HOST FAMILY(S)!!!!!!!!

At about two o'clock yesterday (May 30th) my cell phone's new email alert went off. My phone tells me when I have a new email, but won't let me see it. At first I wasn't going to bother checking because I tend to get a lot of junk email to that email address, but I decided to check it anyway. When the page loaded up, I saw the an email from a Magnus A. (I'm not going to post the full name here) I thought it was an odd name and figured it was one of those "You've won a million dollars, just fill out your name, birthplace and social security number" sort of emails, but then I looked at the subject line. It read: "Hello from your family in Sweden!"

My house in Sweden!!!

The email was from my host father, Magnus. He is 48 years old and works as an account manager at an advertising agency. His wife, Anna, is also 48 and has her own business as a physiotherapist. They have three sons, Johan is 18 and went to Minnesota last year on exchange, Axel is my age (16) and he will be in Houston, Texas next year, and their youngest son Oskar is almost 12. They also have a six year old Irish Setter named Gibson. They live in a beautiful house (pictured on the right) in a neighborhood right out side of Göteborg, the second largest city in Sweden. Göteborg was the city I was hoping for in the first place, though I did not actually think I would get it seeing as a lot of kids go on exchange to Sweden and not all of them can go to a city. I would have been happy with anywhere, but I am so ecstatic, because it seems like such an amazing city. Also, since I have spent pretty much my entire life in a ranching town of 15,000, a city of 600,000 will be a nice change of pace.

Back row: Axel, Johan, Magnus   Front row: Anna, Oskar, Gibson

After I responded to the email, I posted to a facebook group for exchange students headed to Sweden for the 2011-2012 year about my host family. A few minutes later, a girl named Ellen who is from Sweden going to Japan next year commented saying this:

Danni...I think you will come to my family as well! And I know your family ( I think...) If they have a son named Axel. I live in Göteborg, and together with two other families mine will have three different exchange students, one from colorado. Do you play the cello??? :D

So I commented saying that, yes one of my host brother's name is Axel and yes I play the cello. So it turns out that her family will be my second or third host family. Ellen also plays the cello, so I can use her cello while I am there, which is great because bringing musical instruments as large as a cello on planes is extremely difficult. I don't know too much about Ellen's family yet, only that she has two younger brothers. She also told me the name of someone that will possibly be my third host family. I haven't heard anything about what school I'm going to or anything from my host club, but I'll update you when I know more.

Anna and Gibson!

Having all of these brothers will definitely be something I'll have to get used so, seeing as I have one sister, I'm hosting a girl and the only male I've ever lived with is my father.I'm also very glad that my family has a dog. I have two dogs, a black lab named Maddie and an Australian Shepard, Blue Healer mix named Max. I got Max when I was three years old so I've pretty much had a dog my entire remembered life. I was worried about what I would do without a dog, so now if I am upset I can play with Gibson or take him for a walk in the huge park near my house.

That's all for now, I'll update you when I find out more!

Hay Days and the End of American School (for now)

I haven't written in a while, and I don't really have much of an excuse, considering I have had plenty of time. Nothing exchange related has really happened, but a lot of interesting things in my life have happened.

Two Saturdays Ago: My exchange sister, Vee, had a fund raising Thai dinner to raise money for her USA tour. My mom, outbound friend Carli, and the club president Joe and his wife, Jan, started cooking around two o'clock. The dinner actually started around six but there was a lottttt of food to make. The food was amazing and it was really great getting to know some the members of the Rotary club.

Vee and Me in front of the plane

Two Sundays Ago: Mike and Carol, a couple from my mom's Rotary club, took Vee and I flying in a small plan around my town. I got a little motion sick, but it was really fun.





Two Mondays Ago: When we pulled up at the school we saw all of the students standing around in the front courtyard. This is very strange and my school because hardly anyone hangs around outside in the morning. I went up to one of my friends and found out that the senior prank was putting 30 bales of hay in the commons of my school. It was old, moldy hay so the dust from it caused a fog in the school and eight teachers had been hospitalized from it. They tried to herd all 1,300 students over to the fair grounds next to the school but within about two hours about 4/5ths of the student body managed to escape. At about 10:00 the principal announced school was cancelled for the day. After that, Vee, Carli, our friend Anna and I went over to Carli's house for the rest of the day and jumped on her trampoline and just hung out. Later that night we got a call that school was cancelled until Thursday, but it started snowing on Tuesday and continued on until Friday so most of the hay days were spent inside.

This Friday was the last day of school. It was weird saying goodbye to everyone, thinking that about half of them I will never see again. School got out at noon, and after that Vee, Carli, Sequoia, Sequoia's boyfriend Seth and I went to a grocery store, bought a lot of food and walked to a park to have a picknick. It was a great end to school.

FAQ

Who are you?

I am Danni, I am 16 years old from Durango, Colorado.



Why are you here?

I am going on exchange next year, so I am making this blog to keep in touch with people back home and inform others of my exchange.



Where are you going?

I am going to Sweden

It is the dark orange country

Where/what is Sweden?

 You are unintelligent, but I will take pity and answer your question. Sweden in long peninsula country in Northern Europe. 



What do they speak there/ do you speak it?

They speak Swedish. I speak very basic Swedish but I will learn when I get there.



Is Sweden that country in the Alps where the Sound of Music was and they speak French and German?

No, that is Austria and Switzerland.



Why Sweden?

I didn't get to pick. My district picks for you, but I am very happy with their choice.



How long will you be there?

