Emily's Headed Out: Japan Exchange!

To Tokyo!

2010-03-20T11:32:00.002-05:00

I'm leaving for LA the day after tomorrow. That's where our international gateway is. Once I get there I'm taking a shuttle to the hotel all us AFS students will be staying the night at and we'll have our orientation thingie (yes I know thingie isn't a word, so please no comments - you know what? Comment all you like I love getting feedback, I just don't very often...)
Then the day after that we leave for Tokyo.

Now I don't have my paper sitting in front of me right now, but when I got it in the mail a while back it said how many students were going to Tokyo. I think it said there are 250 (or close to that number anyway) students coming from 40 countries. I'm all packed up and ready to leave! I had to stop and unpack and re-pack though, because there's a certain weight limit to carry-on and checked both. That took a while. This is so exciting!

Also on another good note, my best friend gets to go to Honduras this summer for a missions trip with her church! I'm so happy for her! and now I'm not the only one going somewhere. I think it's so cool that all this is going on because people in my area are so static. Most people who are here had grandparents that were born around here. That's a farming community for you though. When I get home after living in the middle of a city for a year home will seem completely barren. That's a weird thought!

Long Time No See Everyone!

2010-02-25T17:37:00.005-06:00

Well, it's not like it's actually been that long since I've posted now that I've looked at the dates but it seems that way for me. Since my last post I've done a whole bunch of stuff. I'll talk about some of the things then probably make another post some other time.

First and foremost I got my paperwork for my Visa sent in to the consulate in Chicago and just got my passport with Visa in it back yesterday. Since I went to the doctor for yet another check-up and sent in the papers on that to AFS (Nothing wrong with me still - or is it again? They don't want to have to pay insurance money for me getting sick if I had it before I went. That's what the doctor trips are for. That's understandable though.) So I officially have all my paperwork in line and am for all intents and purposes ready to go!

If you've read my earlier blog post about my art, I did finish that flower in time to get into the contest I wanted to enter it in and got second place with it. The judge said the leaves weren't blended as well as one of my classmates' were. That's OK though because I took first place in watercolor painting and another second in pencil drawing. Bethal got second place in the music division if the contest too.

As for some other interesting things, I finally got some info on my host family and school! I'll be living with the Sou family in Chiba City, which isn't far from Tokyo. I'll be going to an all girls school. There's 960 girls enrolled this year! That's about 6 times more students than the biggest school I've ever been to! I'm still working on this year's school, but I'll have to work harder to get it all done by next month.

As for books/TV. I read a really good book called Bloody Jack last Fri. Since then I've also read the next 2 in the series. Last week I watched the complete series of a short anime called Eden of the East. That was a really interesting show. It's kinda violent in some places because one episode is about when one of the main character's friends gets kidnapped by a serial killer, (he survived) and they have everything whited out, but there's a bunch of people who got kidnapped and for some reason they were all stripped too. I didn't understand why they stripped them, but the series was only 11 episodes and I recommendit if you have extra time on the Internet.

Well that's all that's been going on - well that I'm gonna bore you with anyway- so signing out for now! Ja ma!

More Visa Paperwork

2010-02-05T20:19:00.003-06:00

Well, got news on several things today. First is an AFS update. I got my Certificate of Eligibility in the mail, so now I can get started applying for my Visa. I have to go to the website of the Chicago based Japanese consulate and print out the papers I need, then fill them out and send them and my passport and certificate to Chicago and have the visa approved and stamped.

Now, my other news, bad news. My new puppy, Petra got sick the other day and we took her to the vet's. They weren't sure what was wrong with her and thought she had pancreatitus. It still didn't quite fit the bill though, so the vet called whoever it is that works up in K-State's animal department to ask their opinion. It turned out that she had some neural disease that is fatal and incurable. I don't remember the name, but it stops nerve function, and eventually she wouldn't be able to eat or breathe. Her eyes were really messed up already. So instead of letting her keep getting worse and suffering more Mom decided to put her down.

