Post-Interview and Post-Production

I figured since it's been a really freaking long time, I’d update. It is November ….. 14th, according to my computer, and I woke up at 2 this afternoon after getting to my friends house around 5am. Why? You may ask. Well, because last night was the closing night of A Flea in Her Ear, my school’s fall play which I worked on as a technician. And, on the closing night, around 11pm, we have strike. The object of strike is to, well, strike. Everything. Props, costumes, the entire three story set, (there were two of them), and it also supposedly prevents “official cast parties”. For the first time out of all of the productions, I actually went straight back to my friend’s house after the strike, which ended at 3am, instead of going out and about. *pats self on back* because I’m responsible! Which brings me to my next part/first part of title. I, Helen Rosen, have submitted my full app. I had my in-home interview for AFS a little more than a week ago, and right after, that afternoon, I scanned in all of my docs and sent it off for review. My interview was AWESOME. I was extremely nervous/jazzed, but it went super well and the lady was really nice. She said I was already very prepared, and was going to be an excellent exchange student. :D The whole thing just made me feel super warm and fuzzy inside, and I turned my full app in, and the whole thing was awesome <3 I started off doing NaNoWriMo, but with the show I just didn’t have time. Well, I have a three week break until costume build crew is up and running for Fiddler on the Roof (the spring musical) so I’ll have time to actually do homework. I think I went to one day of school this week. Back to AFS, I’m waiting for my acceptance email from AFSUSA, and I have become an obsessive email-checker. I feel like I’m only focused on exchange stuff and the play right now, but I have to readjust back into school and friends and such. Eeeee. I really just have a lot of pent up excitement. There’s a french boy, Basil, here through YFU i think, and he’s ADORABLE. ^.^ He’s quite small and wears tweed jackets. Anyway, I’ll make sure to update RIGHT WHEN I GET MY EMAIL. It’s a waiting game now, folks.

Much love,

Moony

Summer Solstice

Hello :) It's June 21st (first day of summer) and my summer is really getting into full swing. Today I started drivers ed and I honestly can not think of anything worse. Every morning I get up at 7:10 so I'm ready at 8:10 when my friend picks me up. We then sit in one of the trailer classrooms at our school for SIX HOURS. The room is tiny, crammed with 37 kids and it's freezing! All we do is watch little videos about how you shouldn't drink and drive, and how to hold a steering wheel and then we read chapters in the textbook and do tons of workbook work. It stinks but I really want to have my permit by the end of the summer :/ Drivers ed only lasts through Friday, and the New Pornographers concert is at Memorial Hall that evening. Then, I get my braces off on Monday ^_^ Tuesday is my first Italian class which will meet twice a week every week. Keep in mind the whole time all of this is going on I'm ALSO doing my online Honors Civics and Economics class. It's soooo much work. I'm pretty motivated, but I'm spending about 3 hours doing it every day and I'm barely completing the 16 assignments every week. One little setback I've had is that it appears as if I don't have a student advisor. I have contacted the volunteer for my area and she thinks I should have gotten a name and contact info when AFS sent me my login information for my full app. Apparently not :( So, I'm waiting to hear back from her, which could take a while. I haven't worked on my app at all in a long time, but as soon as it's July I can work on scholarship app stuff which will be fun. From what I understand, if you're rewarded a scholarship you have to turn in your full app within a month after that to claim your money. But if that month time limit is before a year before departure you turn it in the earliest you could a year before. I talked to one of the scholarship reviewers and he said they don't start looking at year long scholarship apps until late late July so I probably wouldn't hear until beginning-mid August, which would be perfect timing for my full app. My counselor will prolly have my transcript stuff a week or two after school starts which would be perfect timing, I just have to work out the doctors stuff as I'm not sure if I have to go in for an exam with the paperwork or if they just have to fill it out. Well, this was a long post, sorry for the rambling. I'll post again in July, probably when I'm at camp. Talk to you soon!

Ciao, il mio nome è Helen

Buongiorno. My name is Helen Rosen and I am currently applying to be an AFS exchange student in Italy my Junior year of high school. (2011-2012) I won't start updating consistently until probably around April/May of next year. This blog will help to document my application process as well as my exchange in its entirety. I've read a lot of these blogs and they've really helped me understand more about what happens leading up to the exchange as well as what to expect from people, food, and language. I hope that maybe one day this blog will help someone too. ;) Right now we only have one more week of classes, then exam week then school is out and freshman year is over forever! I'm signed up for drivers ed. giugno (june) 21-25. Should be excruciating, but I would like to have my permit. Here in NC we can get our permits at 15 and our licences at 16. So, I'll get my licence next year and then leave 2 months later and won't drive for a year, that's good practice. :p Also, the last day of driver's ed is the New Pornographer's concert downtown. Sooooo excited. My parents are behind me all the way on this and it's really helping, I walk my rich neighbors' dogs for $150 a month, so I'm contributing and we've already saved about 7,000 dollars. This summer I'm taking Health online as well Honors Civics and Economics over the summer so that I can take AP US History next year. This may sound crazy but US history is a junior year course and they don't exactly offer it in Italy. I will also have to take APES (AP Environmental Science) and Honors English 3 next summer to get all of my credits. Next year is going to be crazy, what with Science Olympiad, Habitat for Humanity, QSA, and my six honors/AP courses. Well, at least I'm going to DYWC this summer. (duke young writer's camp) So excited to see all my friends again. ^-^ Well, until July...

- Helen Rosen