Outbounds 2009-2010

Conor’s Bio

Hello,

My name is Conor Doherty and as you may have heard, I am going to Sweden! A couple of years ago, my family hosted two exchange students. One was from Finland so I had had heard about Scandinavia and I figured that would be a cool place to go. My sister and brother were also exchange students, Makena went to Brazil and Liam went to Switzerland. If it wasn’t for them, I would not be in this situation right now. I have heard millions of stories about their exchange years and how they had such a good time and that their years abroad had changed their lives, so I decided to uphold the new “family tradition” and go abroad myself. The topic of exchange always came up when my siblings were abroad so I had a lot of time to think about it, but finally decided that it would be best for me to go. The application process was difficult and the interviews were even harder (a lot harder!), but it was all worth it. The orientations are coming up soon as well, so I am excited about officially being a Rotary Youth Exchange Student.

I am currently a sophomore at Buchholz High School and although I am only 15 years old, I feel like I am ready to venture pretty far from the nest and become more independent, more responsible, and more intelligent. I am hoping that my year abroad shapes me into a better person the way my family has for the last 15 years. I think that having three siblings has made me the person I am and I think that being abroad will also change me, hopefully for the good. I am really looking forward to learning another language and to my year away from home, but I am most excited to see myself develop and change as the experiences and the culture are integrated into my life.

Thanks Rotary, for making this possible for me!

Conor’s Journals

August 29 Journal

I am not much for introductions, so I will just jump right in. On August 6th (my brother’s birthday), we set off to Jacksonville Airport from Gainesville. The whole way to the airport, I was just trying to keep my mind off of the point of the trip. Maybe I was scared, maybe just nervous, most likely both. When we arrived at the airport, I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be, so that was a good start. It was at the security checkpoint, at which I had to see my family for the last time for a year, that I started to feel the adrenaline. I hugged my family goodbye, said happy birthday to my brother, and walked away without looking back.

The airports were not too bad. I had never flown before, so this was my first airplane/airport experience. I found my gate fine and I didn’t have any problems. The last thing I did in America was in the Detroit airport, I bought a small fry from McDonalds (a sentimental moment). I almost had a bad experience in the Amsterdam airport. I could not find my flight on the sign so I went to the gate for a flight headed to Göteborg, but after a while I heard a voice on the intercom saying: “Herr Dorothy…fgdasifblewifbe” (something in Dutch – it was hilarious how they pronounced my name). “Mr. Doherty, please begin boarding at gate C4 immediately.” I was a long way from the right gate and I was the last to board my plane, but I made it.

I cleaned up a little and changed to a nicer shirt on the plane, and upon arrival, I saw my three host families and my counselor Lena. We all spoke briefly and introduced ourselves, I exchanged the cash I had for SEK and we headed home.

Later, we all met together again at a BBQ in my honor. We all ate some delicious food, a good first impression of Swedish cuisine, played fotboll, went swimming, and all chatted in English. A quick note: Everyone here has good English. They don’t admit it, but they do. David, my host brother, was about to leave for the US and he was trying to practice his English with me. (He is gone now to Seattle.)

In the first few days I did quite a bit, even with jet lag. I went swimming, paintballing, biking, etc. I tried to get over the jet lag as fast as possible and it worked pretty well, seeing as it only lasted a couple days, although some effects lasted a week or so. For example, I would wake up at noon everyday, still feeling tired (coffee helps). Since then, I have gone on an army ship with my host brother Simon, who is in the Swedish navy, I have stayed in Fristad for the week long language course, I have given a presentation at 7:00 in the morning, på Svenska, to a bunch of Rotarians in the Borås Rotary Club, I’ve wakeboarded; gone sailing; had fotboll practice; observed a floorball practice (which was insane by the way); picked wild raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries; unexpectedly seen the band Europe live; seen other live music like EMD which I don’t really like, but it was fun anyways; gone to Liseberg, an amusement park in Göteborg; biked to school everyday; visited multiple museums, and I don’t even know what else. I try to say yes to almost every offer that involves activity. I have pretty much only spent money on food and candy. Everything here is much more expensive than in the USA, so I try to conserve my money.

I started school last week and I have realized that the school here is so much more relaxed. There is an open campus and no tardies or anything like that (I still really try not to be late). The first days of school (8 days), we haven’t done much of anything because we are slowly easing into having school and we are getting to know all of our classmates. There is a two day trip planned for all of the students in the first year ekonomi class so that we can get to know each other better. My classes consist of: Swedish, English, Math, Social Studies, Geography, History, Sport, and Music. My schedule varies a lot and a lot of the time, the schedule is not followed for some reason.

I think I have summed up the first few weeks pretty well so I will leave you at that. Until next time, greetings från Sverige!

November 4 Journal

Well, it is time for journal number two. To summarize the time I have spent since the last journal in a few words would be impossible. I will at least try to do it some justice.

My Swedish is getting better and better. My overall understanding of speech is okay, much better at reading, not too great at speaking, but I try. I have Swedish lessons once a week and they are helping a little, but I think at home and in school are where most of the learning takes place.

The weather is not too bad yet. It only gets colder and colder. Every night it gets to be around freezing or a little lower so frost in the morning is common. During the day it does not get much warmer and the wind does not help. No snow yet, surprisingly, but I think it will come in a short time. There is more rain than I would like so it is gray quite a bit. I could go on about the weather because it seems to be a prominent subject in conversations, as Swedes care a lot about good weather because it is rare.

I have visited the Rotary club a few times and attend the meetings every other week. They seem to enjoy me and Joe’s (an exchange student from California also living in Lerum) company. Although, the meetings are Tuesday dinner meetings and I have soccer training on Tuesdays a little later in the day.

I am still playing soccer with the local team. It is a good way to make friends and stay fit. I can also work on my Swedish with them as well. The soccer trainings are fun, but now the weather is getting very cold and we practice at 8:00 at night, so all of the practices are very cold. Good thing there is a turf field to play on or the grass would all be dead…

School is going relatively well. The school is in only Swedish except for the English class, so it is tough to manage. But, I try hard, study, and do well on tests and homeworks. Not only are the tests hard because I can’t read the questions, but even if I do know the question, then all of the lectures are in Swedish and all of the papers that the teacher gives out and all of the books, so studying is very difficult. I like school, though. Many friends and it gives me something to do all day instead of just sitting around and doing nothing all day.

I have been hanging out with friends a lot recently. I can now travel freely because I bought a travel card for my free time, (called a fritidskort, literally free time card). Now travel is easy, even long trips where I have to take trains and busses and the like. That makes me wish we had a system so good in the US… But bowling and going to movies, even shooting golf balls on a golfing range.

Last week, my host family planned a surprise party for my host mom and all went well. Everything went according to plan: She had no idea and we set up this big party for her. I was in a suit and it was very fun. My whole family helped with the decorations and the service at the party and it was all really great.

Overall, the best thing for me is that I can see myself maturing. I can see in my thoughts and in my interpretations of events and ethics that I am definitely maturing. I don’t know if I want to mature so fast quite yet. Sometimes I just want to be a kid while I am a kid, but on the other hand I think it is great that my social skills and confidence are higher and I am developing into an adult. Either way, the experiences I am having here are shaping me slowly and I am sure you will be able to see this when I get home. Imagine: It has only been a few months so what will I be like in 9 more months?

So, I am having a good time in Sverige! Best regards to Rotary and the other exchange students. I hope you are having as much fun as I am.

March 6 Journal

It is hard to describe these last few months… I moved to my next family and am having a great time living at their house. I am set up to go to my next host family in just a couple of weeks. My Swedish is getting better every day. Sweden, for me, used to be a place where I was staying for a year. I feel like now it is much more like my home. I feel as though I have lived here for years. I can only imagine the day I get back to my own home and realize that it feels less like home than my Swedish home. It is such a strange feeling to be gone for so long; so long that the new place is now your home.

The day after writing my last journal entry, it snowed for the first time of the year. After that, it continued snowing and snowing and snowing. There is still snow on the ground and it is -5 C mid day now. The snow has been on the ground for months and hasn’t gone away at all. It has gotten down to -20 C in my town, Lerum. I just hope that spring is right around the corner so I can finally do something outdoors! It feels so restricting with snow on the ground everywhere. The upside to the snow is that I went skiing with my host family one day and that was fun. My next family is also taking me on a ski trip over the Easter break for four or five days. I am definitely looking forward to that!

I have experienced many things since my last entry, so I will tell you about some of them. Christmas (Swedish style)! I didn’t think that Christmas would be much different and for the most part I was right. There is not much of a difference between our way and the Swedish way of celebrating. The biggest difference is that they celebrate and open the presents on Christmas Eve instead of the way we do it, on Christmas day. Also, there are different foods and different little things like writing a rhyme on your gift to someone else. I thought this was fun because the person receiving the gift would try to guess what it was by the rhyming clue. However, through all of the good things that happened, this was my first Christmas away from my family. As bad as it sounds, I wasn’t as disturbed by it as I thought I would be. (Sorry mom!).

New Years Eve was also very fun. We had fireworks and were shooting them off all over the place. We also saw a fireworks show that people in the community organize and that was really cool. We then celebrated the countdown and stayed up late having fun.

I have also been sledding (which is really fun and surprisingly dangerous), skiing, Pain-balling, (like paintball without paint in the balls so that they are just rubber), going to school, freezing my butt off outside, and taking in Sweden! I also gave a presentation at my Rotary club and have given multiple presentations at my school about United States history, about Gainesville, and about being an exchange student. I have been having a lot of fun and I hope to continue that when spring comes!

Until next time,

Conor Doherty

 

Courtenay’s Bio

Hi everybody! My name is Courtenay Johnson!

I was born in Jacksonville, Florida. I am fifteen years old and I am the fifth of sixth children in my family. My second oldest brother, Adrian, is one my best friends. We do everything together from going to Orlando to simply going out to dinner. The youngest in my family is Jamison. He is eighteen months younger than I am. My grandparents unfortunately died before I was born, but I have two uncles on my mother’s side that I have never met.

My father is a dentist in Flagler Beach and my mother is a house wife. I love them both very much. My parents are very supportive of my decisions, but they always put in their own insight on the situation. What kind of parents would they be if they didn’t?

My school life is most excellent. I make good grades and I have a lot of friends that I cherish and love. I have always been very determined to be the best and to get the results I want and need. In fact, in May, 2007 I weighed over 300 pounds. With hard work and a boat-load of support from my friends and family I lost 110 pounds in a little over a year. My parents say I’m hardly recognizable.

I have recently been chosen to study abroad for one year in Finland and I’m soooo excited! I chose to be an exchange student because I want to experience a new culture, learn a new language and learn the ways of the people I do not know.

I cant wait to meet everyone in Finland and build new friendships!!!

 

Elizabeth’s Bio

Sawat dii kha. Hello. My name is Elizabeth Earnhart and I am a senior at Bartram Trail High School. I am 18 years old and I am about to embark on the most fantastic opportunity of my life. I am ecstatic and oh so grateful at having been selected to be a Rotary exchange student this year. My destination? Thailand. The fact of the matter is that it’s all very surreal to me.

I am the oldest child in my family, my younger brother is 15, and I have always had what my mom calls, “wanderlust.” Throughout the years I would jump at any opportunity to travel across the US, but I especially liked traveling abroad. I think that my parents had to realize early-on that I was an explorer and would not be sticking around long after high school. But don’t get me wrong. I love my friends, my home, and my family.

I want to be part of the Rotary youth exchange because I want to break down cultural barriers, not only for myself, but for others as well. I want to give Thais a taste of real America, not the Hollywood version, and I want to tell Americans what Thailand is really like without any preconceptions getting in the way of the truth. This experience is going to be a challenging one. But the reward is going to be so much greater.

I am the kind of person who takes joy from being a friend to others. I love to encourage people, and to help them when they are in need. I tend to over-plan, yes, but I do not regret any minute of my usually hectic schedule. I love music, but I also love the outdoors, as well as camping, hiking, biking and SCUBA diving. Nature is endless, and you can always find something new. Sewing is another one of my favorite past-times. I make some of my own clothing, and it’s a very rewarding feeling wearing something that you’ve made. My faith is also something that is very important to me. I love to sing, read, and act every now and then. I even wrote my own monologue for the talent portion in the Miss Bartram Pageant last year.

And so, there you have it. I thank Rotary for this opportunity, and my family for their support. I cannot wait to embark on this adventure, to go to Thailand and learn a whole new way of life compared to how I now live. I am looking forward to meeting my future host families and friends. I cannot express the excitement that is growing inside of me. Thank you. Khap khun kha.

Elizabeth’s Journals

August 7 Journal

I arrived in my city, Khon Kaen about a week ago and Thailand is SOOOOO beautiful! I can’t stop smiling and everyone is so friendly and they all go out of their way to help even though most of them don’t speak English. The only two people I have met who speak English well enough to communicate effectively with are MaaMeow (another exchange student from South Africa) and PuuRee (a Thai boy who just got back from exchange to Canada). MaaMeow has been here already for 6 months so she is helping to teach me Thai. My oldest host brother is already at university in India, so I am using his room while he is gone. My 16 year old brother, Top, speaks some English but he is leaving for exchange to Canada on the 9th of August. My 14 year old brother, Tee, is just like Matthew in the sense that he plays W.O.W. all day, haha.

When I got to Bangkok, my mom, MayPen, Top, PuuRee, MaaMeow, and two other ladies from my Rotary Club, MayJeet (PuuRee’s mom) and MayOor had big posters with my picture on them and greeted me like I was their long lost daughter. It was so nice and the banners said “Welcome Home”. I learned that my Rotary Club is an all woman club and that is so cool and absolutely unheard of in the U.S. So we stayed the night in Bangkok and then went to JJ Market the next morning and then drove 7 hours to get to Khon Kaen.

Everything is extremely cheap, especially food. I have not purchased anything yet thought because as a part of their “family” I am paid for at meals. There are elephant pictures on literally EVERYTHING here, buildings, purses, walls, etc. And I got to pet and feed a baby elephant today! It was so cute and they are just led around Khon Kaen and you pay to feed it bamboo. It was such a cool experience, maybe next time I can ride a grown-up one!

Oh, and I thought that I was going to be really uncomfortable getting used to Thai toilets, but they are really cool actually. In my house there is a western style toilet and shower, so that is cool. But in public bathrooms the “toilet” is a squat-potty, so it is porcelain and you do your business, throw the paper in a waste basket next to the toilet (if there is paper) and then to “flush” you take a bucket that is in a barrel of water in the stall and you pour one or two bucket-fulls in until gravity does its job. It’s really neat actually.

But the whole experience overall has been more than awesome. I have tried SOOOO many different types of food already, it’s so diverse and a complete 180 from anything you would see in the States. My city is so full of life at night though. It’s almost ridiculous how late things stay open, like malls and night markets and salons open at this hour! Some of them do not even open their doors for business until it gets dark.

I am not going to school until a week from tomorrow because I have to get the uniform and also go back to Bangkok one or two more times this week to pick-up more inbounds and also to take some Thais who are leaving on exchange.

