15 Days Until Departure!!

I can't believe I only have about 2 weeks left before I go to Miami and then to Argentina. For those who don't know I'm going to Argentina for about 5 and a half months with the exchange student program AFS. AFS has been a part of my family for a long time. My dad came to the US back in 1978 with AFS from Denmark. When he went back to Denmark he soon became more involved in AFS and that's how he met my mom, who was working with the AFS New York chapter. They met for the first time at a conference in Italy and after a few dates around the world he moved in with her in New York City. A few years later my sister was born and 3 years after that I came along.

My sister was the first to become an exchange student out of the two of us. I remember the exact moment she started exploring the option. We had just finish a week long vacation in Denmark, which was the first trip we took to Europe without our parents. Because our parents weren't there we spent almost everyday at a different friend or family members house. Many of my dad's friends were also exchange students and many of their kids have followed in their foot steps as well. One of the friends we were staying with had just gotten back from an exchange to China, and we started grilling him with questions. On the plane ride back to the US my sister and I discussed the pros and cons of going on an exchange. After a few dinners discussing it with our parents she began filling out an application to go to Chile. Last year we also decided to host an exchange student from Italy, the infamous Federico. Having him stay with us was the deciding factor for me. After witnessing first hand how one can change, learn, and experience so much in one year is what really made me want to apply to be an exchange student.

I applied in the early spring to AFS Argentina for the semester program, and in late August I was accepted. On the first Friday of November I received an email that said I had received a host family. My host parent's names are Noel and Miriam. For most of the time that I'm there I'll have two host brothers, Pablo and Nacho. In my last month I'll have another brother, who starting two weeks ago is on an exchange to the US. I'll live in the city of Salta, which a colonial city in the northwest part of Argentina that is full of history. I'll be going to the Colegio del Cerro a small private school a few blocks away from my future home.

Words cannot describe how excited I'm starting to get. It really hit me today when I realized that this up coming weekend will be the last one that all my friends will be home for before winter vacation and that I only have one weekend left with some of them before I leave. I've also started hunting down gifts to bring to my host family and spent hours walking around the mall looking for blue pants that aren't jeans as they will be part of the school uniform, something else I will have to get used to. Now begins the final countdown until my departure. Its time to start saying goodbye to all the familiar foods, places, and people, and hello to a new world that I have yet to experience.