28 days left!! It is so crazy to think that next month we will be in Italy! 

Since our last blog post we have been very busy getting our visas sorted, practicing Italian, sorting out travel cards and getting things ready to take. We also had a chapter meeting at the end of last month which was a mid Christmas dinner! This is a photo of some of us students who were there at the meeting. We took the photo just before we left so many students were not there when the photo was being taken. It was our last chapter meeting before we leave! 

From Left: Charlotte (going to Norway), Belén (from Spain), Felix (from Germany), Lilly (Me), Marc (from Spain), Emily and Roman (Felix's host brother).

Emily and I also decided to create our own separate blog. We thought this will be easier for people to keep up to date with each of us. We will both have different experiences and it will be interesting to see how it will differ. Emily will be in the north and I will be in the south of Italy. 

CLICK HERE for Emily's blog

CLICK HERE for Lilly's blog

We will still be using this collab blog of ours too so if we post on our separate blogs we can make sure to update you that we did on here! 

Time is passing by so quickly, can't keep up!! Our host families are waiting for us and it is just so exciting! 

Until next time!!! 28 days to go!

Pre-Departure Orientation Camp

On Queens's Birthday weekend (31st May-3rd June) we travelled to Wellington for the AFS orientation camp. We went on the plane with two other boys from our chapter, but there was around 60 of us in total at the camp. This was the first year they did the nationwide camp so we were really lucky to get to go to it. It was great because not only did we get to meet everyone going to Italy with us (about 8), we got to meet everyone going to other countries around the same time! 

At the camp we did team building activities, games and learnt heaps about our exchanges. They taught us about things like culture shock and communication styles, some of that stuff was kind of boring but we knew it would be useful in the long run. We also did a lot of activities in our host country groups which meant we got to know everyone going to Italy better and talk to a volunteer who came back from Italy a couple of years ago. It was awesome talking to her because she had so much useful advice and interesting stories to tell us about her exchange in Italy.

All in all it was such a fun camp and we met so many amazing people! Watch the video for more about it -->

We're hopefully going to be doing another post soon about visas and everything else that we're doing now in preparation for the exchange, so keep your eye out for that :) 67 days!!!

We have flight details!

Today we got an email with our flight details! We leave Auckland on the 5th of September with Emirates flying to Dubai where we stay for about 4 hours and then fly on to...ROME!! YAY! We come home on the 6th of July 2014.

Now that we have our host families and flight details this is so so real!! Soon we should get a list of all of the other students going to Italy and then we'll meet them at the orientation camp in Wellington which we're going to at the end of May. We're planing on making a YouTube video at this camp so stay tuned! :)

I have a host family! :D - Emily

So today I was at school when I got an email from AFS to say I HAVE A HOST FAMILY!! :D They sound so amazing and I'm so happy they're going to be my family. I can't wait to talk to them! They live in Cesena which is in the north of Italy in the region Emilia-Romagna which is one of the places I really wanted to go to in Italy!! I have two sisters one who's about 6 months older than me and one about 6 months younger, a Mum and a Dad... oh and a pet hamster which is so cool because we don't have hamsters in NZ!! They honestly sound so perfect!! SO HAPPPPPPYYYY!! :D

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In the newspaper again!

Some of our friends at school told us the other day they had seen us in the newspaper again! This time it's about the donation that the Lion's Club kindly gave us.

Time's going so fast and soon even we'll be in Italia :D We've been told we should get flight details this month which will make the whole thing seem so much more real! 149 days until September!! BRING IT ON! :)

Generous donation from the Lion's Club!

At the end of last year we wrote a letter to the local Lion's Club telling them about our exchanges and asking if they could help in any way. A couple of weeks ago they phoned us with AMAZING news!! They said they would give us $500 each towards our exchanges! :D Today we went along to one of their meetings and were presented with the cheques! The Lion's Club is such a great charity who help so many great causes. We are so, so thankful they chose to help us out, it's going to make such a huge difference! :)

I have a Host Family!!!!!!! - Lilly

I found out yesterday that I now have a Host Family 

I wasn't expecting to get a family this early already but I am so so excited!!

I will be living with a sister (shes my age), an older brother, a mum & dad. I have already had contact with my host sister, her and the family are so lovely. I couldn't be happier, which is soo great!

I will be living close to the city of "BARI" and is a very stunning place beside the sea!

I could post a lot of photos of the place because it is amazing but 

you can Google more images.

I can't believe that I will actually be living here, Woah.. Bari is also across the waters from Albania and further down there is Greece, which is really cool (:

I honestly could of ended up anywhere in the whole of Italy but I will be in "Bari, Italy" which is an incredible place (to say just by looking at photos and reading about it all) and I am still trying to take this all in!

Words just can not explain!! ahh <3

Raffle Results Up!

The other day we drew the raffle that we've been running since November.  Thank you SO much to everyone who supported us by buying tickets and CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE WINNERS! :) :)

1st Prize: Waitomo Caves Family Pass (worth $115.00, donated by Tourism Holdings Limited) 

WINNER: S. Torrington

2nd Prize: Barkers Gift Tub (worth $75.00, donated by Barkers)

WINNER: L. Neunz

3rd and 4th Prize: Flossie.com Gift Vouchers (worth $50.00 each, donated by Flossie)

WINNERS: Barbara and Suzzanne

5th, 6th and 7th Prize: Killinchy Gold & Whittakers Ice Cream Vouchers (worth $29.97 each, donated by Emerald Foods)

WINNERS: H. Varcoe, J. Johnson and Aussie

8th Prize: Chelsea Sugar Prize Pack (worth $20.00, donated by Chelsea)

WINNER: Min Park

9th Prize: Collective Dairy Prize Pack (donated by Collective Dairy)

WINNER: A. Snaith

10th Prize: New Zealand Natural Gift Voucher (worth $10.00, donated by New Zealand Natural)

WINNER: P. Sinclair

Raffle Update!!

• Update on the Raffle!!

Thank you SO SO much to everyone who purchased raffle tickets and we are very excited to be giving away many prizes (with all thanks to our sponsors)!!
-RESULTS WILL BE UP ON the 6th of FEB
and we will get in contact with the winners on this day.
Emily is away on school camp and so we have decided to draw the raffle together when she is back.
sorry for the wait,
Good Luck to all who bought a ticket!
- lilly :)

In the Newspaper!

Yesterday we found ourselves in the Newspaper :)
Thank you to everyone who has supported us!!
Here are photos from the article~

Spud the Patriotic Kiwi Chip

While munching through a packet of chips the other day we came across this chip with a hole the shape of New Zealand in it! We named him Spud (: Using our Kiwi Entrepreneurship we have decided to list him on Trade Me as another fundraiser for our trip! Please check him out here, he would truly appreciate it and so would we (: Also completely off the topic of Spud... 221 days until we leave! Ahh omg so excited!! Thank you so much to everyone who has helped and supported our dream so far!

Selling Raffle Tickets!

We set up a small stall outside The Warehouse selling our raffle tickets on Saturday. We had many generous people giving us donations as they walked past as well as people were interested in buying raffle tickets which was great! All went really well and better then expected!
Some photos:

Thanks again to all who kindly donated us goods for our raffle, as well as to all who have purchased raffle tickets, bought cookies and/or given us a donation! Thank you so much :)