It is so awesome here, so real and unique and just overall amazing; full of life and color and new sights, smells and tastes. The weather is very similar to Florida, less humid during some parts of the day and more humid during others. It is the rainy season here now just like in Florida also. I feel like I am writing SOOO much, and yet there is so much that has already happened. Oh, I also was given a new name as soon as I was greeted at the airport. My Thai nick-name is Aarie (pronounced like the long “a” in apple, a rolling “r” and the “e” sound from the word bee). It is difficult to learn all of the politeness of the culture but I am working on it.

Sawat dii Kha.

-Aarie

September 7 Journal

So, I have been here for over a month and wow, what all am I supposed to say? I will start with school. I am at a demonstration school (high school) that is on the campus of Khon Kaen University and I am in the 11th grade. There are six classes (groups of students) in each grade level and there are a little under 40 people in my class but it doesn’t feel that large because not all of us are ever in the same room at the same time. I have 28 different subjects every week and school is from 8AM – 4PM Monday through Friday. I use my time during school to practice my Thai and I am also starting to learn how to read and write the language.

There are 44 consonant symbols in the Thai language and another 32 vowels, so memorizing those and how to write them is going slow, but it is also a lot of fun to have my class-mates walk up to me and help me pronounce them and ask me if I remember them etc. Finding a close group of friends is going slow as well, but it’s not a problem because I understand that right now there is still quite a large language barrier and also everyone is more than happy to be friendly to you and show you where to go and take you to class etc.

My Thai is still improving and I am still having daily Thai lessons with my mom at home. I am so thankful for this too because I can understand a lot more than I can speak and even the amount that I can speak seems to impress a lot of people. I really love my host mom and my host family, they are more than I could have asked for, really.

Two weeks ago in school there was a sports week and a parade. My class dressed me up in the traditional Thai dance costume and put me at the front of the parade! At first I was a little scared because I didn’t know where to go but then the marching band walked in front so everything was okay. Also for sports week they had football (soccer) games and basketball games and volleyball and swimming. I swam for my team and ended up receiving a gold medal in the medley and a silver medal in the freestyle race. It was so much fun.

I think also that half of the fun of things here so far is figuring them out. Confusion sometimes turns into frustration but most of the time it is like a puzzle, and if you can’t work it out at first, ask, try again, or just smile and laugh with the people you are with because you are enjoying just being in their company and appreciative of the fact that they are trying to help you to learn their language and their culture.

In the past month, my host brother Top has left to go to Canada on his exchange. And exchanges from Brazil (Anun), Canada (Dao), and Germany (Chai Lai) have come to Khon Kaen. It is quite a sight to see all of us walking down the street together or even when we see each other every now and then at school because people are always staring at us. There is so much more to say that I really can’t think of it all.

Our families took all of the exchange students to an ancient temple near the city of Korat a few weeks ago and it was so awesome and so large. I really love life here, it is so different from the states, the food as well and the culture, I just can’t soak it all in fast enough. Some food is pretty out-there though, I think the two things that have topped the list so far are coagulated chicken blood (served as cubes in soups) and chicken feet. But I am still going to try everything that is put in front of me because otherwise, I will be missing a part of something that I am supposed to be experiencing.

There is a night market in my city that is completely amazing as well. During the day the street is a normal one, used my traffic and located down town. But as soon as the sun starts to go down, vendors from everywhere emerge from who knows where and set up shop. The whole street is blocked off and endless food stalls and clothes shops and music stores etc are set up. One of my favorite things here is the fruit and also the coffee, it is really like nothing I have ever tasted in the states. Also at the night market it isn’t uncommon to see fried bugs for sale. My mom told me that she will take me to try them soon! Grasshoppers I heard were pretty good. =D I am really very excited.

Every time I experience something new and taste something new and see something new, I cannot wait to get more. I can only hope that new things will continue to be revealed, but I know that they will. I wish that I could recount more to write but there is too much to sort through. So until next time, chok dee, sawat dee kha.

Oh – I’ve posted some pictures at www.flickr.com/photos/41998919@N08.

October 11 Journal

There has been so much interesting stuff that has happened over the course of the break from school so far and there is still three weeks left! I have found some really good Thai bands that I like and that has put things in a new perspective, at least with the pop culture. Because most of the videos that you see on TV are the sappy love songs and they make you feel so sad when you watch them or even listen to them, but I found some good rock bands like “Big Ass” “Bodyslam” and “Clash” and a good rap artist “Titanium” as well as the ever-popular “Tatto Colour” “Potato” and “Clash” among others. “Tatto Colour” is from my city originally and went to a high school not even five minutes away from my house, they reminded me of “Yellow Card” in Jacksonville because they all went to Stanton High School, downtown too. Also, music is a really good way to learn the language as well and since karaoke is really popular here as well, that will help me learn the pronunciation.

One of the first things that we did after school got out was to go and see a Beijing Acrobatics show and that was really fun. Our leash has gotten a little bit longer because we have been here and their trust in us is growing, so that is exciting. Usually we can just ask to go out during the day and get on a song-tow (a taxi-truck thing) and go pretty much where-ever in our city as long as we are back by dinner time.

Another thing that we got to do which was really awesome was a photo tour of famous places right outside of Khon Kaen. We went to see the Snake Village where people fought with King Cobras and put their heads in their mouths… ugghh (I actually felt bad for the snakes because you could tell they weren’t interested in being a part of the show). But all of the other places were really pretty, like we went to a dam and also to the top of a mountain and to see a very large statue of Buddha on a different mountain. It was so fun and I really enjoyed stretching my legs and hiking and the nature and the views too.

And as far as Rotary functions go, we are always front and center. We attended a “Car Free Day” in Khon Kaen where hundreds of people rode their bikes through the streets just to promote not using as many cars because of the pollution and the smog that it creates. We started at 7am and ended around 10am but it was fun while it lasted! I had been missing going to the gym and getting exercise on a regular basis and then about two weeks ago I found a gym right near my house. My mom and I joined together and it only costs 2,000 baht a year for membership! That’s about $60 which is sooo awesome! But now I go to the gym when I have free time so hopefully I can start to get back into shape. =D

My brother who goes to college in India came home for a couple of weeks and that was so awesome to get to know him and hang out with him for the short time that he was here. We clicked from the start and I really feel that he is the big brother that I have never had. He was always looking out for me and it was so awesome because it made me feel even MORE a part of the family (which I didn’t know was possible because I am already soo close with my family and I wish I didn’t have to change).

The exchange students from my club are in the middle of doing a fundraiser right now to raise money to donate to a temple. The money will go to buy lunch for a school of boy monks at the temple for a week. This school is where the poorer families send their sons to get an education because it is free. We have been going to different locations around the city and singing songs and giving out bracelets that we made while asking for donations, I don’t know how much we have yet but the box it getting pretty heavy. =D And when we were doing this at the lake a few of the days they had this huge festival going on. There was a fair and a huge stage where there were performances and everything. It was to celebrate the end of a Buddhist fast that started in the summer. We got to send off a paper lantern into the sky at night with the full moon and it was so exciting.

While all of this was going on as well, I found out that I got accepted to the University of Central Florida for the fall semester next year and it was a complete relief and weight off my shoulders. I am stoked about that and when I told my mom she was so excited for me, she even got me a present in congratulations and gave me a big hug (hugs are pretty rare here by the way, so that was really cool). I really feel like I am her daughter, its such a neat feeling to experience that and know that you have two moms.

As for what I have eaten that is different this month… I would have to say that it was Shark Ear Soup… I really think that it was shark gills or shark fins or something, but they said that it was shark ear. It was a Chinese dish, and believe you me, if you think you know what Chinese food is, you have no idea! “Real” Chinese food is filled with things that A) you have no clue what they are and B) you don’t really want to know what they are. I think out of 10 different dishes that we tried that night, one of them would be considered edible by the average American, haha.

I also found another market right near my house and this one is a real Thai market. You walk through one section that is just fruit and the next thing you know you are standing next to the severed head of a pig (“Lord of the Flies” style) or you end up next to bins of live eels/frogs/fish/bugs/you-name-it ready to be bought and cooked up for dinner. It is really an interesting experience; every time I go, I see something new. Finding new markets is always exciting too because exploring the markets is really one of the most fun things to do when you want to go on an adventure! It’s one thing that I wish we had in the States because you go to one place and you can get anything you want and it’s not preserved or pre-packaged and it doesn’t come from a factory either.

One of my favorite foods that I have found here is called Sardra-pow. It looks like a cloud and it is a tasteless white fluffy steamed bun-type thing that has stuff inside of it. It can be filled with minced pork or a sweet custard or taro (which is also like a sweet bean-paste, sounds gross but it isn’t haha) or my favorite which is pork and bamboo with a sweet-spicy sauce. It is a great snack but it is really hard to find street vendors of them but I don’t know why, because everyone likes Sardra-pow.

I think that my favorite thing to do at home is to cook. My mom and my house-keeper have both been teaching me how to cook Thai food and usually I help them make lunch and sometimes dinner as well. It is really exciting when I get to make a dish by myself or with little supervision and it is so much fun to cook with them and joke around in the kitchen! I will have to start writing down recipes soon because there are so many different things that we cook. And my mom’s cooking is really better than most of the restaurants that we go to, so, maybe some of her skill will rub off on me. =D

Sorry this journal was so long, I just feel like there is so much to say to tell everyone. And even after I say it I feel like it isn’t enough description because while things are so much different here, they are so real and I just wish that everyone can experience at least a little bit of it through what they read. Thank you Rotary again, I cannot say thank you enough for this opportunity! PS: My conversations in Thai are still improving pretty well and I am almost to the point where I can read all of the symbols!

November 22 Journal

I knew that there was a reason for me putting off writing the journal for this month. At first I just thought it was so many things going on, my birthday, and just plain laziness, but now I realize that there was a completely different reason for it. It gave me the time to have a realization that there is more than can be seen, it’s under the surface and the exchange students in my city have just discovered it. I would love for this journal to serve the purpose of sharing all the amazing experiences that I have had in the past month. However, this journal needs to serve a much larger purpose.

In the past month, I have had my eyes opened. I look around me now and see a completely different Thailand than the one I entered almost four months ago. I don’t think that I expected this, and if I did I never expected it to come this early in my exchange. It is almost as if I turned 19 and everything changed overnight. Don’t get me wrong, I really love it here. But, as my friend put it to me; I entered Thailand as an enfant, with big eyes full of wonder. Like I had seen a silver spoon for the first time and was riveted when I saw what a spoon was, shiny and bright and exciting. But as I spent time here I grew up, usually it takes longer, but I grew up in four months and when I grew up I could see that the spoon was not as I originally thought. It was instead, tarnished and bent out of shape. I lost my innocence as that enfant, but as it turns out this is a very good thing especially because it happened so fast. I would rather be shocked by the truth now than be fooled and have the truth hurt more later. Ok, to get to the point, I apologize for the vague metaphors.

Lately my Rotary club has gone crazy with the amount of projects that we are doing. We have been to at least ten different functions outside of regular meetings this month so far. And while this sounds well and good, it leaves me with a feeling of frustration and disgust. The reason for this is because these functions are all for show. I didn’t realize until now how different my Rotary club at home is from my Rotary club here. At home when my club decided to do something, they would do it in the name of Rotary but for the good of the community around them. To help others. Here, when my Rotary club decides to do something, they do it in the name of Rotary, but they do it for themselves. To give the impression that they are helping others. The best way to explain this would be to compare two experiences that have left an impression on me here. The first would be when the other exchange students and I went to a village outside of our city to help improve their school during the school break. We went with a group called “Rotaract”. These are college age students who are aspiring Rotarians. We stayed in the village for four days and at night we slept in the school rooms. We cooked our own food and painted, played with the children, cleaned the campus, put up new posters, built bookshelves and an assortment of other things. We rode to the village on an open-air transport, woke up at six AM, went to sleep past one or two in the morning and had open-air showers. In essence it was a REAL experience. It was fun and at the end we knew we had left an impression. We had bonded with the kids, taught them “Duck, Duck, Goose“, learned their games and just had fun with them. It is something that I want to go back to, the children were more than adorable and so curious and fun-loving. I can’t even really put it into words, but that is something that I was proud to do with the name of Rotary attached to it.

However, just the other day our Rotary club told us that we were going to donate books to libraries at rural schools. At first it sounded like it might be a similar experience to the one we had before. We woke up early and went to the first location. When we got there we gave the school a few sports balls for the children, which isn’t a bad thing. But that is really the only beneficial thing we did there. We sat in a meeting for a couple for hours while the kids were nowhere to be seen, except peeking in through a window every now and then. At the meeting, our moms all stood up and introduced themselves and their businesses. Then they had us introduce ourselves. By this time we knew already that the reason we (the exchange students) had come was so that our moms could show us, the foreign kids, off. After introductions and a lot of talk about how Rotary wants to help in this way or that comes the pictures. This is part of what aggravates me because we then walked through their library and proceeded to leave. The exchange students were able to buy a little bit of time and we taught the kids how to play “Duck, Duck, Goose” but as soon as Rotary had taken enough pictures of this as well, they told us that we had to leave. It left me feeling empty and confused; why would we go to a school to “give the children books” for their benefit, and then not? We came, talked, took pictures and left, giving them only a few sports balls. That does not leave an impression (or improve a library). And yet when we were back in the car, we overheard Rotary talking about how we should make the pictures into postcards so that everyone would be able to see how much good we did for the school. We went to two other schools that day and did the exact same thing.

The point is that Rotary here will go somewhere and make promises of helping there and take a ton of pictures. But when they return home, they rarely do anything about the promises they made and yet they print the pictures in order to show others the good that they are doing for the community. There is another reason why this is so unsettling to me though. It goes against culture here. I would say that generally in the U.S. the average stranger would not stop what they are doing to help someone or go out of their way to be concerned about a complete stranger. But here, everyone is not only always smiling, but they help people they don’t know on the street to carry a package or they seem that something might be wrong and they ask if they can help etc, etc, etc. There are countless things that I see every-day that you would rarely see in the states, that go along these lines. The irony comes in where the Rotary clubs at home go to help others and here they just go through the motions to get their names out there for social recognition.

Please do not get me wrong though, this is not me complaining about my situation or asking for something different. I am fully enjoying my experiences here and I really love Thailand, all of the people and culture that surrounds me. This is just an observation, an epiphany that I have had that I felt should be shared for the sake of dispelling ignorance. On a brighter note however, I have been having such a great time at school since it has opened again. Before, to be completely honest, I hated school. It was boring and I couldn’t communicate with anyone and I felt like a burden. When school closed I could not say that I had made any friends. Acquaintances maybe, but no friends. Now however, my Thai has improved greatly and I can talk to my class. People ask me to come to class with them or to eat lunch with them now because they want to, not because they feel like they have to. I have had discussions about American vs. Thai culture and one of the girls wants me to have a sleepover with her soon. Another girl and I hung out the past weekend outside of school (first time that has happened!), we sang karaoke and it was so much fun! This sounds so insignificant, but to me the significance is more than I can put into words. I will never take friendships for granted EVER again, now that I know just how hard it is to obtain those friendships.

