Introduction

Hi, my name is Ann Elise. I live in Washington, DC. I am currently a sophomore at School Without Walls, a small public school in Foggy Bottom. In February, I will be leaving for six months for an exchange program in Paraguay. I am very excited about this opportunity.

This first post will be my introduction. I am very friendly and love spending time with my friends at the movies, restaurants, parties, or going to different neighborhoods in the city. I play lots of sports including soccer, skiing, swimming, tennis, basketball, and jogging. I also love spending time outdoors biking, camping, or going for walks. With my family, I like cooking and baking, travelling, and doing normal activities like watching TV and reading. I have no brothers or sisters.

Around my friends, I love having fun and often organize things such as going ice skating or sleepovers. My best friends live very close to me, so we usually go over to each other’s houses after school to hang out. I love making people laugh. I think that my friends would describe me as funny, kind, and social.

I also have a very good relationship with both of my parents. I enjoy spending time with them and often go to them for advice or just to talk. We go to museums, cook, travel, and go to the farmers market and other places around my neighborhood. I love doing normal activities with my parents like walking our dogs, running errands, seeing movies, and going out to eat. I think that my parents would describe me as independent, fun, and a leader.

I am very athletic. My main sport is soccer. I play for my school’s varsity girl’s soccer team and hope to be a captain next year. On the team, I am a starter and am considered a leader. Through my soccer team, I have made lots of friends. In addition to soccer, I love skiing, swimming, biking, hiking, basketball, jogging, and tennis. I enjoy playing pretty much any sport. I love spending time outdoors being active. With my parents, I often go camping or biking with other family friends. My grandparents on my mom’s side have cabins in Minnesota that we go to every summer. I like travelling to other places too. I have been to most parts of America and also Mexico, the Bahamas and Canada. I particularly like going to New York City and the beach.

In addition to sports, I am in other clubs and activities. I am an active member of my church, write for my school newspaper, am a member of the Global Interfaith Youth Action Committee, serve on Michelle Rhee's high school cabinet, and am a Venture Scout. Through my church, I teach Sunday school and volunteer for organizations to help the homeless. I also do community service as a venture scout, in addition to going on high adventure trips to ski, sail, canoe, and other activities. As a member of the Interfaith Youth Action Committee, I meet with other high school students that are Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and other religions. We discuss issues affecting the world today and what we can do to work together to solve these issues. We also do service and art projects.

I decided to apply for an AFS exchange program because I love trying new things and learning about different cultures and the World. I also would like to improve my Spanish. I hope that through this program, I will make lifelong friends and gain a new perspective. I think that this world is huge, so it would be terrible to waste my whole life in one place. There are so many different people, cultures, and ways of life and I would like to experience as many as possible. I have never been the type of person that would be content growing up and staying in the same place my whole life. I love trying new things. Sometimes people don’t try new things because they are scared, but I look at every chance to try something new, whether it is a food, activity, or anything else, as an opportunity to have a great experience.

After high school, I plan to go to college and then travel. For a job, I want to be either a teacher or a journalist. Both of those are jobs that I would be able to do even if I wasn’t living in America. I am interested in journalism because it allows travel and I could use it to make people aware of issues affecting other countries that they might not have otherwise known about. I would like to teach because I have seen the impact that a good teacher make in a child’s life, and I want to make that kind of impact.

If you are interested in donating toward my trip, you can click on the ChipIn! button near the top of the page. An exchange program isn't cheap, so any donations would be greatly appreciated. Also, I will be blogging while in Paraguay, so you can subscribe to my blog to get all of my posts from abroad. For more information about AFS Intercultural Programs, you can go to the AFS website. For more information about Paraguay, you can go to the AFS Paraguay page and click the download brochure button on the top right hand side of the page.
Thanks!
p.s.- future posts will not be so long :)