A Celebration of Goodbyes

Saying goodbye isn't fun, and I'm sure that this will become all the more apparent to me in the next week as I bid farewell to those who matter to me most.

Despite this, though, I decided to celebrate goodbyes with a going away party. As it turns out, having a sizable group of people gather at an even centered around you can be a little stressful, and I spent the afternoon of my party running around hopelessly trying not to ignore or abandon anyone, and unavoidably failing at this. So I'm sorry if you were one of the people who I missed in my frantic quest. I also realized at the end of the party that I had completely forgotten to eat all of the delicious food that we had prepared, and that it was now all gone. Note to self: next time save some food aside for after the party.

As much as I will complain, the going away party was a wonderful experience, and I am so grateful to everyone who came out in the fog and made it a special evening. I got to reconnect with old friends, got to know new ones even better, and tried to forget that I was saying goodbye for a year.

Before the party, we set up a wacky little photo station so that I could force my friend to take crazy pictures with me(shout out to my sister Coco and my new friend Sophia for being so helpful in setting it up!!). Pre-party I was definitely wondering how people would feel about the props and costumes, but once the cameras came out, we had a blast with the photos. Here are a few of my favorites from the ones that people have sent me so far(if you are reading this and you have photos on your phone, please please please send them to me. Thanks!!).

Before my party I also made a stack of little folded cards, and the idea was that people could write something that would make me laugh or smile in them, and I would read them once I got to Italy. I have since counted the written notes, and there are almost 50 for me to read in Italy. It is taking some serious willpower not to open them right now and read them, but I am very excited to read them when I am feeling down on exchange.

Though stressful, it was truly a wonderful chance to see so many of my friends before I leave, now that the clock it ticking down. Speaking of which, do you like my new countdown timer that goes to the second of when my first plane leaves from San Francisco? It surprises me every time I look at it with how close the date is getting!

16 Days

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of excitement in the youth exchange world.


I finally received my visa from the Italian consulate, and immediately began to figure out a departure date. Most RYE students going to Italy leave sometime in the first two weeks of September. I knew that I wanted to get to Italy as soon as possible so that I would have time to settle in before school starts, and I got lucky. I will be departing from the San Francisco International Airport bright and early at 7:00 AM on September 2. This means that my family and I will drive to San Francisco on September 1st and spend the night as it is a 5-6 hour drive. I will arrive in Trieste, Italy on September 3 at around 4:00 in the afternoon. The travel time isn't quite as long as it seems since I will be ending up in a time zone which is 9 hours ahead of California, but it will still be a full 24 hours+ of traveling, not to mention the traveling just to get to the airport ;).

And so there we have it. 16 days. I expected to be freaking out at this point, and I wasn't wrong, but what I didn't expect is that I am actually more happy excited than I am terrified excited. Now before you go questioning whether I should actually be going on exchange based on that last statement, please do remember that I am going to a country where I will have a very limited ability to communicate verbally and I don't know the people or culture. I think that I am allowed to be a little bit terrified at some points---but for now it is great to be riding a high of excitement.


In other RYE news, my rotary club's 2015-2016 inbound Sophia from Sweden arrived several days ago. Sophia and I had met over Facebook and Skype, and it was so much fun to meet her in person at the airport at midnight. The excitement of getting to know her and anticipating her arrival was a great distraction from the lengthy period of time waiting for my visa and departure date. While meeting Sophia at the airport, I also got to meet another inbound who is now staying in Eureka, Mia from Denmark.

A wonderful airport welcome for Sophia! Mia is the first person on the left in a pin-adorned blazer. Next to her is Sophia(also in her blazer), and next to Sophia is me being a terrible representative of youth exchange without my blazer...haha.

Hopefully there will be a few more updates before I depart, as the last few weeks will be filled with exchange related events and many, many bittersweet goodbyes.

On that note, Arrivederci, e a presto!