introductions

After realizing that BlogSpot actually allows you to upload pictures right to your blogs, I made the change from Vox. Sorry Vox.

I'm writing these blogs for the people that already know who I am.

But for those that don't:

My name is Jaremie Forsman. I'm sixteen years old, or じゅろく さ. I grew up in a town in southern Minnesota and I love it there! I used to complain about it a lot, but it grows on you once you are faced with the prospect of leaving it for 11 months. Which is exactly what I'm doing!

I started applying for this exchange program back in October of 2007 when my high school ran an announcement for it on the bulletins. It was an extremely long and arduous process. Seriously.

I went online to find the application for the program, it was INSANE! It's a 40 page PDF format document, and you need to hand in 4 copies! For people with more basic math skills, that's 160 pages! I first tried to print them out from my high school's library, and after I got 3 copies of my 40 page application, I realized I had printed out the version for the Semester Exchange. Which was worthless. So much for paper conservation.

So I went home, reprinted, took a look at it, and was COMPLETELY OVERWHELMED! At least, that was my first reaction. Then I took a deep breath and started filling out information.

It was a nightmare.

All of the signatures had to be in blue ink, you need doctor's and dentist's approval forms, a school transcript, a letter of recommendation from a teacher... the list goes on.

I am not one to be swayed by petty challenges, so I acquired all of those things. Then my local Rotary club contacted me for a Practice Interview to be held at the school.

I wore a suit/skirt combo.

Which, I found out, was completely unnecessary. At the Practice Interview, I started talking to Mr. Lindberg and Mr. Carlson about my reasons to go to Japan, but then we got sidetracked and started talking about old movies.

A week or so later, I found out I had been accepted into the District Interviews!

They would take place in early December, which gave me lots of room to prepare. I spent hours pouring over Sample Interview Questions, general interview tips, "what to wear in an interview" sites, interview, interview interview....

I ended up wearing a dark blue, Old Navy sweater and khakis.

On the way up to Roseville Middle School., where my interviews were scheduled, I couldn't eat. I was so nervous. They were scheduled for 10:15 AM, but the forecast predicted blizzards, so we left at 6 in the morning. *It was an hour and a half drive.

NO SNOW!

We got there at 7:30 in the morning, so I got to meet my interviewers, and some kids who were there already, and it was all in all a good time.

Until it was my turn to interview.
I was so nervous! My dad and little brother came with me, and for the first 10 minutes of the interview, my interviewers interviewed them. (Wow that was a lot of "interview's") Then my dad and brother had to leave so I could be personally interviewed.

I was awesome. I realized how much this meant to me, so I pushed away the nervousness and answered all of their questions honestly and confidently. I think they could tell how much I wanted this, because 14 days later, on Christmas Eve no less, I got my acceptance letter in the mail!

Then came the Orientation Sessions: 3 of them. Each taking place on Saturday, each running from 8:00 AM to 3:30 PM. My head was so pumped full of information! I met some amazing people though.

I've recently recieved my passport and Visa in the mail.

My plane leaves for Japan ON August 19th, at 3:05 PM!