This Post is Not for the Faint of Heart

If things had gone according to plan today I would be in beautiful Sarajevo right now, but unfortunately, they did not. I woke up with nausea, aches, and a bit of swelling but I thought maybe it was just nerves over my departure date. (Yes, looking back I realize how silly that is, but give a girl a break.)

Anyway I decided to toughen up and not worry about it. The ride to the airport was early so everyone in the car was pretty quiet and I checked my bags at the terminal fairly quickly. Saying goodbye to my wonderful family was really hard but after a few tears I felt totally ready to embark on this awesome journey…well, that is, until my breakfast had a second coming in a trash can between Auntie Anne’s and Au Bon Pain. Things just kept going downhill from there but I won’t give you the gory details. I had a lot of trouble getting a hold of my parents because I had already given up my cell phone and my mom, who was at this point in the car on her way home, had a broken phone that could only receive texts not calls. And despite how technologically advanced the world is, pay phones do not come with a texting function. Luckily a guy in the terminal reluctantly gave me his phone so I could text my mom, then I called American Councils and they were very helpful. They told me to fly if I felt healthy enough, but not to put my well being in jeopardy. I felt really sick, but mostly I felt bad about not getting on the flights that YES Abroad had booked for me and I had no way of consulting with my parents, so I decided to just hope and pray that whatever was making me sick would go away soon, but at the very last second before boarding started my dad came through the terminal. We talked it over and I decided not to get on the plane. I called up American Councils and they were really friendly and understanding and rebooked me to fly to Sarajevo on Saturday. Words cannot express how awesome American Councils is, honestly they’re the best.

Once I got home I went to the doctor’s office and they said I would be safe to fly on Saturday as long as I came in for another check-up today and diligently took some anti-bacterial pills for the next two weeks. At first I was really bummed that I couldn’t fly to Sarajevo on my original flights with everyone else, but now I can understand that I was not in any shape to travel yesterday. So today I’m going to focus on getting better so tomorrow I can be Bosnia bound once again.

The Great Debate

So the time has come to decide what I will bring with me to Bosnia and what I will leave behind. You may be thinking "But Emma! You don't leave until next Thursday! Why on you packing now?!" well friends let me answer that for you; I am such a terrible packer that I have to do begin the  process AT LEAST a week in advance, honestly I should have started sooner. The hardest part of the whole ordeal was just figuring out where to start. How does a person predict what they'll need for the next 10 months in a country they've never been to? Thankfully YES Abroad made us a basic packing list to work off of.

For anyone who thinks they might need some year abroad packing tips, let me lay down what little wisdom I have to offer on the subject.

1. Sort through all of your clothes, separate items into "Not Taking" and "Maybe Taking"
2. Store or donate the "Not Taking" pile somewhere
3. Take your "Maybe Taking" pile and divide it into two piles "Worn in the last year" and "Not worn in the last year"
4. Store things that you haven't worn in the last year, if you haven't worn it before you probably won't wear it while you're abroad
5. Look at your "Worn in the last year" pile and just keep dividing it up until you feel like you have just enough clothes to make it through all the seasons (if your destination has different seasons)

This is how my "Worn in the last year" pile started out

Thankfully it ended up nicely packed in the suitcase on the left

Now that I'm all packed, I'm off to spend some time with my family, on another note, ONLY 8 DAYS UNTIL I'M BOSNIA BOUND!

Happy Packing!

HOST FAMILY

I just received an email about my host family but I'm alone in a lobby of a college admissions office and can't freak out! More info to come later, I have to go have an interview!!! Aaaahh!

Less than a month!

AH! Yesterday (July 15th) was the start of my official "One month left until Bosnia" countdown (its a working title). I only have one month left to complete all of the things on my To-Do list, and it looks like I might just finish it. Anyway, I thought my blog needed an update so there it is. I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer! Hopefully I know about my host family soon!

One month until I'm in Sarajevo!

The Pre-Departure Orientation (PDO)

A few days ago I got back from the YES Abroad National Pre-Departure Orientation (the PDO) in Washington D.C.  which was an amazing, albeit exhausting, four days. Here’s the breakdown:

Day 1 –Arrival: I only had a 40 minute flight so getting to the PDO was relatively painless for me, but for many people the trip involved connections, delays, and long hours. Most people were scheduled to arrive to D.C. around 4 or 5…I got there at 11 in the morning and the first thing on our agenda was a 6:30 dinner, so I just hung out with the few YES students that had already arrived. At dinner I met the other kids going to Bosnia with me and our alumni group leader, also named Emma, who just got back from her YES Abroad year in Sarajevo two weeks ago. After dinner we were shuffled into a conference room for a few opening statements and then it was off to bed.

