Thursday, July 21, 2011

I Feel

I feel:
Scared, Nervous, Anxious, Excited, Nauseous, Conflicted, Worried, Hesitant, Proud,Unimportant, Free,Guilty, Lucky, Sulky, Ecstatic, Disbelieving, Important, Unsure, Vulnerable, Implosive, Fearful, Alive, Shaky, Happy.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Ottawa!!!!!

Buongiorno,


     During the second week of May I was in Ottawa with all the other exchanges students from are district (except Naomi! Missed you girl). It was so much fun. It is so amazing how close 35 people can get over two weekends.
     On Thursday I got picked up in Orillia with Jaz, Layla, and Jack, then we picked up everyone else at the other stops on the way to Ottawa. On the first night we got our rotary jackets and we had to do our speeches, everyone said that I did a good job and even the Spanish speaking people could understand a little of what I was saying.
     We got to see all the Canadian stuff like the Parliament buildings, the court house,  we went to the Diefenbunker, and we stayed at Ottawa University in their residencies. We also crossed the boarder into Gatineau Quebec, and we went to the museum of civilization, which I found really interesting, and we went to the war museum, which was much cooler than I though it would be!
     Over all I had a really GREAT time and I will miss my new friends so much as we embark on our own separate journeys. The last day was really sad saying goodbye to people I would never see again but I will never forget you and I hope you go on to do amazing things and since you are Rotary Exchange Students I know you will!
     Have amazing lives and I hope to see you all again someday :)
Your friend forever,
Amanda

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Student Visa

Number of cars between the Italian Consulate in Toronto and me: 500000 (over exaggeration)
Number of minutes I had to wait for the Italian Consulate to open: 45
Number of minutes I had to wait in side the very crowded, very HOT visa office: 120
Number of missing items/documents that stood between me and my student visa: 6

Yes, that is right ladies and gentlemen the trip to get my student visa today did not exactly go well. Although I knew that my step-mom and I would get stuck in rush hour traffic, I was not fully prepared for the amount of cars that I saw on the road today. Once the Visa office opened  I had to wait 10 minutes after my scheduled appointment to even talk to the women.  Than I found out that I had to fill out a National Visa Application so I went and filled that out. Not getting off to a very good start. When I went back to talk to her, she had started the next appointment so we waited until they finished, but she started the appointment after that before we could even finish ours. So while we stood waiting in the crowded and very hot and did i mention small waiting room, Kim (my step-mom) and discovered that we were missing a whole lot more than just the application,, such as; confirmation of insurance, bank statements, cash to pay for the visa, an affidavit since I am a minor, passport photos, and photocopies of all documents and my passport. Which means Kim and I now need to go back down to Toronto at the end of the summer with hopefully all the correct paper work. Why do they always have to make these things so complicated? 

Caio for now,
Your very annoyed student traveller,
Amanda 

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Guarantee Forms

Hi everyone,
So 2 weeks ago i got my guarantee forms in the mail from Italy and I was going through everything and it was showing me who my first host family are even though I already knew from Lally. Lally will be my first host sister Yay!!! anyway Lally added me on Facebook after she found out I was staying with her family and it turns out that Lally is an exchange student too and she will be in Kapuskasing while I'm in Cremona. I feel a little bad for because Kapuskasing is such an isolated town with nothing but forest around for 100's of Km's. But I was talking to Kim T, who is the YEO officer for my club, and we were hoping to maybe have Lally stay with me for a weekend before she heads up to Kapuskasing since she arrives on the 16th and I don't leave until the first week of September! I also found out what school I'm going to it is called the Liceo Scientifico G. Aselli. I'm going there for the first half of the year where I will take courses like chemistry, physics and calculus :(. Than the next half of the school year I will hopefully be going to a music school which would be awesome since I love music :) They are also going to be sending me to language lessons and other music lessons. Lally is also trying to get me into a choir!
Next week I will be going to the Italian Embassy to get my visa which is good because I'm leaving in less than 2 months :s (excited and nervous). I should be getting a conformation on my flight any day now :)
So long now
Ciao,
Amanda