MONTH THREE!!

So I have oficially been here for three months now and I am so much happier here in Catalunya. I am having a great time up here with all of my new friends and in my new school. Catalan is dificult for me at the moment but it is similar enough to spanish that I understand some of the classes. All of the classes are in catalan and everybody pretty much speaks catalan to eachother. I am involved in the university gym and trying to get involved in a school soccer team, I am happy with myslef and how involved I am with the school and with the family.

This week we were off since last friday until wednesday and over the weekend I went and bought some new soccer shoes for playing at school during patio. The family and I went to a Castle in Cardona and it was beautiful, I also went to see Harry Potter 7 in spanish and I am happy because I understood alot of it.

I will wrap this up by saying that I am having a great time and that everything is great. I would also like to thank all of my friends and family supporting me through the hard times I have had and everyone for helping me get here!!

Catalunya!!!

So, hello everyone and I would liek to start out by apologizing for not updating like I said I would,but so very much has happened since the last time. Not all good in some eyes but it has improved my stay here. Well I have changed families from my last one in Jaén, to a new family that is in a town called Cerdanyola del Valles. In the house I have one host sister whose name is Ainara and my host parents names are Josep( my host dad) and Lourdes(my host mom) my host dad in an industrail engineer for somewhere in barcelons and my host mom is a psycologist. We live in a decent sized house and it is really comfortable here.

My new school is really nice, quite small but nice. The teachers are all nice and the kids all talk to me and invite me out to hang with them. I have already made a new group of friends in a week of being here and it is just so great being here. I am thinking of joining a free soccer team here with the school to get more involved and keep in shape. I still have lost quite abit of weight and it has concerned me but im not in bad condition. I have gained some weight back making me happy.

That will be a wrap up for now and I promise i will write on soon.

Orientation this weekend!!

Hey everyone, I am just wanting to update everyone on what is going on I hve just started school within the last week but have the next week off starting thrsday if I undertand correctly. Things here are going good I have hit a few rouggh patches but things are going ok now. I have made some friends that I have hung out with a couple of times and it is fun using my spansih all the time and even more fun when I don know a word and they try to look it up then tell it to me in english, it is the best they are awesome I love alot of teh kids here. The town it self is really small like not much to do, besides the Disco but my group of friends dont go to the Disco much they said. Well that is all for now thank you bye.

I am officially in Fuensanta Now!!

I have just arrived at loli and jorges( my host family) today here at 2pm and it had a ood car ride home it has been fun using only spanish but it is still difficult.I cant say much at the moment but I have arrived saftely Thanks

10 HOURS 'TILL DEPARTURE!!

HEY EVERYONE! I am just done fully packing and organizing everything for my trip over. I am just wanting to say one last thanks to everyone that has donated and that has supported me. Thank Y'all very much.

11 more days!!

Yet again I am sorry for it taking so long since my last post. I have had so much happen since my last post, like going to orientations, getting a new Italian sister from Venice, and many more thing. To start out I have still been dong lots and lots of yard work around the neighborhood, raising money, and that has been doing great.

So recently my family had decided to host a girl from Italy who’s name is Sandy De Carli. She is from a town outside Venice Italy. She is really nice and has pretty good English(almost better than mine ha. Besides that point We are having an awesome time here with her and it seems like she is having a good time so far.

I just recently went to an orientation for her and the other students that have arrived her in our chapters region. I had a blast and hopefully they did as well. I got very warm good byes and it was awesome. I would like to thank all that have been supportive of me and those who have donated recently, I really appreciate it so much.

ONE STEP CLOSER!!

Hey every one sorry it has been so long since my last update but so much has been happening has I am just so excited. First off I would like to say that soon after my last post I was headed off to Germany with an exchange program through the school and I just had the time of my life in Germany it was truly awesome. I was in Germany for two weeks and did so much and had so much fun. That same night I got back from Germany my grandpa came out for the fourth of July. We had a great time with him; we visited the arch and did a lot of other fun stuff.

Just this last weekend we have been in preparation for my student visa. I have had to get a state back round check in Jefferson City, get more passport photos, my passport, and provide a lot of other information. Then we had to send all of this information to AFS for them to give to the consulate.

I am so very excited for me leaving I just can not believe that in nearly 8 weeks in will be flying to New York for an orientation then my flight to Madrid. My host family said that from Madrid I will take a train to Jaen the province capitol. My host family and I had a webcam conference yesterday and I figured out my Spanish need a little improving (but so does my English). My host parents Loli and Jorge are very excited for me to come and I am the same way. I only have about 1300 left to raise and I am so close and so anxious for this it is unbelievable.

Yard sale!!

This past weekend I held a yard sale at one of the local churches as a fundraiser to help raise my tuition. This weekend went awesome, because we had raised just over 1900 dollars. I am very proud of what I have raised so far and I have now only about 4000 left in my tuition. I would like to thank all of the people that contributed to the yard sale and donatoins to me. You all have helped me so much by supporting me and chipping in.

