Orientation and the excitement of it all.

On Friday, I attended the EF Orientation Meeting, for all the exchange students in New Zealand who are departing in the July / August semester.

Although, like myself, the majority of students are going to the United States, there are others who are going to Costa Rico, France, Canada, Germany and even Hong Kong.

The meeting was really good. We learnt more intensively about our destination countries, host familys, the do's and do not's and even what to pack. The time just seemed to go by so quickly! We even got to meet past exchange students and listen to some of their stories.

There were between 25 - 35 other students there, all as excited and nervous as me. It was great to finally talk to people who are in the same situation as me, because I'm sure many, if not all, of my school friends are getting sick of me talking about my exchange. I also found out one of the girls, Alannah, is going to Iowa with me! Even if she is going to be in Oxford, around a four hour drive from Emmetsburg.

I had a great time, making many wonderful friends, some of who I'll catch the plane with, and others whose trips I'll get to hear about when I get back.

In other exciting happenings; the date's finally been settled. After some confusion about the camp dates, my departure date is definitely the 21st of July. Only a month from today!

With only two weeks left of school, working and wanting to spend time with all of my friends before I leave, I'm certainly seeing how little time that actually is. Not to get too technical, but there's around 700 hours left. And I've got to sleep too!

That's all for tonight.

Send my love to the dancefloor,
Nicole :)

Host Family, Camp and all of the sort.

On Monday when I got home from school, I received some very exciting news..

I'm going to Emmetsburg, Iowa!
[Refer to the lovely picture bellow]

Emmetsburg has a population of around 4,000 people and is located around the southern bay of Five Island Lake. The school I'm going to be attending is Emmetsburg High School and it has a role of about 240. It's a little cute town, by what I've seen on Google Maps.

The host family I have been given is my "arrival" family. This means that I'll be there when I arrive and could be changing to another family if things don't work out, but they sound lovely!

My mother, Linda is a qualified Nurse who is working as a part time Pastor, and my Dad, David, is a pastor for the church next door. As I mentioned in the previous post I have been put on a double placement with a girl named Veronika, and she's really nice too! She's also 16 and is as excited as me to be going on an exchange.

But wait, there's more!

I've been accepted to the EF culture camp, a camp at the beginning of my exchange with other EF students going to America. This means my departure date will be the 22nd of July. The Culture Camp is held at Bryant University on Rhode Island for ten days. During the camp we attend "classes" in the morning, these include English, History, Current Issues and Life in America. In the afternoons we have the opportunity to try out new sports, music, arts and craft or visit the mall. We also get to visit Boston for some shopping on the 23rd and Newport Beach on the 27th.

I'm getting nervous about leaving my friends and family in New Zealand,but I'm very excited about my trip. Everything seems to be happening fast now!

That's all for now; keep it real.

The Month of June

Two small semi-successful sausage sizzles later and here we are into the month of June already. With only four and a half weeks of the school term left, my time here at home is getting shorter by the second with assignments galore to be completed.

Today I had contact with EF where I heard some exciting news! It is very probable that I will be put into a double placement, so I'll be sharing my host family with another exchange student. Her name is Veronika and she is from Austria. That's all I know at the moment but it's still very exciting.

I have also decided that I am not very good at blogging, like emailing. But I'll try to post more often as my exchange is getting much closer.