Home Interview time!

We both had our home interviews on Wednesday and other than some awkward silences they went really well haha :)

Emily:
My home interview was at 7:30 and I had an exam at school in the afternoon so I rushed home after to get ready. I know everyone says you should just act normal when the interviewers are there and you shouldn't tidy any more than usual and everything but yeah, like I'm sure every other past AFSer has done my family and I were cleaning and tidying all over haha. Two ladies came to my house, one was a past AFSer (NZ to USA) from 30+ years ago and the other was a Mum of an AFSer! It was pretty cool hearing about their experiences, especially since the lady's daughter who went on an exchange went to Italy! She told us heaps of stuff that I didn't know like don't think I'm stupid but I had no idea there was a massive Italian Mafia?! Everyone seems to know that now when I tell them but anyway...

My Mum wrote down some questions she wanted to ask them about me visiting England to see family while on the exchange, scholarships, contacting family etc. They seemed to know the answers to them all so it left us feeling like we knew a lot more about it all. They had a sheet of questions they had to ask me as well, it was things like are you quiet or loud, enjoy school or not etc. Then they had questions to ask our whole family like what we like to do together, who's the dominant one, formal or informal etc. I also had to choose my final top three countries for my exchange. Originally they were 1. Italy 2. Switzerland 3. Portugal but one of the ladies said that Switzerland is very academic orientated and I would find it hard not speaking German so I changed it to Norway. I'll be happy with any of these countries but I've really built myself up for Italy so fingers crossed that both me and Lilly get it!

If anyone reading this is a future AFSer don't worry too much about the home interview! Prepare questions before so there's not awkward silences and make sure you're left knowing everything you need to know.  It was pretty much just like a big chat and they stayed for just over an hour :)

Guess who just got accepted?!

So big news... WE GOT ACCEPTED!!

We have a Facebook group with all of the Auckland AFSers that were at the selection day and on Monday night 4 or 5 of them got a phone call to say they were in! We were both sitting by the phone freaking out but we didn’t get a call :( On Tuesday night people started posting in the group saying they were in and the freaking out started again but this time WE GOT A CALL!! We both have home interviews on Wednesday so we’ll write another post after that but we’re SOSOSO excited!! This is actually happening :D

Selection Day!!

Today was the AFS Auckland Selection Day! We weren't both together the whole time so we have written 2 separate posts about the day, so here they are :)

Lilly:

I can’t believe that the interview is over, it doesn‘t seem long ago when my mind was filling with crazy ideas of what could possibly happen in the interview. I’m so happy to say that the interview went better then I expected!! All I have to do now is wait till I get the call saying whether I am in or not…..gaaahhh I just want to find out now!!

When we arrived at the meeting today we were given a presentation about the AFS program. We were then taken to a room where we did activities together that got us talking with all the other students who are planning on going on the exchange. We were given a sheet of questions which we were made to go over so we could prepare for the interview. My page had scribbles all over it with things I wrote down that I could talk about, from all the experiences that I had.
There was about 15 of us and everyone was so lovely! Its actually quite amazing meeting people who you hopefully will be able to have life changing experiences with ! Aww I actually love them so much and I really hope everyone gets in!

My stomach is filled with Butterfliesssssssssssssssssss.

Weeoooo im sooo excited. Cant keep still. Hopefully next time I blog its all Great News!!
Till then,
Lilz xxx

Emily:

So today was the Auckland selection day! I was really nervous at the start because I didn’t know what to expect but it all turned out pretty good :) 

When we arrived there (it was a a baptist college place in the city) we went into one big room with our parents and the volunteers talked to us and showed us a slideshow. There were about 12 kids plus parents. Then the parents left and we played some games. We did 2 lies and a truth, a game where we had to make a bridge out of newspaper in groups, one where we had to wrap string around us all (while having the instructions given to us by someone speaking Portuguese haha) and one where we had to stand on a flag and turn it over while the whole group was still standing on it. The games were all really laid back and it gave us a chance to get to know each other which was great because everyone was so friendly!

After the games we all got given a sheet of paper telling us what to expect in the interviews. Once we were given these the volunteers left to set up for the interviews I guess and the room was pretty quiet while we all read through the list. The questions were things like ‘Give an example of a time where you had to give advice to someone?’ and ‘Give an example of an issue that you feel differently towards than other people or groups that you know? How do you deal with this difference in opinion?’ I think most of us found them kind of hard to think up examples for because we hadn’t really experienced the issues before. Some people got called down for interviews while the rest of us went to the kitchen where we started to eat some of the shared afternoon tea. There were two girls there that had come back from Brazil (and somewhere else in South America that I can’t remember…) they let us ask them questions about AFS and the whole experience which was cool too J I got called down for my interview after about an hour of waiting and talking. There were three ladies who interviewed me one lady who had been to Italy (!!), her Mum and another AFS returnee. They were all really lovely and made me feel a lot more relaxed. Turned out they didn’t ask me any of the questions on the sheet, it was more just like a chat about me and how I would find the exchange and stuff like that so if you’re worried about your interview don’t be! The interview went pretty well the only question I got a bit stuck on was ‘What person are you in your group of friends?’ because I always find it hard to describe myself but yeah I think it went okk… I hope so anyway…

After my interview Lilly got called down and I waited in the kitchen talking to the other students a lot of them want to go to European countries too other than 2 to Japan and 1 to Costa Rica I think. When we got back Lilly found most of the students on Facebook and we’ve all been talking which is really cool because we might all be going together :) Lilly and I tried to separate ourselves because we knew they were watching and it wouldn't look good if we only talked to each other the whole time, but I'm glad we did because we got to talk to everyone and meet some awesome people. 

Although I thought the interview didn’t go amazingly I always think things went worse than they actually did so fingers crossed! And now the waiting game begins...

I’m so nervous!