Another exciting thing is that the conversations with my mom have gotten more intense. Also, my dad and my house keeper join in the conversations. They are so cute really, my dad is so much fun to joke around with! We talk about American history, copyrights, famous people and books, culture, religion, family, college, everything. And I am getting more brave to talk to random people, the workers in my shop, people at school and my little brother (who doesn’t really talk much in general). The weather is getting cooler and while I am missing people at home things are still improving almost daily.

I would like to thank Rotary at home again, thank you for sending me to Thailand, thank you for this experience. Especially the chance to learn so many lessons and to grow so much; to find out who I really am amongst an environment that I am also discovering at the same time. For the chance to know what it is to really live as your own.

December 17 Journal

Wow, has it really been a month since my last journal? This has been the fastest passing month yet. It seems as if everything is catching up with everything else. In less than a month, one of my closest friends, MaaMeow, will be leaving to go back home to South Africa. Her exchange started in January of last year, so she will be leaving this coming January. And while I will miss her fiercely, I am happy for her that she gets to go back and be with her family. The other exchange students and I will also be changing host families soon, but we are not exactly sure when. It is such a strange feeling for it to be December and not see any signs of Christmas, like lights, trees, music, holiday food, or TV commercials. I mean, I don’t miss the same songs playing endlessly everywhere you go, or the food that makes you need a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight. But I do miss having the cold nights and chilly days, decorating the tree with family, shopping with friends and baking until you just can’t bake anymore. =D It is a fun kind of missing though, if that makes any sense. They are nostalgic and fond memories that make me smile and realize that I will appreciate it so much more next year.

But aside from that, everything is going really well here in Thailand. In the past few weeks there has been so much going on. There was a silk festival (the biggest annual festival in all of North East Thailand) about a block from my house! It lasted for 10 days and covered probably 4 city blocks that surrounded a big park, the streets to that area were closed and shops were set up, food vendors and two big stages for concerts to be held. I was able to go to two of the concerts on two different nights and they were so much fun. I saw SEK LOSO and CLASH, of which CLASH was more fun but there were so so many people there, it was hard to walk.

After the festival, all the exchange students plus my older brother and one of our mutual friends went to Chaing Mai and Chaing Rai together for 3 days. It is the second time that I have been to Chaing Mai, but this time we were there for longer and it was so much fun to get to see more! We went to see the Panda bears at the Chaing Mai zoo. They are on loan from China until the new baby is five years old, and they are SOOOO popular in Thailand. There is even a TV channel just for them and it is 24 hour footage of the baby and them eating bamboo and sleeping etc, lol. =D We were also able to go to the infamous Chaing Mai walking street. But we didn’t have near as much time as we needed or wanted to do all of the shopping there that we wanted to do. We also was a beautiful temple in Chaing Rai that is completely white, wow it was so amazing! The tour was supposed to go to the Golden Triangle as well but we were running late and we didn’t have time. It’s okay though because we got to visit a lot of other cool places, like the highest spot in Thailand (only 60 degrees F in December though)! But because we were 12 hours north of Khon Kaen the weather was a lot cooler and it felt soooo good! =D

My older brother is actually back from India for good. He didn’t enjoy school there so he is living at home and going to attend university here in the spring I think. It is cool to have him at home. Oh, and we have a new puppy at my house! =D It is 5 days old and I got to hold him the other day. Gosh he is SOOOOOOO cute and small. He can fit in the palm of my hand and his eyes aren‘t open yet and he can‘t hear yet either! But he makes such cute little noises and squirms around lol.

I feel like such a permanent part of my family now too. I am comfortable doing anything at my house and around my family, just like I have been living here as a real sibling or daughter for my whole life. Also, the language is going really well still. I am starting to read little words and I can write little things like my name etc. And I can understand so much. But at the same time I know that I need to learn so much more and I need to go so much further with trying to get better at the language and vocab and everything. I feel like I know a lot and it surprises me sometimes but I also know that I am behind, that I could have been so much better at this point than I am. It gives me the motivation to try harder, some days I don‘t want to try but it is necessary. It is frustrating though when people are SO surprised that you understand them and especially when they try to convince you that you don’t know what they are talking about or that you aren’t trying to say what you ARE trying to say. But I guess that I should just try to channel that into more motivation. I don’t want to feel comfortable with the level I am at, I want to be pushed beyond elementary.

I have though started to learn how to play the Kluei, which is a Thai instrument. It is similar to the recorder in the states. But I am learning one Thai song on it right now and I hope to learn another one soon. It is very fun and it is helping me to get to know more people at my school which is always a good thing. Today I watched a Korean soap opera with a friend from my class and got to talk to two people that I have never met before for over an hour. It was really awesome. =D And next week, the Princess of Thailand is coming to our school for the opening of the new building that we have. In a week our school have gone from dirt, concrete and white paint to grass, flowers everywhere, banners, ribbons, new paint on everything and decorations EVERYWHERE. It really is almost unrecognizable, lol. But I am excited to see what is actually happening next week when the Princess comes. =D It is such a big deal here and each of the members of the royal family has a special color assigned to them. The King is yellow, the the Queen is dark blue and this Princess is purple. But because she is purple, there is purple everywhere you look. I will take pictures and post them up on the flickr site.

I hope that everyone in the States and other Christmas-celebrating countries has a wonderful Christmas! And to everyone, a Happy New Year! =D Here, Christmas will just be the exchange students doing a small gift exchange and I am happy that it won’t be a big deal actually. I am sending my love and smiles to everyone in Florida! And as always, thank you Rotary for this awesome opportunity that is enabling me to become the best me that I can be, for giving me a chance to see everything through new eyes. =D

January 27 Journal

I keep experiencing deeper levels of comfortableness here. And I think naively every time that it can’t get more comfortable, that I have reached the zenith, but I have not.

As January comes to a swift close I don’t know where my month went. I changed to my second host family lest week and to be perfectly honest, I was worried. But as soon as I got here I realized that I love this family too, I mean I still have a special connection to my first host family because, well, they were my first and I stayed there for almost 6 months. However, I am doing very well at this house, I love my room and my mom is so sweet, this family is very different from my first, where they live, how they operate, their schedules etc., but I like it.

Things seem like they are getting smooth, my understanding of Thai is getting smoother (listening to fast conversations or instructions – I still have a hard time when people mumble or talk very softly but hey, I have the same problem in English sometimes) I can read lips sometimes even. I feel like while life is getting a little bit more lazy, that it is making things smoother, haha, that doesn’t make much sense. It might be the rain that is making things temporarily this way though. We have recently had a week of unexpected rain, the weather has been so crazy here lately. It is supposed to be the cold season from November to the end of February, however, we have not seen a drop in temperatures until about two weeks ago where it only dropped to about 60 or 65 degrees F. And then it started raining for almost a week straight when we aren’t supposed to see rain again until June, when the rainy season starts. I was excited to see the rain at first because I honestly missed it, but now I am aching for a little sunshine (but as soon as the sun comes back I know I will be cursing it haha.)

Christmas and New Year’s here was great. On Christmas I received a package from my sponsor club in the States (THANK YOU BARTRAM TRAIL ROTARY CLUB!) and it was awesome to receive little pieces of home. =D I also received a package from my friends and family that had a few needed items as well as a few Christmas tree branches. This was one of the best things I received, it smelled (and still smells a month later) so, so awesome! I passed out little pieces of it at school, to teachers, students, my family and let them smell what a real Christmas tree smells like, because they do not have evergreens in Thailand. So that was awesome, and then my exchange student friends and I took turns just smelling the branches all day haha. This is also the first time that I have been to school on Christmas day, and that was pretty interesting. For Christmas dinner we went and found a real Italian restraint and ate real pizza, which was almost a Christmas miracle itself. =D And after that we went dancing, the first time I have gone dancing on Christmas as well, but it was so much fun.

For New Years Eve we all went to the new big mall, Central Plaza, and watched the count-down from there. Our New Year started 12 hours before the New Year in Florida though. =D After the count-down we all went to a hip-hop party that a friend was having and we danced and watched rap battles and dance-offs until the sun came up. We then went home and crashed, later I went with my family to visit older relatives for New Year’s Day and receive their blessing for a healthy and prosperous new year.

One thing that I do miss is public affection, even just hugs to family members. If it was socially acceptable to, I would just lay my head on my mom’s shoulder at a restaurant or give my little brother a hug because he is just so cute sometimes. I feel a part of the family enough to do these things, like I would in the states. But showing affection here is something that is reserved for behind closed doors. I mean it’s ok, that is culture, but sometimes I just have these thoughts and then I have to remind myself. =D

Also, I reached a new level of family-membership the other day. My first host mom told me that her web-cam was broken so that she could use it but the person on the other end couldn’t see her clearly. And I immediately thought, “Mental note, pick up a web-cam next time you are on that side of town.” Then I stopped myself and thought, “Holy cow, this is something I would do for my family in Florida and here I am in Thailand being a real daughter, cool!” I didn’t want to buy the web-cam because I thought it would make them like me more, or because I thought I needed to pay them back for hosting me, I just saw a need and wanted to meet it because I am their daughter (don’t worry mom, I am still your daughter too, just the English speaking version). =D I love having moments like this though and as my 6 months left quickly turned into 5 months left I have realized that it is unfortunate that it takes almost the whole exchange to have frequent moments like these with host families and new friends. However, I have already made a plan to come back soon so the relationships formed will only have the chance to strengthen while I am in the States rather than weaken and fall away.

What else was it that I wanted to say? It might sound a little cliché but I have felt so much older and wiser lately. (I am of course still a little kid who loves to play and be silly sometimes…) but at the same time I feel like I am over-due to enter the world of adults (or at least the world of college). This year has already made me so much more prepared to live on my own, to manage my own money, to know how to schedule time and yet still have fun while doing all of these things. I came to the realization a couple of months back that if I can do all of these things in a language that is not my mother language, or a language that I have not entirely mastered yet, I can certainly do these things in English. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying I am perfect at these things, but I am a lot more competent in them than I was before I came to Thailand. =D

On this note I would like to thank Rotary for this experience. And know that I do not just say this routinely, but as a real gesture of thanks because without you, none of this year, these relationships, or this maturity would have been possible. So thank you. Thank you mom and dad in Florida for financing this year and for your permission to go so far away for such a long period of time, I know that was not easy for you, but thank you! =D I have put new pictures up on my flickr site of our most recent adventures. Yours truly, อารีย์

March 8 Journal

During the month of February, every time that I looked at a calendar I got depressed. “God, when is it going to be over?” I kept thinking, I mean it is only 28 days. But I can’t exactly put my finger on why I kept thinking this. I’m not miserable, and I don’t want to leave by any means, I just found myself being very frustrated and always feeling not quite myself, whether that be pains or aches or just that weird feeling of hovering through existence. But now that it is early March already I want February back. I think that this is honestly the biggest Catch-22 I will ever experience. School ended last week for us and now we have a three month summer vacation (school will re-start the last week in May). And while this may sound awesome, it leaves such a big hole haha. I mean 8am-4pm everyday is free now… WOW! But the good thing about this is that I can come and chill with my first host family whenever I want and just talk with them about everything under the big-bright-hot-as-you-know-what sun. =D I really love them and while sometimes I do feel frustrated or just drained because of the heat, I really love Thailand, more than I can put into English at this point haha.

This month was pretty busy. It started out with a weekend of Regional Debates at KKU (the university in my city). It was fun, the debates were in English so we had a very unfair advantage but the people we were debating against and with were excited to be competing with us. And it made me really happy actually that we were far from winning at the end when the results came out. We were given topics that were about the area of Thailand that I am staying in, Issan. And this allowed the exchange students to learn a lot more about Thailand, Issan, politics and environmental issues here etc. But after two full days of debating, my head honestly hurt because of remembering English grammar and big words. =D It did however make me realize that I need to keep trying very hard to improve my Thai, because if I tried to do that in Thai, I would not have been able to get past the first issue. I mean, my Thai is okay… but it has just been okay for a while, it has been some time since it has grown much. I can explain my feelings and some other things more accurately in Thai than I can in English but I think that is just because Thai has more accurate descriptions for those things in general. Reading is also improving a little but it is so-so as well.

This year the Chinese New Year was in the same weekend as Valentine’s Day. That doesn’t usually happen but it was an interesting weekend because of it. For Chinese New Year, my family is half Chinese so we went to both of the Chinese Buddhist temples in the city. The first one we went to was SO crowded. What you did was you take a cooked chicken, duck and a piece of pork and put it on a table with a glass of whiskey, oranges and different Chinese sweets. You leave these here while you light incense and walk around the temple to all of the different shrines, kneeling or sitting on your haunches at each one and raise your incense between both hands to wai while making a wish, saying a prayer or hoping for good things. Some people even have chants, other times there are monks there in the temple already chanting. A VERY cool experience. After you place one stick of incense at each shrine until you have gone around the temple. Then you go back to the items you left and wai with each of those, three times each (three is a very significant number) and leave taking the items with you, throwing a paper type thing into a fire that is continuously going. We then went to the second temple and did the same thing, afterwards getting a picture taken with the dancing Chinese dragon. We then went home and I found out the next day that the food is then usually eaten, like a feast the next day by the family. And for the next few days you could hear fireworks going off every now and then, like you do when the 4th of July is getting near. Also that weekend, on Valentine’s Day, we went to a family reunion. It was my second host mom’s extended family all at my aunt’s house. There were 40 people there and all of them were wearing matching pink T-shirts that said “<3 r-ma” basically meaning “we love grandma”. The elderly, like in many (especially Asian) cultures are still very, very respected here. There was 4 generations there and it was kind of neat to see how everyone interacted together and to try to figure out who was whose kid and whose brother or sister etc. =)

We were invited to go to a Thai wedding this month as well. And as it turns out it was not the real wedding, it was only the engagement ceremony, but it took 3 or 4 hours. We had to dress in the traditional Thai style for this kind of engagement and wow, you need to see pictures of this. I felt like a fairy-godmother-pirate with a silk skirt, it was close to impossible to move in the thing haha. But hey it was fun to play dress up for a while and take a ton of pictures. We even got money for being there because it is Chinese tradition to give money to family (like the kids) at New Year and also to guests at weddings, and it was both! The groom-to-be was from Shanghai, China and the bride-to-be was Thai but they met in England while they were both studying there… whoa. He couldn’t speak any Thai and they will be living in Shanghai but it was cute.

In the past two weeks, another exchange student came to visit our group in Khon Kaen; she is from Spain and is staying in Bangkok and her name is Catuxa. By the second or third day that I hung out with her I really felt that I had found another long-lost twin. It is really eerie but we totally clicked and we are SO the same! So I have yet another place to visit: Brazil, Germany, Canada, South Africa, Thailand (again of course) and now Spain! She left to go back to Bangkok the other day but I will definitely make some time to go visit her and she is coming back to Khon Kaen once again too. We both got our hair braided, a few corn-rows on one side and left the rest down and it’s awesome. We also both have a LOVE for cooking and learning new things to cook, we both love to be ridiculous and joke about everything. And she just has one of those personalities that you can’t be upset around. As soon as you get around her you can’t help but just feel so happy and excited for life. She is truly an amazing person and friend and I am so glad that I met her.

