other exchange students, then you have most likely seen their posts about the very first time they dreamed in their host language.  I can't wait until I experience that for for the first time.  Meanwhile, I recently had an exchange dream of another sort, an exchange nightmare.
        The jist of it was that Rotary had finally contacted me about my country selection, but I wasn't going to Germany.  I wasn't being sent to any of the 40 country choices which I had numbered for Rotary for that matter.  They proceeded to ecstatically tell me they were sending me to ALASKA! wait, whatttt??  Dream Mary was very confused by this. Alaska doesn't include a new country or a new language or a new culture!  If that didn't tip me off that it was a dream, then the fact that another girl was being sent to Northern Michigan should have made me realize this couldn't be real.  But Dream Mary couldn't figure that bit out and instead ran around trying to find someone to save her from a year of igloos and English.  You wouldn't believe how relieved I was to wake up in the morning!
       The point for you, in my dramatic little tale, is that I still don't know where I will be next year.  Though I do know it won't be Alaska or anywhere in the U.S. for that matter! Waiting to hear my country selection sometimes feels harder than waiting for my program acceptance was, just because I knew I had a good chance of being accepted, but there isn't any real reason that I qualify for one country more than any other.  Also, having to wait two days compared to 2 months made it easier as well.

I'll be sure to let you all know when I find out my real country!  Until that time, I leave you with this link to a blog that I really think you should check out!  It's not exchange related, but it's definitly a great project, one of my favorites!

Link to: I Wrote This For You

Lasts Before Firsts

I'm feeling a little weighed down by all of the lasts, waiting until I can reach the firsts.  Last cross country meet, last cross country banquet, last Halloween before exchange, last homecoming dance, last high school football game, last family Thanksgiving (for the next 2 years), the list seems to build every day.  It can feel exhilarating at times, reminding me that I really am going on exchange, but it also serves to remind me how life will go on without me.  I normally focus on all the wonderful things I'll be experiencing next year, but there are things that I will miss out on back here in the states.  I know this year will be filled with lasts, but it's not that different to what I would be experiencing my senior year before I left for college.  Not too far away is the prospect of firsts.  Piles upon piles of firsts and that wonderful thought is what I hold onto for now whenever the ending gets me down.

I recently watched a really neat TEDTalk by a women, Brene Brown, on vulnerability and towards the end of the talk, she lets you in on one of the  most obvious parts of her research which is that you can't have happiness without sadness.  Without any reference point as to what bad feels like, you can't know what good feels like either.  When you numb the pain, you also inadvertently numb the joy.  I've decided that I need to live this idea out in my life, embracing the negative feelings so that I might have a greater appreciation of the beautiful side of life.  Now don't take this to mean that I want to feel sad or angry. Nobody wants that!  All I mean is that I hope to face these feelings head on and not try to hide from them, so that when the clouds part I may also look straight toward the sun and not be left hiding from the dark feelings.  So though I hold onto my future of exchange to remind me why I'm  subjecting myself to these feelings, I don't want it to completely distract me from everything I am experiencing and feeling today.

Can you tell I'm taking a philosophy class this year?? ^.^

To wrap this post up, I'd just like to add how thankful I am to have such a loving family, wonderful friends, and of course Rotary for awarding this exchange to me!  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Mary