Friday, November 30, 2012

The Very Beginning Part 2 (Meeting the Family)

So there I was. Everybody smiled at me and I did my best to smile back as happy as I could, while being so tired. I barely had 4 hours of sleep and if I think back now I don't remember who I actually saw at the airport. I only remember, that after everybody introduced themselves, I turned around and my host dad said: "Elisa, that is going to be your headmaster, Dr. Burkett." Dr. B,is what he is called at Banner, looked down at me and all I could do was force myself to smile, lightly intimidated, by his appearance. 
However, after we got my suitcase, we left the airport and while we were in the car, they asked me where I would like to eat. In the end I didn't know any of the places named, except for McDonald's and I wasn't really in the mood for that, so we agreed on Applebee's. 
We walked into the restaurant and the lady at the entrance greeted us very friendly with a:"Good morning, how are you today." Very surprised by so much friendliness, I just kept walking, following her to our table. 
After lunch we got back in the car and headed home. 
We stopped in front of a big white house, with a big front yard. Back then I hadn't yet figured out how huge the backyard was. We entered through the garage door and as soon as I walked in I saw that extremely cute, little dog, sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. She looked at me in a very weird way and when Amanda said: "Come on, Gurty, come on, girl.", she ran towards us and jumped up and down. 
My host parents entered the room and my host sister Tara. They explained quickly the rules to me: no food upstairs, no shoes upstairs and no drink upstairs, except in a water bottle.
We all took our shoes off and went upstairs. The first door on our left is Amanda's room with the bathroom in it, then if you keep walking down the hallway you reach two doors, one on the left the other on the right. My room is the one on the right. My host dad opened the door and I swear I almost cried, because I was so touch.
The room was bright pink. A big bed in the middle, a dresser with a mirror and in white letters over the bed was my name. I loved it. Well I still do. :)

The rest of the day went by really fast. We watched Tv for a while, played cards and then at 7 pm I went to sleep. It was an amazing first day and I couldn't wait for more!

Friday, October 26, 2012

The Very Beginning Part 1 (the Airport)

Everything started 2 months, 3 weeks and 1 days ago, when I left the EF language and culture camp in Northfield, VT. It was 3 am and I was taking the last Bus for that night. I fell asleep as soon as the bus started.
When I woke up, I could already see the city of Boston.The sun was not really high yet and it just looked amazing. It was 6 am now and the other people on the bus began to wake up.
All together we entered the airport. It was only me and a guy, Marco, who were taking the flight to Richmond. All the others were going to Las Vegas, NV.
We said goodbye to our camp teachers, and to each other, leaving through different security gates.

After an 1 1/2 hour flight, I finally could see the ground and all of a sudden I was terribly excited. I was really here! I was about to meet my host family in 5 min. I was so happy, I was about to cry. I took my EF bag and my laptop and walked out of the plane. As walked through the hallway, my heart started to beat faster and faster.
And then I entered the big hall where everybody was waiting. A family passed me and then I could see them: My new family for a year.