Just about eight months ago, while sitting in my second year Spanish class at West Valley High School, I listened to a presentation about Rotary's Youth Exchange Program. The presentation was given by some friends of mine named Kate and Robin, and I had heard about their experiences abroad, but never really gave the idea of leaving home for a year any thought. That is, until that day, on a whim I took a flier home to my dad and asked him if we could go to an informational meeting just of the heck of it. I'm not actually sure where I would be today if he had said no, and we hadn't gone to that very first meeting... All I know is that it life would not be the same if we hadn't gone. After filling out the paper work and going through the interview, I got the much anticipated phone call that said I was accepted as a Rotary Exchange Student, and thus began my journey.
It felt like years waiting to find out which country I would be going to. Luckily, I had three great friends in Fairbanks that were in the same boat as me; Cigne Torres, Annie Ruth, and Andrew Maxwell. We were scheduled to find out our country assignments at Winter Orientation down in Girdwood, Alaska at the Alyeska Ski Resort. As we boarded the plane, each of us knew anything could happen, and anything that did happen would be amazing. The first part of the weekend was spent getting to know the other Outbounds (people like me who are going on exchange this coming year), Inbounds (the people from around the world on exchange in Alaska), and Rebounds (the people from Alaska that just got back from their exchange). We also got the chance to learn about the different countries that we could possibly be placed in, and other general information about Youth Exchange itself. All of this led up to the main event though, the Country Assignment Banquet.
The night of the Banquet, I got all dressed up and made my way down to the large room where it was being held. Everyone present at Winter Orientation was there, you could feel the anticipation coming off the other Outbounds, I myself couldn't sit still! We listened to different speakers, and had dinner, but to be truthful I didn't hear most of it, I was too preoccupied imagining being placed in each of the different countries. I did check back into the proceedings when the Inbounds and Rebounds came walking into the room with the flags of their different countries, and envelopes containing the names of the new Outbound going to each of the countries walking through that door. As I listened to my new friends names being called out, and saw pictures being taken of them, I counted down the number of countries left for me to be placed in. Finally, two boys walked up on the stage, one named Kaden and the other named Ilkka, with them they carried a Finnish flag and an envelope. Kaden opened up the envelope and gave a quick introduction in Finnish, but what he said after that was the beginning of something wonderful. In unison, Ilkka and Kaden read off, "Welcome to Finland, Katie Cadigan."
Today I find myself at the two month mark. I am in contact with my first host family, and have three others lined up for me. My town is called Espoo, it is 15 minutes by bus outside of Helsinki (the capital), and my school is named Haukilahden Lukio. My Visa paperwork is all taken care of,
and I took my trip to L.A. for my Residence Permit (a story for a different
post). Now begins the game of hurry up and wait, and I have a feeling these two
months will go by very slowly. But hey, every day is one step closer to my
new life in Finland.
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