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!

Posting Comments: How-To

Lately I have had multiple people come up to me to tell me that they tried to post comments on my blog and it didn't work, or they just didn't know how. This is sad because I would love to hear your questions, comments, what you thought, or just a hello! So I have decided to do a quick little tutorial on posting comments so that you can learn how if you are confused, or if you have been having problems you can check out how I post comments. This is a little bit long and dry, but please stay with me if you are confused or ever see yourself posting comments, because it really does make my day to know that people are reading and enjoying this!

Before we begin, here's a quick definition of what I consider to be comments: I consider "comments" to be the little snippets of text(comments) from multiple people which appear at the bottom of a post on blogs. I can read them and respond to them, you can read them and respond to them, and so can everyone else who happens to read the blog. Anyway, here goes:

First of all, lets talk about things that might look like great ways to post comments on my blog that actually are not ways to comment on my blog.

This little box that shows up at the right hand side on the screen can be a bit confusing:

Contrary to popular belief, this box is actually not for posting comments on the blog. When you fill out this handy dandy little form, you are actually sending a message straight to me. It's basically a way for readers to email me, except for that I don't have to give out my email address to the internet. I  still get the message in my email. This is great if you want to write a message or have questions specifically for me, as no one else can see the message except for me once you have sent it. I can also reply specifically to you, without answering to the world as well.

This little box which is also on the right hand side a little further down is also not for comments:

If you put your email in here, then whenever I post something new on my blog, it will pop up in your email, and you don't have to continually come to my blog to check if I've posted anything(but you should still come back and leave comments because I love to hear from you :)  How cool is that?!

Alright, now lets move on to how you actually comment on a post. I will use my most recent post, "Honorary Consul Visit: Fresno", as an example for now.

Here's what the post looks like:

Alright, now take a look at that little orange phrase, "No comments" at the bottom. It is right below the dotted line below the text of the post. If there are already comments on the post, it will say "two comments" or "three comments" instead of "no comments". Click on it! Even if you don't want to post a comment, if you just want to read the comments that are already there, this is the button to click.

When you click on "No comments", a form like this will pop up:

Now you can type whatever you want to say in the white box that says "Enter your comment". Once you have written you comment, you can click on that little gray box that says "Google Account" to change how you post your comment. If you click on that grey box, a menu like this will pop up:

Basically all that this means is that if you have an account with any of these sites already, you can log into them so that you will be identified in the comment that you post. If you don't have any accounts, you can either choose "Name/URL" or "Anonymous". You can always say who you are in your message in the little "Enter your comment" box as well, if you are unsure how this all works. 

And then once you have written your comment, go ahead and click the blue "Publish" button! I will get an email alerting me that you have commented, and I will probably be so excited that I will just have to come back to my blog and reply to your comment. If you want to test out comments, feel free to comment on this post and I will be sure to reply to you and let you know that your comment has been received. 

Also, if you try to comment and it seems like it is not working, please do let me know so that I can either help you out or try to fix the problem. If you have any more questions or any of this is unclear, let me know and I will try to answer your questions/clarify because you are probably not the only one who is confused.

Thank you so much for reading through such a long and likely very boring post, but I hope you now know how to post comments, and I look forward to seeing you in the comments very soon!

Honorary Consul Visit: Fresno

Finally, after the crazy-making stacks of paperwork had finally been completed, we got to drive down to Fresno to submit the paperwork to an honorary consul. Fresno. I know. Luckily we had an early morning appointment in Fresno so we didn't bake to death in the heat....when we told the barista at the coffee shop that we visited that morning that we were from really northern California---where it was cooler---he said "Ohhhh, that's why you guys are so chill. Everyone here has been going crazy from the heat!" We definitely struggled to suppress a laugh with that one. Anyway, I have to admit that I was a teensy bit nervous going into the appointment---we had spent over a month getting ready, and I was really hoping that we had everything that we needed. Plus, the appointment was in one of those really fancy law offices, with gold vases and marble countertops and such...a little intimidating. So, it was much to our relief and surprise when the honorary consul stepped out of his office in shorts and bare feet, apologizing for his "casual Saturday" attire. The appointment went without a hitch, and I am proud to say that if everything goes well, the paperwork that we submitted should have already been mailed to the San Francisco Italian Consulate, and if my application is approved, my passport with an Italian visa should arrive back to me in several weeks! Every step that gets checked off of the list just gets me closer and closer to Italy, and I am getting more excited with every little milestone!

A Little More Info on My Host Family

Over the past few weeks I have been fortunate enough to get in contact with my host dad, Alessandro, via Facebook. I sent him a few photos of my life in Bayside, and to my excitement, he sent me some back. I've gotten a lot of questions about my host family, so I figured I'd share the photos here!

