An Introduction

Hi, my name is Elijah Rodriguez. I'm currently 14 years old (15 by the time the program starts) and I live in in the suburban San Fernando Valley (I prefer not to say the town I live in, just going to say LA). It's in the Los Angeles county, so it's about 20 minutes away from the city. I go to Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village and boy is it a blast there (sarcasm). I'm a freshman. I was born in Chicago and moved to California when I was 6 months old, and I've lived in my current home for 11 years. In a way I like living in in my town because it's a small town on 67,000 people and everything is 2 minutes away (or about 5-20 minutes away by walking) so everything is accessible. In a way, I hate it here because I'm a city person (Both parents were born and raised in Chicago and we go there all the time) and nothing ever happens in LA, so I always persuade my parents to go in the city whenever we can. Before I write an autobiography, let me tell you about what this blog is really about.

I applied to Italy this month in March (March 11th to be exact). I chose Italy because I went there in Feb. 2012 (and Paris too!) and it was beautiful to say the least. I wanted to know how it was to live like a native and see how it was to go to high school there. How did I get exposed to studying abroad in high school? One of the good things about my school is that tons of kids study abroad to our school. I have friends from China (if you're reading this Cathy, hi!), Korea, and even one from Italy! I'm totally sick of living in California and since there's no sign of us moving any time soon, and I love Italian culture so much, I figure why not study abroad in Italy? I LOVE traveling. I've been all around the USA and Italy and France and Canada and a few other places. I hope this experience makes me find myself because right now I'm kind of confused about what my point here and I don't wanna get all philosophical on you. Basically I really want to see what it's like to live with an Italian family, and just to have different parents and see a different lifestyle, one of many in the world.

I have a more detailed backstory of why I chose to study abroad in my post (Reasons and My Story, in April)

The program's called Quest International. It's smaller, but seems more personal and friendly. I chose this one because I can visit family during Christmas (if the exchange kids in my school can go home for Christmas, why shouldn't I go home for Christmas?) and I can choose where I want to go. I said either Rome or Milan so I can live in a big city like I strongly desire. I've been talking to a representative of the High School abroad part of the company (also there's summer programs and language immersion) for like 4, 5 months now? He's super nice. 
Check it out! questexchange.org

Anyway, I play tennis, I'm in the UN club, Asian club, Skip 1 (community service) club, linguistics club (I have a thing for languages; I know English,  French, a lot of Italian, Japanese, some Spanish, and some German!), and several other clubs. Other than tennis, I hate sports. I wanna try dance. I attempt to juggle 7 or so clubs, tennis, languages, school, family, friends, sleep (LOL sleep okay I'm a total insomniac) and the bits of free time I have but yeah it doesn't work out that well. Oh I'm Puerto Rican (hence going to Chicago a lot and New York sometimes, I have tons of family!), and I love food! :)
I hope to learn to cook there!

Well this blog is getting kind of long, so I'm gonna go watch SNL now (a favorite Saturday night tradition with family) so I'll get back with you to see if I get accepted or not!

Oh also there's no good pictures of me lately so here's some with me and my fellow yearbookers (blue shirt, the only guy)