Day 2 – Washington D.C. Visits: This was our most physically active day of the PDO because everyone was hustling around D.C. trying to make the numerous pre-scheduled appointments around the city. The Bosnia group had a slightly different schedule than everyone else though because we visited the Lincoln Memorial, the MLK memorial, and the Vietnam Vet memorial in the morning rather than in the afternoon. After enjoying the sights we headed to the American Councils office where we talked more with Emma, our alumni guide, and the Vice President of American Councils about the different challenges we might face while abroad. After a delicious lunch at the Bosnian Embassy, we talked with Ambassador for a few minutes. We posed for this photo in front of the White House. (See below)  Then came the most official of our visits, the State Department. Once we were shuffled through security, had our “VISIT - MUST BE ESCORTED AT ALL TIMES (yes, even to the bathroom)” passes clipped securely on our clothing, we sat down in the auditorium and heard Rich Ruth speak. He was great and he talked about his time in the foreign service and what our duty was as youth ambassadors. Then a panel of regional experts came out to answer any questions we had about our countries, but unfortunately there was no Balkan expert so the Bosnia kids just had save our questions for the Woodrow Wilson Center where we went next. After one last meeting we went back to the 4-H Center to have a few more sessions about what to expect abroad and then it was off to bed after a long day.

The Bosnia group at the Lincoln Memorial

We met the ambassador! (I'm the awkward one to the far left)

A picture to commemorate our impromptu White House visit

Day 3 – The Missouri Room: I slept like a log after Day 3 of the PDO, it was a surprisingly exhausting experience. Basically we went into a conference room and sat at tables with our respective countries and stayed there almost all day listening to informative seminars and participating in discussions about exchange student challenges. It sounds super boring and at times the information was a little dry but it was nice to feel like you have covered all your bases.

John and I are both from the same county in Connecticut and we're both going abroad! He's off to Thailand.

Day 4 – Departure: It was a rough day because suddenly all the YES Abroaders realized that besides the people we are going to our countries with, we may never see each other again! It was strange and exciting to meet a group of people who had the same crazy interests that you did and I made lots of good friends that I can’t wait to read about on our year abroad. (See the Yes Abroad Blogs page to join me!) Anyway we hugged the India and Thailand kids goodbye at the 4-H Center because they left that Monday and then headed to Dulles Airport. I had a good 5 hours to kill before my flight so I went to have lunch with a few other YES Abroad students in the international terminal of the airport. It was a great and very peaceful way to end such a lovely visit to Chevy Chase Maryland.

The group with the flag

Everyone you see in this photo is named Emma

Now I realize I’ve been rather list-y with this post and for that I apologize, so I’ll try to wrap things up in a different way now. I loved the PDO and the people I hung out with there and it gave me lots of excitement for my year in Sarajevo, but also a healthy dose of anxiety. :) It’s funny to think that in just 41 short days I’ll be posting from Bosnia and Herzegovina!

Last Day of American High School.....ever

Today was a strange day. It was a mix of getting excited that I'm one step closer to Sarajevo and also being really sad that I will never see some of my classmates again. It was a short day because classes were only 18 minutes long, but I tried to say goodbye to as many people as possible. My hand still hurts from all of the yearbooks I signed.

A page out of our yearbook, notice the "S" from "languages" in the middle of the page

I'm not very good at the mushy and nostalgic stuff so I don't really have some inspiring speech to finish this post off with...so I'll end this with a thank you. Thank you to my friends who put up with my constant babbling about Bosnia, thank you to my teachers for supporting me and in some cases writing me recommendations and thank you to my guidance counselor for putting up with my strange exchange-student related needs, its been a great year!

I'll miss you guys!

A Departure Date

This post will be short and sweet, but I wanted to give everyone an update. I found out what day I'm leaving for BiH (Bosnia Herzegovina, it's a cool abbreviation I know).....drumroll please....August 15th! That's 76 days away according to my iPod, and I just can't wait. There are also 26 days until the D.C. Pre Departure Orientation I can't wait to meet up with my fellow YES Abroad-ers and gush about how exciting everything is.

The amount of excitement I have to go to the PDO and then to Sarajevo is making it nearly impossible to focus on normal things like making it through the end of the school year. I don't think a task has ever seemed so daunting. I have 20 days left of school, hopefully I will survive. :)