2 Months Left!

2010-01-28T10:03:00.002-06:00

Well, my travel dates are set, so I have just a few days under two months left until I leave. Yesterday I got an e-mail from AFS saying they're sending out more paperwork, and I should be getting my Certificate of Eligibility for my Visa in the mail pretty soon. Then I have to fill out whatever papers come with that and send in the certificate, the papers, and my passport to the Japanese Consulate in Chicago.
I can't just go to the nearest city, because Embassys can't stamp visas, and Chicago is the consulate that works in this area. Even though there is one that's about 150-200 miles claser to me but I can't go to that one. Kinda annoying , but O well... To Chicago I will mail the stuff.
I still haven't heard from anyone about my host family, so they're still looking.

Orientation

2010-01-20T16:07:00.006-06:00

Well, I went to my orientation on Mon, and it's now Wednesday, so I'm not too late getting back to blogging this time around. Turns out there's only one other kid in my AFS district this year and he leaves for Bolivia or somewhere else that starts with a B in the fall, so I didn't meet him. The orientation was just going over some information on travel and communication with my parents when I'm in Japan. We went over a bunch of rules, and Robin and Mom talked for a while. Not all that exciting, but as of two days from now it'll be exactly two months until I leave!
Bethel's going to the Mid-states Christian Music and Art Meet in two weeks, and I'm gonna enter some of my art. I'd like to enter this pic here, but I have to have it finished by tomorrow So I'll have to go work on it when I'm done here. I'll take photos of the other things I've done too if they get any awards. The other pics I'm entering are a watercolor painting of a girl in a yukata (a lightweight kimono for the summer) and a pencil drawing of a girl I found in a National Geographic Magazine last year.

Have A Lucky Year

2010-01-14T20:03:00.003-06:00

Kinda late for a new year's greeting I know, but it will have to suffice. I wish who ever is reading this a lucky year. For you're sake I suppose you should want good luck not bad.
I should have been doing school work today, but I didn't do anything but 2 writing assignments. I feel so lazy. I have to work this weekend too so I need to keep working so I don't have homework.
On Monday I'm supposed to go to a local orientation. I don't know if there will be other people there, but I doubt it because Robin - my AFS coordinator or spokesperson, or whatever it is they call her (I can't remember) was talking to mom and we changed the date from last week to this week on Saturday, and now it's Mon instead. So probably not going to be all that many other AFS students there.
A friend sent me this link about Japan. It's pretty interesting. http://matadorabroad.com...

Petra & Mall/Movie Day

2009-12-29T20:07:00.010-06:00

Today was Mall/Movie Day at Bethal. (If you have noticed
that I sometimes spell Bethel with different vowels, I do. I really don't know how it's supposed to be spelled, and I'm a really bad speller.) The 7th graders and up all went up to Olathe to the AMC and watched movies. I went to see Princess and the Frog (I know I know, it's for kids, but what can I say, I'm a sucker for good cartoons) and it was really good! One of our group went to see A Christmas Carol, and another went to see some romantic comedy - I can't remember which, then the rest all went to see Sherlock Holmes. Then we went to the mall for several hours. Gosh! I've never been to the mall when it's so full!

Then when we got back to the meeting place in the Wal-Mart parking lot Mom was waiting for me and Alan, and she had a puppy in the front seat! She's a registered German Shepard and we named her Petra!

I Know When I'm Leaving!!

2009-12-24T00:11:00.007-06:00

I got an e-mail with flight info on it the other day (I'm on Christmas break and don't check it every day now that I'm not getting school e-mails.) I'm going to LA on the 21st I think; we haven't gotten any tickets to get there just yet. I have to be there no later than 2:00 pm on the 22nd of March. Then I leave from LA to Tokyo on the 23rd at 12:39 (at least I think that's what it said, it may have been 49) and get to Tokyo at 4:30 pm on the 24th.

So can anyone do the math there? I think it's around a five hour flight. So within five hours (or so) I go from just after noon on Tuesday to 4:30 pm on Wednesday. Kinda weird...

OK, correction on this post I was told that the flight was around 12 hours. Arigatoo for the tip off Stephenie! I would have posted that thanks as a comment under one of your posts, but for some reason none of the blogs will let me comment on other people's blogs.

Ramblings

2009-12-22T15:45:00.003-06:00

Well, I'm bored, so I think I'm gonna talk about manga and anime. I know that's completely random but I don't care... well maybe not completely random, cause it's Japanese culture - even though it's been shared with us. Hey just like that Brad Paisley song American Saturday Night! I heard that song the other day when I turned the radio on at work.

