Phone Conference

Hello,
So today was the YFU Phone Conference for the New England region, which I took a part of. The conference was from 3 Pm to about 6 (PM), and I accessed it through the Business Office at my high school, made possible by some nice connections my dad has with the people working there. During the conference, the YFU assemblage gave a ton of information to the 7 of us students (I know one was going to Germany, another to South Korea, Henry, me, and two other students). This shall be long, but they mainly went over such information as, the purpose for foreign family living, which is understandably a good topic to cover. They wanted us to think of the differences, be prepared to learn and understand that we will not agree with every distinguishing characteristic about our host family.

We also went over the Top hats paper (Talk, Obey, Participate, Help, Affection, Trust, Smile), along with culture and culture shock, discussed with us by the New England coordinator.We each had to answer what we thought the definition of culture was/is, understand exactly what culture is, among many other subjects regarding and/or relating to "culture. This was a subject we especially stressed, and so we reasoned with this for a while.

They explained to us the U curve that many students go through while on exchange, Goals and Expectations, keeping your body to yourself, what we plan to Accomplish, Safety in general, no Drinking, driving, or drugs, what happens if there is a family fight, anything regarding internet use, how to be a lovable exchange student, Credit transfer, and making a good relationship with the local representative in our host country.

So that was the conference in a delicious nutshell. After the afore mentioned, the parents of each of us students joined in and had a discussion chalk full of questions regarding the foreign exchange each of us students would experience within three months. Credit exchange, was a huge subject, and the number one discontent on my mind at the moment.

SOOOOOOOOOOO, I am extremely frustrated. Unlike the above posted stuff, I will become slightly more emotional now: Credits! My goodness gracious they are stressing me out! After many minutes of stressed planning with my dad, after I sent a page long e-mail to one of the guidance counselors at my school, I figured out that I only need to take Personal Fitness, a Social Sciences class with at least 1/2 American Government Credit, and another class which is at least 1/2 a Practical Arts credit. I also will not need to worry about Health if I can switch that for Target Sports next semester (the semester I will leave halfway through for Japan), and then I should easily be able to obtain some gym credit in Japan. Otherwise, I am fine considering I will be taking Oceanography online through Virtual High School while I am in Japan for half a Science credit, a Geometry-Algebra II class during the next semester (September-January), and if I can finish my U.S History class before I go to Japan then I will be fine with that as well.

This, on top of everything else I must attend to during my days, is seriously stressing me out. If I was still in A.P. US History (due to the teacher, it is actually the most difficult History course in the school), I would not be alive right now. I just have so much to do!! I just wish I could be told the contact information for whichever high school I will be placed in Japan, now! I could actually sort out the credit-bewilderment/agitation/disorientation/chagrin (omg I totally love the word chagrin) I am currently experiencing.

Oh well, hopefully I will be able to meet with my guidance counselor on Monday, or sometime this upcoming school week to discuss the many questions I have regarding credits. It is quite amazing though, how I have gone over this with the guidance office four times, yet I still need more information. The credits shall haunt me forever, apparently. I will ask my guidance counselor about credit exchange this week though, and hopefully (s)he can answer me whether my school will give me credit for classes in Japan despite the dissimilar curriculum. I need answers for Junior year classes!

Alright, now I shall study Japanese adjectives, and then do my online U.S. History class.

Thank you for reading! Sorry for the ranting.

-Oliver

Acceptance of the James Bradley Scholarship

Hello all,
The title may be misleading......as I did not win the scholarship. It was, and still is a great disappointment considering the unbelievable amount of time and effort I contributed to the application and overall scholarship process. I spent over a month and a half, (very, very, very) hectically completing the scholarship/application process, with the sacrifice of many sleepless nights/early mornings and a suckish Geometry, Honors English, and Biology grade.
However, I am still absolutely proud of myself for all of the effort I did put into what became a very long pending process, waiting for results, and thanks to much support from the amazing people I love at Essex High School, along with the very appreciated encouragement from fellow to-be Japan exchange students, I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER. Of course, being rejected totally sucks. But ultimately, I was not rejected at all. I was accepted into the regular program, which means I am going to Japan.....
so.I.believe.that.is.a.mega.accomplishment.to.be.totally.proud.of.


This whole phenomena feels so strange, though. I anxiously waited for two whole months to be given the results of the scholarship, yet it literally feels as if I only sent in the application last week. So much has happened during the time when I waited so anxiously, almost apprehensively for the day where I would be told if I was awarded the scholarship I was so determined to achieve. Time actually "flew", and now I am only 3 months from going to Japan for a year. I began the application in August, the moment I returned from Japan, and that was 4 months ago. Truly unbelievable.