Fundraiser!!

Tomorrow I will be having a large fundaraiser in the parking lot of a near by church. This fundraiser is gong to be a large yard sale in the parking lot of the near by church(St. Cletus).Over the past couple of months I have been gathering up items such as furniture, books, desks, bookshelves, and many more things. Early this spring I had passed out a flyer say what the fundraiser would be and when it would be. I have recieved so much help from my nieghbors and I am so thankful for all of the people that have helped out. I hope to raise a couple of thousand dollars at this fundraiser to help give me a boost in my tuition money.

Thank you all again for supportign me in my journey and and all those who have donated.

Almost there!!!

Hello everybody, sorry I have not updated in so long. So much has happened in the last few months. About two months ago, I had passed out flyers around the neighborhood offering to do work for donations. This has worked out very well for me,I have one full time job and have been getting multiple jobs all most every week. Some of the work has been harder than others, but I've enjoyed getting to meet my neighbors and the donations have been great. I have also been working on collecting donations from family, friends and neighbors for a large yard sale as a fundraising event. This has worked out great and donations for the yard sale continue to come in. The yard sale is scheduled for June 5, 2010, and just today I learned that St. Cletus Church is donating the use of their parking lot for the event!

Last weekend I attended an AFS orientation for all the visiting foreign exchange students who are living here in Missouri. This orientation was at the Lake of the Ozarks State Park and was a blast. I have loved meeting the students that are in this area, it has been so much fun and they are all such great people! There were nearly 30 visiting students from 17 different countries. It sucks that I can't see them off at there departure orientation in June, because I will be in Germany with a school program.

I would like to thank everyone who has donated through the ChipIn Widget on my blog or to me personally, it has really helped. I'm over half way there on my funds, but am working hard to raise the rest in the next two months. THANK YOU.

Host Family!!!

This week I have been told of whom my host family will be. They live in Fuensanta de Martos and their names are loli and jorge. The town they live in, Fuensanta de Martos, is a very small town of about 3500 people. It is in the province of jaen and the region of Andalucia. On wednesday I had a video confrence with them and the student they are hosting from Germany, Lisa. They were all very nice. I have also been told the school I will be going to, fuente de la negra. I am very excited and can not wait for september to come!

Recently I have also been doing some yard work around the neighborhood. I am also pet sitting for a nieghboor. Hopefully with the spring and summer i will get many more jobs to help me acheive my tution. Thank you all who have donated again you all are helping me reach my goal. Thank you!!

More Fundraising

This past weekend I was out shoveling driveways raising money. Over the weekend I raised approximately one-hundred and twenty dollars but about twenty dollars went to pay for the supplies needed such as the salt and so on. I did about five driveways and have also been offered for other jobs in the spring such as lawn mowing and house cleaning.

Also this last weekend I also passed out fliers saying that I am one of your neighbors and that this September I am going to be going to Spain as a foreign exchange student. The flier stated that if anyone were to need any chores done that I would be available for that and that I could do anything from yard work to house cleaning. Hopefully this will help me with my progression along with fundraising. I would like to thank all the people that have been able to help me in my fundraising.

Approved on both ends!!!!

Hello everybody once again I am here to tell you all that I have been accepted by both AFS USA and AFS Spain. I have been told that approximately 1 to 3 months before I go I will know my host family and city I will be in. From there I will still have to get my student visa at the spainish consulate and get my student visa. So still got a lot to do and thanks again to all that have helped me out.

January 2010

Hello again I know it has been a while since I have last posted something and I do apologize. So much has gone on since I last posted. To start, I will say that over thanksgiving I recieved donations that helped and I am very thankful for all of the people who have donated. I am still looking for anybody who might be able to donate and help me out. For Christmas I recieved money from my grandparents that I have decided to put towards my AFS tuition.
One of the ways that I raised money while I was out on snow days was by going door to door in the neighborhood offering to shovel driveways for a dontation of five to ten dollars, I did this for four days, I also got some houses that in the spring I will be able to mow lawns as another way that will hope fully help me with raising money. By the fourth day I raised about one hundred and twenty dollars. Which combined with some of the money that I got from christmas I now have two hundred dollars going towards my tuition.
This last weekend I was a volenteer at an AFS mid-year orientation. Here I learned a lot about what I might go through with my host family or problems I might run into. I also met a lot of really cool people who by the end of the weekend were some of my best friends. At the orientation we played a lot of games that were really fun.(like sweedish twister) While I was there I learned about a lot of different countries and different cultures. I met people from so many different countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Thailand, China, Russia, Egypt, Costa Rica, Chile, and Kyrgyztan. I can't wait until may for another orientation that I ill volenteer at and get to see all of them.