Hello! From Erica the CBYX Scholarship Recipient

Guten Tag!

Ich heiBe Erica Ma, und Ich spreche nicht gut Deutsch.

Well, as I have mentioned in some of my earlier posts: I AM GOING TO GERMANY FOR ANY ENTIRE YEAR!!!!! I am going to Germany via a program called the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange. The company FLAG chose me to become a recipient, as they are in charge of the Southwest region of the United States. They chose 50 wonderful recipients this year, all of whom I had the pleasure of meeting during the on-site orientation in Michigan.
You can find out more information through this link: http://www.usagermanyscholarship.org/
So far, I have gone through three phases after receiving the scholarship:

(1) UTTER SHOCK: I couldn't believe I was going to Germany. I started to go on German stores to do all my online "window" shopping, etc. I even began to read my news in German, only to find out I couldn't understand 99.99% of what was written.

Then I moved on to (2) IDLENESS: The excitement slightly wore off as I had to take a bunch of vaccination shots and wait for final plans about my stay in Germany. I still am very excited about going to Germany, but the anticipation for more information about my host family, the part of Germany I will be living in is killing me!!! But, patience is a virtue that will help me get through the year living with a completely different family. I try not to think about the whole process, and I just hope that I wasn't too picky as I was filling out the forms for compatibility.

After my "idleness" stage I moved on to (3) OH NO phase. This mainly has to do with my mom's worrying. I know my mom cares very much about my safety in Germany, but some of the things she worries about are over the top. For example, she keeps telling me if I don't do my chores, I will be sent to court in Germany. I have a feeling this is only to get me to do more chores at home, and I really hope this is the most of her worries and mine too.

Anyways we officially have 25 more days before our group of awesome kiddies leave for Germany. We will be staying at a small village called Hedersleben, where our main focus will be language learning!

I still can't believe I have this amazing chance to go to Germany. I really thank all those who are making it happen, from my parents to the FLAG staff. Hopefully the awesome people in Germany have an easy time finding a host family for me!

Bis Später!

Erica the Argonaut