Introduction

Our globe is getting smaller as our communications expand. The world is becoming increasingly interconnected on all levels: information, technology, economy, agriculture...

But we're still so closed off. We, especially we Americans, aren't really coming to understand the people, the humans, behind the pictures and articles we encounter in our daily Internet adventures. We know intellectually that there are other people and ways out there, but can we really conceptualize them? Do we really know?

My name is Taylor Chelak. I am currently a senior at Riverton High School in Riverton, Utah. I have claimed an avid interest from a very young age in our world and its places, people, and cultures. Yet I still know nothing.

Until I actively seek to visit the places whose pictures leave me in awe and to become friends with the people whose culture I admire, I will remain ignorant. I can't truly appreciate our world until I step outside into it. Until I feel it, live it.

So that's exactly what I'm going to do.

This coming March, I will be leaving with AFS Intercultural Programs to live for a year in Japan. I will be staying with a host family there and attending Japanese high school, encountering all kinds of new and unimaginable experiences and emotions.

And what good would it do for anyone if I kept it all to myself? This blog will follow my adventures before, during, and after my exchange, sharing my experiences of being an exchange student and the emotions and thoughts connected to coming to understand another language and culture.

No doubt it will be entertaining, if nothing else.

The tuition for this program, though, is a very steep $14,000. To help me make it to Japan, you can contribute directly to my tuition through the "Sponser an AFSer" widget on the side. This is an online fundraising tool provided by AFS to allow potential sponsors to make easy, secure, and non tax-deductible contributions to my AFS program fee. Your contribution won't be used for entertainment, snacks, or souvenirs-- it only goes to making my experience possible.

I hope to get some other fundraising projects up and running, as well. In the meantime, any purchases of Blue Monarch soaps are also contributions to my program expenses. These are handmade soaps thoughtfully crafted (by my very own mother!) in small batches from beneficial, natural materials. They work wonders unlike any commercial soap can, leaving your skin soft and refreshed while coming in unique, interesting, adorable designs. It's also a gift idea ten times more thoughtful and appreciated than any Bath and Body Works or Yankee Candle will ever be. You can purchase some of this goodness online at bluemonarchsoap.com.

Any contribution, no matter how small, will be a tremendous help. And if nothing else, please just stick around, read, and share. I want to share my experience to benefit, in any small way, those beyond myself.

To sponsor my AFS program, please click the "Donate Now" button on the side to make a non tax-deductible contribution directly to my AFS program account.