About the manga... I just finished all the chapters of Fairy Tail that One Manga currently has (that's 164 by the way.) It always annoys me to get to the end of the chapter because I have to wait till the next week before I can read the next one. I'm already doing that with One Piece, Bleach and Naruto. I've started reading Full Metal Alchemist, and Black Cat, so I think I'll read some more of them.

As for the anime, hmm what should I talk about in that? I'm loading episode 401 of One Piece in another window right now, so that only leaves me with 30 more of those. I've also been watching Tegami Bachi (Letter Bee) every Monday when the new subbed episode comes out. That's a pretty good one too. (And how often are you gonna find a story where the hero is a major cry-baby?)

I just finished watching the second season of Spice and Wolf. That's based off the book series, and there's a manga based off the anime too, but that's probably not all that good (I don't usually like things based off of movies, cause they're not usually not as good.) I reccomend Spice and Wolf, because instead of the normal fantasy that focuses on magic, royalty and knights (or people who want to be those things) it focuses on the merchants and trading - with some fantasy thrown in. It's pretty good.

Christmas Break!

2009-12-19T21:59:00.004-06:00

Finals are over! Yay! (Hey is that spelled right? My computer's underlining it as misspelled. Hmm.) Anyway, finals are over, and I was able to do 5 weeks worth of homework for my Japanese class in just 1. I kept putting it off... I'm lazy. But thanks to my teacher giving me two extra days (after I already turned in a bunch of stuff) I was able to finish it in time for the final.
Anyway, I got some more news from AFS the other day. As of the 9th (which is when I got this in the mail) my departure date is set for sometime between the 21st and 26th of March 2010. All the rest of my tuition is due by the end of this month though. I've got about 7900 left to pay. I'm doing pretty good so far though, because all that's been paid so far was my own money. Now I have to get Dad to help me out. I would get Mom's help too, except she has no money either.

Cheerios

2009-12-16T10:54:00.002-06:00

Cheerios can be projectile weapons? I didn't know that!
I'm at Bethal today because my finals have to be proctored (watched so they can make sure I don't cheat.) Everyone has to go somewhere to do their finals. Well about the cheerios... This girl Britton brought a bag of them to school today to eat as a snack (it's a private school we get to eat at our desks.) Then this boy Matthew started throwing them at people.
We discovered that Cheerios don't fly very well, or very far... Then Britton started spitting them at Matthew, and he was trying to defend himself with a folder. It was so funny!

Domo Arigatoo

2009-12-07T23:05:00.004-06:00

I noticed someone donated to my AFS account! Thank you very much! Domo arigatoo (can also use arigatoo gozaimasu I think, but I'm not completely sure. I think one is just more formal.) Thank you again, whoever it was that donated!

I keep meaning to come in and post more often, but somehow I always get started doing other things and forget about it, hopefully I'll catch up on my Japanese homework this week. I'm taking that as a foreign language this year. It'll be more useful to me than Spanish for sure. The last day to hand in work for the semester is Friday, so I have about 3 weeks worth of Japanese to do. I'm such a procrastinator!

Enjoy Your Life!

2009-12-02T09:47:00.006-06:00

I've got something interesting here. It's an article Mom found in her post office newspaper. The author is unknown.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are more blessed than the millions that won't survive the week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture of the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 20 million people around the world.

If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death, you are more blessed than almost 3 billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If your parents are still married and alive you are very rare, especially in the United States.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even just touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed because you can offer God's healing touch.

If you can read this message you are more blessed than over 2 billion people in the world who cannot read anything at all.

You are also blessed in ways you may not even know. Blessings to you!

December!

2009-12-01T11:50:00.003-06:00

YAY! It's December (Juunigatsu じゅうにがつ)　but what is there really to get excited about in December except Christmas, which isn't actually all that close yet. Well, not all that close if you don't have any magazine (zasshi ざっし）or internet orders comming in and you're hoping that they get here on time. I don't have any of those by the way, not yet anyway. I'm gonna get this thing for my little brother (ototo おとと）and probably something for Mom too, but Alan (my little brother) will have to split the cost of that one with me because I just don't have all that much spending money for Christmas preasnts because I'm trying to get money saved up for my exchange trip.

