Frogs and New Beginnings

Hi there......!
  I'm Morgan, your typical American girl.
  I like clothes a lot, ice cream, oranges, summer, books, my iPhone, and people. Most of the time.
  The only catch is that I'm trying on a new pair of sunglasses and heading to Spain for school next year.
  I get a lot of "Why?"'s.
  Well, I don't know why. I'm sure by the end of this blogging experience I could tell you. But for now, I'm going to go with the fact that the world is bigger than Bedford, and I'm just trying to prove it.


  I decided to study abroad early last fall, which was the beginning of my sophomore year at Bedford High School. Apparently, nobody leaves this place, so my counselor didn't really know what to do with me. She gave me a list of exchange-student organizations and I spent months choosing the right one (Youth For Understanding....check it out). So then by winter break I was running around with my wonderful dad making it happen, and we got the application in on time and yadda yadda.
  In February, I went to an interview with a really nice lady called Kathy. She's locating a family to deal with me for the upcoming semester.
  In March, I went to a scholarship interview for the top four semifinalists from the Michigan (chosen based on like five essays) and ended up being the alternate.....so close.
  In may, I went to a fabulous orientation in Ann Arbor and met a lot of people going to Japan and Germany, one going to South Africa (SWEET!), and a bunch of awesome individuals from Germany or Japan who studied abroad here. Naturally, I was the only one associated with Spain. I liked wearing my little name tag though, I still have it and it says "Morgan McCullough, Spain, Semester".
  I desperately wish I had started this blog earlier, so I could remember in brilliant detail all the people I've met so far. It's been an emotional roller coaster of "WHEN DO I GET OUT OF THIS PLACE" and "I'm going to get lost and robbed by a gypsy my first day".
  Ah well, you win some, you lose some.
  I'll be leaving for Spain in early September, so the first part of this blog is mostly for my host family's benefit (whom I still don't know yet...ugh). But as for now, today was my last Monday at Bedford for a whopping seven months.....back to the emotional roller coaster of feeling sentimental and crazy relieved. 4 1/2 days left and it's officially summertime.


  So if you read the title of this first post, I did indeed mention frogs. We dissected them today in Biology, which I assure you was a traumatizing experience. From age seven to twelve, I loved two things. Josh Hutcherson and frogs. Josh Hutcherson is still sent down from heaven, don't get me wrong, but although I've lost the gist of my passion for frogs, I still harbor a soft spot for them.
  Since it's me, a series of unfortunate events led to this poor little frog's death being in vain. My planned partner Sarah tweeted that she wasn't coming to school this morning, and from there I knew I was screwed. First hour came like a rocket ship and Miss Malik wanted to get started right away. I ended up with this really nice nerdy guy, who I supposed was some kind of aspiring doctor. However, as soon as he made a slit in the skin, he turned pale and escaped to the hall for the rest of the period. I wanted to cry. I peeled back the skin, slowly worked through the muscle and the bones, and then my friend Jake came in late like my guardian angel. I handed him the scalpel but before I knew it, he was telling me that his dog died and sniffling and I had to take over again and remove the liver and the gall bladder and the stomach with clear, slimy frog blood spurting into my face.
  Spain, please come faster.


Whoa, that was longer than I expected. If you got through all that, props to you. I had a lot to explain.
Shout out to that helpless little frog and Jake's dog.
Until next time,
Morgan