Lets Get Started Shall We?

Hi all! I'm Morgan Wychor, I'm 16 and in just over 50 days I will be leaving for 6 months to live in Vienna Austria. The program I choose after weeks of painstaking search over a year was AFS. I choose them because of the price, the people and the places. In my first phone call to them, I was forwarded to this very, very kind woman who, after giving me clear easy instructions on how to get started on this whole project, told me how they were having a bring your kids to work day on Halloween to Trick-or-Treat around the office. I'll always remember how that one woman made me feel as though I were already a member of her organization, and that she really cared about the experience that I would have with them. I've wanted to be an exchange student since 7th grade, and AFS was just the best fit for me.

When you really get goin' on this experience one thing people ask all the time is what do you expect to gain? My question for all those askers is whats not to gain?! You get this chance to be 100% independent, meet all new people, live in a different culture, find this whole new place from the eyes of the people that live there everyday. The harder question is , what will you do for them in return? That, my friends is the question. I'm hoping that I can give them a better outlook on my home country, a friend in the USA and a place to visit. What to give them is harder than what they give you. I'm just hoping 1) they like me, 2) I'm a suitable house guest, 3) I can understand what they're saying in the first month, 4) and that I can make some friends at school. I don't know how I could ever do enough in return.

Another thing you are often asked is what you friends and family think. All you can really say is their sad of course, they don't want to see me leave them for so long, but they're also so happy for me, so excited, that they know this will be a truly amazing. I hear that people are envious too. That they never could have been brave enough to do this at my age. They tell me I'm brave and that doesn't make sense to me. I don't see it as being brave. I see it as doing what I have to. I would have spent the rest of my life wondering had I not done this.

One of the main barriers in going Abroad is the money. I have already raised just under 400 dollars with my local frud-raiser, and have been trying to figure out how to do more. I'm really truly hoping raise over 1,000 dollars for my trip. I'm trying to find other ways to fundraise but its not something I've very good at... So any advice would be endlessly helpful.

Thanks for reading!
TTFN
Auf Wiedersehen!
Morgan