TODAYS THE DAY

Today I start traveling to Japan!!! I'm super excited! I've been talking to my host mom through email for a while now, so I'm already pretty comfortable with her, and she speaks a little english so that will make things easier. I can't wait to get to meet my host siblings, Saki and Kosei!!

I'm not sure how many updates will be made during my trip, but I'll be sure to update fully when I get back! Japan, here I come!!

I HAVE A HOST FAMILY AND DEPARTURE DATE!!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG GMO OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG <---teehee, which one is different?

I and my friend Sophia, officially, have a departure date to Japan!! We will be on a plane to Tokyo on June 21st!! Sophia and I will be going to the same language school together in Tokyo but we will be staying in different areas outside of the city. I will be staying in Kanagawa with my. . . . . . . . OFFICIAL HOST FAMILY!!!!

I have a host father named Atsushi Mitamura, a host mother named Yumi Mitamura, a 10 year old host sister named Saki Mitamura, and an 8 year old host brother named Kosei Mitamura. I haven't recieved my host family packet yet so I don't have any pictures of my family yet but I do have my host mother's email address and I just sent out an email to her. I can't wait to hear from her!!!

Donators 3

Woah! My mom just gave me the log for my chip in and I discovered that I've had donators that I never knew about! I'm very greatful to everyone that has donated, so here's a big thank you to; Mrs Durand! Patricia Greenbaump! Daniel Groveman! Tanya Underwood! Fred Miller! Thanks so much everyone!

I've been accepted!!

WOOHOOO!!!! I know it's been a while since I last posted, but life's been a bit crazy, plus I didn't have much or anything to say xP However! I've been informed that my application to Japan has been sent and accepted and that I am now just awaiting a host family!!! This is awesome!!! Somehow it never occurred to me that I'd get this far!! I haven't recieved my big departure packet yet but I'm super excited for it!!! I only have like two months until I'm leaving for Japan!! (that may not be the right amount of time, but I just lost the ability to count xP)

Donators 2!!

Alright! So I recently sent out an email blast to a ton of people in hopes of getting a few donations. I got way more than that. I've gotten people donating through my chip in widget as well as sending checks to me through the mail! So I wanted to put out a huge thank you to everyone that's donated so far! Thanks so much to the Nydegger family, Mr Jim and Ms Susie Carr at Salem Hills Alpacas, and Ms Stephanie Brown at Alpacas of Madison County! I'll be sure to post again to thank my donators through chip in, unfortunately I only get the update for that every month. Thanks again to everyone and I'll be sending your bracelets right away!

Regents!! Part 2

Oh! I noticed that I never posted the results of the crazy adventure my friend Sophie and I took on for the regents! We both passed!!! I have to say though that it was a bit frightening when we walked into our science class the day after taking the regents and our teacher called us over. I was about ready for him to be like, 'Oh hey, good effort, you failed.' But we didn't! We are hugely proud of ourselves and quite relieved that we have one less regents to worry about at the end of this year. We're also super excited about our upcoming Japan trip and are counting down the months! (badly though as counting can be hard xP) We've both watched this video with clips from a girl who went on this trip last year and can hardly believe that we'll be there. I really hope that I get placed in Kyoto! It's beautiful there and everything looks like it was just taken out of a comic book, it's unreal!

Well, only a month or so until our applications are sent through to Japan, and then we can count down the weeks until we receive our exchange packets!!!

Donators!

Hey I just wanted to put up a post saying thanks to those of you out there that have started donating towards my Japan trip! You're contributions mean a lot and I'm very grateful to find that people are willing to buy my bracelets and get me closer to Japan this summer! This is also a special thanks to Ms Violet, Mr Cross, and Mr Mike for being some of my more recent contributors! Thanks so much everyone!!

Regents!

Okay, so we all know I live in New York, and New York is the (not very) happy home of regents!! Regents are tests you take at the end of the year after finals, and let me make this clear now, they are not fun. Anyways, my friend Sophia (also going on the Japan summer program) was looking online at the regents testing dates, and our departure dates. She discovered that our leaving will conflict with a few regents, one of which, the earth science regents. We're both taking earth science this year and we were less than excited to find out that we may have to take the regents when we get back in August or even next January. However, recently, we found the way out of this mess, and no it's not moving out of New York, although that was my plan. We realized that if there are regents in January, why don't we see if we could get into the earth science regents now? Turns out, we could! So last Monday Sophie and I both signed up to take it, today (Wednesday). Now to some people though, that didn't make sense. I mean, we've barely covered half the material in the course. . . Pshh! That's not important! And when I say it wasn't important, I'm serious, because we both took the regents! XD We're hoping we did relatively alright on it, and by relatively alright I mean we hope we got a 65 or above, because there is no way we're coming back to do it again!

"Thanks So Much" Bracelets

Here's a picture of the orange rubber bracelets we made for a "thanks so much for your donation" gift.

If you support my fundraising with a $5 donation, I'll send you a bracelet.

Spread the word.... I've got a long way to go to reach my goal.

Bracelet Pictures!!

So I finally got my bracelet pictures up! Actually my mom did it since I wasn't really getting on it, but nevertheless, at least they're posted. The pictures are on my facebook group page; Megan Rocks Japan 2010. So anyone interested can head on over there and check them out! Hopefully this will get people to look into maybe buying a bracelet so that I can get even a little closer to Japan. . . Let's hope so. . .

It's the New Year!!

Hey it's officially 2010!! Only (pause while I count) 6 months to go until Japan!! You'd think I'd know that June was the sixth month of the year since my birthday is in June. . .but I always feel I need to check. I mean for all I know, I could have been delusional all these years and June could be the fifth or seventh month. But it turns out that it's not. xP

So it's super exciting! I've been watching some animes online that are in Japanese with english sub titles, and I actually can pick up words while the characters are speaking and know what they are saying! It's awesome!! However I'm completely prepared to arrive in Japan and have no idea what's going on. Oh well! I'm sure I'll pick things up quickly! xP