Hello!
This is my first ever blog post, and I know it will not be the last.
If you do not already know me, my name is Yulien Shapla-Priddy. I do not usually go by that though, my friends and family(occasionally teachers!) call me either Yuli or Yui.
I am 16 (17 in a few days!!) and go to Lewis and Clark High school, I love it there, the school is an amazing old building with large windows and big stairs. I have made so many friends there that love and support me through anything, especially this trip. Especially Lyn, she is my best friend and she helps me through everything, gives me good advice, and can always make me laugh!
My free time is generally consumed by my friends, studying Japanese, drawing, listening to music, and my cats! My cats names are Stormageddon Magma Beast and Mika, they are my only pets, and I treasure them.
That is a little about me , now on to stuff more on the topic of the exchange!
Firstly, some important advice; when getting your passport, DO NOT WAIT. What I did, which would have worked, was waited until the last minute and got it expedited. It sounds like it would work, right? It did not go as smoothly as we hoped, there were many complications and it came about 3 weeks later than they estimated it to arrive.
Now let me explain the situation of how that happened to me, obviously this will not happen 99% of the time, but it is best to be prepared for something like this. We did not have a copy of my birth certificate, which we needed to get my passport, so we ordered one from Kentucky. We were not aware that when we got the passport, it was missing my dad's name(My Mom and Dad do not live together so we could not just have my mom come with me to get my passport instead.)! So, we took it to the passport office, and the woman working there said it should be okay, and if it was not, we would get a letter in the mail or a phone call.
A week and a half passed and we had heard nothing about the whereabouts of my passport which, when expedited, should have been there by that time. We assumed it was just running late and continued on with our daily lives. Then, about two weeks after ordering the passport we received a letter saying it was invalid, because my dad did not have his name on the passport. So then, my dad called the office in an attempt to get some of our many questions, on how to move on, answered. The lady on the phone outright refused to answer the questions because my Dad's name was not on the passport, so we had to call my mom. We asked my Mom to call the office and ask our questions, then relay the answers back to us ASAP. The office told my Mom that she needed to do the rest of the paperwork since she was on my birth certificate, so she did that and sent it in. After 4-5 days, IT FINALLY ARRIVED!!! I opened the small envelope it came in, and immediately burst into tears, all the weight and worry of my passport never arriving went away in a moment.
I am very excited for my adventure to Japan(in less than 2 weeks!!), I can barely describe how I feel. Every emotion is pouring out of me like a broken water fountain; happiness, fear, excited, nervous, etc.
I am now noticing this blog post is fairly long, but whatever!
Goodbye for now!
I can not wait to write my first update from Japan!!
~Yui Shapla-Priddy
This is my first ever blog post, and I know it will not be the last.
If you do not already know me, my name is Yulien Shapla-Priddy. I do not usually go by that though, my friends and family(occasionally teachers!) call me either Yuli or Yui.
I am 16 (17 in a few days!!) and go to Lewis and Clark High school, I love it there, the school is an amazing old building with large windows and big stairs. I have made so many friends there that love and support me through anything, especially this trip. Especially Lyn, she is my best friend and she helps me through everything, gives me good advice, and can always make me laugh!
My free time is generally consumed by my friends, studying Japanese, drawing, listening to music, and my cats! My cats names are Stormageddon Magma Beast and Mika, they are my only pets, and I treasure them.
That is a little about me , now on to stuff more on the topic of the exchange!
Firstly, some important advice; when getting your passport, DO NOT WAIT. What I did, which would have worked, was waited until the last minute and got it expedited. It sounds like it would work, right? It did not go as smoothly as we hoped, there were many complications and it came about 3 weeks later than they estimated it to arrive.
Now let me explain the situation of how that happened to me, obviously this will not happen 99% of the time, but it is best to be prepared for something like this. We did not have a copy of my birth certificate, which we needed to get my passport, so we ordered one from Kentucky. We were not aware that when we got the passport, it was missing my dad's name(My Mom and Dad do not live together so we could not just have my mom come with me to get my passport instead.)! So, we took it to the passport office, and the woman working there said it should be okay, and if it was not, we would get a letter in the mail or a phone call.
A week and a half passed and we had heard nothing about the whereabouts of my passport which, when expedited, should have been there by that time. We assumed it was just running late and continued on with our daily lives. Then, about two weeks after ordering the passport we received a letter saying it was invalid, because my dad did not have his name on the passport. So then, my dad called the office in an attempt to get some of our many questions, on how to move on, answered. The lady on the phone outright refused to answer the questions because my Dad's name was not on the passport, so we had to call my mom. We asked my Mom to call the office and ask our questions, then relay the answers back to us ASAP. The office told my Mom that she needed to do the rest of the paperwork since she was on my birth certificate, so she did that and sent it in. After 4-5 days, IT FINALLY ARRIVED!!! I opened the small envelope it came in, and immediately burst into tears, all the weight and worry of my passport never arriving went away in a moment.
I am very excited for my adventure to Japan(in less than 2 weeks!!), I can barely describe how I feel. Every emotion is pouring out of me like a broken water fountain; happiness, fear, excited, nervous, etc.
I am now noticing this blog post is fairly long, but whatever!
Goodbye for now!
I can not wait to write my first update from Japan!!
~Yui Shapla-Priddy
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