L & L Post: Part 2

Throughout the year, the outbound crew had three orientations. One in January, when we met each other and found out our countries. One in March, where we met all of the inbounds and rebounds (returning outbounds), and learned about how to prepare for the difficulties of the exchange. Our final orientation was in May, where we had one final instructional presentation and then received our blazers.  All of the orientations were awesome, and every time I talked to the exchange students, especially the inbounds, I got more and more excited. It still didn't feel feasible that in a few months I would be in the same position as them, but just knowing that it was going to happen was an awesome feeling.

In January, I got to know all of my fellow outbounds, who are all fantastic. After some group building exercises, we each sat down to individual interviews to decide our countries. I thought the interview was a breeze, and it wasn't nearly as nerve- racking as the first interview. I was already an exchange student, that wasn't going to change! We didn't actually get to choose our country, but the Rotarians asked questions to get a feel for our personality, for our goals for the year, and then three countries we'd prefer not to go to. Looking back, I think that this is a great method for deciding your country- based on personality rather than your preconceptions of a country. How are you supposed to decide between multiple countries that all sound fantastic when you have a limited knowledge of all of them? At the time I was sure I was going to get Austria or Switzerland.  Despite knowing next to nothing about most of the countries, I had it in my mind that those were the best countries for me. I thought German was a sick language and if I went those two places it would be a solid year of some gnarly skiing and hiking.

We waited for an hour for all of us to finish up the interviews, and then were directed to sit down in a row. It was sort of game show style. Each outbound counselor (each dealing with 3 or 4 countries), stood up front and called out the name of the outbound and their host country. Each kid then got a folder with their country on it.  I'm pretty sure we were all nervous wrecks, waiting anxiously to see where we were going to be spending a year. Austria was called and then Switzerland, and my name was not. I was pretty peeved, not going to lie. I was wondering where they were sending me, if not to Europe.  Finally Mexico was called, and my name directly after. I was excited to finally know my country, but I was also pretty upset.  Mexico seemed like a bit of  cop-out, after expecting Europe it seemed much less exotic. I thought maybe I'd bombed the interview and the Rotarians figured I wasn't capable of coping in a faraway country. Basically, in my competitive mind set, Mexico was the least exotic, least exciting country to go to, and I'd drawn the short straw. This was based mostly on the fact that Mexico is four hours from Canada, not even across an ocean, and a common vacation spot for most Canadians. I sound super ungrateful, and I felt bad about it even at the time, but I guess I was sort of shocked. I had this solid idea of what my year would be like, and I hadn't accounted for being sent to a tropical country. After finding out all our countries, we were all sort of wandering around stunned. I don't think many of us were completely happy with our countries at the time, or at least were confused as to why we had gotten them.  However, now as we all leave for the year, all of us are impressed with how they managed to match us with countries that fit us so well! After a day of bittersweet angsting (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=angsting)and excitement, I realized I was being an idiot. Just because Mexico wasn't very far didn't mean it was any less exotic than other countries! In fact, because of the climate, it was overall going to be a much stranger experience than most places in Europe. The winter without any snow was definitely going to be a change! Shortly thereafter, I started getting really excited. I didn't know what I was going to do there, but it was for sure going to be a completely different lifestyle than I was used to!

During March orientation we got to hear both the difficulties and exciting stories of the inbounds and last year's outbounds. It was really interesting to hear about it all, and was for sure super helpful. Also, meeting everyone further proved how awesome exchange students are. May orientation was much of the same, hanging out with exchange students, and a bit more instruction on how to deal with problems abroad such as homesickness and familial issues.

At the end of May, I received my guarantee form and learned about my first family, along with where I would be living for a year! Tepic, a city of 300 000, capital of the province Nayarit. ( http://ontheroadin.com/Cities%20Towns%20Pueblos/West%20Coast/Tepic%20small%20map.jpg)
Although not directly on the beach, it is pretty close to both the mountains and the beach. It sounds like a sick place, and I can't wait to actually get there and experience it first-hand!

After that, the VISA obtaining began, along with a frenzy of vaccinations, goodbyes, and just a little bit of stress.  Thank goodness I left a fair amount of time to get the VISA, it was a pretty frustrating experience. Consulates are certainly not the best example of efficiency. However, after what seemed like no time at all, I was down to my last two weeks. The second last week my thinking ran along the lines of DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN WHILE YOU STILL CAN. I was hiking, hanging out with friends, going to my last few Canadian parties, hiking more, ( I was in the mountains 3 consecutive days, for three different hikes). It was a bit crazy, I didn't sleep much that week. The second week, however, was a lot less enjoyable. Suddenly I realized  Oh bother, I leave in less than a week, and I have nothing packed. There was quite a lot of running around in a frenzy packing and buying last minute things. I was a mess for three solid days before I left. I would wander around aimlessly while muttering under my breath everything i needed to do, I lost count of how many times I dropped or knocked things onto the floor. I was essentially a spasmodic stressball. Not fun. However, it was probably just me making things harder than they have to, as difficult as it is packing for a year, I'm sure it doesn't require that much angsting.

Anyways, there is the past year summed up in two super long posts. If you made it this far, Congratulations, and thanks for reading!. And I really will try my best to make the following posts much more concise. From now on, the posts will be written present time, on my exchange!

Cheers,
Wendy

1) Rocking the brand new Rotary blazers at the May orientation
2)Most of the outbounds at March weekend orientation  (I believe there are one or two missing)