I'm so sorry I have not posted in a while. I have finals at school and I have otherwise been swamped. Part of this month of crazy started on May 10th, when I and my parents attended the pre-departure orientation (PDO). This was an all-day thing, and it was information heavy. For the first part of the day, parents and students were together, and we all went over some of the main rules for AFS. They are pretty common sense-y type stuff: no drugs, no driving, no hitchhiking. They also, in the first part of the day told us some horror stories about past AFSers being sent home early, being forced to change houses without warning, etc. I will admit, they were a little scary.
For the second part of the day, the parents stayed in one room (to discuss plane tickets, monetary things, etc.) and the students (that's me!) went to another room. After some pretty typical icebreakers we started reading and reacting to scenarios (i.e. a friend from your host school invites you to a party, but you suspect there will be drugs, what do you do?). They then asked us what we would do, and as far as I can tell, there is only two possible answers to every question: talk to your host family, and talk to your 'guardian angel'.
A 'guardian angel' is a volunteer with AFS who has gone through some training and knows who to call for any situation. Every AFSer and their host family is given their 'guardian angel''s phone number, and so has a way to contact them. 'Guardian angels' are not the only name given to people who play this role, it depends on the country. Some, for example, call them 'buddies'. :)
Anyway, this orientation was SUPER information-filled, and although I have poured over every single page of the AFS website, it helps to hear the information from an actual person.
The next (and final) big piece of news that I have neglected to post about is that I got my host family assignment! I am going to have 5 siblings!!! The place I will be staying is outside of Barcelona and it looks so amazing! I have emailed a little with my host family, and I am so looking forward to getting to know all 8 of them. And no, '8' was not a typo, they have a dog! (For those of us who are mathmatically challenged: 5 kids + 2 parents + 1 dog = 8 new family members!)
I will try to be more punctual with my blogging and wish me luck on my finals!
