Make Your Mark? [[Yep, I made it all right...]]

Okay, so for those of you who read my previous blog entry (that doesn't include my family yet, grr - nah, just kidding. I guess it is understandable as I haven't yet left the country) - you probably realised that I didn't leave much out in relation to my journey so far...

Faux...well, kind of anyway ; )

[[ I promise this blog entry will be shorter : ) so don't give up on me just yet ]]
[[ Rewind to...late April of this year...]]

Okay, so as you all SHOULD know, April was when I began my application. At this time I also did a tonne of research regarding various exchange organisations in Australia. One thing which really attracted me to SEA was there range of scholarships - yes, quite the nerd, I know.

Writing: hm...possibly.

[[branch off writing]]: okay...let's just say I had no idea what that scholarship was about...probably why I can't remember what it was called...

[[another scholarship]]: three letters, h-u-h?
Art/design scholarship: WHOO!

Yes, so you can probably tell which was most appealing to me at the time.

I followed the link to: >> makeyourmark.org.au <<

And I checked out the website. I failed to notice the: Voting: CLOSED and the Designs: CLOSED at the top right hand corner of the webpage. In fact it took me a few frustrating hours of trying to figure out why it wasn’t allowing me to submit designs. HA! But then I found the words:

“New competition to start around Tuesday, 4th of May, 2009”

I guess my impatient self didn’t quite understand the meaning of those words…one in particular:

Around: adv. approximately; about

I spent many hours after school, everyday watching out for the new theme of the competition. When Tuesday finally rolled around and it had not yet been posted I had a sudden thought. Maybe this time, we're meant to think of our own theme for each t-shirt we design. I was so excited by this prospect that I emailed the Program Director at once asking about the theme.

[[ no reply ]]

Okay so basically we weren't meant to come up with our own themes. The theme was given...one day 'late' according to me at the time.

Destination: USA

Phfft, what kind of theme is that? I thought. When I thought of the USA back then all that came to my mind were the stereotypes. America, through my eyes didn't really provide any room for creativity. Everything about it was just so refined!
This confusion and desire to be creative with something that just was not at all creative led me to submit 39 designs (it said you could submit as many as you want, okay!).

I was so focused on eliminating my competition (haha, this side of me really surprised me because usually I'm not very competitive) that I created a file in one of my email accounts devoted entirely to the competition. I spent hours on end searching for images on Google that I thought had been used by someone as part of his/her design...I was obsessed :0 <--- don't worry, probably not to the extent that you're thinking of.

I honestly think that the Program Director of Make Your Mark became a little bit sick of my persistent emails stating that someone or another had plagiarised. My first design - which I entered the day the competition opened, may I add, back when I was my impatient self, ehe - I think I ended up submitting five times. I thought it was meant to appear on the website the moment it came up with the message thanking me for submitting. Boy was I wrong.

I clearly remember the sixth of May when I received four emails reading:

Make Your Mark design: design not accepted.

To say the least, I was crushed. I was even too scared to open the email. But despite these fears...I did what had to be done.

As it turned out. Four out of the five I had submitted of the same design had be denied due to being entered more than once. When I got around to deleting the last of the four emails, I realised there was still one there - Make Your Mark design submitted.

[[Thank you for your submission!]]

So, so, so happy! haha.

Sad to say, that wasn't the end of my embarrassing ordeals when it came to making my mark - which I guess you could say I did with fluoro paint and elephant sized hippy flowers.

One of my designs, "POP QUIZ" decided to be particularly tricky one day and kept refusing to save my last steps on Photoshop.

Here are the emails I sent to the director that day (copy and pasted directly from my sent folder)- not including his/her replies so as to keep their identity private:

Hi,
I have just submitted two designs. One is titled 'Pop Quiz' and the other, 'American Pop Quiz'. There was a spelling mistake on 'Pop Quiz' which I have corrected for, 'American Pop Quiz'. If possible, would you be able to take the description from 'Pop Quiz' and put it with 'American Pop Quiz'? Don't worry if it isn't possible.
Thanks
~
Sorry - found another mistake (oops! I think I need to work on my proof reading skills...). The third design submitted ('Pop Quiz America - good copy') is the proper copy. Would it be possible to take the description of Pop Quiz and attach it to the good copy? Thanks, and like I said before, if it cannot be done, then that's okay.
~
Hi, sorry to bother you again. Don't worry about the previous emails. I will just rewrite the description with the correct design. Could you please just approve the final design titled: "Final Copy - Pop Quiz"? Thanks. Sorry about the inconvenience.
~
Hmm, yes. Sometimes I wonder how I managed to come third and win $1 000 towards my Semester Program. It probably has something to do with that fact that the judging panel were members of SEA as well as ASICS who had never received one of my embarrassing emails - lucky ducks!

