Movement By Lydia

Before heading to Korea [or any country you're going to with NSLI-Y], you have what is called pre-departure orientation for 2 days. For the NSLI-Y Korea group with iEARN, we had our PDO in New York City at Columbia University so if you get accepted to that program, that's where you'll be heading!  I'm pretty sure all programs that iEARN is in charge of go to NYC for their PDO, but not ALL NSLI-Y programs will be in New York. American Councils groups usually are in DC for example.                             We arrived at Columbia at around 10am and didn't have anything program-wise to do until 5pm that night so they let us free- we just had to stay within the boundaries (aka don't go to Harlem) and couldn't take the subway. When we first got there, we checked in, received our stipend, NSLI-Y shirts, room keys, and some other things from iEARN. I headed to my room with my cumbersome lug...

So I'm assuming there will be two different groups of people reading this blog (for the most part). There will be.. 1) People who are interested in applying for NSLI-Y [Korea] and want to know more about the whole experience/what it's like 2) Friends and family who are just interested in what I'll be doing this summer in Korea but don't really know much about what I'm doing I'm pretty sure those who fall into the first group know a good amount about NSLI-Y and will understand what I'm talking about in my posts. I'm not sure if my friends and family know much about what exactly I'll be doing so this post is mostly for them. I just want to explain some things I'll probably mention a lot in my posts so you're not confused! •NSLI-Y: This is the scholarship I received, funded by the Department of State, and stands for National Security Language Initiative for Youth. I explained more about what NSLI-Y is on the "About NSLI-Y ...

So I was in DC with my APUSH class, and while in the van on the way home, my mother texted me saying that they had sent us my flight info~ I was super excited because I've been looking forward to receiving this since I first got accepted! So... YAY!! I can't exactly reveal all of my flight info for privacy reasons, but I'll share my basic flight itinerary~

On April 12 I received something exciting in the mail- the NSLI-Y Korea summer packet from iEARN! I have been waiting for this since I got my finalist notification and now it has arrived! I had the ACTs on Saturday so coming home to this was exciting. The big packet included papers regarding the trip [some that needed to be signed/filled out and sent back], the  NSLI-Y Korea Student Handbook, a parent handbook, and a Korean for Beginners book! The envelope says that it cost over 5$ to send this to me... Wow! Haha~

YES, THAT IS RIGHT. I WILL BE GOING TO SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA THIS SUMMER. I received an email on March 31st notifying me that I have been selected to receive the NSLI-Y scholarship! I literally was running around my house screaming [no one was home] after I read it. Someone had posted in the Facebook group that they had gotten their email, so I basically was just sitting on my iPad refreshing my email.... AFTER 5 TIMES MY EMAIL WAS THERE!! So, I have been extremely eager to know whether or not I was going to be going to South Korea this summer, and now I finally know! I couldn't be more excited for this amazing opportunity!