I HAVE MY HOST FAMILY!!

Ahhhh!!! It's so exciting!! It finally feels real and everything! It's definitely going to happen!!

So at about 12 today, at the end of my Geography class, my mum texts me to tell me to check my EF page, (like a mini Facebook for the exchange kids). Turning my laptop on, logging in and doing the few clicks it takes, I see that I have my host family!! I literately started to jump up and down in my seat and the biggest smile came across my face, I haven't stopped smiling yet!!
Anyway, so I've slid my laptop in my bag, and run to Claire, dumped my bag at the front of the room and started to jump up and down, screaming "I know where I'm going! I know where I'm going!!! Claire! Claire! I know where I'm going!!! I'm going to Nebraska! Nebraska!! In a little town called Randolph! Claire! I'm going to Randolph, Nebraska!!"
I have no clue how she understood me, because I'm pretty sure I sounded more like a dying animal or something like that....Didn't draw a single breath for the whole thing... So it was more like "IknowwhereI'm going!IknowwhereI'mgoing!!!Claire!Claire!IknowwhereI' going!!!I'mgoingtoNebraska!Nebraska!!Inalittle towncalledRandolph!Claire!I'mgoingtoRandolphNebraska!!"
   
So Randolph, Nebraska is where I'll be chilling in America, and literately, chilling...it gets down to -50 degrees, MINUS FIFTY! Freaking cold weather. I have a mum, dad and sister, no pets unfortunately, but I've Google Mapped the place, and my property is fairly large :D My school looks cool today, and the lunch menu is awesome...cookies, cake, cinnamon scrolls, tacos, pfft and all the American movies make out that cafeteria food is gross...sounds pretty alright to me! It's about 1 1/2 hours from Sioux City in Iowa, So I'll hopefully be able to visit my friend Tina who is 1 hr from Sioux City in the other direction :D

Ahh so happy!! I'm so pleased I've got my family! Makes it so much more exciting!! Probably stop here before I drone on and on about how happy I am about having my host family and everything :D

See that little coloured in red state? Yeah, that's where I'm going...Be jealous :D

Orientation Meeting

So since I last posted, I had my Orientation Meeting in the city, had to be at the venue at 10 so it could all start. In the lobby, I meet up with one of my sisters friends from school who's going to Germany the same time as me, but for a year. Went up to the room I had my meeting in, found my seat at the front with all my papers, shirt and bag, and talked to my friend, Claire, who's also going to the States at the same time until it started.
   Went through all the normal stuff, what to expect, what we're doing there yadda yadda yadda....then we had a break, ate some AMAZING biscuits that the hotel had made for us, met and chatted to a few of the people I've been talking to online, and talked to a returnee that had just come back in July.
    We then went back in for a second half, our exchange coordinator gave us each a lolly, then set the slide show back up,m and what's it about? Drugs, alcohol and sex...lovely I know...
    She did a brief, don't do drugs, we will find out...don't drink, we will find out, sex, think twice before you do it, then, think again about it, to close your door if you're going to, and not on the family lounge ;) Then she proceeded to tell us a few stories of people who stuffed up their exchange, one guy was caught drinking at a party and was sent home, one of a girl who sent a picture of herself in her underwear and was sent home, one of a girl who lied on her application and now my company can't use that area as host families because of what happened, and another of a girl who got caught doing the deed ;) while on exchange.
   After that, did a bit more of the basic stuff, don't go to a party that has alcohol or drugs, don't jig school that type of stuff.

In other news, I got all my Visa papers in the mail a few weeks back, all applied, now just have to go into the city to get it approved and some questions asked by the Visa people and I'll be all set to go!
  
Also, my friend Claire got a host family in Kentucky!! It's a pretty small town, only 1,500 people, about the size of my school, has four host sisters and a mum and dad! Looked up her house on Google Maps, and it looks beautiful!
   Haven't got mine yet, but hopefully soon :)

That's all for now :)
82 days!

100 days!