This past weekend we had a District Conference for district 3340. I have to admit I wasn’t really looking forward to it because I didn’t know what to expect really. (I just thought of endless meetings that I only half understood…) But it ended up being one of the best weekends I have had in a very long time. I got to see Twang, my Thai friend who was an exchange student at Bartram last year, and hang out with her, which was really really great. I also got to meet and actually get to know the other exchange students in my district and I am so excited to be going on the trip with the ones that I met later this month. One of the most exciting things that happened this weekend though is that one of the outbounds for next year from my club here, is going to FLORIDA!!! I cannot wait to see which district she is in and it will be sooo exciting to visit her while she is there and speak Thai with her and everything! =D

The conference really taught me to not judge people before really getting to know them and also to be tolerant of the people that you figure out you don’t like after getting to know them. Thailand has made me very verbal in the way that I feel and just speaking my mind, because a lot of the time people around don’t understand the English that you use. But being around other English speakers made me realize again that I can’t just say whatever I want whenever I want because it can very easily create sticky situations. (I am glad that I came to this realization before going back to the States.) The inbounds and outbounds from my club in Khon Kaen did a traditional Thai-Isaan style dance. We have been practicing everyday for two weeks and it was a lot of fun despite the moments that we didn’t really want to go to practice. I will hopefully be able to put up the video online soon. We dressed in the traditional Thai style and had about 3 pounds of make-up put on our faces, along with a lot of glitter. And the best part is that you dance with no shoes on, so there is no fear of falling or tripping or anything in complicated shoes.

At school, before it ended we were doing a lot of extra cooking classes with our teacher because she knew that our friends would be studying for exams and everything. It is so exciting for me though because I have learned and written down how to cook a lot of different Thai dishes like green curry, a traditional Thai soup, Thai desserts and a lot of other things that don’t really have English names. =D This weekend I ate a fried cricket and a red ant egg-filled omelet. The cricket tasted not bad, but not good enough to eat another one, somewhat similar to an old moldy potato chip I would say. And the omelet was good until you found out what was in it and then it was good as long as you tried not to think about what you were eating haha. The actual red ant eggs were white and oval in shape, about as big as half a pinky-finger nail.

The other day was a special Buddhist holiday here called We-sha Ka-buu Cha (rien tien). It was really cool actually because what we did was go to the biggest temple in our city and take incense, a lotus flower that hadn’t yet opened, a special candle and light the candle and the incense, walking around the temple three times. And while you walk, you think good thoughts, wishes for well-being for yourself, others etc. And the whole time you are walking you are surrounded by so-many other people, the monks in the temple are chanting and the environment it creates is really quite surreal. What you want to do is close your eyes, wai and let your mind wander without you controlling where it goes, letting it explore things that it hasn’t yet known exist. I don’t know, I probably sound crazy or “too-western minded” but it is as awesome as it is hard to explain. You leave the temple feeling peaceful though. I do enjoy going to temple here and I only wish that I could know about it at a deeper level that I don’t think is reachable with my current vocabulary.

The heat makes you feel alive in ways that I can’t describe. I mean yeah sure, sometimes you feel like you are going to faint because it is so hot, but it’s got something almost magical to it. As North Americans we would read a book about someone who lived in the Tropics and constantly and predictably think every time that the people in the book were “less” than we were because they didn’t use air-conditioning, because they just sat in the heat that was so overwhelming all they could do was sweat, talk, sleep and sweat some more. But this kind of heat and this kind of environment really makes you think, gives you the time to think and I think that it inspires you. It drains your physical energy but it at least makes you contemplate?

April 16 Journal

Well, I officially have just about two months left here. It is such a weird thought, don’t get me wrong I do love it here but at the same time I am so ready to be home too. I just got back to my city the other day from traveling in the south of Thailand with my family from the States. It was awesome in too many ways to count! I went and picked up my parents and my little brother in Bangkok, it was so surreal to see them again, especially here in Thailand. My brother is no longer “little”, he is still three years younger than I am but he is taller than my dad and has a bit of a beard going, haha. And mom and dad, well they were still mom and dad. =D We spent a day in BKK and then we all took a bus to a town in the south called Krabi. And the whole time I had to keep reminding myself that they couldn’t really understand what was going on around them like I could. It felt weird to have them depend on me, but at the same time I was so glad that I could be that person instead of them getting a tour guide or something. It is kind of a difficult concept to explain I guess. And my brother and I grew so much closer over the 10 days that they were here, we just sat and talked and talked and talked about so many things; me really feeling like the big sister finally taking up her role and being able to relate with school and life and friends. Cool really.

So we went to the south and stayed about 300 yards from the beach. I know that isn’t exactly a change of scenery for my family because we are from Florida but I haven’t seen the beach in over eight months, plus the beach in Thailand is so, unexplainably beautiful! We went SCUBA diving near Phe-Phe Island and we saw turtles, anemones with their clown-fish inhabitants, lion fish, and so many other things that I never even knew existed! It was really a great experience, and our dive guide was Thai so that made it cool that he could speak Thai to me about diving and English to my family, or I could translate if he didn’t feel like repeating information. We hung around the beach and went shopping in all the cute little shops, I took my family to eat Thai food until they were asking me if we could “please eat Italian or something else tonight?” haha. =D I had brought my computer too so that I could show them all of my pictures from this year so far and that was fun, just showing them everything and answering all of their questions. It was also pretty unique to warn them of the differences in social culture here; tell them about monks, all of the formalities but at the same time explain to them how relaxed and “sabai” everything is here and how genuinely nice and helpful Thai people are.

Earlier this month, my school had its prom. I didn’t know that Thai high schools had a prom, but it is much, much different from the prom that high-school students in the States know. First of all, the prom here is only for graduating seniors and their guests (dates), and second it is more of a sit and socialize and take pictures event. There is music but there is no dancing, well they did have a couple of groups do cover-dances of some Korean hip-hop songs but that was an organized competition. They do have a theme though, like in the States, but here people actually try really hard to match the theme. This year it was the color pink, and one of my friends borrowed a pair of hot-pink skinny jeans from his mom, found a hot-pink button up shirt and pulled it all together with a pair of hot-pink sneakers. It was the best outfit there and all I could do was congratulate him on his creativeness (and on his ability to wear his mom’s pants haha). =D And while I was so glad to have the opportunity to go to prom in Thailand, at one point I was sitting at a table just watching all of my classmates and friends up and around chatting and having the time of their lives. It made me really think, not that I don’t belong, but that I was glad that at that moment I was just sitting back and watching. Because this was THEIR moment. They have just graduated high-school, they are getting ready to move off in all different directions and they deserve this, they need this, unadulterated just to congratulate each other on a job well done and bask in their moment. I know how that feels, I graduated last May and I was reminded of that joy of accomplishment and freedom. I can honestly say that those moments were some of the happiest moments I have had in Thailand, just watching their excitement and their happiness bounce around the room in various shades of the color pink.

The weather right now is in the height of the hot season, above 100 Fahrenheit everyday, around 42 Celsius the other day even, whoa! I am just grateful for cold showers, rooms that do have A/C, water-water-water, and baby powder. =D

One thing that we did this month also was go fishing, but this was not your average get a pole and some worms and go to the river, fishing. We went mud-fishing, with our hands! It was one of my top ten experiences in Thailand so far. And I have never, ever been that dirty in my entire life. All of the inbounds this year and the outbounds for next year went (about eight or nine kids) and at first all of us were a little hesitant because we had not been told that this was the method we were going to use to catch fish. We pull up to this huge mud hole, almost as big as a football field that was about as deep as your upper-torso at the deepest point, mostly the mud just came up to your hips or waist. But we all get out of the car, take off our shoes and walk hesitantly down to the mud, and no one really wants to get in except for me haha. =D So I decide to go for it and I start to walk in, by my third step I was stuck in thick muck up to my waist, the only way to get out and get to the middle of the mud pond was to crawl on my hands and my knees, like they do in those army movies. Just thinking back on it I am chuckling, everyone was watching and I was laughing so hard that I was just getting more stuck. We ended up catching a few fish too small to cook, but some guys who were also out there (who do this for a living) helped us out and we cooked up some pretty large ones and it made a tasty lunch! We went swimming in the river afterward to get at least some of the mud off of us, but I know I took more than one long-long shower when I got home that day. =D

The other day, there was a funeral. The grandmother of one of the members of our Rotary club had passed away and our club, including the exchange students, went to be there for her. I did not know the woman who had passed away so I felt a little out of place there, but Thai funerals are very different from North American funerals. To start with, there is more than one ceremony or event to attend. Since Thailand is a Buddhist country most bodies are cremated, but before they can be cremated, the family and friends of the deceased have to pray over the body and insure that they will have a favorable re-incarnation. So the exchange students and I just sat and observed, there was the usual chants and incense and I wish that I was able to understand it but not even the Thai people do. When they chant, they chant in an older language called Pali, which to be honest a lot of scholars do not even understand. This is the first day, everyone gathers afterward to eat together and visit with each other. And the second part is a few days later. The second part is much like the first except that the people who came to the funeral go and give offerings and pay respect to the family while the monks are doing the chants. There are large wreaths of flowers everywhere, donated by different people and businesses and again, after the ceremonial part everyone gathers together to eat. Thai funerals are a very unemotional event. Death in Thailand is not mourned publicly like it is in other places, death is more of a matter-of-fact thing in which everyone understands that when you get to a certain stage in life, you die. When Thais mourn their loved ones, they do so in private so as not to affect others in a negative way.

Recently in Bangkok, I am sure that some of you have heard about the “Red Shirt” Party and their political protests. I would like to explain what is going on for those of you who don’t know and also those of you who already have heard about it because there is no room for hyped-up information. Everything right now is going fine, there is no reason to worry about anything because as of now the situation is still very peaceful. What has been going on is that the red party has been protesting and peacefully demonstrating in Bangkok since early March against the current political “yellow” party. The red party is a party originated from my area of NorthEast Thailand (also known as Issan) and they are backed my a man named Thaksin who was banned from the country by a military coup (led by the yellow party) in 2006. So Thaksin runs the red party from outside of the country and is currently the Minister of Finance for the Cambodian government. The red party is calling for a re-election, they “stand for” democracy and want their fair shot at a chance for political power. However, the demonstrations that the red party have been placing have been getting slightly more serious as of late, for example; the red party got a lot of their people to donate blood (some of the donators were even bribed to make their contributions) and the party then obtained fire trucks and sprayed the blood all over the Parliament building and the Prime Minister‘s house. Even this was considered peaceful (although quite disgusting) up until the other day when the red party forcefully broke through the gates and into the Parliament building. After this happened the Thai Government officially declared a State of Emergency in the Bangkok and surrounding areas. Things have semi-settled down within the past week but for a while there was fighting. A few days after the State of Emergency was declared there was fighting between the troops and the red party in which 21 people died and over 840 were injured. Currently there has not been any other “big-news” though.

From April 13th-15th was the national holiday of Songkran Festival. This is the most anticipated and celebrated holiday in Thailand all year long. It is the celebration of the Thai New Year and the reason for its un-paralleled popularity is because for three days straight people stop working, close shop, head to their home cities and go into the street to throw water all over each other! It is honestly the most fun holiday that I have EVER experienced, better than Christmas, your birthday, the 4th of July, New Year’s Eve, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Easter and St. Patrick’s Day combined. No Joke. Three days before Songkran even began you would be walking down the street or riding open-air public transportation and you would all of a sudden be soaking wet with water, only to realize that people had started throwing buckets of water into the streets early. =D But once Songkran began, wow, I don’t even know how to describe it really. All I can say is that it was literally a party in the streets for three days and three nights with no breaks. People set up huge metal drums of water in front of their houses or in the back of pick-up trucks to hold water in so that one could easily dip a bucket in and throw endless amounts of water on perfect strangers. It sounds kind of crazy to the western world I think but it is sooo much fun and after your first encounter with a splash of water, it is impossible to wipe that toothy grin off of your face.

So what we did was get in the back of our family’s pick-up truck with all of my little brother’s friends and ride around town, through the streets with all of the other pick-up trucks throwing buckets of water at the other trucks or at the people out in front of their houses, especially on people who were still dry or had already dried off. =D At one point we bought huge blocks of ice to put into our drums of water so that when we splashed people, or squirted them with water guns it would feel similar to taking a shower in an igloo.

Another key part of Songkran is baby-powder. It is a tradition that started with baking flour back when there was no such thing as baby-powder, and what you do is you smear it on your face and the faces of everyone around you. And it’s not uncommon for you to be walking down the street and someone you have never seen before in your life walks up to you and smears a handful of baby-powder on both sides of your face while wishing you a Happy New Year. It is shocking at first, especially when you have been in a country where public displays of affection (ie: hand holding, kissing, hugging, etc) even between friends and family is semi-frowned upon, but after the first day of Songkran one gets used to it. We got home at night and were completely exhausted but still so excited and energized, covered from head to toe in white baby-powder and soaked to the bone with water. You shower, eat, go to sleep, wake up the next day and do it again!

This description does not even do the holiday justice, I had it described to me so many times by former exchange students and Thais but I never expected it to be what it was. I know that I want to come back for next year and I have already planned that if I cannot, I will be celebrating Songkran in Florida some way or another. 😉

I would like to thank Rotary International, Rotary Youth Exchange Florida, and Rotary Thailand for the absolutely amazing year and opportunities that I have had and am having during my exchange to this wonderful country. Thank you for making this exchange possible and for continuing to give other students the same opportunities. I am about to go on a trip sponsored by my host district here in Thailand for two weeks and I cannot wait to see what is in store for me and the other exchanges that will be attending. After that I will be moving back to my first host family (YAYYY!!!) and shortly there-after school will be starting up again. Time really does fly, it only seems like a couple of weeks ago that I was marveling that I had already made it 10 weeks in my new country and I couldn’t fathom having nine more months to go… but here I am, nine months down and around 10 weeks to go and I cannot grasp where all that time went! To my family and friends at home, just two more months. =D To everyone else here in Thailand, I am trying not to think about the tiny amount of time I have left here, but I plan to make the most of it. So watch out Thailand, here I come, you can call me อารีย์ because that is my name.

May 18 Journal

Every host family needs to take their exchange student on a short trip in the beginning, middle and end of their exchange without any other exchange students. I am grateful that I am getting this opportunity but at the same time, I wish one like it had come sooner and made me realize sooner (help me to compare those parts of my exchange and the stages of my relationships) that I am not an exchange student but I am their daughter, their sister, and that it is real. I feel like I have been in this family, not from birth, but from adoption as such a small child that I cannot remember a time before this. I really love my family and this is almost more home to me than Florida. I do not want to leave this nest, I am not ready to fly on my own again but I realize the necessity of it so I must just walk to the edge, close my eyes and go for it.

