New York

Hello again! I flew into New York around 10:30 yesterday morning, and surprisingly made it to the hotel without getting lost! Ha ha! There are a lot of people here. Forty people are going to Italy; nineteen to France; two to Portugal, and two to Austria.

We started orientation at around 5PM last night and talked to a returnee who stayed in our host country. We also watched a few video diaries this morning of some different people who went on full-year trips. The main point that I got from that is that you get out of this experience what you put into it. I really, really am going to try and give this my all. I did not spend all this time and money and stress to sit there and wish I were at home with my friends and family. Although I know I will go through a phase where I get really homesick and tired of the immersion, I want to try and make that as short as possible. I'll do whatever I can to keep myself busy so I'm not thinking about home.

We had to check out of our hotel rooms at noon, so until the France people leave at 6:15 for the airport, I will be sitting in the conference room and/or the hotel lobby. Rosalie was nice enough to allow me to use her laptop so I could get on here and update this for you. I called my mom earlier, as well. Immediately after hearing her voice, I kind of realized that as a mistake. I really am going to avoid calling home and friends and anyone from my 'old life' for a while. It's not that I don't want to talk to you, it just makes it harder for me because I have to say goodbye again. Also, after I leave at 11:00 tonight, my cell phone will no longer work. I cannot send or receive texts, nor can I make calls, so please don't try to contact me that way. I am hoping to get a prepaid phone sometime after I arrive in Europe, although I don't know if I will be able to call or text to people in the United States, so that may not work out so well for y'all. This blog, snail mail, and my email are probably going to be the best ways to keep in contact with me.

Anyway, the next couple days will be spent at a hotel just outside of Paris. We will meet up with other people around the world who are going to host families in France. It will be kind of odd, as I'm sure most of them won't speak English and we are all at different levels of French. I'm not sure how the communication thing will work out, but I want to try and get to know some of them, so maybe I'll try using some of my French. After our orientation there, we get the opportunity to go on a bus tour of Paris, which personally, I'm really looking forward to. I'll be sure and take a lot of pictures and post them once I get to my host family.

I better get going, though, as I'm sure Rosalie is ready to get her laptop back (and I really want to check facebook yet!), so I will update again once I get to my host family's house, or whenever I have access to the Internet again. Leave me some comments or something :)

I miss you all!
A plus tard,
-Miranda