Movement By Lydia

Last week we were told that we would be getting our host family information Monday (June 16th) so I was pretty restless all day. I had a half day of school and came home all ready for my host family info, but when I checked my email there was nothing. Some people had gotten theirs already, and we figured out it was probably going in alphabetical order [meaning I was going to get mine much later haha]. When I finally got my info, I was soooo excited! So I can't reveal too many specifics because of privacy, but I will tell you as much as I feel I should. I will be living in the mid-north part of Seoul near where Korea University and Daeil Foreign Language High School are, both prestigious schools. I'm pretty close to Dongdaemun and Myeongdong which are popular areas so that's exciting~ I have a mother, father, and little brother, and I am SOOO EXCITED about my family. My parents are fairly young and my brother is younger than me. I've always been the younger sib...

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 ...

I just had my OPI so I thought I would make a post about what an "OPI" is. OPI, like the title of this post says, stands for oral proficiency interview. Finalists who indicated on their NSLI-Y application some previous knowledge of the language they will be studying on their program are required to do an OPI. ONLY those who indicated knowledge of their NSLI-Y language on their application will have an OPI [so don't panic if you don't know what this is and are a finalist]. 

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!

       So this past weekend [not really- copy&pasting this part LOL] . I had my interview for NSLI-Y, and I want to write about it before I forget [even more] about it! THERE WILL BE TWO SEPARATE POSTS ABOUT THE INTERVIEW One containing preparation&interview tips and such for future applicants/semifinalists  One talking about my personal interview experience ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------        So, I know that I was also looking for accounts of other semifinalists' interviews [in addition to tips] because I wanted to get a feel for how mine might go. Therefore, I am writing the second part of 'The Interview' for people that feel the same way I felt when I was going through this.  Disclaimer: This will probably be long and I will probably end up blabbing about something not very significant. ALSO, your interview will not go exactly like ...