Are We There Yet???

No.
Will we (I) be there soon?
..hopefully!

Originally, my date of leaving was supposed to be somewhere between July 19 and 24. I was really nervous that I wouldn't receive my guarantee form and my Brasilian visa before then.
I got my guarantee form a few days ago, which was super exciting!
But what about the Brasilian visa?

I still don't have it.
But it's okay! *Insert one of Mr. Fritz's bandroom smiles here*
There's been a little bit of trouble with my paper work and needing different documents. In the time that it took to acquire the papers that I now know that I didn't need, the application for my Brasilian tourist visa expired. Yep.
*Insert another bandroom smile here*
An important part of being a Rotary Youth Exchange student is PATIENCE. I'm still learning how to let go of the steering wheel and be patient with all of this, but that definitely has been my biggest challenge in my first year of exchange.

First year? What? You mean there's more than one?
Kind of, yes. There is actually three.
The first year is the one I'm almost finished with, which is signing up for the exchange and filling out paperwork. Patience is SUPER important here because everything takes TIME and TIME is something that we have plenty of. (Until it's three days before you're supposed to leave. Smile!)
The second year is the actual year of exchange, the one that everyone knows and talks about.
The final year is the year when you return to your home country. I've heard its a hard and confusing year.

I'll send news here soon as soon as I receive it myself!