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!
