9 posts tagged “flanders”

I recieved an email today from AFS national office.

It was being sent to both me and *****, because I was left off a mailing list for a very important orientation next month.

This is what it says:

Hi Amy, attached is the information for the orientation camp, I'm sorry I left you of *****'s list. ***** can you confirm I sent you Amy's papers?

Sounds good, yes? No problems here? Nope. This is where it gets interesting and made me go =|

She is off to Hungary.

Wow wow wow.. but I thought I was going to Belgium Flanders?

Am I country-less? Which country is my country?

I am ringing tomorrow to sort this out... I'll keep you all posted, my dearest followers

Tonight was my first chapter meeting as a selected student :-D

There was approximately 8 inbounds from Japan, Costa Rica, France, Canada (Quebec), Germany and Iceland... apologies for missed out pplz..

And there was 2 outbounds there

the first being myself, to Belgium Flanders
the other was Mike to Belgium French

Starr didnt go

When we got there, It was sort've like "uumm okaay what do i do" and so i went and randomly picked someone to talk to, and I was talking to the Iceland Girl (i know names but i wnt say them online) and I asked her to say her last name hehe and maan was it cool (and long and foreign :D)

There was a girl there called Tarlea (spelling...? tar-leah) who looked EXACTLY like Lilly, (Miley Cyrus's friend)

Okay okay back to actual AFS stuff...

After dinner (yuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm) they made everyone introduce themselves
The current inbounds said their name, where they come from, and what they did in the holidays
Then the returnees said their name, the country they were in, and what they noticed that was different when they returned.
and then me and mike were holing our breathes (basically..)
AND THEN THEY DIDNT ASK US TO TALK!
so YUUUS!!!!!!!!!
...Mike and I could breath again xD

There was a speech about Costa Rica from the Costa Rican girl
And then a speech about Kanji (which was suuuper cool!) from the Japan girl
And then speech from German-Girl and Canada-Guy about the South Island trip they just got back from.

After speeches/talks was PUDDING! Pavlova, of course ;)
May I just say that we had the coolest table.
It was me, mike, girl, Miley-Cyrus's friend, Willim (PHILLIP LOL) and saskia sometimes and sometimes also mike's dad.

Pretty good night if I may say so

oh and if for any reason you kidnap my cellphone, you will find mike's number listed under "mike belgium rocks"...

...dont even ask xD

Official Notification Certificate

Soooo...like i said... I've been placed in Belgium Flanders

This is a picture of the certificate of "official notification" that I was sent back in... i dunno... february or march.

Naturally I, of course, blanked out personal stuff like my full name, address and the name of the person who sent it to me. But I left the important stuff there ;-)

The status of my online application is still "accepted"

but my friend's application is "transfered," which I believe means it is in Costa Rica :-)

So yes, basically this is a post to say that I do in fact have an official placement certificate and it does in fact say Belgium Flanders

Thank you all for viewing my waste-of-time post. Have a good day!!! =P

AFS: BELGIUM FLANDERS

its decided!

Us 0910's from CS are starting to organise our Travelling Notebook. Its time to, because we have 3 outbounds in January, with the rest of us being in August.

It's gonna be pretty awesome. Its a notebook that is posted to all of us. We sign it, draw on it, paste pictures on it, on our each own seperate page, and pass it on to the next person on the pre-determined list.

How exciting!

Anita, (NZ->Chile departing Jan) is starting it off.

We are currently in the decision of WHAT kind of notebook/book to use!

:) cant wait till i get it!

from amy -> hungary, flanders,  or czech republic

INTERVIEW DAY!
Team Building with the outbounds and Panel Inteview!

This morning:

Team building. There were 6 of us there. (3 to France, 1 to Canada (French), 1 to Chile and Me. That is, 5 girls and 1 boy. Only 7 outbounds in total from HB, but one of them couldnt be there.)

This actually only lasted like an hour. After that i spent a half hour talking to the AFS Advisor (AA) Sarah about my country situation. We firstly did this thing with chairs, KIINDA like cheops pyramid (do you know the pyramid game?) but with people. I mean, that alone took 40 minutes. We then played human knot, twice, (grab hands in the middle and try and untangle it). The first time worked really well but the second time took AGES. And also a blindfolded game. first you gotta find everyone. then in the hall there were 2 items. One was a rope. you had to find the rope. and blind folded, using everyone, you had to make this rope into a square. hard. and then the second time there was a rope and a stick. you had to suspend the stick in the air with the rope. blind folded this was too.

