Last Minute Posting

Just before I pack up my laptop the night before my departure, I thought I'd write a quick post.

I've just been out to dinner with Mum, Dad, Nana and Bridgette and we had a lovely time. My suitcase is all packed and it weighs around 20kg, hand luggage and hand bag are all ready to go.

I'm very excited as you can imagine! I've heard some cool things about camp from some of my friends there already, and can't wait to meet them.

It's going to be sad tomorrow leaving everyone in New Zealand, but I'm going to be seeing everyone soon.

Thank you all for your support. And especially to all my great friends who are taking the day off school / gateway to see me off at the airport. My Nana for coming up from Palmerston North. Mum and Dad for being patient when I've been getting stressed recently. All my other relatives and everyone else (well, you know who you are), who have all also been so helpful. I'm going to miss you all so much. You're all wonderful.

And my blog. Well I'll be seeing you in America.

Goodnight New Zealand, 'till we meet again :)

One Week!

With only one week to go before my departure, I'm getting super excited!

Yesterday I received my flight confirmation and after a 12 hour flight to LAX from Auckland Airport, my journey looks like the picture to your right.

With Green A being LA Airport where I arrive at 6.30am on the 21st of July, B being Charlotte, North Carolina, where I arrive at 7.06pm and C being Providence, Rhode Island where I arrive at 9.44pm to then journey to Bryant University Camp.

The Red A is Emmetsburg, Iowa, and I have yet to receive my flights from Bryant to my host family. But for someone who's never been to the United States, I sure am going to be seeing a lot of it, from the plane window anyway.

As my room gets tidier by the second and I am thinking about what to take and what not to take, I'm realising how much of a reality this all is becoming.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to my Mum for everything she's been doing recently. From helping me clean my room, letting me see a ridiculous amount of my friends (especially when I was hardly home last week), paying for my trip and trying not to groan each time we recieved a bill in the mail. You're amazing. I'm going to miss you a huge amount.

That's all for now, you may or may not get another post from me before my departure, so if not "Bis Bald!"
(Google Translator says that means Seeya Soon in German)

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind" - Dr Seuss

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.

The Preparation Stage

I thought it'd be nice to take a bit of a break from my History assignment to write for you lovely people. Especially because I am extremely slack with my emailing, which is terrible.

The day today is Thursday the 15th of April, and unfortunately the first set of school holidays are coming to a rapid end. I've been very busy with work and school assignments, that I've barely had time to rest. But I did find some time on Monday to practice my tourist skills by going to the city with my brilliant friend Malaika.

We went adventuring. We started planning nothing, and ended up doing a lot.

The most exciting event would have to be going up the Auckland Sky Tower. I always knew it was the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere, but I didn't know it was taller than the Eiffle Tower in Paris.

On our adventure, apart from seeing 360° of Auckland, we also walked all the way up Queen Street. Although now it doesn't seem like much, on a moderately sunny day I believe the 3 kilometer hike up to the top of it is quite good exercise. We also took a stroll down Karangahape road and visited a few cute looks shops including some Op-Shops which had items for sale at about the same price as normal retail clothing, (I guess that's what you get for trying to be touristy, you still have to pay normal tourist prices) and then we went back down Queen Street.

It was a very lovely day, where we got to experience the joys of public transport, and fortunately everything went right. I like to think of it as tourist practice for when I'm away, because I suppose I'll do a pinch of touristy things. Maybe not.

Other than that, I've heard nothing else from my dear exchange company, not merely a word. That is, except for information on a Cultural Camp I can choose to attend. It starts on July the 21st, it's quite expensive for 10 days, but I bet it'd be good.

That's all for now,
Keep being wonderful :)