Why I Decided to Be a Foreign Exchange Student

Last September, in the first week of school, I started searching for study abroad programs online. Before I even thought of studying abroad, I wanted to go on a mission trip over the summer but wasn't going over well - with my parent's. Since the beginning of my freshman year, I knew that I was going to live in Spain someday, and for some reason, I knew I would be fluent in Spanish someday too. This thought was before I even started Spanish 1, and I didn't know when or how I was going to live in Spain and speak Spanish, but I knew it was going to happen. Actually, my first year of Spanish school was horrible! I hated the class. I never really hated the language, but learning it was hard when you never studied! I quit halfway through my year but I knew I was supposed to learn Spanish. That summer I went to Ecuador on a mission trip with my church and I fell in LOVE with Spanish! When I got back I started studying every day, and I still knew that someday I would be fluent in the language. So when school rolled around (last September), I thought it would be a cool experience to live in a foreign country. At first I was looking into 4 to 6 months, but after a little research I decided a year would be better! And I found AFS and liked that program the most, so I signed up!