Now I will move on to what exactly happened within the last several hours (in a delicious nutshell):
My dad picked me up from my friend's house at about 4:50 PM, in a mad rush to the post office right across the street from our house which closes at 5 PM. Considering the car ride home usually takes a good 15 minutes or so, I was quite the opposite of tranquil (love this word). We arrived at 5:03-ish, the post office was thankfully still open, I ran to our mailbox/location where it is possible to extract mail, to find a letter from Youth For Understanding. A friend of mine told me at school this morning, that a big letter is a "good thing, as that is what they do in college" <-- . Taking that in mind: this was a small letter, and sure enough it gave me a long spiel on how I was not selected as a scholarship recipient, and I was among many qualified applicants etc. It was/is upsetting! I have many reasons to think that I should have won, therefore I feel that I truly deserved the scholarship, practically. Being rejected is not fun at all, especially when one is intensely serious regarding the outcome. Despite all this, however, I will stay positive, the scholarship gave priority to certain schools and people with backgrounds relating to the war(not making an excuse), plus I was accepted into the regular program, which is what I originally always desired. Keeping a positive and open mind at all times, which is a major rule I stressed in my application, is key. I shall look at the bright side of affairs, as I quite obviously am extremely fortunate to be able to study in Japan for a year, with a 8MP webcam, laptop, and marvelous digital camera :O

Thank you so much for reading!! I know this was more of a negative post at the beginning, so I am sorry if that was at all awkward to read. I am/was also quite rushed throughout the process of writing this post as I have an astonishing amount of "stuff" to attend to. Oh, and to M.N, I did not mean to accuse you of anything. My lovely Asian goddess.

STAY POSITIVE EVERYONE! I will post again updating you all on the phone conference happening this Friday from 3-5 PM! I am so excited!! :D




4 Down, 3 to go

Preparation before the Phone Conference

So, Anita and Henry (two applicants who also applied for the James Bradley scholarship), received letters from YFU stating that they did not win the scholarship. This seriously irritates me considering how they are both totally worthy of the scholarship award--plus they both received results before any other applicants I know of. As of now, me and Natalie (sorry for not mentioning these people before! I am actually in contact with many exchange students heading to Japan next year) are the only applicants yet to be determined as scholarship winners...apprehensive.

However, I did receive a letter in the mail containing various preparation papers, and some information on the phone conference taking place this upcoming Friday (12/11, according to my Japan calendar wink wink ;) ), which is super exciting!! I have a departure checklist, with advisable objectives to accomplish before leaving the country--such as, getting my passport (obviously I have that, going to Germany every year), small gifts for the host family, cleaning up my affairs...lmao wink wink, and making arrangements with my school for credits and required subjects. Speaking of credits, I have actually been fulfilling any confusion regarding that these past several months, by making arrangements with the guidance office and having meetings with various school officials etc. (This is advisable for any prospective exchange students by the way). -->I am planning to take Oceanography from January to June through Virtual High School for half a Science credit, and from September to January I hope to take an Algebra II/Geometry class for half a Math credit, again through Virtual High School. Currently I am also taking American History through BYU Independent Study (of course I would never slack off on this....>_>) since I dropped AP US History as it was essentially killing me. Plus, I will be gone during the AP Testing term, so there is no real point in taking an Advanced Placement class this year. The thought of class taking in Japan is still one of my major worries though (I believe I have mentioned this in every post). Math is the epitome of my dislike for school. 幾何学が嫌いよ！高校が大嫌い理由は数学授業だ。　：）

Oh, something else I found in my preparation papers I found hilarious, was that they were apparently directed towards students coming to America as exchange students. For instance, I received a paper titled: How To Be A Lovable Exchange Student, and it lists advice such as: "Study English and try to speak it as much as possible" and "Realize that you have assumptions about American life and culture, and that some of them might be wrong". lol, I laughed

So anyway, I will probably post again once I am revealed as a scholarship winner or not. Considering I am going to need several thousand $ of spending money...I really hope I win the scholarship. I will need a lot of money for when I travel to Korea during one of my Japanese school vacations. I have always seriously wanted to go, and I am currently self-teaching the language alongside Japanese!　韓国に旅行したい　：）


Thank you for reading!!!

Acceptance

Hello everyone!

On Thursday November 19, 2009, I received a call from the Foreign Exchange program Youth for Understanding.
I was on the computer listening to a song by the artist Eiko by way of youtube. I had been hearing the song quite often on Japanese T.V. (the song's title is あの子の夢 by the way) being played as the main theme for the Japanese drama Welkame (no idea where the name comes from). While singing along, my dad abruptly interrupts my vocal session by suddenly entering my room and transfering the phone to my hand. Now as I hope you can imagine I was very confused, but when the phone speaker greeted my ear, I heard a message from a YFU representative stating...........


that


I was accepted into the program.



I have never been this happy in my whole life. I had been patiently (not really) waiting for months until the moment of absolute truth, and it came. The first post I wrote titled 'Anticipating', was really written based on my aspiration of being accepted, and as a result I had absolutely no idea whether I would be accepted or not. Now I know, and now I am the happiest little man alive.

