Grand Rapids, Going Away Party, Visa, and Departure!

The Grand Rapids Youth Exchange Conference was AWESOME!! I met so many people from so many countries, as well as others that are outbounds, like me! There was so much to cram into those few days, from the start of the day until the very end we were rushing from one meeting to the next, and there was a ton of helpful information, although half of the time the one speaker would say something and another would say something that contradicted the first speaker (this happened pretty often, but we got the general idea) Every evening after all the different meetings they would have a dance with pizza and soda, that was pretty sweet, because during the day their wasn't much time for anyone to socialize. The students in our district decided we wanted to make a T-shirt of our own, so we did. We wanted to have a District 6460 shirt that the other districts didn't have. Our shirts were pretty neat, but district 6460 already had made T-shirts for us. So we got two.

The last night of Grand Rapids we had district parties in the basement of the dorms. The started at 1a.m. and were supposed to end at around 3a.m. Now 6460 is the best district ever because our chaperons knew this was the last time we would be together before the exchange students went home, so the took us to a separate part of the building and, instead of sending us to bed, they let us stay as long as we wanted. Around 5:30a.m. I headed to bed and mostly everyone else was still there. When it was time to say goodbye that morning, everyone was exhausted and emotional, because nobody wanted to say goodbye. This was the last picture we got as a full group. Unfortunately several people left before Grand Rapids and are not in this picture.

After Grand Rapids the new Harry Potter movie came out. So we arranged one last get together in Galesburg. All of the Inbounds and Outbounds that were still in the USA and lived near Galesburg came out to watch it together. It was a good final get together since it was the end of Harry Potter as well as the end of their exchange year and the end of our preparation to be an exchange student. By the way the Harry Potter movie was AMAZING.

July 23rd Rebekah, Sage, and I had a combined going away party. It was allot of fun, and a good way to get together with everyone that I don't normally hang out with on a daily basis. The cake was pretty cool also, it had a Chilean flag, an Ecuadorian flag, and a Thai flag to represent the countries we will be traveling to. It also had a picture of the three of us. after the party at the park, we went back to my house and went for a swim which lasted until around 11p.m. It was a ton of fun!

Now I had all my paperwork submitted and received the information the the travel agent had received it by June 15th. She went on vacation until the 28th and on the 29th she sent it out to the consulate. On the 12th I was notified that the consulate had received my application and it would take 2 to 4 weeks. That mad me really nervous because I was supposed to leave in just 3 weeks! After the 25th I started to get really nervous and I had trouble sleeping because I didn't want to leave late! on the 27th my visa was approved and I got my Itinerary! That was such a Huge relief! The reason I didn't want to be late because My host Rotary club is having an orientation on the 5th of August. I will leave Galesburg Tuesday, August 2nd at 5a.m. and then stay with my Aunt in Uncle who live near Ohare Airport. I will arrive at the Airport at 2p.m. August 4th and depart for Atlanta, Georgia arriving there at around 8p.m. Then I depart the USA for Santiago, Chile at 10pm and should Arrive at 7:30a.m. on August 5th. So this is my last post before going to Chile!


Itinerary For Jacob Andrew Winters
07/27/2011 File Id: WIN357 Record Id: QN0XZ2
ROTARY INTERNATIONAL YOUTH EXCHANGE TRAVEL ITINERARY

AIR: 04 AUG 11 THURSDAY
DELTA FLT:1877 CONFIRMED NONSTOP
LV:CHICAGO/OHARE AT: 500P MILES - 606
AR:ATLANTA AT: 806P
GEORGIA
CONFIRMATION CODE-DL -G2I6YW
REFRESH AT COST

AIR: 04 AUG 11 THURSDAY
DELTA FLT: 147 CONFIRMED NONSTOP
LV:ATLANTA AT:1000P MILES - 4695
AR:SANTIAGO AT: 735A ON 05 AUG
CHILE
CONFIRMATION CODE-DL -G2I6YW
DINNER-MOVIE