This is my whole host family. In the back are Alessandro and Ilaria, my host parents, and in the front on the left is my host sister Alice, and on the right is my host sister Clio. Clio will be going on exchange to Mexico next year, so unfortunately I will not get to know her very well.

My host parents!

This hilarious grumpy-looking cutie is named Meringa.

And I'm also excited to meet their dog Chanel! 

This will be my host school next year!

I'm ecstatic to finally get a glimpse into my life next year...in the less exciting paperwork realm of things, we are getting closer and closer to applying for my Visa.....the amount of paperwork and craziness since it's for a whole year, I'm a minor, and I'm not even going with my parents is crazy(our stack of completed paperwork at the moment is nearly 2 pounds), but I know that it will all be worth in in the end.
Arrivederci a tutti!
~Trula

Drumroll Please.......

Ever since I found out that I was going to Italy, my mind jumped from the constant "which country am I going to?" question to the "but where in Italy am I going?". Unsurprisingly, not only were these questions constant companions in my head, but they were also ever-present as a question I got asked in daily conversation. By the District Conference at the end of April, not only was I tired of explaining that "no, I really have no idea where I was going", but also a tad bit jealous of everyone who did know.
Ever since I found out I was going to Italy, my daily email checking always began with a speedy scan of my emails, picking out anything out of the ordinary, any emails from senders that I didn't recognize, and getting extremely excited with anything out of the ordinary, only to realize after opening that it is not, indeed, communications from Italy, but instead a reminder to create a CollegeBoard account from my history teacher. Just a bit of a letdown.(ok. not going to lie...this kind of makes it sound like I ready to step right into a junk mail scam...but I'm careful! Promise!).
So it was with much excitement and hyperventilation that I opened a short, simple email from a supposed "Clio" on April 29. The subject was simply "Trieste!" so I really had no idea what it was, but upon opening I immediately was flooded with a similar excitement as finding out I was going to Italy. The email read,
"Hi! I'm Clio, your next family's bigger daughter. I'm going abroad too next year but we wanted to contact you to let you know our family. We also wanted to know what subjects you'd like to study here in Trieste so that we can enroll you to the most appropriate school! Let us know as soon as possible. Add me on facebook so that we can communicate with no problems! Hope to hear you soon, bye :" 

So, without further ado, I am ecstatic to announce that I will be spending the next year in Trieste, Italy! So where is Trieste? As soon as my eyes had bounced off of the email, I immediately went to my trusty friend google since I didn't even recognize the name "Trieste" let alone know much about it. As it turns out, Trieste is a port town of about 250,000 in very very very very very northeastern Italy, so extremely so that at first glance it doesn't actually appear to be a part of Italy at all! It is right next to the borders of Slovenia and Croatia, and should be a wonderful melting pot of cultures. Here's a little visual reference:

See the little red dot next to Slovenia? That's Trieste!

Here are some photos compliments of google images

See! Right next to the ocean!

Looking forward to the architecture....

While it's not Venice(venice is about a 1.5 hour drive away according to our other good friend google maps), Trieste does have one (I think) large canal.

Anyway, I do not know much about my host family yet other than the name of my host sister who emailed me (Clio) but will also be on exchange(in Mexico) next year, and the name of Clio's mom (my first host mother), Ilaria. I know very little about Trieste, so feel free to chime in if you know more than me. 

~Ciao!

Rotary District Conference--Yosemite!

After about a month of studying Italian, the Rotary District 5130 Conference was the last weekend of April. The district conference is an opportunity for all of the rotarians from District 5130 to gather(this year in Yosemite) to discuss the year in terms of rotary. All of the inbound and outbounds, along with a few rebounds, came to the district conference to present about Rotary Youth Exchange, explore Yosemite, and have one last orientation/get together before we all either leave for our host countries or return home. It was a great weekend full of driving, smiles, laughter, great people, and more driving. Picture time!(because everyone would rather look at pictures than read lots of writing).

Our crazy bus ride to Yosemite--first we had to drive 4 hours to meet the bus, then we drove 5 hours on the bus. 

Playing with our flags in the gym that we stayed in--very blurry since we were all running to get in the picture.

Practicing for our district conference presentation--most of us are still in PJs!

In Yosemite! We got to take lots of group pictures. It was raining even though there was some snow on the ground.

Buddies!

The whole group (everyone else at the falls was giving us some strange looks...though for the most part people found it pretty entertaining).

It was gorgeous in Yosemite!

    

Our whole group of exchange students during our official presentation at the district conference.

Final group photo at the district conference...this time we are all in our blazers!

All in all, it was great weekend. It was so hard to say goodbye at the end knowing that there are some people that we may never see again, but I think we were all grateful for the amazing friendships that we made.