I have my host family!

AHHHHHH! So basically this post is a little late, but I will tell you the whole story! It was 11:45 p.m. and I was at a party with my cousin Joanna. We were all playing Rock Band when I hear my phone ring it was a text from my mom. "Graceanne! Come home you have been placed!" Everyone says when they first find out they don't believe it, I for sure didn't. The first thought in my head was "someone actually picked me? ME?!" ahaha, then I forced Joanna to take me home early. I ran inside the house and my mom handed me the paper. I'm going to be living in Sollentuna Sweden a suburb of Stockholm. I have two younger sisters 14 and 11. My host parents are both civil engineers and they are so cool! They all go skiing, golfing, shopping, and so many other awesome things. I still can't believe one: that I finally found out and not the day I left and two: that I'm going to Sweden! It's all so real now, and I couldn't be more excited! Time to pack!

YFU.se

Ah! So I went to the Swedish YFU website today (YFU.se) and they had my name on the front page! This makes me happy, maybe this will help with a faster host family placement (: It's also cool because they picked my name out of like 58 other exchange students also coming to Sweden.

YFU pre-departure orientation!

Wow! So I just got back from the Pre-departure/re-entry orientation and it was so much fun! I have been bummed lately due to the fact that I don't have a host family yet. This orientation just made me feel so happy (I'm lame I know). There was only one kid out of us all who had a host family so I wasn't the only one. Everyone was so nice and fun, there were the American exchange students who are leaving and the International students who are going back home. First we all ate and it was kind of awkward until we made introductions and all got to know each other. After we all talked for a bit all the American students went into a room and we talked about everything from the meaning of culture to how we could deal with difficult things in our host country. All the information was very useful and I wasn't bored at all. Then we went back to where the international kids were and talked with them for a while and asked questions. Then I had my first real in person encounter with a Swede! I have to say it was very Swedish! He was very nice and I'm glad there was a Swede so I could ask a billion questions. All in all it was so much fun and I met some amazing people I know I'm going to stay in contact with. This just gets me more and more excited for August and meeting even more amazing people!