Welcome to my blog! I have never been a journal keeper, a blog writer or anything else were you write down your feelings and thoughts consistently. So I will just jump into this!

A little background on my rotary exchange adventure. Last September I received a letter in the mail asking me to attend a meeting about going on a rotary youth exchange. Unfortunately the night of the meeting I had already agreed to babysit, so I begged my mom to go for me. And being the awesome mom she is she went and took lots of notes about everything that was said at the meeting. And the next day I was filling out the application.  I was originally selected to go on a short term exchange during the summer. But then in January I attended the first orientation and it was there that I made up my mind that I absolutely had to go on a long term exchange. I was accepted for the long term exchange a week before the next orientation at the end of February. The ski trip, this was the trip where we would tell the rotarians our final choices of countries and then they would tell us where we would be going. This is also the trip where I became with my two best friends in rotary, Amanda and Arielle. It feels like just yesterday that I was getting to know them and now the three of us are off go three differet continents. To this day I am not sure why I chose Thailand, but as I learn more and more about the country, I feel like I will love it there. We had one other orientation event it was held at the end of May at George Fox University, it was the district conference. At this event I felt like I became closer with lots of other exchange students and I had a blast putting on a talent show, going swimming at the water park in McMinnville and just hanging out talking about everything and anything with my fellow exchange students.

When I was first applying for a rotary youth exchange all the way back in September 2011 I had to fill out an application. One of the questions on the application was to write a short paragraph or two explaining, essentially why the Rotarians should pick you to go on exchange. I agonized over what to write about, I couldn't figure out how to put my feelings into words. Then one day I was sitting staring at my book shelf (not to brag but I do have a pretty impressive book shelf) and I thought about all the books I had read and how each book was set in a different place. I had been so many places in the world without stepping foot outside of the U.S. and I was ready to go explore the rest of the world. I realized I was in love with places I had never been,people I hadn't even met, and food I had never tried. And for all those reasons, I want to go on exchange. 

I have always wanted to go on an exchange but most exchange programs were way out of my price range. When I heard about rotary I was so excited. I am so grateful to rotary for giving me this opportunity to travel and experience a whole new world. Also thanks to every single person who has supported me throughout this whole process, I would not be leaving for Thailand in 6 days if it wasn't for all of you!