The day has come!... almost

The countdown is finally over. My AFS experience has officially started. I am currently located in the LA La Hacienda Hotel and have gone through my first orientation. Pretty normal stuff I was expecting, a little boring, but definitely necessary for the company. Wow, this does not feel real at all. As I am writing this I am thinking to myself I am leaving my house and everyone I love for 5 months!  It hits me real fast and I cannot believe it for a second, but then all of a sudden I am flooded with the oddest sensation. I can not describe it, but it just does not feel like I am leaving.  When I first found out I was going the idea of me leaving was crazy and absurd, but then I got used to it and it seemed just a sort of fake idea. Three months before departure my mom asked me if it felt real yet and I said no but maybe a month before I go. A month before I left came and my sister asked me if it felt read and I said no maybe the week before it will. Well it turns out it never felt real and it still doesnt. I do not think it actually will until I meet my family and attend school for the first day. WOW WOW WOW WOW this is SO FREAKIN WEIRD!!! I do really for ready for it now though, I have been mentally preparing myself for this for a long time and here it is.

I am coming for the Land of the Long White Cloud

One week left

Time has FLOWN by. I am completely done with high school in America now! I finished all of my exams a few days ago and have off until I leave. I have even said my first goodbyes: I got to visit my brothers over the weekend who are both at college. My first stop was FSU where my 22 year old brother, Teddy, goes. I had an AWESOME 2 days there. We went to a basketball game, went out to eat, and best of all, went to an urban crowd surfing party (and yes it is as crazy as it sounds, I crowd surfed three times and was "the kid thats going New Zealand, wheres that again?"). I said goodbye to Teddy as he was pretty much asleep so it wasnt exactly emotional or anything but it was a great way to spend my last days with until I'm back in 6 months. Then it was off to UF to visit my other 19 year old brother, Peter. It was for all of 2 hours! I was supposed to be spending the night but I was also supposed to be driving friends back earlier that day and they would not stay another day at UF as a change a plans happened to have us stay an extra day at FSU. It was nice though, we went out to eat and hung out in his dorm. We said goodbye just as brothers say goodbye if one might be leaving for a couple of days, but his girlfriend, who I am pretty tight, with did shed some tears. All in all, I had a freakin awesome second to last weekend in the states.

To think about the future is weird now because things will never again be truly the same once I get on that plane to LAX. Once I leave my parents that have had kids in their house for 30 years, no kids will ever live there anymore. I am the 

youngest in the family and I am a senior that is leaving for the second semester of his senior year, once I get back, its off to college. It is really the ending of an era for me as being a real kid and living at home, and for my parents never to have kids that live with them. And this is all going to happen in just a 7 days. Its very sad to think about but things are always changing and I know everything is going to be great and my parents are going to be fine.  I am very greatly looking forward to this amazing adventure and I am thankful that I am lucky enough to participate, life really could not be better right now. Now all I have to do is decide the rest of my life while I am gone: What college I'll be going to (right now I have FSU, CU, Colorado College, and waiting to hear from USC and UF), do I want to run in college, do I join a frat, what will I major in, and these all depend on the col

lege I decide to go to.

 Now all I got to do is learn how to play rugby 

so I dont make a fool out of myself when I arrive

My brothers and I: We are very close. I also have a sister who I am very close with that lives in Ohio but I do not have a picture of her on my computer right now

Countdown: 20 days

Well the days are coming down still very fast. I only have to finish this week of school and next when we have our first semester exams. For some strange reason my school decided that we should have our semester exams after Christmas break where everyone will surely not study and forget every singly thing they have done all year. And this is the first year they are doing it too. If it was how it was last year I would have been done with school three weeks ago. But I can't really complain because I get to be with my friends at school and what would I have done with myself almost a month while everyone was in school, AND I still get about 10 days off school before my departure January 26. 

Christmas was great here. I got pretty much a whole new wardrobe because I am going to a place that gets VERY cold and I also needed new clothes for my college experience when I get back. New Years was spent in Ohio with my cousins and my sister so I could see them for the last time in 6 months. Went to a fun OSU party, hung out, ate some Skyline, ran around in the snow, ate a sandwich consisting of chicken tenders french fries mozzarella sticks cheese onion rings and "high sauce" (it was called The Fat Bitch), and watched the best show ever made, Jersey Shore. O I also received a Jersey Shore t-shirt from my brother, it was one of my favorite gifts.

Today pretty much consisted of me waking up at 6:20 missing first period of school so I could run a track work out. It was 28 degrees outside which is INSANE for Florida. I cannot reiterate that enough, it was INSANELY cold. Everyone at my club was wearing full running winter outfits which I don't own. One guy had ear warmers and the full ski mask with only eyes and nose cut out. All I had were my shorty shorts and a t-shirt.  When I was in Ohio I did not run at all because of the snow so I don't think I was ready for this one. I puked before I even finished the workout (I did finish it though) and my hands hurt so much from the cold I could not untie my shoes. I have not puke from running in four years, so it was actually kind of embarrassing. Also, I know a lot of people have the perception that all runner are all small skinny weak kids, but my running partner for the track workout could not be a better example of the opposite. He is a personal trainer and freakin huge and very hard to keep up with at long distances. Sorry I just got to say that cause I get some crap for distance running being a weak sport, even though now I think I have gotten more people that know me see it differently. 

The rest of the day was spent at school trying to sell our senior calendar, not an easy task at all. No seniors really want them except for the parents which never hear about the calendar from their son or daughter, so my plan of attack was to go after the teachers. I made three sales, and I still have 11 more. If I don't sell them I have to buy them. Anyway, back to the selling. So going to each teachers door in the middle of their class is not fun. Some get pissed, some flat out just deny it, but sometimes you get lucky. I had this one teacher in his room by himself not even look at me when I asked him.

And the day was rounded off with me making a facebook status about 20 days until I leave. It does not seem real to me at all right now. Sometimes I am like wow 5 months isnt long at all, but then I am like WOW 5 months is SO frick a lickin long! Anyways I am pumped even though I dont even really know what I am pumped for besides it is New Zealand. I am going to have a life there that I cant even imagine what it is going to be like now: the friends I make, my new family, my school, my new running club, the stuff I'll do, my accent might change, the way people view me, etc etc etc. Is New Zealand anything like Flight of the Conchords tells me it is?