Preparing for Oman

This summer has been one of the best I can remember. Full of good friends, good weather, and lots of time at the beach, I honestly can say that I can't imagine a better summer. My family and I have recieved more information from YES Abroad since my last post, including flight information and... A HOST FAMILY!!! The Oman group received their host families last week, and I can't wait to meet the people who have generously agreed to take me in and teach me about Omani life and culture.

At the beginning of the year, all of the YES Abroad finalists went to Washington, D.C. for the Pre-Departure Orientation, or PDO. Finalists going to India and Thailand left directly following the PDO, and have now been in their countries for almost two months! The PDO was a busy four days, jam-packed with workshops and activities. As any YES Abroad-er can attest, we returned to our rooms each night exhausted yet fully educated on virtually everything we needed to know in preparation to live in our respective countries. One of the most helpful aspects of the entire PDO was having an alumni of the program who had gone to our country being there to answer questions and share insight. The Oman group's alum was Emma, who's blog is the reason I applied to this program. Emma was invaluable to the Oman group as a whole, and still is available to answer any questions we may have.

The Oman group, and Emma, our group leader, at the PDO!
Photo by Shino Yoshen.

Saying goodbye at the end of the PDO was difficult, as we may never see some of our fellow YES Abroad-ers again. However, I am excited to keep up with their experiences via Facebook and their blogs.

After the PDO, I returned to Nantucket, and decided I would have the best summer possible. As the end of summer nears, I can say that I was successful. My family has grown closer knowing that we will not see each other for more than nine months. Many beach days, bike rides, walks, and ice creams later, we have cried, laughed, been excited and apprehensive and felt almost all the emotions in between. Now that I only have three days before I fly to Washington, D.C., then to Zurich, and finally to Muscat, Oman, the excitement is returning. Nevertheless, it is difficult to think of saying goodbye to my family and friends for an entire nine months. As my father astutely noted, the key is to not think of this journey in its entirety; rather, focus on smaller amounts of time. First, I will arrive. Then I will meet my host family. Then I will begin school. Thinking about it this way helps to relieve some of the stress that comes with beginning what will surely be a challenging yet ultimately rewarding journey. As my departure date nears, I am getting more and more excited to see the great group of girls I am traveling with and to finally, after more than 24 hours of traveling, arrive in Oman. Right now, Oman seems a world away yet also so close I could reach out my hand and touch it. Fully packed, and as prepared as I could be, I am ready and excited to embark on the journey of a lifetime!

Packing nine months into two suitcases which can only be 50 lbs or lighter is quite a challenge!

Wait... I'm Going to Oman?!

As the PDO approaches, and my departure day, which is not set in stone yet, draws nearer, the fact that I will be leaving my sheltered existence in Nantucket and traveling halfway across the world to live in a place I have never been, and with people I have never met, has become more real to me. The thought of a year abroad to Oman has seemed like a daydream for so long; something that would be amazing yet still not real. The reality that I will, in the end of August, be getting on a plane and hugging my parents goodbye in order to go to Oman, really only hit me a couple weeks ago.

With the realization that, yes, I am going to Oman in about three months, comes a bit of aprehension. I am not afraid that anything bad will come of this experience; on the contrary, I know that my year abroad will be a time of amazing growth and exploration. However, this doesn't mean I can't be a little nervous! I found out which school I will be attending next year, the Azzan bin Qais International School (http://bawshar.azzanbinqais.com/) and am so excited. My excitement is now mixed with a little bit of nervousness.

About a week ago, I was very overwhelmed, unsure, and stressed. Am I ready to leave all that I know and live in Oman? I honestly don't know. I don't think that I could ever be ready without having already gone; I have never experienced anything like this and have little to no idea what to expect. However, my dad advised me to just "take it as it comes", and go with the flow. This advice has helped me a lot; I have realized that, while I should prepare as much as possible, there are some things I cannot prepare for, and that stressing over these would only waste my time and energy. There is really no reason to worry; this experience will help me in innumerable ways, and be an incredible journey for me to undertake.

This week is my last full week of school, and next Wednesday, June 19th, is my last day of school at Nantucket High School. The next time I attend school I will be half a world away, in a country I have never visited. This thought is more than a little daunting. However, I chose to see this as an adventure; no matter how difficult I foresee next year being, I have a tendency to worry about things way too much. They are never as scary as I foresee them being! Keeping this in mind, I will make the most of my last few months on Nantucket, and look foreword to all Oman has to offer me.

Nantucket to Oman!!!

Thoughts on Friendship

The entire process of applying to and being accepted into YES Abroad Oman has really opened my eyes to how much I truly value my friends. I do not usually go up to them out of the blue and say, "Hey, thanks for being my friend, and I really appreciate you." That would be a strange conversation. However, thinking about living an entire nine months or more without the people I have spent much of my past two years with is daunting, and brings to light how important my friends are in my life.

I have only recently gotten over my initial over-the-moon excitement and began to experience the bittersweet feeling that comes with such a fantastic yet different opportunity as studying abroad. Though I have began to see the sad side of my newest accomplishment, this does not make my acceptance into YES Abroad any less exciting. In other words, the bitter doesn't make the sweet any less so; it is merely another feeling that has developed over the past few weeks.

I have noticed that my interactions with my friends have changed. Now that we know we have a limited amount of time with each other before I travel halfway across the world to a country few of my peers know much about for an entire school year, I feel that we have all become closer. For instance, I was at a friend's house two days after I found out about my acceptance into the YES Abroad program. My friend congratulated me, then said, "Don't you forget about me." Normally this is not something friends say to each other. However, the knowledge that I will away from my peers for nine months has, I believe, brought us all closer. I know that personally I have realized how much I will miss the friends I will be leaving behind on Nantucket. I will make sure to keep in touch with them and not drift away from them, but I am sure that our relationships will have changed by the time I return. I will have made new friends in Oman and undoubtably changed immensely, and surely my friends will have changed as well.

This new perspective on my friends does not make me apprehensive or afraid for my time abroad; rather it makes me appreciate my friends while I am still with them. No matter what, whether I consciously recognize it or not, my friends are some of the most important people in my life. My time abroad will test my friendships and, inshallah, strengthen them.

Oman Short Documentary

Here is a very interesting and informative documentary about Oman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffEw6Ko-WMM

YES Abroad Finalist!

After a very stressful day in which I refreshed my email about once every .45 seconds, I finally received my email! I'm a finalist to Oman for the 2013-2014 school year!
There are honestly no words with which I can explain how excited I am. It's only now beginning to sink in. This has been a dream, albeit a fairly unrealistic one, of mine for so long that it is still surreal to think that I have achieved it.
I am so excited for my fellow YES-ers who were accepted, they all deserve it so much! No matter what the outcome, everyone who attended the In Person Selection Event (IPSE) with me are some of my favorite people in this entire world.
So now all that's left to do is prepare myself for the Pre-Departure Orientation (PDO), and to finally go to an area of the world that has always fascinated me. Oman, here I come!