Itinerary!

Well it's almost my time. But this is just another step closer. I will eventually get there, even though it seems like forever.

-Wed. Sept 14th
7.16 pm Depart from Wausau, WI
8.18 pm Arrive in Chicago, IL
10.30 pm Depart from Chicago, IL

-Thu, Sept 15th
1.40 pm Arrive in Frankfurt, Germany
3.05 pm Depart from Frankfurt
4.00 pm Arrive in Munich, Germany

Local Newspaper

There was an short article written about me and the other outbound exchange students from our club.
http://www.marshfieldnewsherald.com/article/20110803/MNH0101/108030552/Marshfield-Sunrise-Noon-Rotary-clubs-send-students-overseas?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Delayed, and some other changes.

I'm now not leaving until the earliest of September 14th. Some of my host families had to switch order. My new first host family the Keller's can not host me until they come back from vacation. This is why I have to leave later. I am a little bit frustrated over this, only because I just want to leave! I understand the circumstances though. Rotary always says, "Blessed are the flexible, for they will not be bent out of shape."

Grand Rapids Conference

Outbounds 2011-2012 District 6250

This last weekend I went to a pretty awesome Rotary Conference. There were over 1000 people present and over 500 exchange students from countries across the globe. The entire experience can not be described by words. The rebounds that were there had just came back from their year abroad. The inbounds all had their last weekend together in America before going home. The outbounds (me) were there to prepare for our upcoming year and also to mingle with the inbounds and rebounds and just gather as much information as we could. The weekend started with a long bus ride to Grand Rapids MI on thursday. The rest of the weekend included attending some very entertaining general sessions, eating with a different person from a different country every meal, dances until after midnight, getting less than 10 hours of sleep all weekend, and all together just a great weekend hanging out with great people. I don't leave until August 31. So I still have a long time to wait and go, but nonetheless this weekend made me even more excited to go, as does every Exchange Conference. Most of the meetings were repeating and the information was basically reworded. I didn't learn anything that really impacted me or changed my expectations or thoughts of my upcoming year. I did learn just a few simple things about Germany that could be helpful. This was my last weekend of Rotary in America. The next will be in Germany!  It was sad to say goodbye to some of the inbounds that I got to know well, and even more sad to say goodbye to my fellow outbounds who I won't likely see until next year. We are all departing in the next few weeks. Right now I am going to enjoy as much of America as I can for the rest of summer until my flight comes. I do not have much obligations to take care of now and hopefully it will go by fast because I really just want to get this journey started. This part has been the hardest for me so far, but I know there will be harder moments. There has been months and months of preparation and many meetings and conferences. I know everything I can possibly know about exchange and procedures and what it is suppose to be like, the only thing left to do is leave. Which i still have to wait 52 days for. The excitement has been building up for months and I probably think about exchange at least 10 times a day if not more. I want to actually DO the things that all the inbounds and rebounds talk about. They all say "you will have fun in Germany" and then I proceed to listen to them tell of their amazing memories and experiences. With the outbounds, I talk to them about what our goals are and what we think its going to be like. I want to go out and actually do this instead of just talking about it. I'm extremely excited and if I could get on a plane in 10 minutes I would go in a heartbeat. Well heres to a good last 52 days in America. I will probably update maybe once or twice more before I leave.
Auf Weidersehen.

Hello!

Hi my name is Jordan Granquist. I am from Marshfield Wi, a small town (20,000 pop.) in the middle of Wisconsin, USA. I have been accepted to be an exchange student for the 2011-2012 year in Germany. I just recently found out my host families and city. I feel like I was one of the last people to find out my information. When I did it only made me more excited to go(obviously) and it made the upcoming experience more real to me. Up until now when I thought of going on exchange it was all a fantasy and I pictured myself living in many different cities and it was always random. Now my destination is set and I am ready to start this journey of my life.


I will be living in Rosenheim, Germany. This is in Rotary District 1840. Rosenheim is a town of about 60,000 just southeast of Munich. Rosenheim is very close to the South Border of Germany as well. I will be attending Ignaz-Gunther Gymnasium in Rosenheim. I have 3 host families set up for me. The first is Benedikt and Ina Veibahm. They have 3 children and actually live in a small town called Aschau which is not far from Rosenheim, and from what I saw on Google Earth, not very big either. The region of Germany that I will be living in is called Bavaria. This region is really close to the Alps as well. 


The only information I had prior to this was my district. So once I got all this information my mind was completely overloaded. I spent about 3 hours on google looking up everything I could possibly find about where I am going to live. This included looking on Google Maps, watching videos on Youtube, and anything I saw that pertained to Rosenheim. This has been the most exciting experience of Rotary for me so far. I knew I was going to write a blog but I never had reason to start one until now. My excitement on a scale of ten is about 18 right now. 


Now to recap how i got to this point. In September of 2010 I applied and was accepted to be an Exchange Student with Rotary. January 2011 I was notified that I got my first choice of Germany. February we had our first Rotary meeting with inbounds and outbounds. I was very overwhelmed with all the new people. April we had another Rotary meeting for outbounds only. It was a informational meeting (boring yet helpful) but I met a really cool and down to earth girl who is going to Norway so it was worth it. May 2011 we had another Rotary Conference with outbounds and inbounds and a few rebounds. This was the best conference because the akward stage of meeting completely new people was over and we were(and still are) friends. Savannah ,the girl going to Norway, and I hung out the entire weekend together and we are really good friends now. And now today- the day i finally received my information.


 For my upcoming plans for rotary. There is one last conference in Grand Rapids MI which should be really fun that is 4 days long and it is suppose to be a blast. All exchange inbounds, outbounds and the rebounds fresh from their exchange, from all over Central States will be there. I am super excited for that. I am suppose to leave for Germany somewhere between August 30-September 7th. School starts on September 13th in Germany for me. I am now excited even more for this journey to begin, and I will continue to write in this blog for my entire exchange. Auf Weidersehen.