TICKETS ARE BOOKED!

Today I logged on to Its Your World Travel and discovered that I had received my itinerary! I leave on September 4th at 7:00 am. I will fly from Anchorage to Seattle to Detroit to Amsterdam and then on to Stuttgart. I will arrive in Stuttgart at 1:30 in the afternoon on September 5th. I am so excited to finally see everything coming together! Although I am what you could say "bitter" about being the last one to leave District 5010, I understand why I must go so late. After all, school starts September 15th. At this point I'm just ready to go. I would be thrilled if I received an email stating that I'm actually leaving next week. But I guess I will just have to wait for my time. God has a plan for everything. Even if I don't necessarily agree with that plan at the moment. In the mean time, I will just continue down sizing my wardrobe (why keep what I won't bring) and decluttering my room(my brothers want it to be their "man cave").  On a completely unrelated note, I have begun messaging Leo's (would be host sister but she's coming to Alaska) friends. They're really cool but I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it... Maybe I won't have as much of a choice to pick my own friend group once I get there. Oh well, I guess I will find out!

Rotary Presentation

Today I gave my presentation about myself and Alaska for my home club, Anchorage East. It was mediocre at best.. I had to sit at the head table which was on a stage facing the entire Rotary club. I was so paranoid that people were watching me eat. It didn't help when I spilled water on myself... I'm pretty sure everyone saw that.. One thing about those blazers that they don't tell you is how incredibly hot they are! I thought I was about to melt right off the stage. Also, there were tons of german speakers in the room. So they all knew when I butchered the german language. You wouldn't think "Mein name ist Madde und ich bin aus Alaska" would be too hard. But it is. I physically can not pronounce "ich." Everyone always tells that I'm doing it wrong! I know it's wrong, but I just can not make that sound. I am convinced that it is impossible. Even though my german is pretty sub par, at it's best, everyone still clapped for me at the end. Also, they were kind enough to give me a really nice hard cover book with photos of Anchorage. It is so pretty. I will really miss it here. Tomorrow I am going to a going away party for the Thai exchange student with Anchorage East. His name is Boom and he leaves to go back next week. I will really miss him. Thank ya'll for taking time out of your day to read this! And also, thank you Rotary for this opportunity. I haven't even left yet and it is already changing my life.

My Mom and I before the Rotary meeting

Goodbye Boom! I'll miss your presence at the Rotary stuff

1 month 18 days 15 hours 53 minutes 35 seconds

After months of waiting, I have finally received my host guarantee form from Germany. That is the form that securers me a place in Germany! I honestly thought it would never get here and that everyone else would go on exchange but mine would fall through.  Luckily, we have now begun to book tickets! The only bad thing is, all of the other Rotary Exchange class of 14/15 people are starting to leave and most will be gone in the next 3 weeks. It makes me so jealous that they're leaving so soon. I still have 1 month and 18 days left in Alaska. Yes, I am counting down. Although, every now and then I will have a mini breakdown. I realize how much I will miss my family, especially my parents. For the other future exchange students reading this, don't try to hold it back. It happens to ALL of us. One of my friends, she leaves for Austria in 3 weeks, has panic attacks. I think it's finally starting to hit all of us that we're actually doing this and we won't see our families for almost a full year. There have been times when I've considered backing out and not doing it, but I know this is what God planned when he moved my family back to Alaska. He meant for me to do exchange. That might sound silly, but I am a firm believer in that everything happens for a reason.