That being said, yes, I am back at my first host family. Times now since I have been back have been my most happy moments of this whole exchange year. While everything is getting so busy with realizing all that I have yet to accomplish in the remaining month, I can come home and sit with my mom and just be at peace. I can smile and we can go to the temple and I can momentarily forget that I have to leave here so soon. I am still so torn when I remember the time left, I miss Florida, my friends, family, but I do not want to leave Thailand. I want to smush the best of both worlds together. Like a little kid who takes two Oreos, pulls them apart and then sticks the two halves that still have the cream attached together, creating a super-stuffed Oreo! Unfortunately though, Florida and Thailand are not Oreos and thus, that is not possible… =(

I would love to tell you all about my adventures on the Rotary trip that I took last month after Songkran, but right now I feel like it would be too much to put into this journal. I have to save some of my stories to tell when I get home, right? =) In a nutshell though, it was fantastic! It was great to meet all of the other exchange students again and really get to know them this time, to spend two weeks with them and get close to some and stay acquaintances with others. I really love that group and we had an awesome time making memories as we went through Koh Chang, Chantaburi, Koh Samet, Pattaya, Amphur Wha, Ahyuttaya, and Bangkok. And we did everything from snorkeling to temples to a lady-boy show haha. =) I have A LOT of pictures up on the flickr site that you can look through and the beach was sooo gorgeous, I cannot wait to go back.

I was actually invited to go with my host family next week and I am more than excited about that. I just got back from a trip to Bangkok with just my mom, dad and little brother. It was great, we only spent three days there and we picked up the new car but we also went to see Wat Pak Gaeo (The Grand Palace) and The Temple of the Golden Mount. We went shopping until we were all hot, exhausted and ready to go home, lol. And I love my exchange student friends here in Khon Kaen but it was awesome beyond explanation to be with my family without them around. This is the first time I have done something like that besides the everyday routine at home. And it give time for reflection, to learn more Thai (because there are not people speaking English to you all the time). So I am very excited to go with my mom and my grandma to the south again and just spend time with them. =) I had such a ridiculous smile on my face this whole weekend because of the time that I was able to spend with my family just as their daughter and there were so many moments that my eyes were open to that just confirmed to me that that is what I am. Also, when we drove into Khon Kaen last night I just kept thinking, “I’m home! We’re home! Ahh, home, home home!” =) As a family we were home.

Something that I have learned in the past month though is that it is good to be a careful and worried person sometimes. You give a soft impression and don’t step on too many peoples toes at the same time. And when you are just being serene and cautious (not a push-over) it actually gets you far because it lets people open themselves towards you and that in turn enables them to start forming the bonds of love and real relationship, bonds that lasts. Thailand has taught me, just go with the flow, things will work themselves out… but at the same time do not let yourself be taken advantage of.

I do apologize for the choppiness and the non-relatedness of this journal but this is how my brain has been working lately. I hope that it makes at least some sense and isn’t too “all over the place”. I did have a thought the other day though that it is quite unfortunate and angering that I am just getting to the point of reading more efficiently and now I have to leave. I know that it will slowly dissipate, just like my speech abilities, but perhaps there is a way I can practice that as well until I come back (which will hopefully be soon!) I want to thank everyone again who was, is, and will be involved in RYE. You are helping to change lives and also to sincerely change the world through it. You may not see these changes but your students and the people that they meet will know, there is something different about that girl/boy. Perhaps like some conversations I have had, people have changed their perceptions of America drastically, realizing it is not how Hollywood and reality TV make it out to be. That people who live there are made out of the same flesh and bone as they are, the only difference being that the idiots of our society are usually the ones who are the unofficial international representatives, watch out the world is watching.

I have a Thai heart. There is a pride that runs through the blood in my bones, a pride different from the average teenage pride, a pride much different than “American” pride. This is the pride of being not only Thai but essentially of being Issan too. Of finally becoming one of my people! As I write this I feel sad because as much as I feel this in my heart, people here and in the States as well see me and think the exact opposite. Yes, I am a “foreigner” who can eat spicy food, but it is more than that. They will never be able to see that I see things and feel with the same limbs that they do. That I yearn for the chance to help in the rice fields at least once because I know now what a special, honored task that really is. And again, writing this, knowing that you who speak English will read it, I know that I am already judged. Even the Western part of my brain is screaming at me, “What are you typing, are you crazy?” Because (no offense) most western-born people cannot understand this and these yearnings of my heart. Like why I want to live in a little apartment in Bangkok, continue my travels around the world, spend at least a year in India, and be fiercely independent while at the same time being hopelessly dependent, with my blue eyes wide open to the world and its people. I may sound absurd but I do not apologize, I was going to but then I realized that not only did this need to be spoken but it needed to be read as well.

 

Gabrielle’s Bio

Hey there! My name is Gabrielle Ceballos, but you can call me Gabby for short. I am a 15 year old sophomore from Matanzas High School. Recently, I just found out I was accepted to the Rotary Exchange program and couldn’t be even more excited! A year ago, I thought to myself I would be sitting in the same high school just with different teachers the very next year. Never in a million years would I have thought I would actually be leaving to go to Denmark for a year! This is by far the biggest experience I can gain in my lifetime and I am ready to just absorb everything like a ginormous sponge :D.

I moved to Palm Coast, Florida about 10 years ago via Santiago, Chile and my birthplace of Connecticut and it definitely has been an experience. Meeting new people and residing in a new place can be rather interesting when you first start out, but things can only get better and they certainly have. Just as my new experiences with moving to Palm Coast, I can’t even begin to expect what new adventures and exciting experiences await in Denmark! Thank you so much Rotary for this life changing opportunity!

Two wonderful and amazing parents have raised me along with my older brother, Ryan. We are the Ceballos family and always will be. We are all spunky and fun and I wouldn’t change us for the world! If you ask a couple of my friends, they can probably agree with the fact that I am the one girl that will just randomly break out into song or random dance moves. Even a funny face or two you can sometimes get at the most random moments. Lacrosse is the sport I love and is one of the of the things that brings me a lot of joy. Some of my other hobbies I can add is my avid bookreading, rookie quilter, drawing, music listener (even my sad attempts to belt a song), movie lover and quoter, and some other things that can bring a great big smile to my face.

Laughter and smiles is one thing that I need in my life. The love of adventure and new experiences makes life even that more amazing. The next year in Denmark is the next chapter in my life that awaits me. I am so excited to start this super epic adventure! Yay!

Gabrielle’s Journals

September 12 Journal

When I close my eyes at night to sleep, I start to think that when I wake up everything is going to be a dream and I will still be in Florida, still in Palm Coast, and not experiencing the year of a lifetime. But then I open my eyes…..and I am in Denmark. One of the most amazing places I have ever been in my life. From the first day I got here on August 2nd, I had a feeling that the minute I walked off the plane everything was going to change and never be the same for me. So far this has proven true with my first MONTH of my exchange already over (which makes me sad thinking how I have to leave this beautiful place sooner and sooner everyday!!!) and what an A-MA-ZA-ZING time it has proven to be!!!!!!!

My first day in Denmark proved to be very adventurous since I met with a counselor from Rønne (John Anderson, who was super nice!) who then took me to meet the other exchange student going to Bornholm (Bridgitte from Nevada) then off to Bornholm we went. We ended up having to take a drive over the bridge to Sweden, then onto a ferry, and then eventually I met my counselor (Henrik) and off to my new home for the next 6 months. I love my host family and can’t imagine being with another family (Gert, Vivi, and my 17 year old brother, Tobias)! After finally being able to sleep after more than 24 hours without it, I continued to explore Nexø for the rest of the week until I had to leave again for København for language school and then Jylland for intro-camp.

Meeting EVERY SINGLE exchange student in Denmark proved to be amazing and I am so excited to see them again in October. When I finally returned to Bornholm, I got to start school which has proven to be one of the best times even though it is school. It’s rather nice having everything being so chill and relaxed and of course being with such great people as classmates. It certainly was a situation to adapt to at first, just like day-to-day routines. But being an exchange student, I have learned to adapt and do it all. I now have a daily routine that has become surprisingly easy to adapt to but I love it! But anyhoo, you start to realize some things just like Morgan said while you are here in wonderful Denmark:

Almost everybody smokes

There is no air conditioning, not even in most stores; you just open the windows and doors

You see bikes EVERYWHERE (but it is amazing – biking everywhere is fun!)

Some of the houses are older than the United States

Bread is eaten every day with almost every meal

The bread is absolutely amazing

The road signs are very different (not many stop signs since people do it themselves)

Fish is loved very much by the Danes (including herring, one of the most interesting fish I’ve ever tasted)

Overall, Denmark is simply amazing

This whole experience is already underway but yet it still feels so surreal and just like a dream that it’s hard to think I am actually here experiencing everything. You literally have to rid yourself of all fear/anxiety and take a giant leap and hope that you can land on your feet. Even with that sounding difficult, it is the one thing that is completely and utterly worth it. There is never a dull moment and always something new to experience. You get to experience life and actually start to see what you are made of. Even for just being here over a month, I can already tell that this year is literally going to be the most amazing year.

And I can’t wait to see what the next couple of months have in store.

November 29 Journal

So it has been a mighty long time since my last journal and A LOT has been happening in the past couple months! I have now been here in Denmark for about 4 months and so far everyday has been a new adventure. Without Rotary, I would never have gotten to gain these new experiences and have the opportunity for it all and I thank them very much for it. As we say in Denmark, Mange Tak (Thank you very much)!!!

Since the last time I wrote, a lot of things have been happening here. Even for being on the small but incredible island of Bornholm, many things always seem to be happening and taking place every day. School so far has been an interesting but good experience. Almost everyday I get up to get on the bus and start school at about 8:30. It’s nice though to not have school start until around 10:15 on days when I have a free first period which always feels good when I get to sleep just a little bit longer in the morning. But so far, my class is amazing and they are some pretty cool kids and have made things a lot of fun! They always help me and teach me things in Danish to try and say (which is progressing). They love when I try so I’m attempting to speak more and more even though I sometimes think I’m saying things completely wrong! But I can understand more and more everyday which is a huge plus.

The rest of September honestly seems like a blur since the month went by so quickly. It was filled of just school and hanging out around the island and exploring the area as much as possible. One thing that can be noted for September to even continuing now is how COOOOOOOLLLLD it is getting!!!!! It has truly been a while since I’ve been in cold weather and it just continues to get colder but even while shivering, it’s ironic to think how it is still warm in Florida probably and then here it’s freezing. But it’s also a breath of fresh air feeling the cool weather day to day.

October was actually a very busy month with fall break and also the AMAZING Holbæk Halloween Get-Together that Rotary threw for us. It was so much fun getting to see all the other exchange students again and getting to have so much fun. Definitely some of the costumes just made me smile whenever I saw them. That weekend for sure has given me some memories that won’t be forgotten. It’s always sad saying goodbye to all the others but it also makes seeing them again that much better J My class also had a visiting class from Spain come stay with us for a week which was a lot of fun! It was interesting to see how they were also getting to experience what I was experiencing and they were some pretty cool kids. Can’t wait to see them again in April when we go and see them!

November = Cold, fun, and Thanksgiving in Denmark! For the first time in years I actually got to see snow!!!! It was amazing seeing the little snow flurries and getting to stand outside and see the snow falling. It’s been the only day that it has snowed but it was for sure a memorable experience. My mind was blown when I also looked at the thermometer and saw it was only 1 degree Celsius that entire day (about 32 degrees Fahrenheit)!!! We expect to see these types of temperatures throughout December which shall be interesting. Believe me when I say that it was a sad day when I had to retire the flip flops….so sad. I actually had to start wearing shoes which actually proved to be interesting. But I’ve expanded to boots which keep my feet comfy and warm on the coldest of days J (being from Florida, I do miss my flip flops and can’t wait for warm weather to wear them again!!!)

I even got to celebrate Thanksgiving with one of the other exchange students’ family. Kyle’s (North Carolina) host family had never experienced Thanksgiving and wanted to taste ALL the food. I was lucky enough to be invited and I got to help Kyle cook a Thanksgiving dinner for us and his family and their friends. It was such a great time and even gave me a little piece of home when helping making the dinner since that’s what I do with my mom every year. But it was a fun time and helping his family experience an American Holiday J We also had another get together, but only for my district (Copenhagen, Bornholm, etc) and Rotary threw us a Thanksgiving along with having many Rotarians and families to join all of us. The exchange students also had to provide entertainment for the night for everybody and of course there was singing and dancing of all sorts for the night.

But so far that’s been my exciting couple of months and unforgettable experiences. I’ve been given the opportunity of a lifetime and am so grateful for even being given the chance. My life here in Denmark is so different in so many ways. I’m given the chance to actually make decisions, do things myself, and also just to live life to the fullest. I’m changing even if I can’t quite see how but I know in some ways I am and also just having my mind just being expanded even more everyday with being here. I have been here almost 4 months and they simply have been the most amazing months of my life thus far. The rest of my year here in Denmark is just going to keep being amazing and I wish it would never end. Time sure is flying and I only wish it would slow down!!!!

Can’t wait for the upcoming months and more memories to come but I guess for now until next journal … Hej Hej!!!! (Bye!)

February 15 Journal

Wow. So finally past the half way mark…..and just wow. I can’t even believe that the time has passed so quickly and my time is growing shorter and shorter here in Denmark. And thinking about that just breaks my heart. I have learned to completely immerse myself into a new place, with new faces and places, and adapt and actually feel at home. Everything has just been so amazing that it doesn’t seem real. But then you wake up and realize that it is and that just puts the biggest smile on my face realizing that I’m experiencing this. Even getting the chance to experience this. Sooooo mange mange mange tak Rotary 🙂

But anyhoo, so far we have leaped into 2010 (whoa), I’ve moved host families, and have been experiencing non stop snow. Honestly, at first you love the snow…..but then slowly begin to loathe it especially after falling so many times :P. It’s been sooooo cold, definitely not Florida weather I’m used to. Even with the cold I must admit that the snowball fights have been well worth it as well as just messing around with the snow!! It’s just even fun to say snoooooow…or as the Danes say SNE!!! Even some of the days there have been snowstorms that have shut down the entire island of Bornholm!!! So I have watched many movies and drank much cocoa during those days. Spring time hopefully will be here soon and the sun will come back again! (after what seems a million year hiatus)

I also moved host families and my new one is amazing! its actually funny how they have the same humor as my own family so it will be fun watching how they are with my family when they come to visit. But other than that, it has been chill.

School is school and seems to be getting better with the language barrier everyday as I understand more and more everyday which is great so I’m not sitting there confused every second. Still love my class and have for sure made some good friends to come back and visit in the next couple of years. It is interesting how the Danish Gymnasium system works and I think I actually like it. Other than taking the bus at 7:30 (yikes) it’s all pretty great and an experience. But other than that, I have an upcoming trip to Spain in April with my class which will be amazing!!!! So I’m uber excited for that and getting the chance to celebrate my birthday with my class while there.

As time progresses, we live and we learn through experiences. And this exchange year has certainly been that so far. Advice to the new upcoming outbounds, be ready for your life to ultimately change and for yourself to grow in ways that you never would dream of. To grow in ways that will help you day to day and to experience every little thing while on exchange and to take it in stride. I can say so far, I will never forget this year and everything I’ve experienced since it has been some of the best times I have ever had.

All I can do is continuing to do is document my exchange and just say til next time Florida 🙂

😀

May 16 Journal

So 9 months later and only 59 days left to go!!! Time has really flown by and I haven’t even noticed it. I’ve experienced so much and seen so much in the past couple of months that I know I would have never even experienced if not for being here in Denmark. It’s hard to swallow actually having to leave Bornholm and everything that is now becoming normal to my daily life. I know I’m not the same and that in reality, I’ve grown and changed in so many ways. Everyday is an adventure and a fun one at that and I love life day to day more than I have in years.

