Winter Orientation (Oh what a CRAZY Weekend)

What do you call four days of craziness, country assignments, and partying, that involves over 60 exchange students?

Winter Orientation of course!

Thursday morning, we flew out of Anchorage and arrived in Juneau at around 11am.  We then proceeded to hop on a Greyhound bus, and head to the hotel.  Juneau is the capitol of Alaska, and it is located on the "Panhandle" of the state.

We were scheduled to go skiing that morning, but due to the temperature, we went to see "True Grit".  After the movie, we went to the hotel and figured out what we were to do next.  We went bowling.

Looping from left to right: Gabby, Kaylin, Julia, Darby, Me, Emily.

We had the best time.

The people that were on my team are in the photo. It turned out Gabby was the best bowler, and she beat everybody in all three games.  Halfway through the 1st game, they turned on the music and neon lights, and we started to party!

After that, we went back to the hotel, we ate dinner, and hung around the lobby.  We then went to the convention center and watched the movie "Outsourced" while waiting for each one of the OB to be interviewed.  I was the last interview of the night.  I was told that the interview was going to be difficult, but but on the contrary, it was quite fun.  I told the interviewers that I wanted to go to Germany or Brasil.  They asked me a few more questions, and then Stacy and I were dismissed.

Me rock climbing!

Later that night, when my roommate Lara (My fave Swissy) were in bed, we decided to turn on her laptop and watch Fred.  We stayed up until 2am, and then went to sleep.

That is only day one!!!

Day Two:

We woke up early, and went downstairs for breakfast.  We ended up waiting in the lobby with others who were misinformed about the time of the meal.  We built sculptures out of Spaghetti sticks and Marshmallows while we waited for others to complete their interviews, and later that day, we went to the Rock Dump to do some Rock Climbing.

Later that night was the country assignment banquet!

Lara and I dressed up and went down to the convention center.  We sat at the table with Anuj, and some other Canadians.  We listened to others talk while we ate our dinner.

Then it was time for the country assignments!!!


They announced me first!  I got Germany!

I hugged Lara, went  up and hugged all the German IB and RB, then we posed for pictures.

It was the best night ever!

Finland, Bolivia, and Germany

After that, Callie, Nicole, Lara and I went out (with permission of course) to get some Russian Dumplings.  They were great!

The next day, we played a game called BafaBafa :), toured the capitol, and had other Q/A groups.  We also had a dance later that night

We all went to bed, and packed and prepared for the flight out the next day.  It was difficult saying goodbye to my favorite Swiss (Little did I know I would see her again in a couple of hours).

We got to the airport, our flight was canceled!  So we went back to the hotel.  Later, I found out that I was one of the few that was going on the flight that was later that evening.  So I repacked, and went to get Chinese with my YEO.  Then we got on the plane, and I ended up sitting next to Tore, and a lady that was German.

Me and Swiss

It's a small world.



When we got to the parking garage, I found that my family had gotten a new car while I was gone :)

I wonder what they have planned for when I am gone for an Entire YEAR?