Interview

Well, my NSLI-Y interview was Saturday. I thought it went well, but I don't want to rehash that. Interviews are something that should be left alone once there's done. Going over every question over and over only makes the stress of waiting worse. (Still excited though - I can hardly wait until April/May to find out!)

Waiting to hear something back from the UWC people too. Something? Anything? I know they're behind in going through everyone's application, so I guess I'll just keep waiting. And reading everything I can get my hands on about Mbabane :)

Do you want to see the inside of my brain? Read on.

Today is January 16th.
My NSLI-Y interview is January 21st.

It's all happening so fast again, like a deja vu on fast forward. I want to be a finalist so badly, I miss the Middle East so much. I miss speaking Arabic, drinking shai, insha'allah-ing and al7amd'allah-ing people and having them understand.

Also, the head of applications for the UWCs said we'd hear something at least by January 23rd, whatever "something" means, whether that be "thanks for applying we're still working on it" or "here's interview days." But I'm excited to hear back from them as well.

And, side note, I sat down in my basement and did SO MANY Arabic dictations from the DVD that went with my textbook. I feel accomplished, and happy, mainly because my Arabic is not nearly as bad as I thought it was. Definitely a reminder that I need to be working on it more often to keep it up though :) No problem though, telling me that I need to study Arabic more is like telling me I need to win free happiness more.

NSLI-Y Applicants

So tonight we had a video chat with some of the applicants from our Facebook group. It was pretty chill, and we just talked about program stuff and questions and languages and EVERYTHING THAT IS AWESOME.

We're pretty awesome people. And if you're applying for NSLI-Y this year, or want to later, please come join the big party of awesomeness. We'll chat together again sometime soon.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/215777371826134/

Although be warned, the State Department has nothing to do with this Facebook group, it's just a bunch of us applicants (about 100, I think, as of tonight), just chilling all together on the Facebook. But our fantastic factor definitely makes up for our lack-of-being-officially-sanctioned-factor.

(If you want officially sanctioned, check out www.nsliforyouth.org OR connect.state.gov)

My interview is next weekend and I CAN'T WAIT! I'm so excited :)

NSLI-Y forever changed my iTunes.

I'm pretty well known for having an iTunes filled with all sorts of music, from all sorts of places. This is definitely not my full list of countries contained in my iTunes, it's a start. Thought ya'll might enjoy :)
(Each country is a hyperlink to a YouTube video of one of my favorites from that country).
Thank NSLI-Y for everything Arab on this list - it might not seem like it here, but Arab music is about 50% of my iTunes :)

1. Algeria
2. Australia
3. Belgium
4. Canada
5. Cuba
6. Egypt
7. England
8. Finland
9. France
10. Germany
11. India
12. Irish-American*
13. Japan
14. Lebanon
15. Mali
16. Morocco
17. Dutch-American**
18. Romania
19. South Korea
20. Sweden

*from the USA, but rather Irish music. 

**from the Netherlands, but rather American music.

Now, nothing left to do but wait!

Finals are over, NSLI-Y application is submitted, UWC application is submitted, and now there's nothing left to do but wait! Waiting for grades to come out, my NSLI-Y interview next weekend, to hear whether or not I got an interview for UWC, and so on. In the meantime, I've been essentially switching between looking up news articles for my speech tournament Saturday (extemporaneous speaking, about current events), and reading/watching everything I can find about UWCs on the internet. So here's what's up with my top choice UWC, Waterford Kamhlaba in Swaziland.

This was my first choice on my application. It's located near Mbabane, the capital city, a city of about 95,000 people. There are about 600 students there, ages 11-20, because along with the IB program (the one I'm applying for) they had a younger school as well.

Here are the top three things I like about the school:
1. The community service projects, which are amazing. I don't feel like I am qualified to write anything about them, because I haven't gone to the school yet and haven't done them, but this makes me really want to go to this school, just to be able to participate.(Especially because I want to become a doctor/nurse later to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other epidemics).
2. They have some pretty awesome course offerings, including siSwati language and Peace and Conflict Studies.
3. It's in such a different place than here, which I suppose is obvious, but still. The chance to go to high school in a country like Swaziland is so cool, especially when it's with so many people of different cultures and nationalities.

My next three choices were the Mahindra UWC in India, the Red Cross Nordic UWC in Norway, and the UWC of the Adriatic in Italy. I'm so excited about all of this, I literally can't wait to hear something back.

UWC Schools.

I just submitted my application for the UWC (United World College) IB program. My hands are literally alternating between tingling and shaking.

I'm having such a hard time focusing on finals with all this going on... all right, two hour study sprint, go!

NSLI-Y Interview

My interview for next summer is on the 21st - just under two weeks away.

I'm so excited, and really nervous too... but I can worry about this after finals :)