That by the way is going ok I guess, but I still haven't gotten anything on my ChipIn! I know it seems daunting sitting there in the corner scowling down at the rest of the page with $9000 printed across it, but really it's just a harmless little thing that would be completely overcome with joy (not, of course, to mention that I would be too, joyous, that is) if you could donate even just 4 or 5 dollars! Or even 1 dollar, just so that it isn't useless...

Tadaima!

2009-11-29T09:17:00.006-06:00

I'm back! I know, I know... I haven't posted in nearly an eternity. Not since Halloween anyway. Well, there's lots of things I could talk about, but the most important is my update from AFS!!! YAY!

OK here's what's going on with that. I got an overnight UPS envelope the other day. Well, I've been accepted by AFS Japan, and they will start looking for a host family and school for me over there. They sent me some paperwork to fill out and send back to the AFS USA office so I could apply for the certificate of eligibility that I need to have in order to apply for a Study Visa.

If you don't know what a Visa is (or you think it's a credit card like I did until around 6 months ago - haha) it's a stamp that the consulate of a country (in this case the Japanese consulate) puts in a passport giving the owner permission to study or work, depending on which visa they apply for, legally in that country for that specific amount of time.

Tadaima ただいま　I'm back/home Okairinasai おかいりなさい　Welcome back/home

Halloween

2009-11-01T14:40:00.008-06:00

Well, it's Sunday (にちようび　nichiyoobi ) and I'm playing catchup on some homework I'm behind in right now. Well actually I'm on blogger, not blackboard, but you know what I mean; right? Anyway, about Halloween: I went to my grandmother and older sister's house (おばあさんと　おねえさんの　うち　obaasan to oneesan no uchi)　and we played Yahtzee and ate pretzels and totinos and candycorn until ten-ish at night and came back home.

So nothing exciting really, but if I had dressed up I would have tried to put together a Halibel costume. I know she's one of the bad guys in Bleach and all, but her death was totally unfair and she looks cool...

This picture is actually a black and white one I took from the manga by Tite Kubo that I've been editing (mostly just adding color, just a little bit of clearing up lines and stuff. I'm not actually done editing it yet, so when I do finish I will edit this post and put in the finished edited pic in it!
Finished pic has been put in for all of you to see!

Chip In Again!

2009-10-27T19:50:00.005-05:00

Well, another post here asking, no that's not right, begging for donations for my exchange trip.

Please, most exteemed money holders, would you dontate to my quest for education? Haha. I'll have to work on those that was kinda pathetic... If you can, please donate to my exchange trip account. Every little bit helps! If you coud spare 10 or 20 dollars it would be greatly appreciated by this humble begger! If you can't even spare that much (or you don't have a credit card) just copy my blog link onto an e-mail and send it to all your contacts!

ありがと！Thanks

Castle in the Air

2009-10-24T20:31:00.009-05:00

I started reading Castle in the Air as soon as I woke up this morning, and was about done when my dad called and said my brother and I had to go mow before it rains again. Everything's been so wet here!

Anyway about the book: here's the book flap description> Far to the south of the lands of Ingary in the Sultinates of Rashpuht, there lived in the city of Zanzib a young and not very prosperous carpet dealer named Abdullah who loved to spend his time daydreaming. He was content with his life and his daydreams, until one day, a stranger sold him a magic carpet. That very night, the carpet flew him to an enchanted garden. There, he met and fell in love with the beauteous princess Flower-in-the-Night, only to have her snatched away, under his very nose, by a wicked djinn. With only his magic carpet and his wits to help him, Abdullah sets off to rescue his princess...

Now I didn't think that the book flap made this book look all that interesting, but I read it anyway cause it's the sequel to Howl's Moving Castle (which is my absolute Fave book!) and it's by Diana Wynne Jones - she hasn't let me down yet. The story actually was really good. (No surprise there!) Howl and Sophie don't show up until about half way through the book, so if your reading it for the same reason I did - be patient ! You won't recognise them for a while after you meet them anyway!

Abdullah is an interesting character, and when the sultan blames him for the disappearance of his daughter, his friend, who owns a dog and food booth next to Abdallah's carpet stall is in almost as much trouble as he is. So they both go running. Abdullah ends up out in the desert surrounded by the bandit straight out of his daydreams' men. That is when he meats the genie that helps (Even though he does his best to hinder) Abdullah in his quest.
The genie takes him to the land of Ingary (Which is where Howl and Sophie live) to find his princess. On the way he meats a soldier of the recent war between Ingary and a neighboring kingdom. This stranger finds a cat and kitten while he and Abdullah are on their way to Kingsbury to find the help of the royal wizard. When they arrive there they find one of the royal wizards, Howl has gone missing along with his castle which was stolen by a djinn. To make matters worse, the four year old princess of Inguary has also been stolen by the same djinn that took Flower-in-the-Night. Then it's time for the real action to start.