Who can say honestly that their family’s travel plans were changed because of a VOLCANO in Iceland erupting? Not too many people…..other than Rotary exchange students 🙂 But other than a volcano prolonging my family’s visit to Denmark, they eventually arrived and I got to see them for the first time in 9 months!!! It was weird at first seeing them since the only time I would see them was via webcam on skype (thank you internet) but actually getting to hug them made me soooooo happy.

But I got to show my family around the small but amazing island of Bornholm for about 2 weeks and they seemed to really like it. I even got my mom to try Herring which is a specialty of Bornholm and I was mighty impressed she actually ate it since not many people like it. But they got to experience A LOT of Danish food thanks to my wonderful host families and also 2 weeks of the nicest weather that we’ve had since last summer!! It’s funny because as soon as they left the weather just turned right back to cold and gross bringing back the use of the winter jacket. I even got to show them around Copenhagen and around other parts of Denmark and it was great getting to just talk to them face to face, especially my brother. When I had to drop them off at the airport it was really sad but I surprisingly didn’t cry. I think because I know I’ll be seeing them so soon it didn’t really impact that I was saying goodbye again. But at least next time will be hello 🙂

OH!!! another a-ma-za-zing adventure was going to Spain with my class!!!!! Probably hands down one of the best trips I have ever taken. It even was during my birthday so that was pretty sweet. Kind of weird being in a totally different country for my birthday but my class made it really special so I was soooo happy that I have such great friends to make it a great birthday. I can definitely say I will go back to Spain sometime. It was such a beautiful country and experiencing it all with my class made it even that much more great .

But other than those recent adventures, we have Euro-Tour coming up in about a week annnnnnnnnd its going to be epic. Can’t wait for it.

The only down side to having all these things happen, if there is any, is that it shows me just how much little time I have left in Denmark which is a very sad thing to think about. Even with the time winding down so quickly, all I can do is enjoy it day to day and live it all to the fullest which is of course a very possible thing 🙂 So much to experience in such little time, oh jeg elsker dig Danmark. Rotary of course is to thank for every single experience I have had since being in Denmark. Without them none of it would of never been possible nor would I of even been able to dream to it being possible.

Tusind Tusind Tusind Tusind Tak Rotary 🙂

 

Grant’s Bio

“Open all the doors and let you out into the world.”

Hello! My name is Grant Simon and I am, at 14, a high school freshman. I have always loved to talk and be heard, never afraid to make my ideas known. Outgoing and outspoken, I consider myself to be independent. This has been the hardest quality for my family to accept. I think the fact that I would voluntarily leave them for a year shocks them, but they are finally letting me spread my wings and live life on my own. Standing at the edge of their nest, I look below and see a world of possibilities, a world waiting to be experienced by the fledgling at its threshold.

“Time for you to go out to the places you will be from.”

I truly love my family and friends- but I have learned that it’s not where you are from, but where you are going that matters. I am going to Japan. I know that I am going to miss them all more than I can ever imagine, but life is too short to spend it all at home.

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” –“Closing Time”

Thank you, Rotary, for giving me this opportunity. And even more thanks to all of you who supported me along the way.

 Grant’s Journals

October 18 Journal

I can’t think of a more appropriate way to begin this journal, other than with that one word: Wow.

I’ve been in Japan for almost two months now, and at this point in my exchange, I would recommend it to anyone. So far, I haven’t even hit a down on the Rotary Coaster. And frankly, I find it hard to be unhappy when I find myself living, or even just surviving, in a country and culture that is opposite my own in nearly every way.

Because so much has happened since I arrived, I’m going to try to brief you on my life, without doing it too much injustice:

The language. To be honest, I really didn’t study too much before I left. I learned how to count to ten, how to say my name and age, “hello”, “goodbye”, and “thank you.” That’s about it. And now I find myself having conversations, if only simple ones, every single day. I can communicate how I’m feeling, what I want, what I like, and what I don’t. I can ask questions, but more importantly, understand the answers I’m given. I’ve learned two alphabets (each consisting of 46 characters) so not only can I write, I can read! Although I usually don’t understand what I’m reading, the satisfaction I get from being able to associate the characters with their sounds, and then forming the words aloud, is enough for me. It doesn’t bother me much that I didn’t learn more in the States, because learning a language solely through immersion is like going from 0 to 60 in only a few seconds. The gratification you’ll get, I think, is worth the frustration.

The food. I’m fairly certain that most of you reading this won’t ever try most of the following items, and for that you’re probably lucky. But I’m sorry to say that the flavors aren’t exactly describable, so I’ll just list them.

Whole fish, including bones, organs, and head.

Tempura fried pig ears.

Raw horse.

Raw whale (sorry, Greenpeace).

Kangaroo jerky.

Cow tongue.

Apple and pea soup.

Miso flavored soft serve.

Horumon, from both cow and squid. Horumon is the Japanese term for the animal’s stomach, intestines, liver, and heart.

The worst, by far, was cow stomach. I gagged. But I did enjoy the tongue, horse, and whale. Obviously, they eat much more (much better) food than what I just named, but I thought I’d tell you what stood out. For those heading to Japan, don’t panic. It’s not like they shove these things down your throat. Just be willing to try anything once, find out what you don’t like, and from then on, respectfully refuse.

The town. With about 25,000 residents, Niimi is even smaller than what I considered to be my small hometown, Ponte Vedra. So small, in fact, that when I was on a walk one day, a woman who was waving and shouting “Guranto!” (the Japanese pronunciation of my name) approached me, and gave me a newspaper she was carrying- it featured myself. Because of Niimi’s size, moments like this happen fairly often. Also, because the town is somewhat remote, it has only fifteen native speakers of English. The town itself is situated in a valley, and there are green mountains in every direction you look. I’ve noticed that the Japanese maximize their limited flat land very well: where there isn’t a home or a store, there’s a rice field or a road. Driving here scares me, though, since these space-saving roads are often only the size of one lane, but have two directions of traffic, and can be located on the side of a mountain that has no guardrails.

The travel. Because I live in rural Japan, there isn’t a whole lot to do. But the upside to that is I get to travel, a lot. To date, I’ve been to thirteen towns and cities outside of my own. These include Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Nagoya, and towns on the Inland Sea. At Tottori Sand Dunes, which are like a little desert on the ocean, I got to ride a camel! I’ve visited multiple temples and castles, and Universal Studios Japan. Just this weekend I went to the oldest free public school in the world! I may not get to sample several countries on EuroTour, but I am getting a really in-depth look at this country, and I’ve loved it. I have to mention that Japan has the bluest, prettiest skies I’ve ever seen. Oh, and one last thing: in early December, my grade and I are going to Guam!! I’ll be sure to keep you updated on that one.

The family. I feel as if I’m a part of my host family, although I don’t actually live with them. You see, they used to live next door to my host father’s grandmother, but she’s since died, and now I stay in her old house. Yes, I have a whole house to myself! I go next door for meals, or to just hang out. I have four host siblings, but the three oldest are all away at college. My seventeen-year-old host brother “lives” at home, but he’s only here on the weekends because his boarding school is an hour and a half away. My family has an apartment in that city, so my mom, who doesn’t work, stays there a couple nights every week. My dad is my school’s principal, and because of this, both of our houses are right next door to school. For me, this is very, very convenient.

The school. I got lucky with this one- I go to private school. First of all, Japanese private school students don’t all go on to university. Many go on to auto mechanic school, or pursue sports careers, so the atmosphere is very laid back. It’s far from the study-oriented school that I pictured, and I love it. Next, my classes. Japanese students have a different schedule each day, so at any given time I could be in Math or Kimono Sewing, Health or Japanese Pottery. I’m taking two kinds of Math, English, Japanese, Chemistry, and Health, as well as special culture courses, like Kimono Sewing, Japanese Cooking, Japanese Pottery, and Calligraphy. I also have a free period each day, during which I usually study Japanese, and a few periods each week to do a report, focused on an aspect of Japanese culture. Class sizes range from about 8 to 20 for regular classes, and as small as two in Pottery. Twice a week, after school, I also participate in the Interact Club. The last important thing to mention is that my school is an international boarding school- a very international boarding school. In my homeroom alone, there are two Koreans, four Chinese, three Taiwanese, a Japanese, and a Cambodian. Including myself, there are six different nations represented in just one class! My school has around 240 students in three grades, and about 90 of them are Chinese. It’s a mystery to me why so many students come to this school, when the public one down the street is better academically, but I love it nonetheless.

I just want to end by saying a big “arigatou gozaimasu” to everyone at Rotary, for because of you, I am lucky enough to call what I just described my daily life.

October 21 Journal

The other week I was lucky enough to meet a girl named Jarlene. She’s a former Rotary student from Pennsylvania who, just four years ago, was living the life I presently am: learning Japanese, attending Kyousei High School, even staying with my same host family. Now (only) 21, she fluently speaks both Japanese and Chinese and is completing an internship at the American Embassy in China, with hopes of becoming a Foreign Service Officer in the future.

Her life serves as an example of exactly what this exchange is meant to foster – a life that is multilingual and multicultural, open-minded and curious, one with a taste for adventure and an acquired desire to change. To see how such a life has unfolded, for me, has been both fascinating and encouraging. It’s people like Jarlene who take away all of your doubts. I no longer question, “Is this worth it? Did I make the right choice?” because she has proven to me that it is. It most certainly is.

Today, she sent me an email. MLIA. (But in all seriousness,) the advice she gave me really is applicable to every exchange student, and even to those who are interested. I thought I would share it (minus the parts specific to my town).

“Hi Grant!

How’ve you been doing since I last saw you? I meant to write you earlier once I arrived back in China, and I seem to have gotten caught up with stuff. Sorry! 😛

I just wanted to encourage you to use this year to discover more about yourself as a person and you’re probably already doing this without realizing it! I think it just comes naturally when exchange students are open-minded to trying and learning new things in a different culture, because it’ll help you grow as a person. And you’re already doing that with all the culture classes you’re taking at Kyousei! I know that my year in Niimi is still one of the most memorable and valuable life experiences I’ve had so far. I’m just so glad that you have the chance to experience all that Japan has to offer for yourself this year! 🙂

For me, I tried to constantly try new activities out of my comfort zone (things I would’ve never been brave enough to try back in high school and in the US). I can also be a bit of a perfectionist sometimes (and I don’t know if you struggle with this too), but I tried to remind myself to just relax, be myself, have fun and that it’s ok if I make some silly mistakes sometimes. (I think embarrassing or frustrating moments often teach me the most!)

During your exchange year, there will definitely be very happy as well as difficult times. I don’t know if you’ve experienced some hard times yet, but just know that when they occur, you have host parents, Kyousei teachers, and Rotarians who care about you and are looking out for you.

I wish you the very best in your exchange year, Jarlene”

(Thank you)

December 23 Journal

What makes this exchange so much fun is that it’s never a one-way street.

I constantly try to embrace these people and their culture, to share in their customs and practices, to speak their language, to hear their opinions and their beliefs. And for the most part I do. But I haven’t forgotten my own culture, my own language, and my own views on the world that often differ so greatly from those of the Japanese. And that, I believe, is a gift, because I’ve also been able to introduce my culture to them.

Yesterday (my four month anniversary!!) I made a gingerbread house with my little brother, Kazu. It’s something that I usually do with my family during the holidays so I thought it would be nice to share the tradition. Very few Japanese celebrate Christmas, and even fewer actually know what a gingerbread house is, but he was more than eager to learn about “an American Christmas” and all that it entails. We took turns icing and decorating and when all was said and done, it didn’t look too bad!

Oh, and it snows here! That makes me smile. I had seen snow before, but never as it was falling. Maybe it’s just because I’m from Florida but I think snow is just awesome. Not to mention cool! HAHAHA. So being the Floridian that I am, of course I had to make a snowman! Most of the snow from that day had already melted though, so it was more of a snow toddler, but after twenty minutes out in the cold my hands were numb and I was satisfied.

And because I didn’t write you a Thanksgiving journal… I am thankful for heated toilet seats. Definitely.

January 3 Journal

If you’re a future Outbound, please click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ6CcEOmlYU

What I mean by that is, GET EXCITED!

I know you have your first orientation coming up- that’s the beginning! That will be the start to a very fun, very long, and very busy year full of “hellos”, “goodbyes”, and anticipation. If the draws of living in a foreign country and culture and learning a foreign language aren’t enough for you, I’ll let you know that I met many of my now closest friends through Rotary, specifically at last year’s Orientation. I’m sure you’ll do all of these things, is that not worth getting excited about?

What you’re about to commit to will truly be a wonderful pre-departure Rotary year. To get you started, I want to give you all a quick guide, an intro of sorts, to your first Orientation.

Some Orientation Dos and Don’ts:

Do befriend Daph(ne). When in doubt, make small talk about Canada.

Do listen to Al. Despite his size, he is in charge.

Do bring a camera. You’ll want pictures for memories. And Facebook, duh.

Do bring a pillow, A JACKET, a blanket (maybe two), and a towel. Trust me.

• Do stop by Old Crow Bar-B-Que outside of the camp. Take the pig butt.

Don’t choose ten phrases that give people a bad impression because they might remember…

Don’t be antisocial. You’ll get a reputation.

Don’t take jumping pictures in a crowded room.

Don’t get on the seesaw with someone you don’t trust. You will get hurt.

As much as you’ll want to, don’t spend a lot of time in the bedrooms.

At times during your Orientation, you may ask yourself “what is there to do here?” Well I’ll tell you!

Stop by the One Way Café and the attached Christian bookstore.

Daydream about your international adventures-to-be.

Take Myspace pictures. What an easy way to bond!

Go to the playground! Don’t act like you’re too old for it.

Play Twister because everybody loves that.

A Few Things to Remember:

• Rotex are cool. So talk to them.

Turn in assignments on time or you’ll get more.

Your friends who aren’t involved in Rotary probably won’t want to hear about your Rotary activities, which is why you should befriend other Outbounds, especially the ones who live near you.

The definition of the 4 D’s varies from person to person.

After Orientation ends, organize hang out events on Facebook, lots of people come!

Don’t let tha haters stop you from doin your thang!

 

Hollie’s Bio

“The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.” Ben Stein

And I want this. I want to be an exchange student more than anything I’ve ever wanted, and luckily, I am graced with the chance to study abroad in beautiful Brazil!

Ola! I am Hollie Harrison. I am a senior at Buchholz High and have been in their Academy of Entrepreneurship throughout high school.

I live with my parents and am the youngest of three. My two siblings have moved out, gone to college and now have jobs. My dad and I are very much alike in that we are both stubborn yet very hard working. I am often called “Little David” because of our similarities. I have a dog and a kitten, both of which I love very much.

I have been in constant motion ever since I was little. From 5 to 10 years, I took many different dance classes and even tried out gymnastics and soccer for a year. At 10 years old, I realized my passion for swimming through swim lessons and have been a competitive swimmer ever since. We have 8 practices a week with a total of 20 hours or more.

I also compete in tennis and act in drama. For three years, I have been on the Buchholz tennis team. Also, I have taken theatre classes and acted in school plays, such as “Taming of the Shrew”, for my last two years.