I talked to Sarah (AA) about my countries. She said I am out of the age for Hungary. BUT. Hungary is NOT a popular choice, and the people that are placed there usually DO NOT pick it. Its a 'left over' country, heresay. Thats not saying there's anything wrong with hungary, its just that people would rather go to france spain japan argentina etc. Hungary is a "strange" choice. Now, back to what i was saying. The age restriction cuts me out of the running for Hungary. But as it is not a popular country, I may get in IF there are any places spare *FINGERS CROSSED* and she says shes pretty sure im the only person in NZ that actually has it on their list this year.

so I had to fill out the country form again.

1st choice: Hungary

2nd choice: Flanders (mum said if i put hungary first, i MUST put this second. so i said OK hoping like hell i get hungary)

3rd choice: Czech Republic (apparently pretty popular)

and my "OK" countries (eg i dont care whether or not i get them, just extras in case they need them) are: norway sweden finland (all of scandinavia lol - oh except denmark)

So about Malaysia.

Mum said NO.

AFS people tried talking to her. she said NO.

so i go "ok, as long as i have hungary."

AND NOW THE PANEL INTERVIEW.

The questions were hard!

things kinda like:

think of a situation when you made a bad decision

what was your most embarrassing moment and what did you do

what would you do if you were placed in a family whose beliefs were very dfiferent to yours and how would you handle this (i didnt actually answer this one)

what would your teachers say about you if we interviewed them

what do you hate most about school (ENGLISH TEACHER) and then i had to explain why and what i do to try and settle this down

things like that. they were awesome though, im pretty sure they liked me lol and they wanted to know "why hungary? why not...spain? france?" and i was like " -_- because it feels right."

i mean, wat is it with FRANCE?!? two of the interviewers went to france and the other to USA! common countries. where's the out-there countries!?

i go on a lot of things based on how they feel to me.

so i am happy about how things went today.

and dont get me wrong, i still love you, Vlaanderen.

Fingers crossed for Hungary!

AFS sent me 'Participant Agreement' forms in mail
they involved lots of legal stuff and clauses and blah blah
and stuff about their medical insurance, what it covers, what it doesnt cover and so on

and they said as soon as they receive the signed agreement and the deposit, then my papers go off to Flanders.

so naturally i signed them, and both my parents did too...

and i filled in passport papers (except this cannot be completed till i get passport photos lol)

and i will tell you all when my AFS online app status changes :)

'

current status: submitted

I was looking for some this morning

I am going on exchange, no matter wat.

i am going to learn dutch (ok flemish)

so i went looking for some online (trademe ferrit dymocks and fishpond)

but noooooo there was nothing

i also rung AFS and requested a phone number of a previous belgium flanders exchange student so i can chat about flanders =D

AFS rung up and came for an interview

I decided to just keep up with the application process in case i changed my mind or something

and the thing was, they had COMPELTELY changed the restrictions on host coutnries. again.

which cut out HUNGARY.

magyarorszag my love.

SO I HAD TO PICK AGAIN.

and after talking to the nice afs lady, i picked

belgium flanders, czech republic, sweden, (and my two "OK" countries were denmark and finland)

i think she liked me. we asked her to stay for dinner and so she did.

then three days later i get this email:

Congratulations Amy,

You have been successful in being selected for a year programme exchange to Belgium Flanders. 

Now is the time to update your health forms (3a & 3b) by supplying us with current information about your health.  You may like to check the letter you wrote to you host family originally, as this is a chance to add or change things now that you know what country you will be going too.  Remember your host country uses this information to find you a host family that will suit your personality..

Your completed papers will be sent to Belgium Flanders who will screen them to ensure you meet their criteria. When you have met their criteria, they will guarantee to find you a host family.

It is important that you supply accurate information so that you will have a host family and school that suits your personality and ability.

So i got a country!

the flemish (dutch) speaking part of belgium!

and so i did all the forms and went over them, and submitted it this afternoon.

will keep in touch.
TOT ZIENS!