So now you know a little more about me I'm gonna tell you the purpose of this blog. In exactly 2 days from now I won't be in Alaska. Why? Because for one year I will be living in the country of France. I'll be representing Rotary International as an exchange student. It's hard to put into words how excited/nervous/anxious I'm feeling about this upcoming year. But anyways.. The reason for this blog:
I want to update and entertain anyone who reads it whether it be family, friends or just a random stranger about the adventures I encounter as I'm abroad. I'll post pictures and movies and document every memorable event that takes place for yall's enjoyment. My goal is to update this blog weekly and hopefully make it useful for future or soon-to-be exchange students that could probably learn or even laugh from the mistakes I make. Also when the year's all done I'll get to relive what I wrote in this blog and plus I think this thing can be a high school credit so why not?
Now that that's all cleared up I chose to embark on this adventure for a few reasons. Living in Juneau, Alaska I think, makes most of us Alaskans pretty naive because were so closed off from the lower 48 states and the rest of the world. Everyday to me seems the same old, same old and I wanted a change so taking an opportunity like this would be crazy not to do. I think being an exchange student will teach one independence, the ability to adapt, overall awareness of the way people around the world live their lives and to experience a culture that can deeply effect the way we see the world in our own eyes. Well and other than obtaining "life experience" and all that jazz I think for me its just a perfect time to get away from a few things right now...
Okay. Now that I covered mostly everything. I'll get to what I've been doing to prepare myself and the exact details of what's goin' on. In France I'll be living in the a small town called Lucenay, which is just about 30 minutes outside of Lyon. Lyon is the second biggest city in all of France. It's kind of the lower, eastern part kinda close to Switzerland and Germany. I will be staying with the Fornas Family. Maurice, Dominique and their daughter Aurelie. They also have a son Damien, who is taking my place in Alaska(not the same city though he's in Anchorage) as an exchange student. He's already in Anchorage starting his year. We have been communicating through e-mail this past year. I'm going to be living with his family first and later in the year I will change families(Rotary does this so we can experience new things and differences with a new family.) I'm not sure of where I who I'll be living with after the Fornas Family, but anyways I leave the 24th(a little earlier than the other students going to France because I'm so far back here) so it's getting pretty hard to sleep at this point.
My First Host Family: Maurice, Dominique, Aurelie and Damien(In Alaska in my place)
I kinda just started packing with a big help from my mom(thanks mom) so I'm confident I'll have everything I'll need. Not gonna worry about all that too much, because packing is such a pain. But anyways I think I've spent about two hours writing this first entry...so I'll give it a rest for now, but anyways thanks for whoever took time out of their lives to read this and sorry if it was boring ha. Kinda hard to do the first blog entry, but I think I'm satisfied with this.
Peace.