I have yet to discover if I am the winner of the James Bradley Peace Foundation scholarship or not, but quite frankly I am just blissful that I am now offically accepted into the program. No more, "wondering if I am on the waiting list", "there may not be enough host families" or anything of the sort.
My dream came true!

Now, for any prospective exchange students who are waiting or will be waiting for their respective moment of truth, I wish you the best of luck and I truly hope (and believe) that your hard work pays off/will pay off!! Waiting is understandably the most painful part of the application process. The waiting causes so many negative thoughts and worries...but it is all beyond worth it in the end. And if you are not accepted, stay positive. There will be more opportunities later in life to go on exchange, and if you look at the whole thing positively, it is actually very beneficial if you are not accepted, lol. For one thing, you will have more time to study the language and research on foreign exchange!!!　だから頑張ってくださいよ！

Currently, I am actually working on figuring out my high school courses issue while I am in Japan. In September, I spoke with my guidance counselor at length about credits and classes, and she said I will finish off my sophomore classes when I return from Japan at the beginning of 2011. I also spoke with my local representative later that month, and I am currently figuring out courses (especially math and science) with other foreign exchange alumni/current exchange students on the cultures shocked forums. Since Essex High School only allows 2 credits of online study to be transfered onto my transcript, I am currently considering an online Math course (most likely Algebra II) while I am in Japan alongside my US History class which I am currently supposed to be finishing through BYU. Since I have only been studying Japanese for a year, I understandably do not have a high school level of proficiency in the language quite yet, and since I have a hard enough time not failing math when taught in English, I honestly do not see how I will survive a math class taught in Japanese. Of course, I will need to talk to my teachers in Japan if I cannot contact my Japanese high school beforehand.
Currently I am hoping they will give me some time to adjust to my surroundings and improve in the language before I am actually tested (if I even will be tested). I am told that Japanese science is literally impossible to follow if not fluent in Japanese, and Japanese Classics is precisely a sadistic nightmare, which sounds just marvelous. Apparently they learn even more kanji that is actually nonexistent in modern Japanese! JOY!

Well, as long as I can obtain a Math credit and maintain my knowledge in math, I am happy. Considering math is clearly my weakest point academically, I think it is what I should spend my second online credit on. I am currently being tutored and am studying math much more. It is not enjoyable, but I will stay positive!

Everything should become clearer in time. I will be attending a conference in Boston on December 6th, and I will also be meeting with the guidance counselor in charge of online classes at my high school.

Ok, NOW, I will sleep.

Thank you so much everybody! I will probably post again once I have my conference in Boston.

Stay happy!

-Oliver

Anticipating

Hello everyone!

My name is Oliver Nolte, and I will be going to Japan for a year starting in March through the organization, Youth for Understanding. I applied for the James Bradley Peace Foundation, along with full tuition in case I am not accepted for the scholarship.

Now I know this post may be somewhat unnecessary, but I just felt that I should start an introduction to my new blog NOW, while I am still an infant to the entire blog concept. I kind of want to see how I improve over the next year and a half in my blog skills.
I very recently made this blog yesterday actually, as an act of procrastination to avoid my English homework. I received the punishment however, by staying up until 2 AM finishing my reading of Huck Finn. I had a Geometry test today as well, and, well....goodness, I wonder how I will deal with Math in Japan. It is by far my weakest point in academics.

When I arrived home today, I actually talked to several other YFU applicants and recent alumni by way of facebook, who just went to Japan this summer/past year. It was very fun, and felt great to be able to talk with other eager applicants who are dreaming about Japan as well. I actually spoke with a particular applicant for quite a while today through facebook Henry!!!!), and we discussed the application process and acceptance. I have a small anxiety with the thought that I may be on the waiting list, and as a result may end up not being able to go to Japan. With all of the preparation and effort I have put into this ambition, being "rewarded" with denial would be beyond depressing. Right now, going to Japan is my main motivation, and the thought of being able to live in Japan for a year is what currently drives me in...academics.
I will try to stop worrying though, AND HAVE A POSITIVE MINDSET :D

Another fear I currently have is the thought of going to a Japanese school. As of now I have read ABUNDANT blogs of YFU exchange students in Japan, and just reading their posts of the first adventure into a Japanese school is enough to make my body all tingly. Goodness gracious! Making an announcement in front of a ton of students on a stage is a downright scary thought! Though actually, in a way I do hope that my school has me make the announcement/introduction as well, just to create some immediate prominence and have the students actually like, know what kind of person I am. This event should prove useful in making friendships! And then people will help me in Math!! Though I most likely will not participate at the same level as the other students in most of my classes (there is a language barrier), Math is a subject I will always need assistance with.

So these are my current thoughts a month before the truth will appear! This is all so nerve wracking! I...I WANT THE RESULTS NAO!!!

Thank you!