Joyeux Noël!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everybody has a great Christmas! 

Not only is tomorrow Christmas but it also is the one month mark before my orientation in New York which is crazy! I can't believe how close it really is. It's weird that I need to start thinking about packing and getting ready to leave Oregon. I was going to get my visa on December 21st but we were worried about getting all the paperwork in time so we rescheduled it to the beginning of January. 

A few days ago I skyped with my family for the second time and it went really well! They are super welcoming and kept saying how excited they are for my arrival, which was very comforting. I also found out that the father goes to Paris once a month to for his job (he makes wine) so I will be able to go a few times. They also said that we would probably go skiing and to the beach a few times. I'm so glad that I am staying with a family where I will get to see a lot of France! Overall it was really great talking to them!

I also just turned in a packet to apply for a scholarship. In the packet were recommendation letters, my letter to my host family, my transcript and an essay about how I was going to participate in the AFS mission. It took a long time to write the essay and perfect it but I am very happy the way it ended up. Now all I can do is hope I receive the scholarship! I should find out by January 7th, so fingers crossed! 

I also received my baggage tags today, which was rather exciting! 

Well I hope everybody has an incredible Christmas!