Ally's Exchange Journey: July 2014

Hola!
This journey has been such a learning experience already and I am so grateful for this opportunity. This experience has allowed me to really learn a lot about myself and my limits as to what I can and can not take. It has allowed me to work on my time management and my ability to plan and do things on my own.

Since I have blogged last so much has happened! It's crazy and exciting and sad and just a mix of everything. I am proud to say how much my attitude towards Mexico has changed. I guess I have a few amazing girls and guys to thank for that. Alyssa Williams and Dallin Mckinney really helped me get through things, Alyssa answered countless questions I had and definitely assured me I was going to have the time of my life no matter where I was, and Dallin helped me alot with learning more Spanish. Also my amazing first host family has really helped me get excited. I haven't even arrived and I already feel so welcomed. I have two awesome host sisters though one will be on her own exchange in Brasil while I am there. Carla, my host sister, is 5 months younger than me and I can already tell we are going to be really great friends. We have a lot in common and I talk to her all the time. It was really sweet the other day when she sent me a picture of her calendar that had my birthday marked on it even though I would still be in the USA when my birthday came.

By that story you already know I have heard word from my first host family. I have also heard from my second host family. I my first host family there is mama Edith, papa Carlos, older sister Anna, and younger sister Carla, but Anna will be on her own exchange journey at the time I am living there. In my second host family there is, mama Vianey, papa Edmundo, older brother Edmundo, older brother Benjamin, and older brother Bernardo, but Bernardo will be on his own exchange while I am there and the other two sons both are out of the house.

I have just received my last piece of paperwork from Mexico so now I can go forward with getting my visa and my plane ticket. Almost exactly a month away I will be boarding a plane on the way to my exchange which I feel has already begun. Still to come I have to make pins for trading with other exchange students, do some more shopping so I have enough clothes for my trip, get my suitcases, pack for my trip, and much more.

Last time I blogged, I was hosting an exchange student, about two weeks ago my amazing sister flew back to Finland. I was very sad to come home to a room with two beds but only one girl. Now I am back to only brothers in the house but Veera will forever be my sister. I miss her a lot already but we are still in touch which is good. Here are some pictures from our time together

We had our last event with the inbounds last month which was very sad for me and everyone else. I had to say goodbye to some very amazing people that I had grown very close with and I miss them all so dearly. I happy that we could have the goodbye party though it was very fun. When it came time to leave I cried a lot because I had no clue when I would see them or if I would ever see them again. I made sure to give everyone I hug before I left many of them more than one hug and went on my way the night was very emotional though. Here are the pictures from the event.

Anna from Austria, One of my really best friends. I can't wait to go visit her