Accepted, Part 2

My birthday was yesterday. While out at my lakehouse (far removed from any semblance of internet access) at noon on my sixteenth , I decided to do something I rarely if ever do. I called our house phone to check the messages on our answering machine. I'm not sure why I chose to do it at that moment, but fate must've intervened because I got the best birthday present I have ever recieved. The seventh and last messge I listened to started out sounding like a routine AFS phonecall from my advisor, Katie. Then it became something incredible. In the span of only two short weeks, my application had been accepted in Chile. This, according to Katie, must be some record. It usually takes months. I cried, I was so excited. I ran outside and handed the phone to Mom so she could hear the message, too. What a gift. 

Accepted, Part 1

I got home today after a week of checking and reckecking my email for that USA acceptance letter to find a large-ish envelope on the table... My first acceptance! I'm officially accepted by AFS USA. My application is off to Chile. It's all in other people's hands now (eek). Hopefully it won't be but another month or two before I find out whether Chile wants me, and what family I'll be with if it does. Yay!

I haven't quite hit that "panic point" yet - I'm not sure that this has all worn in yet at all. I'm so ready for something to happen. It's all a waiting game now.

However, there's one issue unresolved thus far. My interview was apparently not enough - for a semester program you have to interview in your house (which I guess my rep and I were both unaware of!). So that'll be up soon. It's going to have to wait for Spring Break, though! Off to San Francisco!

Here's a note about what's happened before the blog appeared. I'm throwing this in because I've been looking at other future and present AFSer's blogs and I know how nice it is to know every peice of information.

I first got the preliminary application two years ago. AFS sent me the full application, which I dawdled over (knowing I wasn't going anywhere any time soon). I pulled myself together last October and finished pretty much the whole thing (sans medical stuff and transcript). When I spoke to my advisor soon thereafter, I was horrified to hear that I would have to redo everything online. I did it, though. Slowly, over a course of three months, I redid everything, got my passport, and attended an interview. I got it all turned in about a week and a half ago except the incomplete interview, and here we go!