Christmas Festival Is Comming!

2009-10-23T18:19:00.006-05:00

I thought that I'd add those in because I couldn't figure out how to get them off my phone the other day. Those are 10 second videos that I took of the Suziki Strings playing at the Maple Leaf. They're only 10 seconds because that's all my phone allows me to take per vidieo.

Well that's not actually what this post is about, so lets get down to it (Again! UGGG it just deleted like half my post! And I didn't go to another page or anything! It just disappeared!) Our upcomming festival is a Victorian Christmas. We're gonna be in costume and have carolers and all kinds of cool things. It's on Saturday, December 5th. It's on a Saturday so you have next to no excuses for not coming if you're in the area!

The Suzuki strings are gonna be having their anual concert. So if you liked my (cruddy) videos and would like to see little kids playing (and playing well, that's very important) come! Ottawa University's Christmas Vespers are really good too. I went to that once. There's a parade at 11 AM and cariage rides all day till the festival closes at 6. We've got a kids carnival, and a booth with warm cider and kettlecorn, and a train show, a quilt show, there's a live walk through nativity outside of town that you can get on a bus and ride to since they don't want cars blocking the farmer's driveway. That's fun My friend and I went to that one year. They had Roman guards, and you got to see the shepards standing around a fire and the wisemen were argueing about which way they needed to go next...

OK I wrote a whole bunch and I think it's time to stop now...

Another Maple Leaf Post

2009-10-20T18:00:00.002-05:00

Maple Leaf was really fun as always.I was at church helping make funnel cake mix. We had so much trouble there! First we didn't have any dry milk pouder fro the mix, then we found out there was no recipe for the chillie! It all turned out really good though. I've got some decent pictures here too.This pick's in the kitchen at the church:

I helped with some set up in the mornings and was working the booth most of the day both days. We sold a whole 3 boxes of hot chocolate! This Pic's from inside our booth.
I was on my feet pretty much all day both days, but then so were all the baracade guards (which were parents from our school) and all of us working in the booth. Then I went out with my brother and several other people to hand out fliers for Ottawa's first ever Victorian Christmas Festival. We got about 2,000 of those out there and I walked around with a gallon jar asking for donations for my exchange trip.

There were some really nice people who donated, and I talked to some others trying to raise money for trips just like I was. There was a girl going to Ireland and an older guy going to Australia for a mission trip. At one booth I asked for donations and the man gave me a jar of his jelly. He said that one year someone came to his booth an bought a bunch of those as gifts for her host family. This nice old lady at the booth nest to his gave me a green necklace with earrings and an orange and yellow bracelet for the same reason. I have to thank everyone again, and thank The Lord for generous people!

This is a pic of our booth and the tent in front is a face painting booth run by one of Bethal's graduates.

Random Contest!

2009-10-18T22:41:00.002-05:00

Hi all three of you peoples from goodreads that I know for sure read my blog every once in a while! I just entered a contest today - and guess what the prize is? Books of course! here's a link: http://readingisthespiceoflife.blogspot.com/2009/09/these-are-few-of-my-favorite-things.html
Go check it out if you want to!

Thurs 15: Another New Thing

2009-10-15T12:26:00.003-05:00

Well, I tried to do the friends connect thing here to goodreads, but that's not one of their supported sites or whatever, so it wouldn't let me do that. Anyway, if you want to check that out all the links on my blog are in bright red, so just click on that link and check it out.

The new thing I added is one of those gadgets on the right side of my screen. It's called My Bookshelf. That lists the last couple of books I've added to my Read Shelf on goodreads. It will automatically update too, so you can come and check out my reading list every couple of days!

Wed. 14: Maple Leaf Festival

2009-10-14T10:49:00.004-05:00

So, has anyone heard of the Maple Leaf Festival? We have it in Baldwin, Kansas, in October every year. This year it's on the 16th through 18th. This has been going on since the '50's! They have this carnival that starts on the 16th and on Saturday (17th) they have a parade. This year it even look like the trees are turning colors already! It's been 4 years since we had red maple leaves for our festival...