---

[[ Forward to July/August ]]

*sigh* the last days of the competition. Unfortunately I was in Thailand with my school at the time (oh wow, that sounds bratty - don't worry that wasn't implying that I didn't want to be there) and was unable to submit anymore designs...not that I really needed to...I mean, not many people submitted nearly as much as I did (probably a good thing because some of mine were more than a tad disastrous!).

Designs: CLOSED

Voting: CLOSED

Two more weeks and the Top 10 would be posted onto the website...

BONJOUR NERVES!!!

Two weeks. One week. Six days, five, four, three, two, one...none.

And...nothing.

I had even bothered rushing home that day from school and there was nothing. By this time I had already calculated the number of comments and out of those, the percentage of positive comments to determine which design would be in the Top 10 (haha, I only ended up getting three of the ones I thought of in the Top 10). So anyway. Refresh refresh refreshing my internet page was I.

Then suddenly...HELLO TOP 10!!! And there was my design. I know I should have been happier...but I really doubted my chances of winning because it was one of my poorer designs.

Well, I guess it was based on the users votes and not the judging panel...yet.

Okay, so that was one burst of nerves gone to make room for the next round. Boy was I losing some years at this point :0.
Two more weeks, *sigh*, two whole weeks, until the three winners were announced.

Well, after two weeks of stressing the page refreshing began again.

Refresh refresh refreshing for a whole hour or too - completely neglecting my homework. Meh, I could do it later when my mind wasn't completely controlled by a website (pretty sad how much we rely on technology these day, huh?).

REFRESH

I cannot explain what I felt at that moment...seeing my "not-so-good" design coming in at third.

Danse d’heureuse!!! (haha, about five times over!)

It's not everyday that you find out that your own design is going to be printed and sold!
Okay...sorry, hopefully you brought your mattress with you as well as a pillow this time (haha, I recommend a tent for next time too...nothing wrong with planning ahead :D).

Anyway, so yeah. That's the story of my scholarship.
Here's what they wrote about my design and why they chose it: (did I mention they spelt my name two different ways, one of which was wrong...haha, obviously...and said that I lived in the wrong state? Don't worry, I didn't correct them, that would mean embarrassing myself further :S).

Third place goes to Rebekka [enter last name here - nup, you're not getting my identity THAT easily] from NSW for her design "Obama". Rebecca [babow]wins $1,500 toward a year exchange program or $1,000 toward a semester exchange program, a Dick Smith Electronics voucher valued at $100 and a Lonely Planet guidebook. The panel commented that "Obama" was an incredibly well drawn design, showing great skill, and that the sketch gave the design a nice personal feel.

So, that's the story of how I 'Made My Mark'...more literally than not...

BISOUS!

Trois Mois [[ and counting !! ]]

Okay...honestly, I am not much of a blogger, or a journal writer for that matter. Oh well, I guess that's just one hurdle I'll have to get over.

Anyway, this blog I am dedicating to my six month exchange to Soissons next year. Lately I have been online following the paths of many others my age on their exchange journeys via blogs. So, I have decided to start one of my own :D. Fun fun.

[[ WARNING: If you decide to follow my blog, a pillow by your computer is manditory *wink wink - for those extra boring blog entries* ]]

Well, it's three months prior to my departure (haha, minus...six days or so). I have been in contact with my host sister since before I even recieved the letter from Student Exchange Australia with my host family's details.

Hehe, Facebook - annoying at times, yes - bad at contacting people, no.

Well anyway, at first I guess I was a bit hestitant because they were NOTHING like my two families here in Australia, but 182 emails from my host sister alone within a period of 29 days really brings two together. So far we've had two or three MSN chats which have resulted in me becoming engaged to my Français-Anglais Dictionaire (and even getting as far as planning the origami wedding cake - for the groom's famille of course - Monsieur Dictionaire's "book cover" and my wedding dress.

Les coleurs: blanc et noir

About two weeks  après I was first contacted my my host sister Marine [[ou Poisson Rouge ]]. I received the letter in the mail with the full details of my host family.

Individual bedroom - two sisters, Aurore (11), Marine (16) - deux chats et des poissons

In my eyes, this could not have been better!!! This letter was the confirmation that I really was going on exchange...in three months!


YAY!!! Haha, happy dance!

---

[[ rewind to April ]]

I originally wanted to go on exchange for seven months, departing mid-year (Nöel!). But my mum was all set to apply of the Early-Bird Deadline...which I think was the 29th of Avril.

I remember that night so well...the night before the application was due. My mum was late home from work and I was madly printing my Photo Album on proper photo paper with the proper photo printer. Numerous times I made urgent calls to my mum, stressing because the printer wasn't working (haha, we learnt then that I should NEVER be the one to connect electrical devices to computer...:S).

At five to six, my mum ran through the door, screaming at me that the post office closed at six. I can imagine how it must have looked when she walked through the office doors.

