Mia abroad in the US 2018/19

Tuesday was my big day. I flight with more than 50 other exchange students to Newark for the Orientation Days. After everyone said goodbye to his/her parents we went to the security check. At the Gate we met the students, which already had a flight to Frankfurt. Together with the students, which sat in the same row than me, I went on to the plain. Overall we flight 8 1/2 hours, which pased by extremely slow. At the end we arrived at Newark Liberty Airport very well. But bevor we could collect our suitcases, we needed to get through the border control. On hour later everyone made his way to the border control and picked up his luggage. Then we went to our hotel in Parsipanny by a coach. The employers of AYA, the american organisation, welcome us very friendly and we get a folder with some important information and the t-shirts we were supposed to wear during the Orientation Days. Directly after the dinner we had a short meeting were we regionized that the majority of the exch...

When I thought about that in the last month, I couldn´t imagine to pack up my things for a whole year. But now I did.😃 Unlike I thought I´ll do it, I didn´t wrote a list with the things I like to take with me. Because I´ll stay in Texas I almost only need war-weather clothes. So I take the clothes I want to take with and sort them in little piles. Then I packed those little piles in my suitcase and it fits. Unfortunaly my suitcase weight to much so I needed to decide which clothes I won´t need. Now I´m finished with packing my suitcase and I hope that I won´t buy too much things in New York. Otherwise I´ll need to repack my things in New York😂.

I can´t imagine that I´ll already fly in one week. With more than 30 other exchange students I´ll spend 4 days in New York.🗽 Everything starts next Tuesday. My parents will drive me to the airport in Frankfurt, where I need to say goodbye to them. I am totally excited and can´t wait to start. But there are still things I need to do until next Tuesday. Amongst other things I need to pack my suitcase and activate my sim-card for the US. The most crazy thing is, that I still can´t realize that I´ll go. Also I´m a bit sad because I won´t see the most of my friends again before I fly.😭 I hope I´ll have week with less stress and have time for relaxing.🙈

I already had my preparation seminar  at  22.April.18 at the AIFS office in Bonn. Embarrassingly I was a bit too late, ´cause my mum and me get lost on the way through the downtown. However they welcome us calmly and very friendly. I directly get a hoodie, a t-shirt, a little notebook, a pen, a nameplate and a textile bracelet (you can see everything in the photo) by AIFS. During the morning the parents and we (the students) had separated presentations about the exchange program. The presentation last almost three hours that´s why we had a break of twenty minutes. After the presentations the parents went away and we ate some bagels. Then  we came together in a circle of chairs and present ourselves. At the beginning of the afternoon we talked about differences in the culture. Therefore we builded groups with the returnees (exchange students that are backf from their exchanges), which already answered questions during the presentations. My group talked about family living...

Two weeks after the interview AIFS sends me my contract and asked me to fill out the host family application at the website of AYA (Academic Year in America). In my opinion that is one of the most difficult and important parts during the whole preparation. This is the application which your future host family will read when they choose an exchange student. AIFS gave me a guidance for filling out the application. And again like at the first application take your time and fill it out calmly. The whole application is in English. At the first I had to fill out a personal description of myself and needed to give some information about my family. In the second step I answered some questions like: Describe your hometown? What are your hobbies? How do you deal with group pressure? After I answered all the questions I had to write a letter to my future host family. My parents too. There are two things, that you can´t fill out by yourself. Your doctor needs to fill out something to...