Pins

I know I just made a post about my destination, but I wanted to do another post about my pins. It's a Rotary tradition for exchange students to have a blazer, of varying colors depending on where you come from (North American students have navy blue). Now, the cool thing about these blazers. Every exchange student makes/buys a bunch of pins that symbolize their country/state/town, then trades with other students for pins from their area. You put the pins on your blazer, and soon your blazer is encrusted with pins forming a wearable scrapbook of the places you've been and the people you've met. It's a pretty awesome idea.

So when I found out that I would need pins, I started to look online and in shops for Seattle themed pins. After looking around a bit, I came to realize that I wasn't going to be able to find anything like what I wanted for under $2 each. I needed at least 50 pins, hopefully more. I was not going to pay 100+ dollars for pins. So, I called upon the DIY gods for guidance and decided to make them.

I found some pictures online of Washington state symbols, like the state seal and a goldfinch (state bird) and orca whales (state marine mammal) and rhododendrons (state flowers). Then I printed them in color, cut them out in circles, put stuck them in a bottle cap, added a little clear casting resin and a pin back, and voila! Unique, one of a kind pins! I'm very proud. I'll post pics soon!

The goal of the Rotary blazer...you want it to come back several pounds heavier than when you left.

Destination

Okay, this is weird...I swear I made a post about finding out where I was going, but I guess there was a blogger glitch and it somehow didn't get saved? Anyway, I went to Canada...and learned a lot about being an exchange student...and about rules, and expectations, and I bonded with the other students from my district...and lots of questions were answered...and we had to wait 'til the end of the day to find out what we REALLY wanted to know because they figured that if we found out right away where we were going we wouldn't be able to focus on anything else for the rest of the day, which was probably a good idea, because I know that when I found out where I was going I couldn't focus on anything until we got home from Canada. Okay. Now that you've gone through some suspenseful misery just like I did, I will reveal my destination...

Drum roll please...I will be going to...FRANCE!!!!

When I heard my name called under "France", I literally nearly screamed and buried my face in my hands and couldn't talk for the next few minutes. It was intense. I was totally caught off guard, because I didn't expect to get France- the closest I thought I would get was Belgium. So when they called out the Belgium student and it wasn't me, I thought, "Okay, Spain then..." but then they said France! Just remembering raises my heart rate.

Anyway, now you finally know...This weekend there's a Rotary conference that all the exchange students in this district are going to, and hopefully we'll find out more about what area we'll be going to then. Promise I'll let you know as soon as I know this time!