my new first step!

Ok, so here is how this will go for me. I don't have a nice structured program like I did before. I am making my own. So, step one, find a host family!

I still want to go to the same area before because in the course of applying for the program I fell in love with the area it is in! It is also helpful that my family is part of the LDS religion. So, my Uncle/Aunt who speak Japanese are going to call the bishops in that area and ask them if they have any families in the ward who would like to host a 17 year old american girl.

We have not begun calling yet because we have to find out the phone numbers of all those bishops first. Hopefully, next time, we will have a host family found for me!

New Plans

I have finally bounced back. After a day of mourning my sudden need for a change of plans, I have found an alternate route to making my dreams come true.

None of the other Exchange programs met my wants or interests so I have decided I will just make my OWN program! I have alot of contacts in Japan (my aunts family is Japanese as well as a couple friends of mine) and being a part of a church makes it even easier. I will find a family who would like to have me in their home (for a price of course) for about 4-6 months (depending on what I can afford) and then I will find a volunteer opportunity in the same neighborhood. Since I wanted so very badly to attend school then maybe I will call the director of the local public school and offer my time as a volunteer to come help in their english classes.

I do not know how my own program will compare (cost-wise) to the other program but today I will be discussing that with my Uncle and Aunt (my uncle frequently visits Japan and my Aunt IS Japanese)

Sometimes Life Sucks

This post was originally gonna be about the last little technical details involved in my applying for the School in Japan.

Well, it turns out, they turned down my applications.
this happens alot with many things. You set up your hopes for one thing and plan it out to the T and the next thing you know. You find your plans suddenly changed. It sucks. I am not going to lie. Right now, I kind of feel like some muscle-man who lifts weights for a living just punched me in the gut. I now have to rearrange ALL my plans and I am not looking forward to it.

and so it is in life sometimes. things happen, plans change, life sucks.
*sigh*

planning because it is fun ;)

all right, this will make me sound very odd but I actually enjoy planning...there, I said it. My favorite part about making my dreams come true is all the planning.

for this particular goal which I am still working toward it required alot of planning! First I looked up requirements on the website of the Exchange program I would be attending which is as follows:

"-Female
-Age 15 through 19 at enrollment
-GPA of 3.0 or higher (preferred).
-In good health.
-Maturity to adapt to new environments.
-Minimum of 6 months formal or self-study of the Japanese language
-Enjoy a telephone, language check of your basic Japanese skill--Don't panic!"

Then of course there was the application form which required an essay

and a letter from a teacher/director of your school saying you would benefit from international study-abroad

Next I ordered everything in order of what should be done first. Seems very simple yet alot of people don't actually do this and end up overwhelming themselves.

so first of all:

first: GPA, Before this time I had no purpose in life at all. I didn't get the point of school or getting good grades and therefore, i DIDN'T have good grades. this newest goal has given me the drive to buckle down and improve my grades and I started right away. I am now almost at a 3.0 (2.9) and will have a 3.0 by the end of the semester!

Next: 6 months of Japanese. I had already began my Japanese study so this was easy but I DID calculate how long it would be till I would have studied for 6 months (happened to be in January of 2009) and just continued with what I was studying.

After the 6 months were over I began filling out the application form. Starting with a letter from a teacher and ending with writing an Essay (only 200 words about how mature you are basically)

I physically wrote down the order which I needed to do things in for this trip and that helped quite a bit when I became confused or felt overwhelmed at everything I needed for this trip I could just look down at my checklist and get right back on track.