This past weekend I had my pre-departure orientation for AFS which was in conjuction with the AFS in the US for the year's end-of-stay orientation. This was so awesome since instead of there just being 6 Americans there was around 30 kids from all over the world. I was so happy to meet everyone I did there and I even got to practice my Japanese :) Here's some pictures that I wish I could claim I took but all I did is take them off facebook.

 All the students at who were at the camp :)

 It was a camp which=a lake :) We sadly were not allowed to swim in it but I loved being near it nonetheless.

We made these candle on rice cracker creations and then set them afloat on the lake and it looked beautiful :) There was something symbolic about it but I can't remember exactly what was is, I believe it was started by a life-long AFS volunteer and is meant to be used as a tool of reflection.

IPSE-"In Person Selection Event" in Denver, Colorado

As you can read in my post here: I was selected to as a Semi-Finalist for the YES Abroad Scholarship which equaled a free weekend trip to Denver just for an interview & group interviews. I was ecstatic-not only was I a semi-finalist for this scholarship that I wanted more than anything else I have ever wanted but  I was being shipped out to Denver for FREE! I had never been farther west in the U.S. than Minnesota (to visit family when I was 10) and Minnesota is pretty much exactly the same as Maine, terrain wise, except more flat. I was so excited to see the Rockies! I was also really excited to see Colorado-but that didn't happen. We were stuck inside for the whole weekend without being allowed outside! It was okay since there was soo many amazing people to talk to but let me tell you, boy did it feel good to go outside and breath fresh air again.

I have not flown very often due to the expense and was afraid I would not be able to go since to get to Denver is very expensive especially from Maine but that you State Department! I, along with 89 (well 88 since one girl couldn't come due to mono) other high schoolers were being flown to Denver for a weekend. This weekend turned out to be one of the best in my life :) I meet so many wonderful people. We ate all our meals with a group label by a letter. Ours was Group "C". Having an eating group was fun since it allowed us to extensively get to know a group of people we might not have got to know since there were 89 people there & it was only for 3ish days. Practically 2 for me since I was one of the last to get there and the first to leave!
The best part of the ISPE was the amazing people I met. I had some of the best conversations ever with people including the other awesome ladies going to Ghana with me. :)

Group C:

Group C consisted of Naveen, David (Indonesia), Ming Fen, Peter (Oman), Mary, Teresa (Malaysia), Cara (Oman through NLSI-Y), & Breanna

Mary & I were reppin' Maine but we flew out different airports so we didn't get to fly together :(

Murugi & I

Rya who is going to Turkey & Murugi

Pretty Much what we did the whole time we weren't having interviews, etc. Talking!

Sooo.....flying!
The first picture is as I was flying out of Portland I snapped a picture of Fort Williams Park Which is where the famous Portland Headlight* is. *The most photographed lighthouse in the world.

 I was flabbergasted by how flat Colorado was! Without seeing it, I am not sure I could have imagined how flat it was. This was pretty much all I saw of the Rockies & Denver. It was so odd to go all the way to the Rockies & then not touch then or sight-see or anything...

Germany vs. Ghana

I started researching scholarships since I really wanted to go abroad & scholarships would be the only way to go for me since otherwise they are super expensive. I applied for the YES Abroad & CBYX scholarship and I have received both! I have never been the person who gets everything they try for so this is a new turn for me! It is also a turns out to leave me with a very difficult decision that I have to make before Monday the 23rd. Germany is extremely beautiful and I have always wanted to learn German while Ghana is an adventure which I can't even imagine. Another BIG factor for me is money. Yes they are both "full scholarships" but YES Abroad is fuller if you know what I mean... Also, the YES program is built around understanding countries with significant muslim populations to help bridge the gap between America and the Muslim world society which is very much what I want to help do. I am extremely interested in the Muslim religion I have read many books on Islam and hope to learn Arabic some day in the future. My main reservation about Ghana is that they speak English and the school is in English which is a huge disappointment for me since I really wanted to learn a language but I am hoping that even though I won't be learning a language, I will be learning a ton about a way of life completely different from my own. I know this year will be a challenge but I believe I am up for it and know that in Ghana I will have an awesome group of friends (the other YESers) :)

So the verdict is Ghana, hence my blog title I'm Ghana Go For It. I came up with that cheesy title when I said what the heck? I'm going to go for it (referring to Ghana) and realized that would be a perfect blog name.

I have spent my vacation making this excruciatingly hard decision and obsessively researching the country I will be living in for 10 months. It seems so full of life :)

Here are some pictures I stole offline of Ghana. I have been overloading on Ghana everything: Reading past YES blogs, stalking their Ghana photos on Fb, watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, you know the whole nine yards.

 

The dirt there is reddish like in Virginia!

So I have heard that there are not washing machines in Ghana other than us humans (hand-washing ftw) and that showers consist of a bucket of water. Man, this will be an adventure. :)

Introduction (How I got to where I am)

Hello, if you don't know me, name is Lydia and I live in the beautiful town of New Gloucester, Maine. I am currently a senior at my local high school GNGHS. (You can check out their website it's new & pretty awesome looking :) Here a picture I snagged from their website :

Anyway, I am getting off topic. Why, you most likely are wondering, am I going to Ghana? Well, I was lucky enough to receive a YES Abroad Scholarship to Ghana. These are fully funded scholarships from the U.S. State Department to 11* different countries with significant Muslim populations. With this scholarship I will be traveling to Ghana to live for a year with a host family and attend school there.  (*9 countries this year~This year they aren't sending people to Egypt & Mali due to the unrest in both places.) 

More About YES Abroad: I'll do a post specifically about this later but for now here is a link to their website.
http://yesprograms.org/
http://yesprograms.org/yesabroad/ghana

About Ghana:

Ghana is located in West Africa between Côte d'Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) and Togo. Know as the Gold Coast under colonial rule, Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African nations to gain independence from European Colonists in 1957.