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Recappp.

New Information


Soooo.. The day after my last post, I found out that I would be going to Cremona, Italy! :D

I was very excited! My host family's last name is Martani. How cool is that? :)))

Since the last time I posted, I attended SCRYE Rotary Youth Exchange Outbound Camp along with less than 100, but not much less, future outbounds. It was AMAZING! My group was called Yellow 1 (consisting of 6 outbounds to Italy and 1 going to Turkey), and our dance theme was western.

Two days ago, I was told I was 1 of 4 people in the WORLD to win the Rotary Miles Scholarship worth about $1,600 (toward my Flat Fee)... It's a new thing they started, but I won it without even knowing anything about it...

Anyways, I'm set to leave the country sometime between August 30th and September 5th. :D

***Sorry this blog is sooo short! I've been very busy lately! More to come!!!

Longing to be...

Here I am sitting at school.. It's almost lunch time. I haven't heard anything new about Italy, except that I know a girl (Nicole) who's coming here to district 6150 from D-2050. So I will get to meet her before I leave for Italy! She's arriving in August, and I leave here in September. It would be so amazing if I was sent to Cremona, her home town. (: 12 out of the 17? exchange students in district 2050 are "stationed" in Cremona. :P I hear that district 2050 is having a meeting this Saturday, and Nicole is supposed to inform me of anything they talk about. :) Maybe, just maybe, I will receive some exciting news SOON. As for now, if you're reading this... Thank you. I'm glad to be able to share my experience with you! Talk to you soon!

A presto,

DeWayne

Updateee.

I received my guarantee form today from District 2050 in Italy. It says I will be flying into Milan, Italy around the 1st of September, so that means I'll be living in beautiful northern Italy!!! :)

January 2012 :) First Edition

 

Today is January 6^th, 2012.

Last April 7^th-10^th, I attended RYLA, (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) in Little Rock, Arkansas at Camp Ferncliff.

While being there, a guy named Don Peters came to talk to us all about the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. At the time, I knew nothing about it. When his presentation was over, he said there was a paper to sign at the back of the room for any interested students. After being informed of this, I headed straight back to the table. From the start, I was deeply excited about the program. (I wanted to go to France at the time.)

Around late September, I started wondering if we would all receive notification about the exchange program, so I started calling around to people out of curiosity. (No real luck.)

Then, October 2^nd, 2011, Don Peters sent out an email to everyone interested in the exchange program. I was so happy to hear from him. I was also relieved because I know knew that I hadn’t missed the deadline to turn in my application. The e-mail said that the long-term applications were due November 15^th to the local rotary clubs. My first instinct was to call him and a woman named Susan Chan (who I found on the internet), so I did. He told me that I would need to talk to the Harrisburg Rotary Club to see if they would be interested in sponsoring me. (I had heard of a Rotary club, but never knew exactly anything about what it does.) That same day, I called the club president, Erin Baker, but he didn’t answer, so I left a voice mail. Susan didn’t answer either, but she later called back, but I missed her call! (So we set up a time to call.)

2 weeks down the road, no call back from Erin, so I decided to e-mail him. That didn’t work either, so I called Don Peters back, and he told me he had done all he could, and had sent information on the exchange program to my local club, but no response. Then I called Susan Chan back, since she was the most local person I could call. I asked if it was possible for another club to sponsor me. She said that she would have to talk to Don Peters and some other people, but she’d have to see. (OHH LORDDD!!!)

I was completely stressed out.

Since my mom’s boss was the former club president, I then made my move to her through my mom. Her name is Emily James. I love her to death. She mentioned the exchange program to Erin at one of the club meetings, but then in return, nothing happened. >.< Then my mom’s co-worker David Mitchell was my next plan. He also mentioned it to Erin.

None of this was working, so I decided to contact a Jonesboro Rotary Club by phone. Like THE next day, Leenette Wilke (You’re a life-saver) sent me an e-mail. She is the co-youth exchange officer for District 6150 along with Don Peters. She told me that she had talked to Erin Baker, and that my club was expecting my application, and that they’d set up an interview with me when I called him.

So I called… He answered, and we talked. I was so excited to finally talk to him. He apologized for not replying back to me because he had been on a golf trip. We set up my interview/speech for November 3^rd 2011 after I asked if I could attend the meeting.

I asked my interact teacher to come with me and my mom to the meeting. The counselor ended up coming too. J Basically what I did, was showed up, ate, and told everyone about myself. They really liked me. There hasn’t been an exchange student from Harrisburg in a while, so everyone was in the mood to do it. The next thing I did was put my application together and submit it (a little after November 15^th because Erin was out of town).

My country choices were: Italy, (2-England if Applicable), and Australia as my co-2^nd choice. Why Italy? I love the culture and the art! I have taken Italian at school for 2 years, and I absolutely love it.

District interviews were set to be December 3^rd and 4^th. (I thought this meant that I only had to attend one of the days.) I was wrong…  The interviews were held in Little Rock at the Metropolitan Bank Building. They were amazing! I was interviewed by six different groups, and my mom had four I believe. There were 8 of us there with the exception of one from another district because of scheduling problems. (I found out that Australia was a definite no for me, so my new list was: Italy, Spain, and Germany.) During the interviews, I was told that I was a strong candidate, and that everyone thought fondly of me. (That made me feel a little better.) That night, we went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant which happens to be Don’s favorite! We stayed the night in the La Quinta across the street from the bank building where we had interviews with past exchangers (rotex/rebonds) and inbounds to the USA.

I was the only one wanting to really go to Italy, except the girl from Fayetteville (District 6110), Trina. She didn’t care one way or another between Italy and Germany. The next day, everyone had to give a speech. We had all stayed up very early that morning before going to bed… The day seemed very long! We Skype’d with the 4 of the outbounds before we had to go around the room telling our parents how much we loved them, and thanking them (and vice versa). It was very emotional… When it was all over, we said our goodbyes. I just kind of left, because I was nervous and couldn’t wait to hear the results. J At the end of that conference, my final list was: Italy, Germany, and Spain.

The next day, Monday December 5^th, 2011, I received a call telling me that I had been accepted into the exchange program!!! I was told I scored very high, and was first to be accepted. I was so happy, but soon after Leenette told me I was, she said there was a problem with Italy. (They don’t really accept older students that will be already graduated…) I got quiet on the phone… I was still so happy that I was accepted, I just hate hearing bad news like that. She told me that it would take a couple of days to contact Italy, so I waited patiently along with everyone else. I was so happy for my new friends that had also been accepted into this amazing, wonderful program.

After more than 2 days, I began to accept that Italy wasn’t going to take me as one of their own, so I started learning German. A week and 3 days later, I was messaging my friend Sarah that was also accepted, and asked if she had heard anything yet. She said “Call me!!!!!” (somewhere around that neighborhood), so I did. She sounded so happy! She was like, “Leenette sent everyone a message, she wasn’t going to call!” (talking about an e-mail...) Sarah said she was going to Argentina, which wasn’t her first choice, but she loved the fact. J When I hung up, I told my mom, got on mobile Yahoo, and went to my messages. The subject from Leenette was “Congratulations!” I was prepared to see Germany or Spain on my letter. I told my brother sitting nearby that it wouldn’t say Italy, just to assure him. I opened the e-mail, and there it said, Italy.

I can’t explain what happened after that. I went running through the house to my mom. She had received an e-mail too, and met me half way in her room. We rejoiced together. J

I've learned to never give up...

Grazie mille, Italia! xX