So it's only about 100 days until I leave for my exchange, pretty excited I must say :D
  I have an orientation day in the city next week, with all the other exchange students that live in or near Sydney, just about what to expect, finer details and all that jazz, so I'll get to meet some people I've been talking to over the past few months :)
  Also! One of the guys who's also going to the US next year, set up a big Facebook page for us all, so we've just all been chatting and talking about what state we want to live in, if we'll get our American licence over there etc.
  Then, one of my friends from Australia, who's going set up a smaller one for all the Aussies going :)
   Haven't got my host family yet, so anxiously waiting for the phone call from my co-ordinator saying that they've found me one, super pumped for that too.
  Got a massive list of everything I have to do before I leave too, and with my track record of laziness, half those things probably won't get done XD Including the top one - Clean my room.
  That's about all for today :)
Cya!

Holidays/Back At School/City

Well, since it's been a few weeks since I blogged, I'll just quickly go through what's happened lately

School Holidays!!!! Chilled at home. Watched movies, saw the premiere of Harry Potter 7 Part 2! and went to the snow.
   First of all, HP was epic. Truly amazing, Claire and I went together, dressed as Death Eaters (we're cool like that), even going as fart as drawing dark marks on our left forearm, (which unfortunately, is still stuck on my arm because permanent marker doesn't come off my skin!). Heaps of people were dressed up, including my sisters friend as Voldemort, and everyone was all excited!
   Sitting down in our seats and waiting for the movie to start we took loads of pictures of us in out hectic HP-style 3D glasses, pretty sure we pissed off the people behind us XD
   Then, when it the ads came on their was the first excited screams and yells, going through all the trailers, one came on for Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes? Not sure what it's called, but Tom Felton, (Draco Malfoy) was in it, and another chorus of screams went up.
   Cut to the actual movie, there was clapping and screaming when ever someone kissed/hooked up, tears shed when you saw your favourite chacters dead, and the clapping when something finally happened.
  
   Snow!!
Went to the snowy mountains, Batlow, stayed at my holiday house, saw my cousin and his parents, and went tobogganing, no skiing  this time :( but twas still fun, plenty of pictures and videos of us coming down the mountains :P

School :?
   Started back on Tuesday, only been there for four days and already looking forward to the next holidays in September? October? November?, yeah not too sure when they are but yeah. Though, it's good to see all my friends again I didn't catch up with in the holidays, and it's not too bad, I enjoy my classes.

City!
   So Today, I went to the city with Claire, for an information meeting for her for exchange! If she gets accepted, she'll be coming to America with me, not her first choice, which was Japan, but then will all the disasters over there her parents weren't too keen, Then It was England, but you have to have a British passport for that, then America : )
   So caught the train into Circular Quay, at about 9:30ish, had a bite to eat then went to the place it was being held and waited for the organizers to come, meet another guy and a chick also applying, who both seemed fairly nice.
   Having not gone to one when I applied, it was really interesting, and actually learnt stuff about my exchange year and host family placement that I wouldn't have known if I hadn't had gone.
   Then, when it was done, walked to Martin Place with her and her parents, caught the train back and went home :) Pretty good day even though I woke up at 7 for it.

Cya

By the way, if my writing is really bad today and doesn't make sense it's because I wrote it about five minutes :)
 

