April 29

Still no word from Germany regarding contact or host families or really anything. My little sisters really sick with some virus right now so all I can hear is a symphony of coughing from the next room (poor kid). I am absolutely swamped right now, I have finals, ap exams, I step, final projects in 3 classes, work and the exchange to work on. On top of all that my dad is setting up his new restaurant in mishiwaka and my mother is packing to move in 2 weeks. The south bend chocolate factory has called me back about me buying some wrappers to make buttons for the rotary jackets, 65 dollars for 250 I don't know whether to try and haggle or not :/ all my grades are fine right now I just have to make sure that with all this going on I don't lose control of them.

2nd post

Second post

Sorry about being late on this bye well... a lot I've been busy and forgot about it, I'm working on finding "support team" members right now, I don't have all off them yet but I'm working on it! I still don't have a city nor have I been contacted by my host family but there's still time so I'll be patient...for now. The conference went well and was a lot of fun the pictures below are from waiting in the lobby for something to do. The conference at the Radisson hotel had some interesting guests and speakers, they had one former biggest loser contender and somebody that does work in Nepal regarding human trafficking. Some students from RYLA were there too (its essentially junior rotary members). 

I'm deathly allergic to cats and had a bit of a close call 2 days ago that I'm still recovering from, we went to a friend of my mom's for dinner and they had a few cats, within 7 or 8 minutes I had to leave the house because I couldn't breath well, my whole chest became a little swollen including my back which is the part I'm still recovering from, I couldn't move for a few days without a lot of pain but luckily it was over by the 3rd day, just in time for my 3rd day at work. Speaking of work I did finally get a seasonal job at the new 5°below in Goshen, no that does not mean come in and mess with me...you know who you are.

 I'm meeting with the production manager at the south Bend chocolate factory in a few days to talk about getting wrappers to put on my buttons for the jackets, I'm going to need somewhere around 200 to 250 buttons overall I think to be safe. Then I have to find a place that will let me use their button maker. 

The model UN that a few friends and me were trying to make is looking like it won't happen after all, the school likely won't approve the version of it we want and to do it outside of school would be far to expensive. 

Prom was a few days ago, I didn't go since I'm a.) Broke until my 1st paycheck B.) Single and without a junior or senior to go with and C.) Didn't really have any desire to go. I realized to day that I have 23 days of American school before I leave for Germany in the fall, so holy freholes (I do not think I spelled that correct). I also made some more food (desserts of course) I'll put pictures up below with the ones from the conference  

FIRST POST

                                      FIRST POST

This is my first post I guess, I was told to keep a journal to get ready for this stuff on a daily basis but it's still a bit of a shock.
The district 6540 rotary conference is tomorrow (the real reason I'm doing this now) so I guess I'll let you know how it goes. Every day gets me a little closer to leaving which is SUPER EXCITING but still a little scary, I kept thinking "oh its a long ways off I have time" I am lying to myself to keep myself calm, my year abroad is only 4-5 months away and getting closer every second. Also ITS SNOWING DURING MY SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I swear mother nature is by polar when it comes to the American Midwest. I'm working on selling t shirts at 25 dollars a pop to try and make some money to go towards this foreign exchange so if your interested let me know and I'll send you some more information. Mike Richardson I'm doing this early so I won't be late on something for once so ha. late night 1 day assignments aside I'm giving you a shout out because of all your help in regards to paperwork nightmares that have come and the ones that are yet to come.