Third Time's the Charm (A Story of a Christmas Hammam)

After going to a hammam in Morocco you feel reborn. I barely consider myself clean after a shower now just because it is nowhere near to getting you as clean as a hammam trip does. Now my first two hammam trips weren't great. There's a reason why I have only been three times in three months, but after the third try I have finally had an experience that has me planning to make going to the hammam a weekly habit. The first time going to the hammam I was shocked and couldn't quite figure out how to handle being in a steamy bath house room filled with naked women. In reality my first experience was a pretty good one, but it was slightly ruined by having to rush out early after realizing I was several minutes late for an appointment. The second time I went was unpleasant to say the least. I had several old women yell at me for laying down on a bench (that's what they're meant for) and after that trip I wasn't left with much of a desire to go back.

As it has continually gotten colder showering has also gotten quite a bit more difficult. Taking a bucket shower in 10 c weather isn't exactly an appealing idea. Since the plan for tomorrow is to go with my family to a big fancy wedding I decided it would be a good idea to pick up and go to the hammam. To make it even better my host mom surprised me with treating me to the fancy hammam next to my house. She also paid for one of the hammam ladies to scrub me. So the basics of the hammam are that there are three different rooms. A super hot room, a medium hot room, and a mildly hot room. In the fancy hammam the process was that your set up in your own personal area where you have your own sink and bench all set up in the medium hot room . You put on the beldi soap which is a blackish green oily soap that is always used in the hammam and then go and lay down in the super hot room. You're supposed to stay in the super hot room for at least five minutes in those five minutes you sweat more than you ever think you could and you just feel like a limp boiled pasta noodle. Next you move into the medium hot room and fill up your sink with hot and cold water and wash the soap off. Once you wash the soap off you get on a cot and a lady scrubs your body. Just imagine a lifetime of dead skin being completely scrubbed off your body. You honestly don't know how dirty you have been living your entire life until you go to a hammam in Morocco. Many people repeat the process a few times or you can continue on to just wash your hair and body until you are satisfied and then move onto the mildly hot room for a final rinsing. Afterwards your super clean and your whole body feels like a babies butt. Bam! A whole new person just because of a hammam trip.

Marrakesh International Film Festival

Two weeks ago Marrakesh held an international film festival. Each night I went with my friends to watch the free films at Jemma al Fna and we also got to go to the red carpet. There was also a random sword fighting event at the opera house that we saw after the red carpet. Here is a video we made for my class.

http://youtu.be/w15KIJbdAGo

Pieces Fall Together

Many times as I am walking to the bus stop each morning I see the bus coming and I realize that I need to start running or else I won't make it. This generally has a few varying results: 1. I make it on time for the bus 2. It blows right past me without stopping 3. It blows right past me, waits at the stop for a few moments, and then decides to leave right before I arrive 4. It stops right next to me (This only happened once). However, today was quite different. Today I got up around the time I usually leave, but I still managed to leave with good time. Of course today was one of those run to the bus days, but as the bus passed me I realized that there was no way I was going to make it to the bus stop on time so I started walking. I noticed that after the one person at the bus stop got on the bus wasn't moving. Wait, the bus was waiting for me? I started running again and thanked the bus driver profusely. I pulled out my bus pass to pay, but it wasn't working for some reason. On the way running to the bus my card had fallen out and I was just left with the hard plastic case for my bus card. The bus driver told me to look outside I stepped out and didn't see it anywhere near the bus so I got back on ready to pay with cash, and he told me to go back out and look farther down. I felt terrible for delaying the bus schedule and was wondering how much time I would have to find the pass, but as I was getting off a man ran up to me and handed me my bus card. The bus was still there and I managed to get where I needed to be on time.

Honestly, my morning really could not have gotten any better. Everything ended up working out in ways I never would have expected them to work, and at this moment I really couldn't be anymore satisfied with the way things are going and the things I'm experiencing. 

Second Encounters

There are some events in life that just happen to be completely and totally inexplicable and this past weekend I definitely had one of those moments. Every time I go back to it I try to figure out why it happened and how it happened. The chances of what happened were extremely slim and I just cannot understand how it did end up happening.

