Tuesday, April 28, 2009

So close. Yet so far.

hallo.

mein name ist liselotte ross. aber du kannst mich lise (lisa) heißen. und ich will nach deutschland im der herbst gehen.

oh. Hi! Didn't see you there! You see I was just practicing my German because I might, may, really wanna, gonna figure out a way to, go to Germany for the Fall semester of 2009. Crazy huh? Well that might just be my middle name. I guess I could bore with you all the little details of how I got to this point but I'll make it short and bittersweet.

We had two exchange students from Germany at my school this year and I was thinking... 'hey. Germany! Exchange?! might be fun... So I talked to my teacher and he told me about CBYX and I was super excited but long story short I decided I couldn't give up my senior. Well... not all of it at least. Thus began the long search for exchange programs. WHICH ARE SUPER EXPENSIVE. Thus began the long and grueling search for scholarships, at which I stumbled upon a humble, kindly organization, called Youth For Understanding. aka YFU. I began my app, lost my teacher recomendation, fought with my school, wrote insanely hard essays, filled out forms, wrote a check, and low and behold my app went out postmarked on the last day possible. Praise the Lord. And so I had my interview:

Interviewer: Hi! So nice to meet you. Now tell me why you want to be an exchange student.

Me: Hi! Erm uhm, I really like Germany, I'm studying German, I'm part German, er uhm did I mention that I really really want to go to Germany???

Interviewer: Tell me in one sentence why we should pick you out of anyone else to win the scholarship.

Me: Errrrrr, uhmmmmmm, Well I... no wait don't count that!... I mean I've worked so hard in school and in my life in general, and I've never wanted anything more in my life, and yeah, I guess I want whatever I've done to mean something, and this defenitly would.

and so on and so on.

And so I waited impaitently for weeks, months, and laid awake at night praying so hard for God to give me this chance, this one little good thing. and he did.

Congratulations! is the best word ever created.

But it was just that, a chance. I won the Key club $2,000 scholarship. My Oma will give me $2,000. I have $2,000. That's $2,000 more. But God's gotten me this far, so I'm gonna trust him to get me the rest of the way.

Where there is will, there is a way. All I have to do is find it. :)

Guten Tag, Guten Abend, und Guten Nacht. Dass ist alles für jetzt.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Mein Name ist Kate (katebenz518-Cultures-shocked) and I actually understood your German. I went to Greece last summer with YFU but sadly I can only remember a few things about the language. I'm actually learning German too and I even wrote a children's book for my senior project.I'm also planning on doing another exchange during my sophomore year in college. I'm thinking Austria or Switzerland for a year. Keep me updated when you arrive in Deutschland. I'm really fascinated about that country.

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