La, La, La.
Oh my wow. The first post was back in January I think.. Now it's April! Ahhh! So news from AFS! I want to Denver, CO March 21st to an In-Person-Selection-Event.. Basically an interview and then group evaluations. Monday the 11th of April... I'M GOING TO THAILAND. How many people have that opportunity!?! It's simply amazing! I have a conference call at 3 on the 14 with the YES people. I am gonna miss everyone. People are treating me like I'm leaving in a couple of days.. When I leave Utah on the 28th of June. That's still a lot of time right? Yeah, I sure do hope so! Ahrg. But none the less, I'm very excited to take on this amazing opportunity that I know won't come around twice: A scholarship to study one academic year in Thailand.. Learn Thai is what I'm the most excited about and meeting my host family... AND just about everything else! AHHHH! Yay. Already starting to learn Thai. It's soooo hard! But the process is really fun, and that is when I'm still in the U.S.!Truth is...
Not gonna lie, there was multiple times that I was having second thoughts on going on the exchange. Sometimes I thought I should just stay here.. The main reason was because of someone who made a really big impact in and on my life... But while in Denver, I met a girl and she had the exact same situation as me. She got accepted to YES Thailand and the only reason she almost didn't take the scholarship was because her boyfriend and how she didn't want to leave him and vice versa. The ending to that story was that she did end up taking the scholarship and she had the time of her life. I want that, I really want to experience the world in different eyes and a whole academic year in Thailand will get me that. A year with-out that ONE special person will prove many things for me at the end. I think it's so funny me saying all this stuff about the 'One' person when I'm just about to turn fifteen, on the fifteenth; Learner's permit soon! (My birthday is this Friday! Week of 4-10[Starting Monday] ) Wow, I get so distracted! But back to this topic heading, this is what is gonna be applied to me at the end; not the story but only a chapter.. "If you love it, let it go... And if it comes back to you, it's yours forever."
The Buddies.
Who wouldn't miss their friends? I have no idea on how much I'll miss all these children. And honestly, I really don't wanna think about it! The time difference is sooo big! GRR. I'm making a collage of pictures, all of the SL,UT (LOL. haa) memories will be on there. Then while in Thailand, I hope there will be many made there as well. So stroked! I have the biggest deprived list, and I hope by the time I leave, that list will be so much more smaller. Email and Facebook will be the new way for me to communicate now. No biggie, I do that anyways[: Yeahh. I think what I'll miss the most from them is just how we communicate over the funniest and randomest things there is. I'll miss how shocked they get when I tell them I haven't tried something they've had since they were like 4. Get At It!
Basic Facts About YES
YES Abroad is a sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. It provides full scholarships for 50 American students to live in countries with significant Muslim populations for a full academic year.
YES Abroad was authorized by Congress after the events of September 11, 2001. YES exists to let Americans learn more about Muslim communities as they learn more about Americans. The goal is to “build bridges of international understanding.”
Requirements:
- Students must be U.S. Citizens
- High school students when applying
- Age 15-18.5
Available Countries
- Egypt**
- Ghana*
- India
- Indonesia
- Mali (semester)
- Malaysia*
- Morocco
- Oman
- Thailand
- Turkey*
* – Designates countries available as gap years.
** – Due to the 2011 revolution, Egypt was not available for this year.
** – Due to the 2011 revolution, Egypt was not available for this year.
The Application Process:
What I did:
I heard about the scholarship about 3 to 4 days before it was due.. And let me tell you, I gave it my all to get if finished! The application does seem a little bit long, but when you something like this so bad, the application becomes smaller and you wish you had more questions and longer answers. My top choices were: Thailand, India, Turkey, and Indonesia. They went in that order too. Luckily for me, I got my top choice! Studding abroad in Thailand. The best part about being part of the selection process was the IPSE in Denver, Colorado. Everybody there was so open and we all bonded so quickly that the weekend never did feel like it was only three days. We all still communicate with each other, and the only down side of this is that some of the people we met in Denver, they didn't make it to the finals. Out of 600 people who started the application, 75 went to Denver. Out of those 75, 50 are now selected to study abroad with The Kennedy-Lugar YES Abroad program.Well I'm out.. Peace! ดีฉันออก .. ศานติ
<3/ Elizabeth [LiZ:]
Um of course we are always shocked when we hear about things you have never had. I mean ya, you grew up living on Mexican food, but you would think that you would of had some of those things on that list, like pie?! Did you never get that at your school, because we always got pie before Thanksgiving at school! Well, we will definitely shorten that list, because I am determined to make sure you eat all these new things before you travel half way around the world!
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