I went to my YFU local pre-departure orientation two Saturday's ago, on May 30th. It was a very informative day. It was also extremely long; afterward, all I wanted to do was eat and go to sleep. The entire PDO lasted from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The parents were only there until roughly 12:45, despite the fact that they were supposed to leave about 45 minutes earlier. It was well worth it, though!
The orientation was divided into a few sections: sign-in, meet + greet, introduction, parents/students separate meetings, panel, lunch, and then mini-panels for both summer exchange students and semester/year-long exchange students. I am going to talk about each part below. Keep reading below to see.
Sign-in | Meet + Greet
When my parents and I first arrived at the orientation, we were led (not really led, but we simply walked into) the foyer of the church. There we multiple other families + soon-to-be exchange students waiting there. At the front of the space was a long desk with name cards and sign-in sheets. YFU staff asked that all of the students come and sign-in. It was a very quick process. They also passed around a t-shirt sheet, where we verified what size t-shirt we wear. If they did not have the correct size (or your preferred size), then they said they would simply ship one out at a later date. Then, YFU staff encouraged all of us (the students) to talk to one another because we would probably end up being lifelong friends with the people in the room at that moment.
I talked to two Youth for Understanding alumnae. They were both coincidently named Taylor. Both of the girls had studied in Japan the previous year. We chatted about their experience, and they were completely enamored with Japan! One of the girls went in with completely no language experience; the other one, "Tay", is in her third year of Japanese lessons. I was really happy to be able to speak with someone who went somewhere with no language experience. I mean, that is my case after all. Taylor even told me about one of her friends who went to Germany with minimum knowledge and came back fluent. (#Goals)
After that chat, I went back to where my parents were. This was the meet + greet part. No, not with anyone famous; well, that's if you don't count Hannah's doppelganger, which I totally saw; I didn't meet her until later when I had to awkwardly walk across the room toward her without breaking eye contact. #getOUTCHOcomfotzone (<--Should totally be a hashtag. Dibs!) When my mom saw me, she emphatically motioned me over and introduced me to a man and his daughter, Emma. She was going to Germany, too! Emma and I broke off and started to talk about how excited we are for this experience. She just graduated from high school on May 28th (woah! memories, guys) and is taking a gap year. That's pretty incredible. Like, I wish I could take a gap year. I mean, I technically could, but I think I'll just do this Germany stuff and at a later date study abroad in university. Anyways, Emma took four years of German in high school, so she'll at least know some German before she arrives. (Lucky!) I, on the other hand, will be completely oblivious to the world because of the language barrier. (Boo!) I'm kidding. I'll figure it out. Hashtag effort. Hashtag hashtag. (Sorry. Sometimes I become really obnoxious. Duoh.)
During this little meet + greet, I met also Gabriel. Well, this wasn't actually the first time we met. We unofficially met during our YFU interviews. And I say "unofficially" because nothing happens if there isn't a picture. So, writing this never happened. #logic Anyways, eventually, Gabriel, Emma, Gabriel's mom, and I started a conversation, and we talked about traveling, college, and other little things. In the long run, it ended up being a very insightful conversation.
Parent/Student Meetings
After the introduction, the parents stayed in the chapel, and the students went to a different room. This is where we were first introduced to the iceberg metaphor. The tip of the iceberg is what everybody sees and is easily altered; that is the behavior in a culture. The rest of the iceberg is the majority (accounts for 3/4) and the part that nobody sees, and it is very difficult to alter. It is the beliefs and values of a cultures.
We went through scenarios of what could happen while in a foreign country. By scenarios, I mean awkward skits where we were assigned to do or behave a certain way, and others had to guess and react based on that. Mine was to stand as closely to someone as possible, and if they were to back away, I had to progressively get closer. And closer. And closer. #TeamNoBreathingSpace
By doing those skits, I learned on thing about myself: I can easily adapt, but I prefer to not be put in uncomfortable situations. That's pretty ironic seeing how I put myself in awkward situations almost every day of my life...#awk #isitawkwardthatitaggedawkward #ohgodhelpmestop Back to the point - a lot was done and a lot was learned during those meetings. After they were over, we had lunch and our parents left. Following that were the workshops.
Workshops
Considering that I am finishing this post so long after the workshop, I kind of forgot everything that I wanted to touch base on. However, I do know the basics that we talked about. Basically, when you move in with your host family, you'll have this metaphorical bank. For everything bad or negative that occurs (intentional or unintentional), you withdraw from that bank. Every time you do something good or anything of the sort, you deposit. That includes compliments, helping with chores, etc.
Another one was a relationship workshop. We all went into the gymnasium and had to figure out what the relationships were in relation to the host student. For instance, the natural parents were further away from their child while the host parents were much, much closer. We also did little skits about events and the like that could occur with a host family, and how you would handle it.
During that workshop, we also went over do's and don't's, which in hindsight was pretty humorous.
Krishaun Burns is a 17-year-old blogger, who is studying abroad in Germany for the Fall Semester of 2015/2016. She is a wanderluster at heart with a passion for writing, photography, music, and exploring.
