Me, and Why

I am Sophie Ogle, 16 years old, living in Alaska, USA and I want to go on exchange to Japan for a year in my High School career. Studying abroad seemed like an amazing experience to me and I want to know what living in a culturally different country feels like. I have been interested in Japan for basically my whole life. I take Japanese class and I try to learn about Japan as much as I can. To be enriched in such a unique and foreign country will be such an amazing experience, no matter where I am, but Japan drew me in. Japanese culture is very interesting to me. The geography, clothing, music, and language are all very beautiful to me and I would like to get to know more about the culture by living in the country of Japan.

2010!!

Its the new year!! 2010. So what's new for me this year? Well I can now attain a license if I so choose to, I now have my own savings account, I can work full time and of course I will live in Japan for a year!!!! Im am so excited to find out who my family is, and where I'll be staying and what high school i'll attend. But for now im still among my family and friends here in the great ice box of Alaska. Every one has been very supportive and encouraging of my exchange, even in the beginning when I had to fill out a enormous application, including my teachers who allowed me to skip class in order to make the final deadlines. By far the most challenging thing i've had to do in order to become an AFS'er is complete the final application, which was difficult but defiantly worth it. Another issue was finding the money to pay the tuition, thankfully with the help of my family and my part time job I was able to. By the way, my part time job includes bagging fertilizer, mulch and compost. So next time your moms gardening and you smell that beautiful compost smell just remember, I could have bagged that.