ABOUT ME and how I got started
Hello, I'm Hannalee Wade, a 16 year old girl about to set out on her new adventure. The beginning of my freshmen year of high school was rough but I had my eyes set on one goal, foreign exchange. I have moved every two years of my life having a father in the army so I decided I wanted to have a say in where I go instead of being dragged around by the military. I was chatting with a friend and she wanted to travel to France, I never really thought about it till then, I just kinda mentioned it with my mom and she got me really excited and sparked some ideas, I automatically looked up foreign exchange and saw some of the places in the world you can go. I've always dreamed of living in a European country, what girl hasn't? I specifically remember seeing Ireland and being overwhelmed in awe. My school counselor guided me towards studying abroad through "Rotary Youth Exchange". I picked my top ten countries, very hard decision, and at the first interview switched my choice at the very last second to Italy. I misread the country requirements and thought it read "two years of language" instead of "two years of ANY language." Everyone spoke of how hard it is to get into Italy so I just swung for it with no expectation to get it. The UK, Australia and Spain were my next choices. When I got news back In April that I received Italy I was ecstatic, my district chairman told me I would be going to Milan, FASHION CAPITOL, I was leaping for joy with that news... A letter came in the mail in June though, it told me my host family and my school, something was off though, it said I would be in Florence. When my eyes caught glimpse of that I started smiling so big and tears were close to bursting out of my eyes. I truly feel blessed! And that is where my preadventure started. Hope you enjoy this ride!