Besides being a busy body, I love hanging out with my friends. We always manage to find creative ways to be together and enjoy ourselves. I love to be happy- so you’ll often find me laughing or smiling. I also enjoy writing little songs and/or poems, singing, playing with my pets, sports, etc.

“Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it.” Christopher Morley

And I’m excited to see how aspects of life are different in Brazil!

Hollie’s Journals

November 4 Journal

There’s always gonna be another mountain

I’m always gonna wanna make it move

Always gonna be a uphill battle

Sometimes I’m gonna have to lose

Ain’t about how fast I get there

Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side

It’s the climb

The struggles I’m facing

The chances I’m taking

Sometimes might knock me down

But no, I’m not breaking

I may not know it

But these are the moments that I’m gonna remember most, yeah

Just gotta keep going

As lame as it sounds, Miley Cyrus has it all right in her song “The Climb”. I have had a rough start here, but from what I hear from Rotarians here, “The rougher, the better it is for me because the more I will grow”. I have to agree. Future exchangers, be ready for some of the hardest times of your life, but also some of the most fun and memorable moments of your life. In the beginning, there may be more downs than ups. But it will all work out in the end as long as you give it your all. This I promise you.

But wow!!! Three months in already….

The first day I arrived, I was in complete shock. We got off the plane and went through Brazilian customs, which was a breeze besides filling out paperwork in Portuguese. I was picked up and driven home. This is when I realized: “Hollie, you aren’t in the United States anymore.” The drivers here are like madmen! If only someone could have taken a photo of my horrified face and me grasping the car for my life as we drove past cars almost hitting them. The lanes here are so tiny. The cars here are tiny too, but sometimes, the lanes are too small for the cars! Most of the time, there is a motorcyclist driving between two cars! During all of this, all I saw were small houses with gates around them. This isn’t what I had imagined Brazil to be.

My second week here I went to Rio de Janeiro. It was a lot of fun and I got to experience all of the usual tourist things! I went to Corcovado and all of the beaches. It was so beautiful, and I had so much fun with my family.

I am happy to say that I have made some of the best friends that I could possibly make. God was definitely watching over me when he showed me to these people. They have been so nice to me and have helped me with their language and have taken me out as often as they can to show me their culture! One of my best friends here is Sarah. Her grandpa started Betim Rotary, the Rotary in my city. But this Rotary doesn’t sponsor me. I am sponsored by the Rotary of Belo Horizonte, and since they are far away, Betim Rotary has been so helpful and welcoming to me. Sarah invited me to her Sweet 15, which was amazing. She held her party in a rented place called “Versailles” and it was decorated with special lights, flowers and modeling pictures that she did specifically for the party. To get into her party, you had to have this mini invitation and then next to the door were people taking gifts. There was a candy bar! I had too much fun there! I will probably return to the United States fat! There were tables with food and more candies! She had hired a personal photographer and videographer for the party. Each person at the party had to leave Sarah a “memoir” on film. I learned that it is customary for the birthday girl to give out havaianas (sandals) to each of her girl guests. I got my havaianas which are of a special design created by Sarah. Sarah did the valsa with 15 boys, which is very common at sweet 15’s. Sarah also took me and another exchange student (Logan from Belgium) the other day to her Grandpa’s farm (the one who started Betim Rotary). We rode horses, swam and had a churrasco. It was so much fun and I learned that many people here in Brazil have relatives that have farms and do what we did often.

I didn’t like my school, Colegio Tiradentes, so Rotary moved me to a new school, PUC (a university here). I am studying “direito” (law). I have learned that college here is very different from back home. Students only take courses directly related to their major. That is all that is required of them. Also, people here aren’t nearly as serious about school as we are back home. Students get up and leave the classroom all the time and teachers don’t do anything! A majority of students cheat on the tests and make it obvious, and normally the teacher doesn’t do anything about it. Despite this, I love my school. The people in it are so nice and helpful, and the teachers are hilarious.

I wish all of you future exchangers the best of luck in interviews. Those of you that get accepted, know that you are blessed. This is truly one of the best experiences anyone can ever have. It really is life changing. I hope it rocks your world like it has mine. I hope you have many struggles so you can grow and learn like I have. Good luck and love from Brazil!

Beijos e abracos,

Hollie G. Harrison

January 10 Journal

It is Christmas Eve in Frutal, Minas Gerais, and it is as hot and humid as Florida’s summer. There is no Christmas music or decorations whatsoever- meaning yes, there really is NO Christmas tree. And the thought that keeps crawling through my mind: “Is Christmas really tomorrow?”

But yes, it is. Brasil may not have the Christmas decorations or music, but Christmas spirit still is here. People who don’t know each other scream “Feliz Natal!”. The homeless roam the streets begging for money, and they receive in the giving, Christmas spirit. Families are gathering, and churches are ready with a Christmas sermon. It may appear differently, but it still is Christmas. And the people here do this every year! Every year it is this hot for Christmas! This truly is a Brasilian Christmas, or at least, Frutal Christmas. I do not live in Frutal. I live in Betim, but my family and I travelled here to see my grandma and the rest of our family- something that hasn’t change for me, travelling to see family for the holidays.

For New Years, I experienced even more new traditions. For New Year’s here, people wear the color with the symbolism that they want to happen next year. Most wear white for peace, but because of the economic difficulties back home that is hurting my family incredibly, I wore both white (for peace) and green (for money).

As Rotary will tell you, homesickness DOES kick in around this time. You will want to be home with your family decorating your tree and doing your usual traditions. But, you have to keep in mind, that you do that EVERY year! You have done these traditions every year and will continue to do them when you get home. You have to think like this or your homesickness will really get to you. Not to mention, you will be here! Learning and creating new traditions! You can bring some of these traditions to your family in the USA when you return! How cool will that be!?

When I last wrote, I was in the middle of changing host families. My second host family is incredible! I adore them! We are a family of only girls because my mom and dad divorced. They talk nonstop, which has made my Portuguese DRASTICALLY improve. I have only been with them for a month and half, and many people have seen a strong improvement in my Portuguese. I understand almost everything now, and if I don’t understand, I am always able to understand when they explain it in Portuguese. I still have trouble communicating back because of trouble with verbs, but my family is patiently helping me with that.

Now, I am about to leave for 25 days to Nordeste (the Northeast of Brazil). I will travel all of their amazing beaches, many state’s capitals and their national capital- Brasilia. I am very anxious for this trip, especially since I will be turning 19 during this trip. At first, I was sad to be spending my birthday on a bus full of exchangers instead of my family here in Brazil and my friends here. But then I remembered how hard Christmas and New Year’s was for me without my family and friends back home in the US and I realized that the best people to see on my birthday were my exchange friends. Because they can help me the most on this day with homesickness. Plus, my family is throwing me a party the day after I arrive home from Nordeste. Never forget your youth exchange friends. They understand you the most, with everything. Though, do not cling to them. Be very weary of this. Many of the exchangers in my state cling to each other instead of making Brazilian friends. DO NOT BE ONE OF THEM. You came here to experience the culture, and the best way to do that is to be with the people from that culture! Not to mention, learning the language too! Because the other exchange students tend to grasp on to English for life…..

I know that the new exchange students have been chosen, know their countries and have their first orientation very soon! I want to say to you all: *do not let time pass you by*. Take advantage of every opportunity! Study as hard as possible! Because the less you know, the more jokes and other things you miss out on! You want to be able to live life as normally here as soon as possible! And you certainly don’t want to look back and say, “Man, I can’t believe I spent that time goofing off when I could have been doing something meaningful.”

Also, I read Grant Simon’s journal, and as humorous as it was, take heed in everything he said. It is all TRUE.

Especially listen to not being alone. Many exchange students have done that here and it has not had good results.

I wish you all the best of luck!!!

With love from Brazil,

Hollie G

July 12 Journal

My last few months in Brazil were still full of much adventure and curiosity. I travelled on the Nordeste trip, which took me all around the North-East of Brazil. I went to Tiradentes, a historical city not just for my state but also for my country. Tiradentes was named after a Brazilian military leader in the “Inconfidência Mineira” revolution. They wanted full independence from Portugal and to create a Brazilian Republic. However, when the plan was discovered, he was arrested, tried, and hanged. He has been considered a national hero of Brazil and patron of the Military Police in the state of Minas Gerais (my state). The city I visited was named in his honor.

I sadly had to leave Brazil a month early for college and family matters. Leaving all the relationships that I had built there was incredibly hard, but I know that I will see them again someday. Coming home, I was filled with many of the same emotions I felt upon leaving for Brazil: sadness of leaving loved ones, excitement to see my family and friends in the USA again and to have American food, and confusion and disbelief that I was leaving.

Upon my arrival home, all family and friends were shocked about how much I have changed. Even my appearance was changed. Although they were shocked, they have loved the changes.

I too have loved the changes. I feel more independent and more aware of my surroundings and others. I like being able to relate the USA and Brazil. It has certainly given me more perspective on matters.

I still can’t believe my exchange is over. However, the cycle continues for the new outbounds to go and experience as much as they can and grow like I did. I wish you all courage. Make sure to listen more than you speak. That will make you understand, learn, and grow even more. Most of us are used to interrupting and talking whenever we please. You must remember NOT to interrupt and to listen more than you speak. Calculate your responses wisely. You will be judged on every encounter and NEVER forget that Rotary smile!

Good luck and enjoy!

Rotary, thank you again for giving me this opportunity. It has been and meant the world to me! I cannot describe how thankful I am. I hope to one day repay you for your generosity. Until then, I’ll be spreading that Rotary smile and telling anyone who listens about you.

Beijos e abracos! (xo)

Hollie

 

Jay’s Bio

Hello everyone, my name is Jay McWilliams, and I attend St. Augustine High School, and I will be crossing the ocean to the opposite side of the world: Thailand. I’ve lived in St. Augustine for the 15 years of my life, and having never left the US, I welcome this opportunity with ecstasy and anticipation. I live with my parents, and I have one older brother who attends the University of Pennsylvania.

Throughout my life, things have always come in two categories: The tangible and the seemingly intangible. This opportunity being the latter for 14 years of my life, I still find it difficult to comprehend the vast chance which has presented itself. During my year abroad, I will do my best to not feel completely comfortable, as if at home. Following this principle would, I believe, help me to see how different this new world is, instead of searching for all that is similar.

Again, I would like to thank Rotary for all their support, and for giving me the opportunity to see beyond the horizon. This will, without doubt, be a pivotal year in my life, and I anticipate every moment of it.

Jay’s Journals

September 13 Journal

Sawatdee krap! I arrived in Lopburi, Thailand on August 1st. The day before had been a very long one, spent mostly a few miles in the air; thankfully, everything on the flight went smoothly. The jetlag that I experienced wasn’t too severe; the only real symptom I had of it was not being hungry. I hardly ate anything for two days after I got here, and I feel that concerned my host family a bit. But after the third day, I was recovered, and my appetite restored.

My family is one of the wealthier families in Lopburi. They own, and live on, a working saw mill. There are workers that come and go every day, and the front of the house is a store front. There is a guarded gate to enter the house, and guard dogs that they let out every night. There are multiple buildings on the property for the workers to live in, as well as a building that the family’s maid does laundry in. There’s a garden in the back which houses the dogs, as well as the biggest cat fish I have ever seen. I have two sisters who go to college in Bangkok, and one host brother that left two weeks after I got here to go to the U.S. as a RYE student. I was given a Thai name when I got here; it is Jindtanakan, which means Imagine. Most of my friends at school call me Jay, but some call my Lang (short for Falang, which means foreigner), while others call me Yong, which means curly.

Lopburi is one of the oldest cities in Thailand. In the downtown area, you’ll find ruins of temples, and palaces on almost every street corner. There is also a very high monkey population in Lopburi. Wherever you turn, there’s a monkey sitting on the side on the sidewalk, or trying to take whatever things you’re carrying. Elephants are also not a strange sight around town. Sometimes, you’ll see one playing the harmonica for money, while other times, it will just be walking along the road.

Transportation is Lopburi is easy as well. There are things called Sorng Taew, which literally means: two rows. They are pickup trucks with two rows of seats under a roof in the bed. Each one has a different color that goes on a different route, and you pay ฿8 (8 baht), or about 25 cents, to go wherever you need to go.

I started school a week after I got here. My school is massive, and has about 3,600 students. The only real similarity between Thai high school and American high school is that they have classes, and they learn things. My first day of school, I was told to introduce myself in front of everyone. I did it in both English and Thai, and they went crazy when I was finished. Every day at school, everywhere I go, I hear someone calling my name and waving, or someone wants me to kick their soccer ball, or to come sit with them and their friends. One of the stranger things I’ve seen at school was when I was sitting at a table outside talking with my Thai friends. A man who apparently worked at the school came over to a group of boys playing soccer with a stick, made them line up, and began hitting all of them with the stick.

I’ve seen some beautiful places, and temples. The town that I live in used to be the capital of Thailand, and there are a few giant sets of ruins scattered around the town, as well as tiny foundations, and old temples to be found nestled among the buildings in the street. One of the ruins is King Narai’s palace, a past king of Thailand. The ruins are sprawling and vast as they are beautiful. One weekend, I went to Ayuthaya, which is an ancient Thai city with some very unique things, such as the only smiling Buddha, as well as one the biggest Buddhas I have ever seen. It was about three stories tall, golden, and surrounding by thousands of tiny Buddhas on the walls. It was possibly one of the most interesting things I’ve ever seen.

My Thai knowledge and speaking skills are still very basic, but I have already learned a lot. I am capable of having very basic conversations, and I know the entire Thai alphabet, and can read almost anything…it just takes me a little while. The way I learn Thai at school is very laid back. Whenever I don’t have a class, I just go to the teacher’s lounge in the language department, and whichever teacher isn’t doing anything at the time, teaches me Thai.

Everything is ridiculously cheap here. I can buy a shirt that would cost 40 dollars in the U.S. for 4 dollars. One night, I was out with my friends, and we went to a night time noodle stand. Between the three of us, the bill was ฿50, which is a little more than $1. It’s almost shocking how cheap everything is.

All is well, and I look forward with incredible excitement to the months before me. Thailand has exceeded my expectations 100%. I have a great group of friends, a friendly, loving and understanding family, and an open door to the world. I don’t think I could ask for more. Until next time…

-Jindtanakan

จินตนาการ

December 2 Journal

สวัสดี America! I know that it’s been a while since my last journal was written, and I’ve been fervently reminded of this. There’s a lot to recount, so I best start around where I left off.

My last journal was in September, not long before my 16th birthday. On my birthday, my host family took me, one of my best YE friends, and other extended family of my family to a restaurant to eat dinner. When we arrived, the restaurant was covered in police, and Thai army personnel. Our initial thought was that something had occurred which would not allow us to eat there. But upon further investigation, we discovered that the princess was coming to eat at the same restaurant! This was very exciting, and every once in a while we were able to sight her just walking to and from the car.

