Feb 16, 2017
"Exchange is not a year in your life, it's a life in one year. it's nothing like you expected it to be, and everything you wanted it to be."
seen from United States
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seen from United States
"Exchange is not a year in your life, it's a life in one year. it's nothing like you expected it to be, and everything you wanted it to be."
10 days!!
did a trial run of packing my suitcase just now, all my clothes fit really easily and i still have about 5 kg to spare, which I will (inevitably) fill up, plus all my carry on luggage. Pretty happy about that, it makes it a lot easier when I’ll be packing for real.
One thing to say, its actually starting to feel real. I first applied for my AFS exchange around 2 years ago, but there were no spots to the USA left for the 2014-15 year, so I waited until January 2014 until I could apply for the 2015-16 outbound, and since then I feel like Ive been waiting forever. School is staring to wind down, I only have one assessment left that I’m going to be doing, and once thats done, I have university entrance
This is my last weekend in Rangiora, and I’m finishing with a wonderful weekend - watching my friends play rugby today, going to Tims house for pizza with the entire iwi, then shopping tomorrow with my mum, for some merino gloves and such, plus presents for my host family, then my final AFS chapter meeting!
I finish school on thursday, go to Hanmer springs on friday, get back sunday night and get ready to pack my life into the suitcase by wednesday, when I finally leave. It’s kinda coming too fast and i sort of have too much to do before then, but I think I’m ready.
22 days
Today was my first day at school this term and i felt kinda empty. Design no longer has that certain something that gets me excited when i see something pretty and I no longer want to copy it and make it my own. Calculus is a struggle bc I haven’t studied at all over the holidays. History I have a new teacher and I already miss my old one cause she was my fave. Media studies has never been great either. Today was just overall a letdown. School just doesnt feel welcoming at the moment.
3 weeks of school left, and next week is what my school calls “Wacky Week,” where all the year 13′s (seniors) dress up according to a theme each day. Sorted out most of my costumes today and spent $80. ewww. Not even fully sorted either, but I’m excited. My last day of school was going to be my schools big choir competition of the year, but I decided that cause I’m super selfish, that I might just eave the day before - I want my last day to be “my last day” and not the choir competition where the focus will be all on that and not me and if that was my last day I wouldn’t see my classmates and I wouldn’t have a final cake day in calculus.
My friends are also the greatest. They’ve planned a trip to Hanmer Springs for the weekend before I leave, so we can have one final weekend together, I’ll make pancakes one final time, life will be incredible. We will do dumb touristy stuff, swim and play minigolf. #lifeplans
On the bright side, I finally finished work and I miss it already. The free sushi, the people, the free sushi. Its going to be hard to replace that with something else in my afternoons, bc it was such a huge part of my life. It’s what paid off the $13,899 of my exchange trip, it paid for my ball dress, it paid for everything I did. It really is the end of an era tbh