Everything is wonderful!

I have nothing but good news today! As of yesterday, I have received confirmation of my permanent host family in Italy from AFS. It makes me so happy to know for sure that the family I have been communicating with over the last few months will indeed be my family while abroad. Starting in January, my house will be in Trani Italy! The town is in the south on the Adriatic Sea side, slightly north of Bari. I will be living right on the ocean, within walking distance from the center of town. Trani looks like a very beautiful city, and it has a large beachfront (there is a bicycle path all along the coast of the town!).  I am going to attend a classical school, the same school as my future sister, Leda Caiati, who is the same age as me! I will also have a younger sister, named Francesca, who is eleven, a mother Teresa, and father Angelo:) they seem like the most wonderful family, full of so much love! It will be very exciting to meet them all in person next month!
I absolutely cannot wait. Everything is falling into place, and now it seems time should just hurry up! I am so ready to begin. My visa appointment at the Italian Consulate in Los Angeles is booked for December 4th at 2:00pm, which is really soon. I will be going down there with both of my parents and turning in a whole slew of paperwork and forms. Then all I can do is pack, get organized, wait for my visa to come in the mail, and leave!
I was faced with much hassle in regard to booking my visa appointment, but alas, like most things, it worked out in the end! After I sent an email to the consulate explaining my difficulties with their online system, they emailed me back saying to try again in the next few days, and yesterday, voila!
Everything is monstrously happy right now with regard to my trip to Italia! January, hurry up!:)
*I have to apologize for my excess use of exclamation points, It is a way of expressing my excitement, each sentence is an exciting thing! I hope you don't feel like I am yelling at you:)

Trani is in the dark red region! :)

And departure approaches...

It is so crazy to think that in less than six weeks I will be living in Italy! As my departure approaches, I get more and more excited with each passing day. It seems that everything is going so very fast, and there is still so much to do! At this moment, I am feeling rather stressed, mainly because in the last few days my email has been bombarded with messages from AFS regarding things that I need to do and material I need to read. I have close to 100 pages of cultural information and safety tips that need to be read, (which I am much looking forward too!), I currently have a pre-departure meeting set up for December 22nd, and I desperately need to start getting my visa paperwork together. It has been such a hassle to schedule an appointment with the Italian consulate in Los Angeles, mainly because I don't understand how their online appointment system works! On Monday, I will call them and ask for help... hopefully the meeting can be booked in the time slot I need (January 5-13th).
I could never have guessed how difficult it would be to get a visa! there is an enormous amount of paperwork! Thankfully AFS gave me a packet of instructions and helpful information regarding the process... Students applying for a Study Visa have to apply in person with both parents at the consulate (The one which represents our county is the Los Angeles office) and hand in a load of papers. From basic application forms to extra passport photos to bank statements, getting a visa seems like a very threatening and stressful thing to do! I am going to get my nose to the grindstone because I don't want to have to rush around at the last minute... first thing is calling on Monday.
One of the many emails I received within the last week is one including my travel itinerary! I will be flying from JFK in New York on the 26th of January on Swiss International Airline, through Zurich to Rome. Once in Rome, there will be a few days of orientation for all the foreign exchange students and then we will all be sent off to our host families! My fingers are crossed in hope that the family I have been in contact with will be in fact be my hosts... I have not heard anything officially from AFS but it looks as if they are just waiting on my school enrollment in Trani, Italy. The family seems amazing! I would have a mother and father, a sister my age, a sister who is eleven, and 6 cats! (who live in the garden!) In Trani, the climate is much like San Luis Obispo, which will be fortunate for me because I will not need to get a new wardrobe!
On the topic of school, (a dreaded topic... haha) I am currently un-enrolled from San Luis Obispo High, and doing an independent study program through Olive Grove Charter school in order to get credits for Economics and US History part B, classes I will not be taking while in Italy. Thanks to the heavens though, I will be getting credits for all the classes I take while abroad, which will make my senior year much less stressful. In the beginning, I had thought that I would have to take all 12th grade classes as well as 11th grade part B courses during senior year, and the knowledge that I will get credits while abroad is wonderful news!
I will post as soon as I hear officially from AFS about my placement... Hopefully it will be any day now!

Beginning the adventure!

    Hello everyone! my name is Tess Goodnowott, I am currently 16 years of age, striving for adventure, and excited as can be! For starting in mid January, I will be embarking on a Foreign Exchange to Italy. The program I will be traveling with, AFS Intercultural, has accepted me into their Italy program. So for the spring semester of the 2012 year I will be living, interacting, studying, and learning abroad!      I cannot begin to express the excitement that is going through me as January approaches so quickly... I am filled with eagerness and pure happiness. Personally, I think the opportunity I have to be immersed in another country at such a young age is a remarkable one, and I am so grateful for it. I know this journey will teach me so much- about the world and about myself.
     A family in the South of Italy has been messaging me, saying that they would love to host me and have told that to AFS so we will see what happens... they seem like an amazing family and I would love it if they were my hosts. They live in a medium-small town called Trani on the Adriatic Sea side of Italy's south, the population is around 60,000 people. I am hoping that I hear soon from AFS so I can be sure about where I will be living while abroad.
     To go back a little and cover some of the preliminary steps that I began taking almost two years ago. When I decided to do a foreign exchange, (lets say early 2010), I spent hours on the web seeking a program that I, and my parents, could trust and that offered a large support network. AFS is a worldwide volunteer based network that seemed perfect. They offered a spring 2012 program to Italy... my dream! I chose Italy for many reasons, the main one being that I love art. whether it be fashion, architecture, historical artwork, or artful food, my passions lie in a creative realm. Italy seems to offer so much beauty, in it's art history, food, and culture. Having visited Florence and Venice when I was 12, I fell in love, so to speak, with the country. I cannot wait to live there and be completely submerged in all the wonders of a different culture.
     The first step in the application process is to read up. I read through the details, pros and cons, and the blogs of other foreign-exchangers, in order to get a perspective from someone actually living this dream. Next I completed a preliminary application, which was very simple. I waited a while, but finally AFS accepted my preliminary app and sent me emailed instructions regarding access to my online AFS account, where my entire application lay waiting for me. From doctors forms to school transcripts, the application had me running around like crazy doing so many things. I was pretty early with getting my application, so I had ample time to complete it. But finally, several months later, I submitted my completed app and heard word about three weeks later that AFS had accepted my application. I had to send them a little bit more information on certain things in my app, but soon they sent it overseas to AFS Italy. I am now accepted there and will be getting placed with a host family soon:) It is all so exciting, but now I need to get down to business on the student Visa process.
    So that is a brief overview of what is going on... I am anticipating word any day now regarding my host family, and will be sure to post then.
     Regarding this blog:
     I will be posting while abroad, most likely once or twice a month. feel free to follow and read along with me throughout this amazing journey. I will be sure to post loads of photos for I understand how fun it is to look through pictures!