14 Days 'Til Departure!

First, I would like to apologize for not writing in all of July. It was a very busy month for me, I was finishing up swim team and my two summer school classes at American River College. Luckily, now those are both over and I can focus on Spain.
On July 30th I had my visa appointment, the leading up and preparation part was very stressful. I did not receive my support documents in time and by the time AFS sent copies by email, we had already left for the San Francisco Spanish Consulate. Immediately after we got off the freeway we saw an Office Max, where we could print the email, but they did not have wifi so we searched that part of town (a bit sketch) for a wifi enabled coffee shop. Once I downloaded the documents, we went back to Office Max to print them out. We made it to the Consulate by 10, was in by 10:15, and out by 10:30 (even though my appointment time was at 10:30). The next day we mailed the original documents (that of course, arrived the same day I had the appointment). All in all, the preparation for the visa was 100 times worse than the actual appointment.
On  Aug 11th my visa came in the mail!! I was so excited because the visa process was now officially over!
On Aug 20th my travel documents arrived from AFS! It included 3 luggage tags and a "what to do when you get off the plane" flyer. Receiving the luggage tags just made this experience seem even more real. It is insane to think that in 14 days I will gone!
My friends began school one week ago, and it was a weird feeling not doing all the "back to school" preparation they were doing. It is also odd to think that I'm not in school right now when everyone else is well under way with homework, essays, and projects (no, I'm not exaggerating). I know I'm really going to miss St. Francis HS, but I am SO EXCITED to go to my new school, IES Virgen de la Encina!!!!! I always joke with my friends that the hardest part of my exchange will be having to dress myself every day (since I have worn a uniform my whole life) and having to attend the same school as boys (since SFHS is all girls). I would like to reiterate the word "joke," though, because this obviously won't be the hardest thing...
Two days ago, I celebrated my 16th birthday and got my drivers license! Basically, this means that for the next two weeks I will be driving around town picking up last minute things for Spain. On my birthday I met with my friends after school got out and hung out, then I went to dinner. It was a low-key day, but I was so excited to see my friends! This Saturday I will have my Going Away/16th Birthday Party with all my friends and family!
I still have been emailing my host mother, Lupe, and after almost 3 months of waiting, I finally received their host family application! It includes everything I need to know about my new family such as: daily life, activities, and hobbies!! We have a ton in common and I am so looking forward to meeting them!!

Until next time...

New family! New school! New life! Oh My!

For the past few days my host mom, Lupe, and I have been exchanging tons of emails. We have a very nice system going: she sends the email while I am sleeping in USA and it is day in Spain and I reply when it is day in America and night time in Spain. I have recently picked my classes for the school I will most likely be going to. The mandatory classes are: science for the modern world, P.E., philosophy and citizenship, Spanish language and literature, English, and a study skills class (I'm not entirely sure that this is a correct translation, but close enough for me). Then I got to choose between two "schools": Humanities and Social Sciences or Science and Technology. I chose Humanities and Social Sciences and within the category you have to choose one of several groups. I chose the group containing History of the Modern World, Latin 1, and Economics. For my elective, I chose Applied Statistics. This isn't all final, but it is the plan. My (natural) mom called me crazy for choosing Latin but we made a deal, I could take Latin if I made the math class my elective because she thinks it is important for me to take a math class while abroad (and she is right). When I told my host mom what I had chosen, she asked if I really wanted to take Latin, I inferred this as "you are crazy" :) looks like both my moms have a lot in common already! My logic is, I don't need this class to count at my school in the USA, so why not take it?

So, I still haven't received my official information about my host family, but waiting and AFS go hand and hand. This process has taught me a lot of patience, though, so I guess it is okay.

I can tell my Spanish is improving daily, so that is very positive! I am constantly learning new words, verbs, and conjugations. Thanks to my emails with Lupe, wordreference.com (best site ever), and my Spanish-English dictionaries (yes, I have more than one haha).

Last weekend I had my PDO, or Pre-Departure Orientation. There were 12 of us and it was way more fun than I thought it would be! I met lots of new friends, and I got to meet Ryan, a girl from my area also going to Spain! We talked about our expectations and concerns, it was a good way for me to figure out what my expectations/concerns were because I had never really thought of them before. Overall, it was a very fun and informative day! Next orientation will be in New York, and then in Madrid!!!  New favorite quote that I learned at the PDO: "It's not good, It's not bad, It's just different" Completely True.

 Here are pictures of my host family! They were sent to me today by Lupe and I was sooo happy when I saw them!!I love new family already!!

Emma and Javier

Lupe, Javier, Emma, and Luis

Spain...three. months. away. So excited!

Hello! I am Shannon Williams and I live in Carmichael (which is basically Sacramento), California. I just finished my sophomore year of high school and I will be studying abroad in Spain for my junior year. I have been doing preparations for this year since beginning of freshman year and I am an so excited that the time has come to embark on this journey of a lifetime!

It was very hard to get my school to allow me to leave for a year, and when they finally agreed I felt accomplished something; I now had my school's support. I turned in my long and extensive application and on April 17th I got my acceptance email from AFS. It was one of the best days ever! But the day that was even superior was when I was contacted by my host family (unofficially, I might add) on May 31th. Normally, when people would ask me where I  was going I had to say "I don't know" but now I get no more confused looks because I can finally tell them where I will be!  My host family did not give me a lot of information because I think they assumed I had already received their host family profile. (Note, I still have not received it and I have been told by AFS it can take a few weeks, bummer) After a reply back to them, I found out I will be living in Ponferrada, Spain with mom (Lupe), dad (Luis), 13 year old sister (Emma), and 9 year old brother (Javier). Being the youngest of 4, having younger siblings has been a dream and now I have 2!! I could not be happier with my placement. The family, the school I will be attending, and the beautiful city; it is all too perfect.

This blog will serve as a way for mass communication to let people back home know how everything is in Spain.  While abroad I hope to update this weekly, but who knows! :)