YFU -Germany!

I'm happy to announce that I've been accepted to study abroad in Germany for a year as part of a YFU (youth for understanding) gap year program! There was almost a cancellation due to a possible age restriction, but it was worked out, that's why there's been such a lag in posts. I've also decided to accept to Macalester College and defer, so class of 2018! It's such a good feeling to know what you'll be doing for the next five years. This blog is meant to be mostly about my gap year stuff.

Here's what I know so far about my gap year:

• I'll be in Germany....  idk where yet or who my host family will be.
• I'll leave mid August-ish and get back summer 2014 sometime.
• I'll be going to a Gymnasium most likely, that's a higher level public high school which has a weekly schedule like a university. Idk what grade though, some schools have a 13th grade, but I'll probably be in a lower grade because I will be focusing more on language comprehension than on keeping up with school-work. I also would want to do an Abitur, which is sort-of an apprenticeship thing, not really sure.
• That's it.

I'm incredibly excited to go on this adventure, I will definitely be blogging about the food, stuff i'm doing, places i'm visiting, the people I meet, and what It's like living here, and of course the fun/weird and subtle stuff I notice.

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Schlaf, Ich brauche dich.

Thanks Obama: Click to learn about the Obama administration's efforts to protect the environment. Or Derps. I had no idea that Barry O was so derpy

Here's a link to my final creation, the reason I had to stop blogging last night, feels like so long ago, probably because I'm running on 2.5 hours of sleep.

My Psych textbook

They had no way of knowing. It's better than my dad who buys these energy bar stroopwafels which still have his endorsement on them. #Philmontsnacks

Gap Year + Colleges RUN DOWN

So Hi! You just found my first blog post. My name is Jack. I'm a high school senior in Evanston, IL.

Final College news: I don't think that this is the end of the world for me, i'm really excited about going off to college. I go to a pretty intense high school, and I recently got into a pretty warped worldview about colleges, and I was seriously bummed at first. But know this:

---------- All top tier schools contain lots of smart and hardworking people, this does not mean that all smart and hardworking people are contained purely within top tier schools-------------------------

Here's a final list of my schools and how the dice fell:

Accepted:
Macalester
Lewis & Clark
UW Seattle
UW Madison (different W)

DENIED:
Yale (ED)
Princeton
Penn
Tufts
Wash. St. Louis
UC Berkeley
UCLA

Waitlisted:
University of Chicago. 

K. I have an Envisci presentation that needs making, I'll continue talking about schools, which one i'll choose, and what I would've done differently in terms of prioritizing and thinking realistically, in the next few posts.

Oh yeah. And I need to talk about my Gap year, which is the reason i'm making this blog.

Oh yeah. And happy 4 months Bea, woot woot you're awesome!! (this definitely NOT an april fools joke)

Until Then