Could be 10 Days!!!

It could be 10 days until i leave... but less then 17 for sure. I still haven't heard from the travel agency yet and some of my friends are already overseas! I've got a few gifts for my host family but I still need a few more. Other then that I am ready to just pack up and go! Easier said then done I guess... I started cleaning out my room yesterday and realized that it is a long job.

Early July we had the Grand Rapids conference in Grand Rapids Michigan. there were just about 1500 people in attendance. This included just over 900 exchange students!! It was a lot of fun and I met a lot of awesome people... some of them involved with Switzerland in some way... went there, are going there, or are from there. So that was pretty cool. Even though some of the meetings there were really long... the speakers were for the most part really good. We got to listen to ALL of the rebounds give us advice for like and hour... some good... and some really bad.

I got to Grand Rapids with the show on Wednesday. We stayed the night in Sturgeon Bay on Tuesday and then took the ferry across Lake Michigan the next morning. The boat ride was really cool. They had bingo, movies and a whole lot of other things to do. Some of the best memories this past year came from working on the show. it was a lot of work.... but it was SOOO much fun.

Back to the conference.... they had a dance EVERY night. It was awesome!! With that many exchange students in a gym at a dance you know it has to be epic. The conference was held at Calvin College and we took over the dorms for the week. It was really hot and humid and the dorms didn't have air conditioning. Our curfew was 1am. But the last night which I think was the most fun... we had a dance until 12:30 then we had to be in our buildings at 1. But we didn't have a curfew for our rooms... we just had a big party in the basement the whole night. There was food and stuff for us down there. We had ping pong, pool, and other stuff like that too. We played random games of NINJA! We had random conversations, random pictures and other random things. It was like 4 and I just found a group of random people and joined in on their conversation for like an hour. Then I went upstairs with some people and put all the pins I got from the pin exchange on my blazer. (I got a lot!) then it was time to wake up so I went and packed.

As soon as we got onto that bus... we all passed out for a good 5-6 hours. Then it was time to say goodbye to everyone... which sucked... a lot. all I'm saying.

Two weeks before the Grand Rapids conference, we had an outbound party at Andrew's house. It was a lot of fun. We all got to know each other so much better. Andrew had a pool and a lake... and a lot of stuff to do. We had a fire and burned a hollow log. which was really cool.
Today Steve and Theresa Selvick came up from Sturgeon Bay to go to my clubs Rotary meeting. He came to my house for about an hour before that. Then we gave him a little tour of the town. It was good to see them again. Without Steve I wouldn't have been in the show.... and I probably wouldn't have been placed in Switzerland either. He has helped me a lot this year with everything. So thanks Steve.

So now I'm just waiting... and waiting to hear from my travel agent.