Les Mis

This time last week, my school's production, Les Miserables, finished. After four nights of ushering people to their seats and having to deal with some rather opinionated people, it ended with a bang and all was fun.
    After, all the cast and some of the crew stayed back to help take it all down, set, props and lighting. Me and two of my friends also helped the costume guy sort his stuff, which also included trying on hats and feather boa's, and fawning over gorgeous corsets.
    At about midnight, we stopped and chilled for pizza, soft drink and cake. Think we ordered about 70 boxes and they were all gone with in about 45 minutes, along with the bottles of drink. Pretty sure that would have been the biggest order Eagle Boys has ever had :P
   Then, the teacher who has organized it all, said that on the Tuesday, it could be Les Mis Shirt Day, where we could all wear our shirts to school with jeans or whatever to show we were involved. Having not got one, my friend and I went to go ask to get one. After he'd said yes and left us in the room to try on the sizes, we locked the door to the storeroom. Got our sizes and went to open the door.
   But it wouldn't open. -_-
Only us could get stuck in a hall storeroom at one in the morning with only about twenty people still about. In between laughing so hard we cried, having one of the main guys walk past the single window singing at the top of his lungs and not being able to hear us, knocking on the door and yelling out for help, the deputy principle finally heard us and came over to us, saying 'It's alright girls, calm down, we'll get you out. Just gone to get the key'.
   Ten minutes later, we were out, still cracking up whenever we looked at each other and laughing about how it could only ever be us to get stuck in a storeroom together.
   Definitely not one of our brightest moments. :D

   On a side note, Claire, now has a blog! http://www.ISwearImSane.blogspot.com

Not Much Going On...

Nothing is really happening at the moment, my school has its production next week which I'mm helping out with the props and stuff backstage. Kinda exciting, helping with a musical instead of just watching from the audience, be a nice change :)
  Also getting my stitches out tomorrow! After two weeks of being on crutches and wearing ugg boots to school!
    Haven't heard anything new about my trip but I've been talking to a few people who are also going, who seem pretty nice.
   In other news, got a book I've been waiting for, trying to pace myself through it so it lasts longer than four hours : D
    And that's about it.
Cya

Stitches :(

On Friday, also my birthday, I was smart enough to rip the webbing between my little toe and the one next to it. Resulting in a hell of a lot of blood, quite a bit of swelling and a toss of of going to casualty at one am in the morning!
  If you so desire to experience the pain of this, and I really do suggest that you don't, just jump off your bed. Yeah. That's how smart I am. Jumped off my bed to come down stairs for my cake and hey, massive pain!!
  So the next day, go to the doctors, hop about 100 metres and a few stairs, wait half an hour just to have the doctor tell you to go upstairs and get an x-ray. But, you have to take the stairs because there is no damned elevator!!!
  It's great fun, being 15 and having to crawl up the stairs like a baby then hop again to the x-ray guy's room, get it done, have him tell you that the bone may or not be broken so I have to go back next week to get another x-ray.
  Then you get to slide on your butt down the stairs back to the doctor who says, hey, maybe you broke a tendon under your toe instead, so you may want to go to hospital so they can cut your foot open further and tie it up! But before you go do that, go get an ultrasound done, then come back here so we can have a look!
  Yeah. Great idea. Not.
You can then get your dad to drive you and your mum to the other side of the shopping centre only to have the ultrasound place tell you that they close at 12 and there's not enough time to do it. Then, call your local GP and ask if they can just have a look at it and see if any of that is actually necessary.
  Wait for maybe, half an hour, then have her clean up all the blood with alcohol and day that, there's no tendons broken but your toe still might be.
  Have her then tell your that you're gunna need stitches - four of them, between your toes. She'll hold up a needle and say "This'll hurt like hell for a moment" you can reply with "What?" and she'll stick it into your foot/toe. You then get to bite down on your lip to keep from cussing!
  She leaves the room for ten minutes while the anesthetic kicks in and you can't feel your toe anymore! After chatting to your mum, the doctor comes back in and asks if you can still feel your toe, when you reply with yes, she'll give you another shot and then start to stitch you up, telling you how awkward of a place it is to stitch. While you get your mum to take photos of it on your phone! 
  You can leave after that, say your thanks and hop out to the car so you can go home, shower by washing yourself with a wet and soapy cloth a few times and get ready for your party that started at 1. If you're lucky, only one friend is there and you can have a laugh with her about it.
  Later, when you're guests are there, hop everywhere! You'll have great muscles in your right thigh by the end of it!
  And that's how you go about getting stitches the day after your birthday. :D

What it may just look like.