22 days

So it's almost the end of the semester and my days in State College are numbered...We got news today that all of my visa stuff is at the Embassy, it's approved, so I should be getting that soon. It will be a relief when that's over with. I'm pretty sure everything else is handled too...like documents and health stuff for AFS. I'm actually really surprised, because I have my host family and my visa and I still have time before I leave. I'd figured that once I landed in Miami I would get all that stuff last minute. Even though all of that is straightened away, I feel even more stressed. I still have lots of work to do in the classes I have to keep taking when the semester is over. I have to finish that Culture-trek booklet. I should probably learn some more Spanish. And now I'm finally realizing everything that I'm leaving behind in State College. I'm leaving my parents, my friends, some of which will have graduated. When I get back everything will be different (or maybe exactly the same?). Ugh. Hopefully everything will have sorted itself out by then. With that, I'll leave you with some pics of my host sister. She's sooo adorable! And btw, that's not my host brother in the 1st foto, I don't know who he is, but it's such a good picture of her :-) She's on the right in the 2nd.

Flight Information

So today we finally confirmed my flight to Miami with STA. I'll have a three hour lay-over in Atlanta, and then when I land in Miami I'll have two hours to get to the Embassy Suites for our Pre-Departure Orientation. I also foun out from my mom that there was a mix up at UPS and they sent us the wrong document for my visa. We were supposed to get my criminal record (haha or lack-there-of) stamped with an apostille, but instead they sent us some receipt from and Egyptian Bank. That's the last document I need before we send everything in to the Argentine Embassy so they can give me a visa. This whole visa thing is more complicated than I was anticipating......

Delta Airlines. Flight: DL4797. Class: Coach. Seats: Confirmed
1.
Depart: State College at 7:20AM
Arrive: Atlanta Hartsfield Intl Apt 13-Feb-08 at 9:16AM
Wednesday

13-Feb-08
Air Delta Airlines. Flight: DL1099. Class: Coach. Seats: Confirmed
1.
Depart: Atlanta Hartsfield Intl Apt at 12:10PM
Arrive: Miami International Apt 13-Feb-08 at 1:58PM

Weeeeeeeeeeeee! Only 28 more days until I'm in Buenos Airesssss!

Host Family

I just got my host family! I haven't actually gotten the official word from AFS yet, but the other day I got an e-mail from my host sister. Her name is Victoria and she's 15, and I'll also have a 12 year old brother named Martin. I'm really excited because I'm an only child. My father is an accountant and they also have a dog and a few birds. My school is called Don Bosco and I think it's Catholic which means...uniforms! That is probably a good thing, at the very least I won't show up for the first day of school wearing something really weird. The town, or should I say city, is the biggest in Patagonia, with about 350,000 people. Thank god. The city is called Neuquén, the capital of the province of the same name.

Introducing Bethany's Exchange Blog

Hey everybody! As you probably already know, I'm spending Spring Semester '08 in Argentina. I plan to keep this blog to write about my experiences and keep everyone at home updated. Today I was officially accepted into the Argentina program (finally), so I decided to use this opportunity for my first post.

My goals for this exchange:

Learn as much Spanish as humanly possible in 6 months
Make new international friends
Break out of my comfort zone
Be more confident
Become more worldly and informed

I have no idea what this exchange is going to bring, but I'm simultaneously excited, nervous, ecstatic and worried.

29 days!