My name is Brandon Dull and I am traveling to Spain with Rotary this year. I am going to do my best to keep this blog updated with all the things I am doing there. I feel so lucky to be able to have this opportunity, and I will embrace every minute of it. I applied to this program in June of 2012 and did a preliminary interview and application. After I passed that I had to fill out a really long application and then I had my district interview. After all this hard work it payed off when I was finally told that I was an outbound for the upcoming year. I was so ecstatic, and could barely contain my excitement. I was told in November I was a part of the program but I wouldn't find out which country I would be going to until January. That seemed like the longest 3 months of my life. But, when I finally got the call that I was going to Spain, it was all worth it. Spain was my number 1 choice so of course I was really happy. Then after that I had to wait for an email from my host parents or an email from my host district. My district in Michigan told me that it could be anywhere from March-June. This was an even harder wait. I wanted to know what part of Spain I would be spending the next year of my life in so bad. But on May 1st I finally got an email from my host sister.
So, I will be living in Elda, Spain which is located 20 miles from Alicante. Elda has about 60,000 people in it so its just a little bit bigger then what I am used too. I have two host sisters, one who is 25 and the other is 18. My 18 year old host sister will be on exchange to USA so she will not be there while I am there. My other host sister who is 25 years old did an exchange to California when she was in High School and studied at Clemson University so she knows how to speak English fluently. As for my host parents they don't know how to speak any English at all. My host parents own a gourmet food company called Salazones Serrano. Because they have this company they travel a lot to go to different restaurants to try new foods and such. I will be living with them the whole year instead of having 3 host families. They live in a 2 story apartment downtown with a beautiful view on their terrace. Also the city of Elda is only 20 miles away from the Mediterranean Coast. That will be a big change for me since I'm used to cold Michigan. I am really excited to meet my host family!!
As for right now I just turned in my visa paperwork and am trying to get my visa for Spain. This summer will involve me going to Chicago to pick it up. Also this summer we have a big Central States Rotary Youth Exchange Conference with over 1,000 people there. I am really excited for that and cannot wait. I will post in the summer about how obtaining my visa is going because Spain is really slow and is a hassle with visas. Also when my departure date is. Until then, Adios!
Picture of Elda
Where I am on the map
