SPAIN

Hi!

    So my name is Clayton Hill and I am a Rotary Youth Exchange Student! I am 16 years old and in 32 days and 21 hours I am going to Spain for a whole year!

     My first year of this crazy adventure is drawing to a very long close. Year one of course is when you apply, get accepted, choose a country, meet other exchangers and most of all, wait for things. This has been a very long year for me because I am doing everything I can to pay for my own trip. Since August of 2010 (before I was accepted) I got two jobs and worked. A lot. Working and keeping up a straight A average at school was tiresome. Not overly hard, just a lot of late nights. Aside from working I have done two fundraisers that I organized pretty much alone, and ran with the help of my supportive and loving parents.

     As I said earlier I am going to Spain, specifically to a small fishing village of about 23,000 people called Altea. Being from a town of about the same size in B.C. I was ecstatic that I wasn't going to be in some giant city that I was probably going to get myself lost in.

     This past year I have had the pleasure of meeting a ton of new people. I started going to Rotary meetings in my home town, I got to meet students that are in B.C. and Washington State from all over the world. I went to RYLA which is a leadership camp and so far is one of my fondest memories, and I also got to meet all of the students leaving my district in B.C. for other countries. So many great friends, so many people I will never forget. People that I hope to see again, no matter where in the world we meet.

    So at RYLA I had the best team ever, properly named the Dream Team. We had a cheer and pretty much had an amazing time. I found out my team leader did a Rotary Exchange a few years ago and we really bonded. She requested to be my mentor for the year I am going to be away. Her, myself and this awesome girl named Teri-Rose are the "Rosebuds". We are the Rosebuds because we all have Rose somewhere in a name. Esme Rose, Teri-Rose and my alter ego, Rosie. These two girls, women, babes, chicas, whatever you want to call them, are two of the best friends anyone coud ever have and I love em both. LIKE A LOT.

     Back to the exchange. August 27th. SO SOON. I am getting more and more excited every single day. I have a countdown on my cell phone and I've been caught a few times by my dad just staring at it, watching the seconds go by. He always swiftly reminds me that I am not gone yet and I need to focus on what is going on around me. As I mentioned above I have been working and fundraising quite a bit. So far I have managed to scrape up around $9000 since October or November, far surpassing what I initially thought I could do.

     That is all for tonight. I hope y'all keep reading. I will post again as soon as I can! Thanks for reading, have a great night.


 P.S.

 I'll fill everyone in about the name of my blog in another post.


 Good night and have a crazy good day!