On our trip to Southern Morocco we spent a day in Tamgroute. While we were there we visited a library filled with historical texts and we visited where the pottery was made. Tamgroute is well known for making green tiles that are found in many mosques. I also go to make a fool of myself trying to make a vase. Considering that I had spent a reasonable amount of time at pottery camps I thought that maybe I would be able to make something simple, but apparently my pottery skills are not available right now and everyone with me got to see that as well. In addition to all of these things we had a short time addition to our group. A young boy (I'd give him up to ten years old) followed us around to see what we were up to and during this time I did to talk to him in the very little and bad Arabic I knew at the time. The encounters you make with people in cities are generally what makes a city memorable and this little boy is what made Tamgroute memorable for me.

Considering Tamgroute is about six hours away from Marrakesh I did not expect to be seeing this boy ever again, but just a few weekends ago I was sitting at a shop in Jemma el Fna drinking tea (typical Morocco, I know) and I saw a young boy that looked just like him. It couldn't be him though because he lived in Tamgroute and there was definitely no way that we would both be in the same are of  Jemma al Fna at the same time. Things like that just DON'T happen in life. It's too strange. You can barely call it a coincidence because it's just so much more than that. It's absolutely insane. However, the little look alike boy did turn around and it turned out that it was him and just for confirmation he also recognized me. He remembered me!

I still can't figure out how or why this happened. It is the single most unusual encounter in my life to date. That morning my family discouraged me from going to Jemma al Fna because I was going to be going on my own. I had tried discouraging myself from going because I had a good load of Arabic studies, as usual. For some reason though I decided that I needed to go to Jemma al Fna and I went. Look what happened. Why it happened? I have absolutely no clue. 

Sorry I'm Not a Cat or Dog

The reason I walk out on the street each day is obviously because I want to hear boys whispering sweet nothings as they walk by me. Whether I just showered or the last time I showered was a week ago, whether I'm in pajamas or nice clothes, apparently I'm somehow still a beautiful girl that must be called after, silly me for expecting to be able to walk on the street feeling like an animal. I knew coming into my time in Morocco that I was going to have a beautiful experience, but that I would also have to put up with street harassment. I told myself I would get used to it, I've been to South America before this isn't my first time dealing with cat calling, and for the most part I actually am quite used to it. Getting cat called is part of my daily routine. I've grown to expect it, but even with this I can't and I won't ever find it acceptable. The fact that men are able to make me question why I went outside, that I constantly have to be aware of my surroundings, and that even if I go out in broad daylight by myself it would be so much wiser if I brought one more person with me, completely sickens me.

What makes it all the worse it that more often than not it's not a boy my age that's calling after me, but a man that is old enough to be my father and sometimes even my grandfather. I know for a fact these men have a sister, daughter, granddaughter, a girl that  is in some way important in their life, yet on the streets Moroccan men make it seem as though I'm just an object.

I'll deal with the kissy noises, the completely unoriginal sayings, and the following on the street, but I can't deal with what happened to me Monday. At 2:00 in broad daylight I was walking to the orphanage which is only a five minute walk and the streets are generally crowded. The main street in front of the hospital and my house was extremely crowded and I crossed the street as usual. I noticed a man following me on his motorcycle so I walked as close to the hospital as I could, and that's a quite a big distance between the sidewalk next to the hospital and the sidewalk next to the street mind you. After walking across the whole hospital motorcycle man was still following me, but I finally saw him speed up and I thought that he had finally realized that maybe he had better things to do with his time. Wrong. I turned and on the final (and only the second) street I had to take to get to the orphanage and motorcycle man was sitting there waiting, and unfortunately this part of the street was empty. People constantly walk by this area though, so I hoped that maybe somebody would come walking down right at that moment, but nobody did. I crossed the street, staying as far as motorcycle man as I could, but he felt it was acceptable to cross right next to me. He drove alongside me for a moment, whatever no big deal it wasn't the first time that had happened to me before. However, when he turned and parked right in front of me completely blocking me from walking anywhere that was unacceptable and I was scared considering that there still wasn't anybody on the street. In addition he was speaking to me in French. I mean come on at least he could've guessed my nationality correctly or have been completely lazy and just spoken Arabic to me.  At that point I yelled at him " safi, hashuma!" (stop, shame!). Cue laughter from motorcycle man because white girl speaking Arabic is just too funny. I didn't stop, I just kept yelling until he finally left. I really don't know what took him so long to realize that I had absolutely no interest or understanding for that matter of what he was saying.

