The Blazer Hunt

Many Rotarians are probably familiar with the navy blue, Rotary Blazer that exchange students wear. For those of you who aren't, here's a brief description: One Rotary tradition - popular worldwide - is that students cover their blazers in pins and patches they have traded with other students or bought in places they have visited as evidence of their exchange. It is popular for the students to bring a large collection of national- or regional-themed pins and trade them with students from other areas. And apparently, your blazer and the Rotary patch on it can really help you out at airports and stuff, because when people see that Blazer, they can know that they're dealing with a responsible Rotarian. Cool beans!

And students are serious about this stuff! They COVER their blazers. I mean, some have even put license plates on the back. To give you an idea of what they end up looking like by the end of exchange, here's a few pics I found on Google:







Anyways, I must have a navy blue blazer by Outbound Orientation which is at the end of March. Rotary doesn't order particular blazers; you're just supposed to find one at JCPenny's or Sears - you get the idea. "Doesn't sound like much of problem," you may think. My mom and I thought the same thing, until we realized that the even the smallest blazers at any department stores were far to big!

Which brings me to the title of this entry: The Blazer Hunt. My mom and I were going to to just pick one up after my interview last week, but realized it was going to take some much deeper digging to find one that didn't completely swallow me up. So today, my mom, Carolyn, Reece (brother), and I went to the mall in search of my blazer, since we didn't have any luck online.

We spent hours searching at the mall in nearly every store. I want to say right now, I love you so much Mom!! :) She has helped me so much so far, and been so supportive of everything. You're amazing! Anyways, the best we found was an XL at Tommy Hilfiger. The arms fit fine, and although it was far better than anything we had yet found, the body was still pretty big. We saw it was on clearance for $17 and thought, for that price, we may as well buy it and use it if all else fails. So that's what we did! We're hoping that a friend of ours can bring in the sides a little - it shouldn't be a problem. Even if I have to wear it as it is now, I'd be fine with it, because honestly, I'm pretty pleased with it!

I'm so excited to fill it with different pins and souvenirs and such! I'm also excited to GIVE pins to the people I meet. Students are supposed to come up with their own pins to exchange, so I'm in the process of figuring that out. I think I'm going to make some, and my mom said she'd get some from the Iowa capital, and I'm going to try to collect some from around town. This should be fun! If you have any ideas, let me know!

Lists

Wow, has it been a crazy week! Last Saturday - February 5th - I found out that Spain had accepted me as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student! Talk about a good birthday present!! Monday was my birthday - Sweet 16! I got my license that day and since, have been driving around with Carolyn (sister) to random places around town, mostly because --why?-- we can!! On Wednesday I got to go to youth group for the first time since my jaw surgery on January 11th. They were all pretty ecstatic about my Spain news. So far, everyone's been pretty supportive of it all, which really helps :) On Friday I applied for my passport! It should come in the mail in about six weeks, according to the lady at the courthouse. Once I have my passport, I need to apply for my visa ASAP because apparently they can take a long time to attain. Yesterday I had my official interviewing for RYE since I couldn't make the original date in January due to my surgery. The interview went well, and I even made a few friends! Two other girls were also there -  Melissa and Brooke - that couldn't make it to the January event either, for various reasons. It sounds like Melissa is going to Italy and Brooke could be headed to Belgium?? It's cool to already be making friends on this journey :)

My RYE will probably begin in about six months (I'm guessing mid-August?), so I almost feel silly blogging already, but there's so much preparation that's going to be done in that time! I'm hoping that when all my blogs are finished and through, people can look back on them and learn what all the preparation entails, as well as what being an exchange student is like, and how to deal with coming home and adjusting back into things. So that's one of the purposes of this blog. Another it to inform people of what I'm up to, without having to spend a terrible amount of time communicating with everyone individually. This will be a bigger deal when I'm in Spain, with a probably busier schedule.

Right now, I am making many, many lists. To-do lists, shopping lists, date lists, contact lists . . . they never seem to end. But I guess that's the kind of person I am. I'm a writer. I love writing, and apparently, I also love lists. It seems that forgetfulness runs in my family, and so lists are, at times, a necessity.

Some top priorities on my lists right now include: apply for job at Quizzno's tomorrow, fill out Visa application, figure out a date to apply for Visa in Chicago, somehow find navy blue blazer that FITS, attend more local Rotary meetings, pay hard-core attention in Spanish class . . .

I think it'd be cool to have some kind of community event to raise money for my exchange. So far, I don't really have any ideas. I thought maybe a 5k fundraiser or something would be cool. A bake sale seems somewhat impractical... If you have any ideas, let me know!

There's a lot to do between now and departure time, and I'm sure that that time is going to fly by before I realize it. My mom and I decided that we'll have to do everything in preparation a little bit at a time throughout these next few months, because if we wait until the end for everything, it's not going to be possible.

It looks like this has turned into a pretty long post, but it doesn't really surprise me. (Warning: there may very well be many long posts in the future :).) Even so, I'm sure I've forgotten something I wanted to say, and I'll probably remember it right after I publish this. It still hasn't soaked in that next year at this time, I will be in Spain! Everything seems so unreal at this point. Feel free to comment and fun things!

Hasta luego,
Josie