One year



When do you leave?

Around July 29th



Are you excited?

Of, course. How can you not be excited when you are doing something like this?


Are you nervous?

Of, course. How can you not be nervous when you are doing something like this?

July 29th?!?!?!

About two weeks ago I got my short-term residency application form for Sweden and I also found out my tentative departure date is July 29th to July 30th. That means about three and a half months or 109 days (why yes, I am counting). Seeing as I previously thought I would be leaving around mid to late August, this really came as a shock to me.

Another thing that has recently came as a big shock to me is the fact that me leaving is really going to have a big affect on the people I'm leaving behind.
Let me start from the beginning. My friend group is the sort that defies the social norm. You know, the norm that says high school will split your friend group apart? Yeah, that one. Well, my group, which one of my teachers affectionately (sort of) calls 'The Cult', have been together since elementary school. It's all a sort of complicated web, but I'll give you the basics: (I'm going to talk about each of my friends now, but if you don't really care you can skip over it)

From left to right: Becca, Me, and Carli

On the far left there's Becca, who I have been friends with since we were two years old. She can act sort of goofy and childish, but is also one of the most confident people I know, and not in the cocky sort of way. She's also the sort of person that can make you laugh even when you feel like dying.
On the right is Carli. She and I became friends in sixth grade. We are quite similar in many ways, especially how our brains work. Lately we seem to talk the most out of our group, because she is going on exchange to Romania so we always seem to be able to talk about something exchange related, which quite honestly gets on the nerves of everyone else, but we can't seem to talk about anything else.

Then there is Anna, the Australian. We met in sixth grade, but we became friends in seventh grade, then she moved to Australia half way through the year, and came back the summer before sophomore year. She can put up with Carli and I's constant exchange banter because she's basically been on an exchange before.
Sequoia just moved here a few months ago, but has easily melded into our group.
Katie is our adorable little genius blonde. She's one of the smartest people I know but can also be a stereotypical blonde.

Whitney

And finally, there is Whitney in the picture to the right. Whitney and I are both very similar in that we are not the most normal of people. It seems like Whitney has had the most trouble with me leaving, as she gets along best with me.

Okay, now that you have sort of 'met' all of my friends, I will get on with my point. The other day Whitney and I were sitting in our school's theater after school because that's what us theater kids do, but anyway, Whitney started to tell me how she was worried about what next year would be like. It was then that I realized I was being sort of selfish. All I had thought about was what my next year would be like, but I never thought about what it would be like for Becca, Anna, Whitney, Katie and Sequoia. I had considered what my parents would do without me. I am the youngest out of two. My older sister moved out for college last year, so the house will be empty. My parents are nervous about it, but they are looking forward to being able to travel without having to worry about missing school and that sort of thing.


Sorry for the rambling of this post, I am still on Lortab from my wisdom teeth surgery, and Lortab seems to make me ramble and become rather deep, so disregard the confusingness of this post.

Finally Started a Blog

ME

Well, I had my wisdom teeth taken out this morning, and seeing as it hurts to do anything but lie in bed, I figured now would be a good time to start my blog.
Let us start with the basics:
My name is Melissa Danielle, but everyone just calls me Danni. I am sixteen years old and have spent my entire life living in Colorado. On December 23rd, 2010, I found out I was accepted into the Rotary Youth Exchange Program to spend my junior year abroad in Sweden. 

I don't really know how I decided I was going to do a foreign exchange, but my parents claim I have been talking about it ever since I was three years old. So, when high school rolled around, I started doing research into various exchange programs. I finally decided on Rotary because my parents and I liked the sort of family that comes with Rotary, the constant support and the low cost. I sent in my application in the beginning of October and my local interview was a month later. I was accepted locally a week after, then the district interviews were at the beginning of December. There were 42 candidates from all around Southern Colorado, competing for the 28  open spots, which was the most my district had ever seen. By the second day of the three day long selection process, there were only 34 of us left, which goes to show just how stressful it was.

Three weeks after the district interviews, we got our letters in the mail. These letters were all the 34 of us who applied could think about for those long weeks. The day during my school's winter break when I saw on Facebook that people were starting to get their letters, was the most exciting and most terrifying day of my life so far. Even though I knew the mail would get there until around 5 O'clock, I walked up to the mailboxes at the front of my neighbourhood at 2:00, in a snowstorm, and sat there waiting for 3 and a half hours (the mail was late that day). When that letter was finally put into my box, I grabbed it and ripped it open. My hands were shaking so hard when I tried to pull it out of the envelope, that I almost dropped it, but I got a quick glimpse at the letters spelling out: CONGRATULATIONS! I was so excited about being accepted that almost forgot to keep reading the letter to see where I was going, and my mom says that I started making strange squealing noise, but I don't remember if I did or not. Finally when my hands steadied enough I lifted the flap of paper and read: SWEDEN!

District 5470 2011-2012 Outbounders

Here is a picture taken at my district orientation of all 28 outbounders and our district chairman with our host country flags. I'm right in the middle, behind the guy in the grey suit.

People often ask me 'Why did you pick Sweden?' and in all honesty, I didn't. In my district, Rotary basically chooses your country for you. We told them our top three choices, which they took into consideration, but essentially it was their decision. My top choices were Germany, Austria and Denmark, but I am so glad I was picked for Sweden. The more research I have done, the more I realize that I am truly Swedish at heart, and there is no way they could have picked a better country for me (Well, at least from what I have read, I haven't actually been to Sweden yet XD).