Introduction

Konnichiwa! My name is Amelia. I am a sixteen year old girl living in Alberta, Canada, and in August I will be embarking on a year long journey to The Land of The Rising Sun, Japan through the Rotary Youth Exchange program.

If you told me this time last year that this would be happening to me, I never would've believed you. The idea to become an exchange student didn't even occur to me until I changed towns, and noticed that my school had many international students. Just joking around with my mom, I told her I needed to get involved in one of these programs, but didn't think she'd take it so seriously. As soon as I said it, she went and googled the Rotary Youth Exchange program, and together we found who to contact from my local Rotary Club. Luckily for me, the timing was perfect, and I was invited to a lunch hour meeting at my school. I remember filling out the initial letter explaining why I wanted to be an exchange student, and thinking 'wow, this could actually happen to me'.

I was then called in for an interview with three members of my Rotary Club, in which they asked me about myself, why I wanted to be an exchange student, and other related things. That night, they called me and told that while I wasn't the first choice, they were going to talk to the rest of the club about sending two exchange students.

Two incredibly suspenseful weeks later, I received another call, and discovered that yes, they would be sending two students. I was going!

A lot of paperwork and a couple few months later, I had my first outbound orientation with students from all over my district. We got to meet each other, learn more about lots our exchange, take pictures, and goof off.

After lunch, we were called in one by ones for interviews where three rotarians asked us questions about ourselves, the types of food we liked to eat, the climates we preferred, and finally, where we wanted to go. My answer? While I didn't have a specific country as a first choice, I did have a continent: Asia. 

The rotarians started deliberating as soon as us students left, leaving us to wait, wonder, and wish for our calls to come. And a couple nights later, they did. I was actually in the shower at the time, when my mom suddenly started yelling that the call came. Ecstatic, I got out, dried off, and ran upstairs as quickly as I could, but I still missed the call. After fervently calling back a few times, I finally contacted the rotarian and was given my country: Japan. I may or may not have screamed at this point, but I'm pretty sure I bounced around the house for the next few hours. Sometimes I still feel like bouncing around the house with excitement: I'm going to be spending a year in Japan! 

The next big Rotary event and chance to see my fellow outbound exchange students came in March, when we had an entire weekend full of information about our upcoming exchanges. We were also fitted for our blazers (Canada's are bright red). We learned about finances, homesickness, gifts to bring host families and many other topics. I was also lucky enough to learn from my councillor that I will be going to District 2510 on Hokkaido! It was also a great chance to meet all the rotex (last year's exchange students) and the inbounds from around the world. I got to room with the rotex who had been to Japan last year, the outbound going to Mexico, and the rotex who had gone there last year. We had a lot of fun, and had a great weekend.

Last month, we had our final orientation, in which we learned about problems that can arise on exchange and how to deal with them. We also got the chance to bond more through a giant human knot (that thing where you all stand in a circle, randomly reach your hands in, and then try to untangle) and more pictures. It also occurred to us that the next time we were all brought together, we'd have all gone on our incredible worldwide adventures. But I must say, the highlight of the day was getting our beautiful bright red blazers (with shoulder pads!).

So now I'm continuing to work on my Japanese and waiting for my guarantee form to arrive. In as little as two or three months, I will be departing on the journey of a lifetime. I'll post again when I have more information, and I'll try to post regularly once I arrive in the beautiful country of Japan!