Awards Night and Presentation

We had our final project presentations and an awards night last night at the charter school.  My project was on Rotary Youth Exchange, so I wore my blazer ;)  I looked so spiffy lol.

hahaha my presentation face.

I won a Mathematics Award, a Community Builder Award, and an award for Academic Excellence!

My advisor!  He has lived and taught in Bolivia and has traveled a lot.

PS:  I came across another Wisconsinite that will be going to Lima!!  He is more from the southern/central part of the state though.

I have a week left of school... SO SOON!!!  Once school is over, I'll have about a month left of work.  Gotta have sufficient cash if I want to indulge in alpaca sweaters! (that is literally a dream of mine).  If I don't come home with an alpaca sweater, I will have failed in my duties as an exchange student. Same with panpipes.  haha.

Peace.
-Ginger

DAYS TO PERU: 58

Where I will be living!

My oldest host brother (Christian-24) emailed me a few photos of the house and the view from the third floor.  He told me the first floor is mainly for visitors, the second floor has some bedrooms and the dining room, and my room will be on the third floor.  In the last picture, you can see a tall skyscraper off to the left (Pretty sure its a bank).  You can click the pictures to make them larger.

Apparently this is winter in Lima.  Gloomy, foggy, but very rarely does it actually rain.  

Christian said they live in the middle of the city in the financial center, 30 minutes from the beach, the andes, and the airport.  And also, their grandmother lives with them.

This is where it's located on google maps:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=las+castanitas+186,+San+Isidro,+Lima,+Peru&hl=en&ll=-12.092367,-77.023773&spn=0.190345,0.338173&hnear=Castanitas,+San+Isidro+District,+Lima+Region,+Peru&t=m&z=12

-Ginger

P.S :  I edit the layout and colors of this blog, like, twice a week.   So that's why it keeps changing.

DAYS TO PERU: 66

Rotary Presentation

So, yeah, I've posted quite often recently, but today I did a presentation about Rotary Youth Exchange to all the students and teachers at the charter school and it went really well!  I had a power point and showed a quick video, then also answered quite a few questions.  There were several people that really seemed interested!  Here is a pic of me presenting:

RFTW-  Rotary For The Win (Didn't wear my blazer, though...)

Peace.

-Ginger

Nuthin'

I posted a picture of the pins I made on a rotary exchange facebook group and sooo many people loved them and wanted to know how to make them!  So I made a video showing how to make them :)

This is the link to it if you would like to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaeSp4VVhLo

Other than that, I don't know that I really have much to say.  We have about 4 or so weeks of school left, then after that I'll have about a month and a half of summer before departing for Peru.  I'm looking forward to the break.  I've been working really hard (dishin' that custard at Culver's ;) )  not to mention tying up all the loose ends at school (finishing an online math course that, at this moment, I've sunk about 140 hours into..., sophomore year project on Rotary Youth Exchange, etc).  I think I'll also end up taking the ACT because I can take it now or I can take it my senior year, and I have a feeling I'm not going to retain very much information over the course of a year...  anyways, it's been a busy and stressful year and I am looking forward to summer.  I plan on watching a lot (too much) of One Tree Hill, packing, napping, and repacking.  Yeah, that's basically the extent my plans at this point.  :)

Everyone is beginning to find out their cities, families, and clubs (some still only have the district, though).  It was kind of an interesting scenario for me, having no information WHATSOEVER one day, and having all three families, club, and school the next.

It's all getting pretty real, pretty fast!
Catch ya on the flip side.
-Ginger

P.S  If anyone has any questions or whatever, feel free to leave a comment!!  

DAYS TO PERU:  80

San Isidro!  ... Again   :)

A little more official..? But not really haha

Ok, so Joseline said they had their rotary meeting and discussed the host families, and here is what she told me :  Emilie, from Denmark, will live with Isabella Jady's family (she had messaged me earlier in the week), and I will live with a different family (I think I will live with Isabella Jady's family later in the year, and probably with Joseline's family as well).  I added my first host mother on facebook (Ana Maria) and talked with her a little bit.  Haha don't be worried if you are extremely confused with all these different people/families -- so am I!  haha it's hard to remember.  This family also lives in San Isidro, Lima.  I will have a host sister, Grace (15) who will be leaving in August to be an exchange student in Illinois, so we will only live together for about a month.  I also have 3 host brothers:  Jim and Bruno (twins- 23) and Christian (24)... who will all live in the house along with their dog, Nossa. lol. 

San Isidro!  Main financial and business district from what I understand.

Chau
-Ginger

DAYS TO PERU: 86

LIMA!!

Ok so now that I have more time to explain this whole story (and it is a fairly long, confusing story) I will tell you more in-depth about my placement!!  It begins...

So, a few days ago, I received a friend request on facebook from a girl named Joseline.  She messaged me something along these lines "Hi!  I'm Joseline.  You will come to my rotary club and I am happy for you!"  I totally freaked out because at this point I didn't even have my DISTRICT yet alone my CLUB!  She proceeded to tell me that she had lived in Florida as an exchange student a few years ago.  She said her club in Peru had my information and were preparing for me!  So I was like "So I will be living in Lima?"  and she said "Yes, you will be here with us".  So my rotary club is called (in english) Our Lady of Grace.

I'M GOING TO LIMA!! 

SO AMAZING RIGHT?!?  I'm so glad she messaged me!  She also said it is probable that I will live with her family.  But she didn't know if it would be my first family or not.

And not 2 hours later.... I received two more friend requests.  They both also messaged me, and here is the gist of it.  One request was from a girl named Karen.  She explained that she was also from the club Our Lady of Grace.  She said she would be going on exchange to France, and that I would probably live in her house with her family!  The other request was from Karen's mother (Isabella Jady), who explained basically the same thing as Karen had.  But they also did not know if they would be my first family or not.  I chatted with them on facebook for about an hour (IN SPANISH!!!!)

Lima!!  Nearly 9 million inhabitants!

So I heard from two of my families within the same day! But I don't know when I will live with either of them lol.  And technically this is not official, so this very well could change.  I don't actually know that any of this is certain, except for that I will be hosted by the club Our Lady of Grace in Lima, Peru.

Joseline said they will have a rotary meeting tonight and I think she said they will discuss the host families, so she will probably be able to tell me who will be my first family soon! 

Also, she told me there would be 3 students total hosted by Our Lady of Grace club :  Me (USA)  Emilie  (Denmark)  and Victor (Belgium).  I am happy I am not alone in my club!!  :D  I'm so grateful that we will have each other and I hope we will become close friends.  I think that's everything... I'll post again when I hear more about families.

Oh yeah, and Joseline also told me they already know my school, because apparently all the students that go to this club go to the same school :  it's called Santa Rosa de Lima.  I think... haha and Karen's mom told me they wear uniforms =) 

AMAZING NEWS

Today I received a facebook message from a girl saying I would be in her Rotary Club - Rotary Nuestra Señora de Gracia in Lima, Peru!  She also said her family would probably be my first or second family!  So now I can FINALLY say...

I'm going to Lima, Peru!!

So excited and hyper right now...

- Ginger