Yesterday I went to Elst, there was an AFS-meeting with everybody who's going to another country with AFS NL. Also the people who were in the Netherlands with AFS were there, it was part of their final camp.
It was really nice to see all these people who also have a year in another country in the planning. Although I'm the only one that goes to Finland with AFS NL (I have no idea about other countries x'D But as far as I know there are people going from other countries), you still have something in common, that same feeling. There is sort of an instant click :P It's great!
We talked about a lot of things, seperated in different groups. There were 2 groups filled with people who are going to the USA, and one group for South-America, I think, and then the group I was in, "the rest", 1 or 2 for New Zealand, 2 for Australia, 2 for Japan, 1 for China, and me, the one for Finland :P
We talked a lot about things that can happen to you. What do you do when it really doesn't work out with your host family, things like that. They had some examples about difficult situations, and the last thing we did was making a little play about one situation, to show how you can solve the problem.
I can tell you about what we had.
You are in the USA, and you're on a party. The moment you arrive, one of your friends offers you a beer. What do you do?
The first thing we came up with was, wel, when your host parents are okay with it, why not.
But then we realized this:
In America it's forbidden to drink alchohol when you're not 21 yet. If you drink, and you get caught, you can go to jail, or you can be sent home, your choice. That choice is pretty easy, but it's not fun to be sent home before the end of the year.
We eventually decided that it would be best to don't take the beer, and explain that you don't want to be sent home and stuff, so they understand it and won't pressure you to drink alchohol.
It's all quite logic, but it's good to hear/see again, because it's so easy to forget.
It was really an interesting day, I made some new friends, I learned a lot, we got some information to take home. And everybody is now even more eager to go to 'their' country.
I can't wait, I wish it would be august 20th already!
But yeah, it's not yet, to kill time I focus on learning some Finnish already. ( http://donnerwetter.kielikeskus.helsinki.fi/finnishforforeigners/parts-index.htm)
And ofcourse music. Here is another song for you =) It's from a really great band, Van Canto, they only have a drummer and 5 vocalists, and they make all the keyboard and guitar and bass sounds theirselves.
This song is called "The Last night of the Kings", and it's without drums. I love it!
