In hindsight, it would have been a nice idea to start this blog when this whole process began, as the outbound year is, after all, a third of this experience. Although not as novel as living in a different country, there are still some pretty interesting events! However, I will share it now, in a few long-winded posts.
I had no knowledge of Rotary right up to spring of 2012, which is pretty strange considering how much my life is affected by it now, a little over one year later. Interestingly enough, it was at a farewell party for a German exchange student that I first met Cole, the outbound of the year 2012-2013 of my current club. I asked Cole, a year above me, what his plans were for the following year, expecting the usual, boring response; I am going to ____ university, studying ____. Therefore, " I'm spending a year in Thailand on an exchange!" was an entirely new and intriguing response. This answer gave a lot more opportunities for striking up a conversation than the whole university business, so it sparked a pretty great conversation. This was the first time I had ever talked to someone involved in such an intense exchange, I hadn't even known that they existed!Travelling has always been on my bucket list, and I had always harbored a desire to take a gap year to travel, but my late birthday had prevented me from ever taking travelling around the world after high school graduation seriously. However, this exchange business appeared to require an age of 18 or less, definitely a benefit! The main theme I got from our conversation was that being an exchange student equals one fantastic year in some fantastic place. I asked Cole to connect me to the Youth Exchange administrators.
He did so, and I got into contact with both the Youth Exchange board of District 5360 (my district), and the Youth Coordinator for my potential sponsor club. (On a side note, a bit of explanation for the non-Rotary involved people: In order to go on a Rotary exchange, you must be sponsored by a club, in our district the club is usually determined by your high school. There is usually one inbound student they host from another country, and one outbound student they send away for the year). I emailed back and forth with various people, finding more about the exchange. After reassuring them that I was still keen to apply, I was sent the preliminary application. Being an eager beaver (without actually giving much thought to the possible reality of going on an exchange for an entire year) within a week I had filled out the application, written an overly lengthy personal essay, and sent it back. This was late spring/ early summer, a few months after Cole had introduced me. He was a fantastic help, and I am forever grateful to him for introducing me to Rotary, and the exchange. I should also mention that usually you apply in the fall, with the personal interview falling sometime around October. So I was truly a keener. This also meant that with my application sent in, I had nothing to do but wait until October. Nothing much happened over the summer, exchange-wise, as I spent most of the summer being a dirty hippie canoeing around the northern Saskatchewan lakes.
I got a call around October- interview time! I felt vaguely nervous going into it, but I felt reassured by the fact that I'd memorized many relevant dates and facts about Rotary, like I'd been advised. When we walked into the house, my parents and I were separated, and seated in front of various Rotarians. I was sitting in front of two very friendly individuals, one Rotarian, and a past exchange student. It started off alright, with questions about why I wanted to go on an exchange, difficult situations and how I'd dealt with them, etc.. I consider myself fairly adept at conjuring long-winded, articulate answers about my personal thoughts, so that part was easy. However, suddenly the interview took a turn towards world issues, Canada's politics, and international relations. Suddenly I wished that I read The Economist and Global News for fun, I was embarrassingly pretty clueless about these topics. In a desperate scramble to come up with reasonable answers, I was straining to remember my Social 20 case studies. After a question about the political issues Canada had, I responded with a pretty terrible vague answer. Uhhhhh, the oil sands? Those are pretty bad on the environment..... (pretty cringe-worthy). Needless to say, I felt like I was entirely unsuited to being an exchange student, and had as a consequence bombed the interview. I was chapped. However, a week later, I got a call from Fran, the club's Youth Coordinator. I answered in a pretty unenthusiastic tone- I felt sure that my already bad day was about to become even worse. She might have pulled her inspiration of the conversation structure from a game show- conversing in an equally emotionless tone, she gave nothing away, then finally said she had a question for me. I was sure it was going to be along the lines of " Why weren't you prepared for the interview, idiot?!". However, instead it was "Are you still willing to be our sponsored student for the exchange?". I was speechless, in my head i was thinking I WON!!!, and when I responded, it was with a yeah, yeah, of course! I should mention that up to this point, this exchange was like a competition to me, I wanted to win so badly. It seemed awfully prestigious, and with a pretty fantastic prize. I needed that victory. Sure, I wanted to live in another country, but it didn't even seem like a possibility. To be honest, as I write this 10 months later, it still doesn't seem quite real yet. However, little did I know that saying yes would begin to immediately introduce me to new and novel things.
About a month after the phone call, I went to Zoolights, an event at my city's zoo, with the majority of the district's inbounds. It was December, nice and snowy. I was still pretty clueless about the enormity of the program. When I first saw all of the exchange students yelling and laughing at each other, each speaking with a different,very strong accent and yet still managing to communicate, I was astonished. I had never seen so many different countries represented in one place. The kids were all so different, and yet every one that I talked to was friendly, and we instantly connected. I spent most of that night with a Croatian student, and we had some great talks. However, I met so many people, and felt so overwhelmed that I asked most of them multiple times where they were from, probably sounded like an idiot! Despite the confusion, I got a feel for the possibilities of the countries that I could exchange with. By the end of the night, I couldn't stop smiling, and I lay awake for hours thinking about which country I would choose. It was the first time that I actually thought hey, this is REAL. This happens to people, they actually do go and live in some random country for a year. Sweet.
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| ^ This is me (red headband), with a few of the exchange students. France, Croatia, Japan, and Germany. |
And there you are, the very beginning of this whole process with the Rotary Youth Exchange.
Cheers
Wendy
