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!!!