thank you Mrs. Nobles :)

Yay for amazing senior exhibit mentors! :) Since I now no longer have to worry about what my application is going to be, I just get to be excited for all the things I’m going to do next year! So, I think what I’m most excited about right now is the culture side of the experience. Because I feel like I’ve grown up having two different cultures, and so that it will be interesting for me to learn all about a third culture which will be a big part of my life coming home. The other thing I’m very excited about is learning a new language! This will be my third language, so that’s also really cool!

So I guess it’s kind of strange how I’m excited about two things that will be my “thirds”, but that’s also kind of cool that I’ll be living and exposed to a third culture, while learning my third language!

So I’m glad I understand now that I don’t need to know my application going into next year, so that is very helpful. So now I guess I have to think about what I’m worried about… well, I guess I’m most worried about the language, because I have no idea how long that is going to take to learn, so I’ll be kind of isolated in a sense until I learn the language. The other thing I’m most worried about is coming back, and how it’s going to feel coming back to my old school and my parents after being gone for so long. But I’m sure it will take some adjusting! But overall I can’t wait for all the new experiences I’m going to be exposed to next year! Only a month and two days now... !! I can't believe it!

Senior Exhibiting, or trying to...

So I'm sitting here today, trying to blog about what I want to get out of my experience abroad for senior exhibit! easy, yes, because I know exactly what is going to happen next year. no... wrong... have no idea whats going to happen next year... not as easy as I thought this would be... Okay so, I'm reading other people's blogs on the senior exhibit website, here( http://fablogs.org/seniorexhibit/ )if you're interested. For those of you who don't know what a "Senior Exhibit" is, Senior exhibit is a process that begins in January of the eleventh grade year. (Or in my case during my 11th grade year) Students select a topic of their choice and undertake a learning activity related to that topic such as taking a formal class, completing an internship, or travel. They work with a faculty mentor, and the scope of the topic evolves as the student applies that learning to another element related to the topic, finally giving a formal presentation to a panel where the student has the opportunity to showcase the struggles and successes of the Exhibit process. (thank you FA website)

Everyone's learning activities seem to have them learning the things they want to learn, such as how to cook, lots of people are taking classes, and other people are doing community service things.

So let's see what am I certain of doing next year? Biking alot, traveling with my amazing host family, going to school, learning dutch, learning how to budget money, being a part of a new family, being apart of another culture, and representing the two cultures (American and Puerto Rican) that influence my life. So. What in the world can I do with any of those things? Well, I guess this is where I'm supposed to go back to my goals for senior exhibit. the goals I wrote down were as follows:
To not hate what I choose to do
Learn more about my work ethic
Learn to deal and cope with deadlines
Possibly become a better public speaker
Find out if my major choice right now will still be my first choice in two years at the end of this process
And most importantly, enjoy what I choose to do and benefit from this whole process.

Okay well...
I don't think I'm going to like teaching people Dutch, because Dutch is a really hard language to learn. Well, I don't really know if I'd like to teach a class at school at all, because I feel like people might not get what I want them to get out of the class. And people probably will get tired about hearing about my year abroad, so it's not like I can expect them to want to listen to me ramble in a classroom. Well, speaking of that, would I even enjoy teaching people about my experience or anything at all? Probably not... but I would like to work on public speaking. Okay well, I still have no idea what I want to do and I'm just starting to frustrate myself. I really wish I knew what other people planned to do with their learning activities, and what they want to do with their application. Maybe i'll edit this in a few days, and something will pop into my head.

EDIT: okay, what if I helped my school make foreign exchange a part of our school? I could work with the English teachers and history teachers and make up two online classes that would satisfy graduation requirements, so that way while students were abroad they could do these classes before they left so they would have the credits needed? I think that'd be a good idea

this is it

So this is it. I'm almost there, what I've been waiting an entire year for is almost here. I'm going to the Netherlands. In August... by myself... Less than two months... BUT I have a wonderful host family, and I'm so so happy with them and I could not have asked for a better family. The sister is my age, and we've talked on facebook and I know we are going to get along so so well! They seem very excited to have me too so that's even greater! So now with all the other things I have left to before I leave I'm very very busy. (Such as getting my wisdom teeth removed. ugh!) And on top of all of that I have to try and figure out what in the world I'm going to do for my senior exhibit!! I think I'd like to do something with the culture, because that is going to be such a big part of my experience abroad. oh right, and learn dutch!! how in the world am I going to get this all done?