What's  bothersome about this incident is that it happened in broad daylight. I ended up completely unharmed and chances are that nothing would have happened, but in the moment I did actually feel concerned. There are two things called self-control and respect and it would be nice to see these put into use on the street. After having my week start off with such an incident it makes it all the more frustrating realizing that you can't reply to the constant cat calling. Replying would simply be "asking for it" and anyways what am I to do since "boys will be boys?"

Sahara Excursion

Sahara Trip

I went to the Sahara last week and my friends and I made a short "film" about our trip for class. Here is the trailer for the "film" and the full video will be up later inshallah

Pictures

https://happinessiswayoftravel.shutterfly.com/

You Again

Marrakesh is a large city with new tourists swarming each day. Given the size of the population it seems as though it would be impossible to run into the same person twice and considering that I have enough mastery of the Marrakeshi bus system that I rarely have to ride a taxi the chances of running into the same taxi drivers are even slimmer. Even with all of these factors there have somehow been two instances in which the taxi drivers have had me in their taxis before.

I have always considered taxis to be one of the best place to practice Arabic because you can figure out exactly how much time you were able to speak Arabic, taxi drivers are usually extremely friendly and willing to talk, and you will never see them again. However, in a month I have discovered that it is quite possible to see them again, but instead of that being a deterrent it has only made the conversations more interesting.

The first time I was in a taxi with a driver that had previously driven me before it happened to be with a taxi driver that I did not particularly like. My first time being driven by him I nearly had to get out of the taxi because he was refusing to turn on the counter, but I managed to convince him to begrudgingly turn it on. After that experience I figured that a second experience with the same taxi driver would be no different, yet when I got into the taxi he treated me like an old friend and spent most of the time explaining the train system in Morocco. In twenty minutes I learned about Morocco and about the taxi driver and realized that the first time I really had not received a good impression of the driver.

The second time I got in a taxi in which the driver recognized me I actually had absolutely no recollection of him, but he definitely remembered me. He knew the center I was studying at and knew that I was studying Arabic. Like a typical Moroccan he made sure I was ok and asked me if my Arabic was coming along. I told him that I was currently focusing on Arabic grammar which was turning out to be quite difficult. This launched him into a full on lesson of both grammar in Modern Standard Arabic and Darija. In the end what I gleaned from his lesson was that there are several aspects to grammar and it would be hard for me to learn it, but that in my time in Morocco I could manage to learn a good deal of Arabic. Following my brief Arabic lesson the taxi driver asked me what was wrong with the United States government and completely surprising myself I was able to explain the government shut down to a taxi driver in Arabic.

Considering that a month ago my ability to hold a conversation was limited to a brief one to five minute conversation being able to now hold fifteen to twenty minute conversations feels like a huge step even though I know there is still quite a distance to go. Not only the quantity of time I now spend talking, but additionally being able to have mildly interesting conversations gives me the feeling that I am finally starting to catch onto something and that I am truly beginning to connect and understand people rather than constantly observing them.

The Streets of Marrakesh

Rule number one on the streets of Marrakesh: Don't get hit. The second bit of information that you need to know is that in my explorations of Marrakesh I have only found one stop light. Crossing into full on traffic has already become completely normal. I generally go out with my sister and we usually have our elbows latched or are holding hands so crossing is quite easy. For most of this week my rule of thumb was to find a local and follow them, but within the span of a week I have also figured out how to cross on my own. You just have to cross without pausing because you think a car will hit you (it will only hit you if you stop moving)  or thinking about the fact that you're walking into full on traffic.  This still scares me since at home I tend to be the person that crosses the street and seems to get nearly ran over each time. However, I am already getting used to it and I am beginning to understand that you just have to cross.

Aside from the chaos of crossing the streets, the streets of Marrakesh hold a huge diversity of people. In the U.S. people are separated by their cars, but in Marrakesh everyone ends up on the street together. You will find women in the niqab, poorly dressed tourists, men in jelabas, people in typical American styles, and Berber women with tattoos on their faces. Marrakesh is a city that surprises me everyday and will likely continue to have a daily surprise.

Long Time Due

This summer I have been in the process of organizing my photos from Oman, and I finally finished today (just in time right?). I put them all on my share site https://happinessiswayoftravel.shutterfly.com/pictures/37

It's just starting to hit me that I'm actually leaving. I still need to finish packing up, but I already have everything and it's all just a matter of correctly arranging it in my suitcase. This week everything is going to be changing and I still can't really comprehend that on Friday I'll be in a completely different country.

