Mia abroad in the US 2018/19

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.🙈

At the weekend was my "Surprise"- Goodbye Party. It was wonderful. Also my host parents talked to me at the beginning (with skype). 💙 Some of my friends had little gifts for me. For example to friends made a "When-book" for me. It feels totally strange to say goodbye to family and friends, because I still can´t realize that I´ll fly in three weeks. My Cousin backed it for me and it tasted sooooooo well 💙 Because I didn´t knew about that surprise party I´ll have a smaller one with my best friends at the beginning of my summer break (in one week). I hope it´ll be great again. 🙈

In only six weeks I´ll fly to New York City for the Orientation Days. The time has run since last year. One year ago I had my interview with AIFS and now my year will start. I´m not sure about how to feel. A part of me is extremely excited and can´t wait to start and the other part realizes that I won´t see my family and my friends for one year 😭 However I´m still happy with my decision to go to the US. I´m sure that it will be a wonderful time. Obviously I´m scared of a few things e.g. the first day of school or (I know it sounds silly) that my suitcase get lost at the airport.😂 Nevertheless I´m excited and hope to make some great experience.

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...