Almost there

This summer has been a blast, I've been able to relax and just have fun with my friends except, it's gone by WAY too fast!! I can't believe that in less than a month I will be flying off from JFK in New York City and going to ITALY! It's crazy to think about. I'm so excited, I count down the days and can not wait to leave! Every now and then I feel a little tinge of sadness though, it's crazy to think that I'm not going to see any of my friends or family for 10 whole months but then I remember I'm going to Italy and get over my it real quickly (;

I've been messaging with my host family a lot and they're so nice, I can already tell I'm going to get along great with them! I'm truly lucky with my placement (: Tomorrow I'm going shopping and buying them presents sshhh I don't want them to find out (; hehe and this weekend I'm going to Detroit with my family to get my Visa! Whoop! I'm so thankful for my mom who has been doing pretty much all the paper work involved with getting my Visa. Let me tell you, the paperwork takes hours and hours.. I'm so lucky to have my mom! I'm picking up my transcripts from school tomorrow and will be withdrawing soon. It's going to be so weird when my friends start school on August 22nd and I'm just bumming around at home doing Rosetta Stone! Speaking of Rosetta Stone, I just finished Level 1 tonight which is the compulsory level that everyone has to complete for AFS. It's soooo booorring doing Rosetta Stone but in this last month here I'm going to try and get through at least Level 2 because I know it's going to help me so much once I get there! Mi non piace Rosetta Stone (;

Also, I got my school placement and I'll be attending "Charles Darwin Liceo". On the website it says that it is a Liceo Scientifico, Linguistic and Scienze Umane school. Basically from what I've been reading, in Italy there's many different types of high schools and each have a concentration on certain specific subjects. Scientifico concentrates on Science and Math, Linguistic concentrates on foreign languages and so on. I'm hoping that I'll be able to be in the Scientifico school because I'm thinking that Math & Science will be the easiest subjects to understand, hopefully... haha and it'll help when I'm transferring my credits over! Oh yeah and my host cousin Alberto, who's the same age as me, is going to the same school! (:

It's awesome how connected AFSers are with one another, I've gotten so many friend requests from AFSers who are going to Italy from all around the world. A girl from Costa Rica messaged me the other day and we found out when we go to Italy, our cities will only be 2 hours from each other! A boy from Hungary messaged me and a girl who's going to Spain next year asked for some advice. I just think it's so cool how AFS kids are so connected. Even now, a month before we're even leaving, we already understand what each others going through. I can't wait to meet so many people who have the same travel aspirations as me! I just know that orientation in NYC and the flights to Rome are going to be a blast! (:

Well that's all for now! 29 more days till I leave for NYC <3
Buona notte (goodnight)
Jacqueline!