I look forward to updating from Morocco soon enough!

Pictures

I added some pictures to https://happinessiswayoftravel.shutterfly.com/pictures/8

My Moroccan Bucket List

I've always felt that writing your goals down increases the chances of them happening and I'm hoping that posting them on this blog (even though I'm pretty sure only my family is reading this) will even further increase the chances that I will achieve my goals.

So, what I hope to do while I'm in Morocco:

1. RIDE CAMELS! Camels are beautiful. The kings of the desert. My favorite animal and probably one of the best parts about learning Arabic. They're also tasty. Quite the multipurpose animal and I will ride at least one while I'm in Morocco.

2. Be comfortable and fluent(ish) in Arabic. Arabic is  a difficult language and full fluency in any language usually takes more than a year. However, at the end of the year I want to be able to say that I put my best foot forward, studied my butt off, and got as close to fluency as I possibly could.

3. Send postcards

4. Consistently update this blog. Being able to find one good blog by a NSLI-Y student in Morocco was great, but I do wish I could've seen multiple views of the experience.

5. Pick up Darija ( Moroccan Arabic) and some French.

6. Disspell myths about Americans and Texans. 

7. Learn to belly dance!

8. EAT good food! ( While not gaining more than 10 kilos)

9. Learn how to cook a Moroccan dish

10. Learn about Islam

11. Eat one of those donuts that old men make in vats of oil on the street (a Moroccan told me about this). I'll figure out the name for it later.

12. Take lots of pictures!

13. Go to Jardin Majorelle 


14. Hold a monkey

15. Make an American and maybe even a Paraguayan dish for my host family

16. Learn about Moroccan music and learn how they sing/an instrument specific to the region

17. Eat pastilla (pigeon pie)

18. Shop at a souq

19. Bathe in the famous Moroccan hammams

20. Go to museums

21. Eat as many strange foods as possible

22. Get sick, but enjoy the exchange anyways

23. Get homesick

23. And get over it

24. Get some aladdin shoes

25. Use little to no English

26. Most importantly have fun!

AFS YES Arrivals Talent Show

Realizations

        I've passed the one month mark. I have 29 days until my departure for my pre-departure orientation in D.C. and I'll be leaving for Morocco immediately after the orientation. It's still not hitting me that soon enough I'll be in a completely different continent in a beautiful country and I'll be living a completely different life. This past week I volunteered at the YES arrivals orientation in D.C. Throughout the week you could sense the excitement of both the students and group leaders. As a group leader we were preparing these students for one of the best years of their lives. The students knew something big was coming and being D.C. meant it was a reality, but they still hadn't reached the stage of living with their host family or attending an American high school. On departure day the students were excited, nervous, and mainly tired because of their early flights (some had to be up at 2:00 a.m.) many had cried the previous night due to the realization that they were all going their separate ways and wouldn't be seeing each other again until June. Being surrounded by this wave of emotions made me start to think about my own departure and since getting home I've slowly been realizing that I'm going to be in the same position as them soon enough.
      Even with these realizations I'm still not sure what to expect from Morocco. I met some Moroccans while volunteering at the orientation and they only made me more excited for my departure. I will definitely say that the first Moroccans I met have been some of the most welcoming and warm people I've met and they definitely fulfilled the positive image that I've always heard about Moroccans. I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity I had to once again volunteer at a YES orientation. I had an amazing group of kids that made it a great week and they're already making me proud by sending me messages telling me of their safe arrivals and one of them has already done volunteer work since arriving in his host community! I'm wishing all of the students a great year and I know that they're going to achieve many amazing things.
     I have made a photo sharing site since I do plan on taking many pictures while I'm in Morocco and it gets difficult to upload more than five pictures. I have already uploaded pictures from the orientation and I hope this is a good format for pictures.
https://happinessiswayoftravel.shutterfly.com/pictures/8

     The students did have a talent show on the last night and it was absolutely incredible! I will be posting a video of the performances later on this week. Right now I will just post a video I took of a few of the Turkish students making music in the hallways.

    One more thing! Although there are many students that have already arrived in the United States there are still many exchange students that haven't arrived and still need to be placed with host families. My host families are some of the most important people in my life and being an exchange student as well as hosting one is an amazing experience. Here's a video made at the YES arrivals! Give being an AFS host family a try!

