I finally have an itinerary!

It's official....I have my final final itinerary!

I received an e-mail from "Kierstin at It's Your World Travel" last night during my going away/pizza party put on by Mrs. Collins, but held at the Priewe's house. All I had to do was print out the guarantee form, circle a few things and then have my mom sign by the "x". I faxed the paper off this morning; meaning in a few days time my visa and tickets will be coming to me in a big white truck labeled "Federal Express".

So, my itinerary is as follows: I leave portland at 2:11 pm (much better than 7:45 am, I must add) on Monday the 31st. I'll arrive in Minneapolis after about two and a half hours, hang out in the airport for another two hours or so, then board the plane for a nine hour flight over to Amsterdam, arriving at 12:40 pm European time. There'll be two and a half more hours spent in Amsterdam before I board my final plane for the short (only one and a half hour) flight to Göteborg, arriving in Sweden at 4:45 pm, Swedish time (7:45 am Oregon time). That means that I could be in my host family's house as early as 6:45 pm.

Only 10 days left....

Lots has happened...

Well, quite a few things have happened since I last updated this thing. The first that occurred was that I received an e-mail from District 2360's (my Rotary district in Sweden) Youth Exchange Chairman about the Orientation camp that all us exchange students will go to. The e-mail said when it'd be (August 13th - 18th), where it'd be (a small town called Fristad in a bording school outside the much larger town Borås of which we'll be attending a festival one evening). Along with the little "welcome" letter he included there was also a schedule of events (Swedes love schedules according to one of my books :)). I'll basically be taking various classes about Swedish language, culture, habits, etc. and every few hours there's a coffee break (another thing I learned: Swedes drink the 2nd most coffee per captia in the world...who'd a thunk?). I'm super excited for that week, it'll be amazing...

Second of which is that I finally got a departure date....kind of. IYWT (It's Your World, Travel, my travel agency) sent me my itinerary, though they claim it's still "tentative" but I have a feeling that it'll end up being the real thing. It has me leaving Portland at 8:45 in the morning on July 31st (meaning we have to leave the house at 4:45 am....joy for us). I will then fly to Minneapolis, have an hour layover (hopefully hook up with some other exchangers), then board the plane for an 9 hour flight to Amsterdam. I have a 3 1/2 hour layover in Amsterdam then there's an hour and a half flight to Göteborg. All in all so long as there's no problems, I'll arrive in Sweden at 11:30 am meaning I could be back at the host's house as early as 1:30 am (Swedish time).

I also recieved an e-mail from an Australian named Tim who is currently living in Göteborg (most Rotary exchangers from the southern hemisphere go on exchange from January to January because that's just what works best with their school year). So, he and a few other exchangers have been in my district in Sweden since January. He said that they want to get us all together (in total there'll be about 14 exchagers both new and old) for a dinner or something...whatever it ends up being, it sounds like a lot of fun.

I've also had quite the shopping sprees both this week and last. I've got a bunch of new jeans and shirts thanks to my brother (he took Alison, Megan and I up to Portland). I also went to Woodburn with my mom and Jackie yesterday and since that trip I do believe that I will have no problem staying warm in the Swedish winter. I had to bump up the number of jackets and coats that I was planning on brining because of this trip...but we did get some good deals and I've got some pretty sweet new duds (not to mention a new pair of Nikes and some sandals coming in the mail from eBay).

I did a demo pack today with just my clothes. Everything fit into one one suitcase and it was just under 50 pounds. That means that I have a complete other suitcase to put my non-clothing items, not to mention 2 carry-ons to chuck stuff in. I have a feeling that I won't have a problem with my packing...and there I was worrying that I was bringing too much stuff...yay for me!

I'll leave you all with a damn cool picture of Varberg that I found; 12 days and counting......

Kicking it off

I feel like I should probably start this little journal thing at some point. There's still two and a half weeks until I leave which at times feels like an eternity but at others feels like it's coming so fast if I'm not careful it'll smack me in the face (bad analogy, I know...). I still haven't been given an exact date of departure, though it's "supposed to come sometime early next week." Well, Monday's come and nearly gone and still no date...blast that travel agency! I suppose I should do what they say and "be flexible" and I'm guessing that being patient falls into that category, but jesus, I'm sick of being patient or flexible, or whatever the heck you want to call it.

Now that I've got that off my chest...There's only a few more things that I have left to do before the big day arrives, one of which is get a suitcase, without which I feel as if this exchange won't be going very far. I'm supposedly borrowing one from the Brickmans, so I guess we just need to make it over there and check 'em out. Other than that, I just need to buy some things for the host fams, make an order off of Amazon, buy some socks; both wintry and normal, and get some athletic shoes and water sandals. It seems like a lot, but in reality it's not actually that much, considering how much I had to do at the beginning of all of this. One plus: I finished making all of my pins today, yay for me (101 of 'em, I hope that's enough when I add in the ones Rotary gave to me).

More'll be coming as soon as that dang travel agency steps up to the plate and does what their supposed to do....MAKE ME TRAVEL!