Bonjour!
Officially official! I have been wanting to go on exchange for the longest time. With a LOT of convincing and a LOT of research I have decided to do a semester abroad in France with AFS intercultural program. AFS is a program that sends high school students abroad to build a worldwide community. I am so happy to be going abroad with such an amazing organization! (afsusa.org) After seeking out this amazing program I had to go through an application process and then get accepted by AFSUSA before AFSFRANCE. Today was the day that it all began. Today was probably the most exciting day a girl dreaming of exchange could have. Looking at my phone with an email from AFS made my eyes automatically light up but with the subject being “You have been accepted!” my eyes were lighting up the whole room. I was official going on Exchange in France. This little email felt as if it took forever to come. After submitting my application to study abroad in France I had to wait about a month and a half to receive the final word if I was going to study in France or if they would have to explore other options. Getting that email was the highlight of my day. Now all I had to do was wait for AFS France to find me a host family. AFS estimated that I would receive my host family sometime in May or June. As I sat there dreading this long wait, to my surprise three hours later I got another email; only this time the subject was “Host Family information.” This time instead of my eyes lighting up I think my parents thought something was wrong because of how excited I was to find out with whom and where I will be spending my five months abroad. When I opened the email it said click this link to go to your account and view your host family. I did as they asked but when I logged in there was an error and it had locked me out of my account. Now that I know they have a family for me the wait to hear back from the IT person at AFS felt as if years had passed. All I could think of is what I was hoping I would see, when I finally got to look. I was nervous that I would be disappointed but excited to see what was waiting. When it finally got back up and working, this day could not have gone any better. I am more than excited because I truly believe that I have the best host family that AFS could have ever given me. Every thing that I had wished for in those long hours waiting to see my family just dreaming, had come true. My host family consists of a mother and father and two host siblings. One sister who will be eighteen when I arrive in France and one who will be thirteen. I am over joyed and cannot wait to go to France and meet this amazing family who is opening their home to me for five months. I do not want to post any pictures at this time because I would like to have the family’s consent before it goes online but there will defiantly be pictures upon my arrival.
à bientôt
xoxo Gina