Returnee Initiative and YES/CBYX Departure Orientation

 AFS events never cease to be amazing. I've been home for two days and I already miss being around other exchange students so much.This was the first time I went to this big of an AFS orientation and I really hope I will be able to attend more of these orientations in the future.

The first four days of my stay in D.C. were part of the returnee integration conference. I was focused on the returnee ambassador track so I got to work on giving presentations about my AFS experience. Now that I got to experience this conference I'm looking forward to my continual involvement with AFS!

The last five days of my stay in D.C. were spent volunteering at the YES and CBYX end of stay orientation. I can honestly say that it was honestly one of the most amazing weeks of my life. This is my first summer in two year not doing a study abroad program, but spending a week around more than 450 international students was just as fun. I was a group leader for the CBYX kids, but I also got to spend time around the YES kids. The orientation was focused on getting the kids prepared for going home and giving them an idea of how to handle reverse culture shock and the different circumstances they are going to face when they get home.

The two German Philipps and Sasha

In addition we got to visit the Department of State and the students had a question and answer session while we were there. Many students also got to visit their embassies or host state representative.

One of my favorite parts was the culture show on the final night. Each country put together a performance that ranged from traditional country songs and dances, a Nelson Mandela memorial, and the famous azonto dance.

At the Department of State

After spending nine days around so many amazing students and volunteers I have only become more excited for my year abroad in Morocco. I'm down to 74 days left in the states an I'm so grateful to be having all of these amazing experiences!

The Graduate

       High School is finally over. I am beyond relieved and excited for everything that is coming up in my life, but I know that graduations still has not quite hit me. Even though I have been looking forward to life after high school for quite awhile now, I know that a great part of my life is also ending. I'm not necessarily going to miss high school itself, but I will always remember the amazing experiences I had abroad and the people in my life that were always there supporting me during high school.

      Now that high school is over I just feel a big relief and I am looking forward to spending the coming year in Morocco!

Amazing Monday or What?

   Today was Earth day so it was already pretty exciting to begin with, but I got some pretty incredible news! I GOT ACCEPTED INTO THE ARABIC YEAR PROGRAM!!!! I'm going to be in Marrakesh, Morocco next year!

Continue Funding for State Department Exchange Programs!

Hello everyone! As you know through following my blog, State Department Foreign exchange programs have added so much to my life, and provided me with many amazing new opportunities. These programs provide students with opportunities that wouldn't be possible otherwise.

Right now there's going to be a hearing for continuing to fund state department foreign exchange programs. The Senate State-Foreign Operations appropriations subcommittee will hold its first hearing on funding for these programs tomorrow (Thursday, April 18th).

If you could take a few minutes out of your day to message your congressional representative, it would mean SO much to me and all the students who partake in these programs.

Click on the link for information on how to message your congressional representatives, urging them to support these programs:

http://capwiz.com/alliance-exchange/issues/alert/?alertid=62590541&PROCESS=Take+Action.

Thank you so much!

AFS Ashoka Youth Venture Week!

Dinosaur at the Smithsonian museum of natural history

 Two weeks ago I got to go to Washington D.C. for the AFS Ashoka Youth Venture workshops. My flight on Wednesday got delayed due to the "snowquester" (that didn't even happen), but I still managed to arrive right as Wednesday was ending. Many people had issues with delayed flights so instead of spending the first day in workshops I got to explore D.C. which included going to the D.C. 'mall,' going to two of the Smithsonian museums, checking out George Washington University, and going to Chinatown. I also got to go to Georgetown University before I left for my flight and the campus was gorgeous! Spending that day exploring D.C. has only made me want to live in D.C. more and I feel so lucky to have received this opportunity from AFS.

The Hope Diamond!

