nacho n racho

hello all! natalie here! it’s been a long time, yeah? i have A LOT to update y’all on. well, around a month ago from today, we were sent a physical package containing our handbook, a folder with our waivers, and a textbook! a little after getting our textbooks, we were introduced to our RDs, and assigned our very first homework assignment! it was essentially our language prep before going to south korea. we’re given one homework assignment every 5 weeks, and it’s been not too bad! currently, we’re on our 5th and final week. 

a couple of weeks ago, our flight itineraries were given out too! i’ll be flying out to seattle for our pre-departure orientation in four days! isn’t that so exciting? i can already t a s t e the airplane air. (strange analogy, i know) we’ll be staying there for a couple of days to be told of the do’s and don’t’s as well as to finally meet our RDs and our fellow ?classmates? ?seoul-goers? anyways, i think its’ going to be a blast to finally meet them, instead of talking to them in a kakaotalk chatroom! 

and a few days ago, we were given our host family information! now, due to protecting their identities as well as for the sake of respecting their privacy, i will not be revealing who my family is yet, until i’m given consent by them. but from one email, i can already tell that they’re a nice bunch and that i’m definitely gonna have fun with them! 

aaand, that’s about it! i still need to pack my luggages, and i might just bring in two check-ins, for the sake of convenience!

it’s been a while since we’ve updated, but we’ll be updating more frequently soon! as of june 22nd, we only have a little bit more than 3 days left until PDO! this year’s summer seoul program will be held in seattle, wa at the prestigious university of university^^ 

as for new updates about the flight, we got our flight information in two different emails. one contained information for our flight from houston, tx to seattle and the other for our flight from seattle to seoul-incheon! 

we also got our host family information!! although we are not allowed to share any information about the family, we can still share our experience with the host family!

i guess that’s enough to digest for now? we’ll update later with our 2017 seoul bucket list and a couple places we want to explore!

hello everyone! my name is rachel and i am the racho part of this blog! i am super happy to finally say that i have been chosen as a finalist for the 2017 summer program for seoul, korea. if you’re wondering about my application, i’ll definitely go more in depth about my application process and the timeline in another post! i am currently a sophomore from texas and i’m honestly loving this year so much more because of nsli-y. i’ll be blogging and vlogging about my (and nacho’s) experiences up to, during, and after the trip. on my side of the blog, expect to see pictures and descriptions of the language course and the memories/experiences i’ll be creating along the way!

we haven’t seen many blogs or videos about nsli-y so we’d like to add on for all future applicants! since this is such an intensive language program, i would like to encourage everyone who wishes to sight see to search for a program that fits your needs. 

please follow our instagram account (@nachoandracho) and our youtube account (*links in our theme + we’ll hyperlink later) to be a part of our journey!

the National Security Language Initiative for Youth is a program (sponsored by the U.S Department Of State) designed to immerse American students into different cultures by placing them in the countries where the languages are mainly spoken, in turn creating a more cuturally aware youth base! the program includes rigorous language study for the following languages: Arabic, Mandarin, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Russian, and Turkish! the program is extremely selective with their applicants, so the application process was quite stressful and nerve-wrecking! i’m glad that all of that work paid off though, as i’m now able to completely immerse in a culture that isn’t typically American and learn new things about societal norms in another country ( as well as experience it firsthand! ) here’s the link for the website if you are eager to learn more about the program by the way! http://www.nsliforyouth.org/

hello! my name is natalie, the nacho part of this blog! i’m ecstatic to say that i’ve been selected to receive a scholarship (along with racho) from NSLI-Y to study abroad in south korea during the summer of 2017! this is honestly the highlight of my year and i’m so happy i’m able to have this opportunity! and i’m also extremely thankful to have all my expenses paid by the program as well! words really cannot fathom how grateful i am. this blog is dedicated to our experiences, as well as where we want to go in south korea, if the time permits! i’m excited to see what lies ahead of us in the future!

until then, 

nacho checking out !! 

+ adding