[[ Mental Image ]]

Me sitting on the floor with a half pulled apart printer sitting on an office chair - plugged into the wall on one side of the room, and with its other cord plugged into the computer on the other - with my school uniform hardly resembling that of my school's - staring at the pages being printed, one every three minutes (with five to go, might I add)...let's not forget the mangled hair and the massive bags under my eyes.

In the end, we pretty much gave up posting it on time. I think it took about fifteen minutes of pure stress and nervous shouting to pump out the last bits and pieces of my application. HA! And they accepted it twenty minutes late (...that's including driving time...no, I swear, I'm not THAT bad at maths :P).

Yes...quite naive I was to think that all you had to do was send in that application and everything was all good and well.

[[ My assumptions = faux ]]

A few weeks late, I received a letter in the mail.

"A representative of SEA will be in touch with you shortly to arrange an interview with you. If this interview is successful, you will be accepted into the Semester Program."

My thought at the time...Hm, let's think. Some mix between freaking out and contradicting my actions by thinking, "well, I'm a good student, a pretty well presented person...yeah, there's a good chance they will accept me...".

A week or so after receiving the letter, my dad called me telling me that a women from SEA had called and that I should call her back. After giving me her number, and hanging up. I stared at the number that was freshly writen down for a while. I sniffed (trust me, not the best time to have a cold!) a few times and practiced what I was going to say when she picked up the phone (haha, sad, I know) before laughing hysterically at how my voice sounded (well, HELLO NERVES!) with a blocked nose and having just lost it.

*BRING BRING*

"The number you have called is currently unavailable. Leave a message after the tone or try again later. BEEP!"


Yes...well. I hung up...I'm not much for leaving messages, I always tend to forget one thing or another.


I sat staring at the clock on my computer counting down five minutes. Four minutes. Three minutes. Two minutes. One minute. Zilch.

I was a bit more apprehensive about picking up the phone and dialling the number this time, as it had taken all (okay, fine...a good bit of) my courage to do last time.

*BRING BRING*

"Hello, [blah] speaking."

"Oh, hi. It's Rebekka. My dad told me you called."

Okay, so she wasn't actually in the office at the time so she told me she would call back later. But before she hung up, she asked me if it was okay that we held the interview at my house. I said oui (well, the English equivalent) and she asked me where it was that I lived. I told her...and she asked me if it was off [blah] Road. Hm, well, to be honest, I'm not too good with my roads and streets and highways etc. as I have moved a total of nine times in my life...not good for the memory, trust me.

Result: I spent five minutes trying to explain where I thought it was - she had no idea what I was talking about - I went on Google Maps to try and explain it to her for a total of fifteen minutes (the internet was slow, okay!) - she ended up telling me that she was very busy and that she would figure it out herself...

Oops?

Okay, so the interview rolled around. I wasn't too nervous...until the doorbell rang, that is.

Anyway, she sat down at the table and I did too, leaving a seat between us for my dad to sit (I forgot that he wasn't meant to be in the room for the first part of the interview) - which of course, he didn't sit in...so I was faced with the awkward situation of having to move up closer to her.

The interview went quite well at first. Then came a particular question which really stunted me. I had absolutely no idea how on Earth to answer it. I ended up doing the unquestionable...I asked her for an example of how to answer it (haha, it is only really now that I realise exactly how idiotic that was). She seemed a bit taken-a-back by the question, but answered it. After hearing what she had to say, I was still a bit confused, so I ended up thinking aloud. Repeating, "Oh yes, I might be able to do [blah], yes...that sounds good, although [blah] might be better...yes, I think I might do [blah]". [[ The question was something to do with how I would deal with my emotions ]]

The remainder of the interview went quite well, I suppose. Despite the fact that my nerves left me rambling too fast for her to write...hehe whoopsie daisies :D.

Well anyway, I was accepted!!!

Result: [[ danse de heureuse ]]

 ---

Forward to last weekend

Well, basically my mum contacted a familly friend up in Canberra (who is Dutch, but is fluent in French and is married to a Swiss-German man who is fluent in French aussi) and she told us about the Alliance-Francaise (I already knew about them because we have the annuel French Poetry competition at our school) and how they had un petit café where people go to socialise in French.

So, we checked it out - pretty good, we thought.

And I became a member, which then allowed me to borrow two French movies to watch for a week. I've watched one already...didn't understand most of it - but managed to understand that it basically a comedy based on a re-telling of the story of Princess Diana.

It was called : Palaïs Royal

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809421179/info  


Anyway, I bet that pillow has come in handy, eh? :P

Well, a few weeks prior to my departure, I might be spending a week up in with an authentic French neighbour of the family friends I told you about to work on my conversational French.

Okay, well bonne journée from Australie!

Bisous!