My day exploring ended with an "international fair" and it was amazing how well each country set up its stand. There were YES alumnus from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia so I got to practice quite a bit of Arabic while I was at the conference. The following days I went to the Ashoka offices and the workshops were absolutely incredible! In a nutshell (this is going to be the best quick summary I can give sorry, but three full days of workshop is hard to fit in) AFS is incorporating the ideas of initiating community projects from the Ashoka Youth Venture and is now going to encourage students while they are on study abroad and upon their return home to create a project that will create good in their community. I am so excited to begin to initiating this in the San Antonio chapter and wherever else in the world I end up being with AFS. This workshop was an incredible learning opportunity and it has taught me many things in regards to brainstorming and successfully focusing in on one specific project. I look forward to seeing the new and amazing things AFS students and volunteers will be doing!
      The good news of this month is that I was chosen for the AFS volunteer of the month spotlight! The article can be found here http://afsvolunteerblog.org/?p=40650
      Also, I am currently I a patiently waiting for:
       1. My Middlebury admissions status that will be released this 
Saturday!
       2. My NSLI-Y notification could arrive anytime until the end of April, but Arabic summer and Russian summer students already received good news so notification season has officially begun!
       3. I had my CBYX interview last week and now I am simply waiting to hear back.
        4. I will know about the admissions statuses for all of the colleges I applied to by April 1st! I know it's soon, but I can't believe the wait is nearly over.

Send as many good vibes my way as possible! Inshallah I'll have more good things to report on soon!
      

CBYX

     More good news! Today I found out that I am a semi-finalist for CBYX!!!! In my region 134 people applied and 64 students were chosen to move onto the semi-final stage. I will be hearing about my interview soon, and once the interview is over it will all be a matter of waiting. These next few months are full of finding out what the future holds for me, and I am looking forward to knowing with a surety how I will spend my first year after I graduate.Wish me luck!

Spanish Spelling Success

     This weekend I reached the pinnacle of my status as a language nerd. I won first place in the San Antonio Spanish Spelling bee. Each year teachers select two students from their school to represent the school in the spelling bee, one for the native category and one for the non-native category. The non-native category is defined as students who were not born in a Spanish speaking country. Even though it seems that the non-native category would be easier it was actually the one that lasted longer because non-native students tend to study more since they are not as comfortable with the language.
   I won through two words: otorrinolaringólogo and sanguijuela. The girl that received second place misspelled otorrinolaringólogo, luckily my mom had drilled that word into my head and made sure that I could spell it in my sleep forwards and backwards. After that I was given sanguijuela and it was all over.
    I am so grateful that my Spanish teacher opened up this opportunity for me and for the various people that helped me practice. All of those practices truly paid off and I feel so lucky to have this experience my senior year!

Ashoka Youth Venture

This year AFS started a new program in connection with Ashoka Youth Ventures. Ashoka Youth Ventures serves to help people become changemakers and create something that will benefit society, you can look into it more at https://www.ashoka.org/youthventure. This is a scholarship program that will last four days, and only three students were selected. I just found out today that I have been selected to participate in this training opportunity, so I will be headed up to D.C next month! I'm ridiculously excited for this!

Thought I'd Share This

I found this Ted Talk today on traveling and I thought I would share it! It's a really great video and the speaker offers a great perspective on traveling. Comment if you have any opinions you would like to share.

AFS Mid-Year Orientation and Matisyahu

My amazing group!

      Last week I finally became an official volunteer for AFS! I have been volunteering with AFS ever since I came back from my study abroad in Paraguay in 2011, but it did not become official until now. As an official volunteer I was able to be one of the group leaders. The mid-year orientation consisted of reviewing of topics such as safety and being an ambassador, but also included goal setting and a reflection of their year so far. All of the exchange students from the Austin and San Antonio area were there and being able to spend a weekend with them was just another reminder of why I love being around exchange students and why I love studying abroad.

The other exciting thing of the week is that I got to go to the Matisyahu concert in San Marcos! I had gone to the San Antonio concert in November and it was absolutely amazing (it included getting on stage and singing with Matisyahu for One Day!) Go to 2:55 on the video. Both concerts were truly amazing and for the concert in San Marcos I got a vip pass so I was able to meet him! My friend and I decided to give Matisyahu a baja sweater from the downtown market because we wanted to attempt to do something memorable, and it was honestly nerve-wracking for me. Luckily, it ended up being a success. He decided to put it on right away and in one of his pictures on instagram from later on the week he was wearing it! For those of you that are in an area where Matisyahu is going for his acoustic show I definitely recommend going! 

Here's a video of one of my favorite songs he performed.

    Since this blog is mainly for writing about studying abroad I'll give a quick update on my plans. I recently had my NSLI-Y interview. Now I just have to wait patiently for my notification sometime in April or maybe even late March. I also decided to apply to CBYX, which is a year abroad scholarship to Germany. I really want to take a gap year and I decided that I might as well give it a shot and open up as many opportunities as I can. Wish me luck!