I'm just bragging now, but the booth I'm helping out at has the best funnel cakes around. Wait... I'm not bragging. The only other places I know of that even have funnel cakes sells them for the same price as ours when they're only half the size! Saying they taste better than the other ones would be bragging, because I've never gotten any but ours so I don't know what theirs taste like!

That's the cool part... when we get busy, sometimes the cook makes an extra one or two, but those didn't get ordered. If they sit and get cold, we can't sell them, so they just get passed around to everyone helping out!!

Sumimasen: sorry, I know this is really long, but just hold out for one last rant, please? This group called the Ottawa Suzuki Strings comes and uses the other half of our lot for their booth. They sell CDs of their playing. Usually they are there Sunday. It's really cool having a bunch of violin players right next to us all day. Their music really matches the season, and I've come to think of it as something that goes with fall, kinda like Halloween, except more important... Gosh didn't mean to get all sentimental.

Please help me pay for my exchange trip!

Tuesday 6: Just a Little Closer!

2009-10-06T10:11:00.006-05:00

きょうは　かようび，じゅうがつ　むいかです。Kyoo wa kayoobi, Juugatsu muika. Today is Tuesday, October sixth.
OK, I picked up the mail yesterday, well actually my brother did, but anyway... He came in with this great big priority mail envelope and gave it to me. It was from AFS, they had this big information packet for me to go through. It's practically a whole book! My parents got one for them too, but that's only half the size of mine.

Monday 28: Chip In

2009-09-28T18:45:00.004-05:00

I just added this neat little gadget to my blog! It's called ChipIn. It's over here on this side of the page. (Follow arrow)---->

Anyway, AS you can see, I've got to get $9,000 more by March 3rd. Actually it's a bit more complicated than that. I have to have 1,500 more in my account than I do now by November. So, if you want to help out Check out my new gadget. Leave me a comment if you do, that way I can thank you and make a list of my donors so everyone who reads this can see!
Though, I don't actually know how many people read this... Is there some way to tell?

Friday 25th: AFS Application

2009-09-25T11:22:00.004-05:00

You ought to know by now that I'm planning on going to Japan with an organization called AFS. Well, I submitted my application a while back and just got an e-mail today telling me I was accepted by AFS USA and they sent my application over to AFS Japan!
I haven't gotten any word yet on the scholarship I'm trying to get, but the deadline is on the 28th, so they'll be choosing the two people who get full scholarships pretty soon. I'm really hoping for that. So if you pray pray for me please; if you don't... well, then don't.

Sunday 20th: Howl's Moving Castle

2009-09-20T13:49:00.010-05:00

I know that Howl's Moving Castle <--- link is a movie, and that's what it's mostly know for, but it's a book too. The book was written in England by a lady named Diana Wynne Jones. She is my favorite author! And Howl now has two sequels! Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways.
I have to say that the first book is the best in the set. Even though I haven't read Castle in the Air yet, House of Many Ways didn't stand up at all against the original.
For those who like to compare movies with their books, Miazaki and Studio Ghibli have made it really good. It's way different from the book, but it's still just as good of a story. I think they simplified it to make it easier to understand as a movie. Go and read the book if you haven't yet! IT'S MY FAVORITE BOOK OUT THERE!

gosh this sound like an add, sorry

Sun 13 September First Post

2009-09-13T18:20:00.000-05:00

This is my first ever blog, so bear with me. SOO...first off I'll tell you all why I started this in the first place. I am going on school exchange trip to Japan. I'm going with AFS. Sorry, don't know what that stands for. One of the things AFS asks the students to do is start a blog to tell about what's going on with you and where you are and stuff. I bet it's just advertising but that's fine with me.
I leave for Japan in March! I have to get my application in yet, though, because they said I didn't fill something out the way they wanted it and they sent it back. I'm not worried about getting in because this lady (Whose name I can't remember - SO sorry if you read this - told me she's never heard of them turning a student down once they had their application finished. I'm currently a 4.0 student, that shouldn't change any time soon. Right now I'm trying to raise money for tuition which right now is $10,000. I've already been promised a $900 scholarship because of getting good grades. So that's it for now!
Sayonara!
さよなら