At the end of September, the school semester ended. It would start at the beginning of November again, but this left us exchange students with little to do. Most of my Thai friends went to Bangkok to study for the university, so I couldn’t go places with them. Many days over that break were spent at home, reading books or studying Thai. One day, my host mom took me and one of the other inbounds in Lopburi (Leo, from Brazil) to go to one of the many army bases in Lopburi. My host mother was part of a juvenile justice committee, and they were sponsoring some sort of corrections program for kids at the base. That day, friends and members of the committee were given the chance to zipline on their training equipment. When my turn came around, I ended up doing it wrong and just bouncing up and down in the middle of the line. This was a great source of amusement to a large crowd of spectators and Thai juvenile delinquents, but it was a good time.

Two weeks after that, all the exchange students had an event in Angthong province. It was more or less a handicraft camp for us at one of the local arts schools in Angthong, but proved to be one of my most legitimate Thai experiences thus far. What made it this way was the family that I stayed with. All of the exchange students stayed with different families (I’m still not sure where they found the families, or how they’re connected to Rotary), and every day from Monday to Thursday, our families would take us the school so we could spend the day making crafts, and enjoying the company of the other exchange students. We arrived on a Sunday, and were given our families.

Now, my family in Lopburi is fairly wealthy, and lives in an established, well known part of town, and has a fairly new and very nice house. Relative to my idea of a nice house at the time, the house that I was staying in was the opposite. It was a very, very old, traditional Thai house that stood on stilts. The upstairs was one giant room (save the bathroom) with a TV, two beds and a couple of mats on the floor. The floor was ancient, creaking wood with inch wide gaps between each board. The roof was made of tin, and there was about 6 inches of space between the roof and the wall, so there was no shortage of mosquitoes. Luckily, everyone had mosquito nets, so nobody suffered too much. The downstairs area was the “kitchen” so to speak. It had a large table that the family sat on to eat, a refrigerator, a couple fans to ward away mosquitoes and a TV. Noted, all of these things were outside, the house acting as more of a pavilion with a roof, but no walls.

There were two older women who very much enjoyed feeding me, as well as asking about America. The house was situated in small village that was situated among seemingly endless rice fields. The family consisted of two parents, the two women who enjoyed feeding me (their significance to the family, I may never know), and four girls who I’m not sure how they were related to the family either. Every day, when I would get home from the school activities, they would take me on bike rides to look at temples, or they would go help the host mom work in the market. When the host father found out that I was interested in Buddhism (apparent by the Buddha hanging around my neck), he enjoyed telling me about it, showing me his large collection of Buddhas, and giving me more Buddha necklaces. “To protect from ghosts” they would say. As I got to know this family better, I began to realize that they don’t live in poor conditions, and that all of this is normal life for them. And it became normal life for me, and within two days, it was like I’d been there forever. It’s amazing how these things that would have seemed to disgusting and incredibly foreign to me are now so normal.

At the end of October, we had the Loy Kratong festival, which is a Buddhist celebration of starting new, and bringing good luck. Loy, in Thai means to float, and a kratong is a small vessel made of banana leaves and flowers that are floated down the rivers. This is to symbolize starting new, and getting rid of old grudges and such, as well as bringing good luck. All of the exchange students went to a place called Supanburi for Loy Kratong, and Rotary threw a big party for everyone. We were given kratongs, and floated them all down the river. When everyone let their kratong go, we shot off fireworks, and enjoyed the band and food that Rotary provided for us.

Loy Kratong in Lopburi was luckily two days long, so we could enjoy it in two different provinces. The city closed down the round-a-bout in the middle of town, and provided many shows, and markets for everyone to enjoy. My favorite was the Muay Thai fights, which was some of the best live fighting I’d ever seen. Unfortunately, it is proving incredibly difficult to find a Muay Thai place to practice in Lopburi.

The day after Loy Kratong, school started back up again. The month of November was very uneventful, with school, and pretty much nothing else. But, my Thai has started to improve again (my lack of interacting with my Thai friends in October slowed down its progress slightly). In a conversation with my friend, I described my Thai as “advanced basic”. My ability to read Thai has improved dramatically, and so has my vocabulary. Most of the time, I know the context of the conversation, but half of the time, I’m unable to come up with a response, despite the fact that I understand what is being asked. I still find it incredibly hard to understand students when they talk to each other, because of the speed, and amount of slang they use. TV is also very difficult to understand, but I can participate in a dinner time conversation with my family. I’ve already had a dream and a half in Thai, and sometimes, for no apparent reason, my thoughts will switch over to Thai. Besides that, I’m still learning more and more each day, and it could all only get better.

I’ve already switched to my second family, and I like them very much. They own a Michelin tire store right in the middle of town, so it’s very easy for me to get around. They enjoy traveling, also, so I’ll be able to see lots of Thailand with them.

Until next time….

– จินตนาการ

February 10 Journal

The month of December was relatively mild. I’d switched families, and there was a festival at my school for about two weeks, so there wasn’t very much school either. I went to Bangkok to stay with a boy from Mexico so we could go see concerts, and hang out with Bangkok. Life in Bangkok is much different from small town Thailand life, and I prefer the smaller, quiet atmosphere. And for some reason, I find it very difficult to speak Thai in Bangkok, because most people speak English, and when I attempt to speak Thai with them they give me a “What is wrong with you?” look, and continue to speak in English. Though Bangkok is vast, I am very happy that I don’t live there, because of these reasons, and because it’s incredibly expensive to do anything there.

Christmas and Christmas eve were a lonely couple of days. I had nothing to do, and I wanted to do something to commemorate, so I went to church with my Catholic first host family on Christmas eve, who is also hosting my best friend here, Leo from Brazil. Though I don’t usually go to church, it was something on Christmas (despite the fact that it was boring). The next day, I went to a party with my family that was unfortunately a karaoke party (the worst, and most incredibly boring sort, I have decided). Then, I went home and skyped with my family in America for the first time, which was a nice Christmas present. That weekend, I went to Bangkok for four days to see a concert with my friend, and go to a theme park with a couple other YEs. Then, two Mexican boys came to my city, and stayed here for a few days. All of these events were enjoyable, and I was happy to have so much company when school was not in session, and I missed home.

On December 31st, I left with my family for Chiang Rai in the North of Thailand to celebrate New Years. It was a long ten hour drive up, but it was full of scenery, and I was fortunate enough to have the backseat of the rented van to myself. We didn’t arrive until late afternoon, but the first place we went was the very famous White Temple. It is a very prime example of Buddhist contemporary art, with depictions of hell, large guardian spirits, and a few other morbid images on the outside of temple that houses the main Buddha image. On the inside, there were classical depictions of Buddhist culture, as well as more modern (and at time random) images, including a picture of Spiderman painted on the inside of the temple wall. It turns out that the artist of this place is a very eccentric man who is a pioneer of Buddhist contemporary art. This temple has been over 30 years in the making, and is still far from finished. It is quite a sight, and the amount of time put into it is very apparent.

That night, we just went back to the hotel, and everybody went to sleep. There was no festivities, or real celebration among my family for the New Year. This greatly saddened me, and I yearned to speak to someone at home. So, after the year turned, I stepped outside into the very cold, very clear night to make a call. The stars were very bright, and the sky was also dotted with Chinese lanterns, set off by people for good luck, or something of the sort. I called one of my best friends in Florida (who was also still in 2009), and I got my friendship fix. I fled the cold mountain air and crawled into bed for the first time in 2010.

On the first day of 2010, it was very cold in the mountains of Thailand. For the first time in a very long time, I had to wear more than one layer of clothing to stay warm. I was informed that the first stop on today’s journey would be the golden triangle, which is the river that divides Burma, Thailand and Laos. I fell asleep in the van on the way, but when I woke up, I was greeted by a magnificent sight. From Thailand’s last shore, there was a giant golden Buddha sitting on a Chinese style boat. Beside the Buddha, there was a dockyard, and a little market where foreign visitors could come and buy little souvenirs. On Laos’s not-so-distant shore, there was a huge red building with a golden dome. I was later informed that this building is the Laotian immigration building. On Burma’s shore, there was a huge casino (I found this to be a humorous contrast between countries).

And so, my family and I boarded a little boat which would take us to Laos. We got off the boat onto a very old wooden dock, and made our way up to the mainland via an ancient bamboo bridge that seemed to be unfit for so many people coming to and fro upon it all day. But, we reached Laos without incident, and now there I was, in Laos. The market was more like a collection of little huts in this small area with its wares on old wooden tables. The ground was red dirt (Northern Thailand and the surrounding area reminded me of in some respects), and there were chickens and dogs roaming about the stalls and trees. There wasn’t a whole lot of things here, mainly cheap knock-off clothes, and strange old Laotian traditional items, like knives, and oddly shaped pipes for smoking. Also, snakes in bottles that you could buy “to eat” as my host brother informed me.

From where I stood on the bank of the river, I could see four different countries. With Laos behind me, China to the North, and Thailand and Burma to my right, I realized how much there can be in such a little area to see, and maybe just how big the world is.

We left Laos the same way we arrived, across the rickety bamboo bridge, and down the Mekong river. When we arrived back in Thailand, we spent a couple of hours eating ice cream, and sitting in the area of the large Buddha. At last, it was time to go, so we made our journey through the mountains with Laos and China at our backs, we were now heading to Burma. We drove right up to the border and got out of our van. Thai people only need a “temporary border pass”, but I had to get my visa changed so that I could get into Burma. We walked trough the border station, and beneath a sign saying “The Union of Myanmar” in English, and in Burmese. All the people entering were being funneled into another small gate area, the Thai people entering the through the middle, and foreigners entering through a small a smaller passage separated by a small fence. My host sister came with me though, to ensure all went well.

As we walked towards the exit to this entry area, we came across a Burmese soldier. Without saying anything to me, or my host sister, he grabbed my arm a pushed me through a door way into a small room with four other Burmese soldiers stood carrying automatic rifles. They weren’t saying anything, just looking at me as if they expected me to do something. All I could muster up was a tentative, and stammered “Yes?”. One man sitting at a desk started speaking Burmese, this only increased my confusion. I could hear my host sister speaking in English to the guard outside, and then he opened the door, and handed me 500 baht. Apparently, that’s what these people wanted, because when I gave it to the man at the desk, they opened the door and told me to leave.

After this, we entered Burma with no further problems. All the merchants could speak Thai, so there was no communication problem. My family informed me that the gate was to close at around 5:30, so I had to meet them at the gate at 5:00, but now, I was free to wander the streets of Burma as I wished. I walked around, and bought a few movies, but I wasn’t very fascinated by this market. Everyone spoke Thai, and most signs were in Thai, so it really was no different from Thailand. I had the urge to see Burma, not Thailand within Burma. So, as I was looking for a way to see other parts of the town that weren’t within the market, I saw one of the exchange students in my district (Julia, from Germany) with her family in the market. I found this to be an interesting coincidence, so we hung out in Burma together. Unfortunately, she didn’t share my same urge to explore the real Burma, so what I saw of this town was limited, but what I did see was all very different from Thailand. The biggest appeal to coming to this market was how cheap movies are. I bought four, brand new DVDs for 100 baht (about $3). But I think I annoyed the sellers when I only bought 4 DVDs, because all the other Thai people in the store were buying about 30 DVDs at a time (most likely to resell in Thailand).

Finally, it was time to leave Burma and head back to Thailand. Naturally, it was much easier to get out than it was to get in. When we crossed the border again, my family stopped in the large square and decided to do a little bit more shopping. So they told me I could look around for about an hour. At this, I began to find my way through one of the markets. Everything in this one alley I found myself in was so Asian, I felt like I was in a movie. I walked through the alley, and to the foot of a mountain with a large stone staircase going up to the top, with two dragons on either side of the stairs, their open mouths gaping towards the market alley. So, I began up the mountain. The stairs were wide, sometimes requiring two steps just to get over one of the steps. When I arrived at the top, I found a temple, and a few other structures. I took a quick look at the buildings, then found my way to the side of the mountain.

All there was to see from here was Burma, and the town that we had just left. It was a cloudy day, and the sun was just starting to go down over the mountains. The clouds that hugged the mountains cast bright colors over the two countries, and they provided me with quite a sight. I looked down at the country, seeing many small houses built into the side of the mountain, as well as a Spirit Village made up of small white houses and shrines said to harbor the resident spirits. Behind me on the mountain was a giant statue of a scorpion facing Burma, the significance of which I am not sure, but it added to the mystery of the atmosphere. Burma was a mystery to me, and Thailand is as well, and all I wanted to do now was to know the two places like I know myself. I knew then that I was happy, and where I will be happy, with unknown things on either side of me.

The next day, we headed home to Lopburi. I rested for a day, then returned to school. The weekend after, we were informed that we had a Rotary conference in Bangkok, and that we would be required to give a speech in Thai. This greatly stressed out many of the other exchange students, because it was rumored that those who did poorly would be sent home. I knew that this was untrue, but it motivated many to write a very lengthy speech into Thai. When we had the competition, there were a few who had quite obviously put a lot of effort into the speech, and a few who at a glance, hadn’t. I didn’t prepare a speech, but instead I went to the podium and briefly told of a few of my experiences in Thai, all of which was pulled from the top of my head. There were ten winners, all of which won a Rotary 3350 backpack, and three grand prize winners. I find myself in the backpack winners, but I was not a grand prize winner. This did not bother me so much, because the two winners had not written the speech themselves, but instead used their teachers, and online translators to write their speech, but these two things were not exempt from the conditions of delivery. But, I was untroubled, in fact I was very content with what I had achieved with very little preparation, as well as a few other YE students.

One day, my friend from school took me to a mountain, and told me that there was a temple at the top. I couldn’t see it, so I decided to take his word for it. At the foot of the mountain was a very large temple, and he said that there were stairs that would take us to the top. There were stairs indeed, stairs up a very steep slope. It took us about two hours to get to the top, and at times we were climbing the stairs vertically. But when we got to the top, the view was awesome. But the best part was yet to come. On the stairs, there was a handrail going all the way to the top. On the way up, we had bought two plastic sacks that once contained rice or something like that. From the top, we slide on the bags all the way down the mountain. At times it was impossible to slide down (namely, the vertical times), but it was still a very good time.

Over the next couple months, we’re going to go on the trips, and I will get to see a lot more of Thailand. School is out now until May, so things will begin to slow down and become more relaxed. I’m the happiest I could be here, and all is going very well.

Until next time

สวัสดีครับ

-จินตนาการ

June 14 Journal

สวัสดี Florida!

The months following my last journal have been eventful for me, as well as the country that I’m in. As you’re bound to have heard something about, last month, Thailand experienced some of the worst civil violence in the country’s recent history. It had been on and off for a few years, but this year was intended to be one of great importance. While all of this was going on, I received a large amount of concerned messages from concerned people back home who wanted to make sure that I was okay, and far from the violence. I was, at the time, relatively close to it, but never experienced any of it. The closest I ever got to it was driving through Bangkok with my friend’s host family on one of the most eventful days, and seeing the plumes of smoke from the bombs and burning buildings that had been set off. Other than this, any violence was very far removed.

The two parties are known as the Red Shirts, and Yellow Shirts. The Red shirts are the poor and uneducated “peasants” of Thailand that make up the working class, and most of them hail from the North-East Isaan area of Thailand (most Thais in my area speak the Isaan language, but are ashamed of it because speaking it puts them in the same rung as the Isaan people). What the Red Shirts want is to be given equal voting rights, and equal class under a more democratic system. The Yellow Shirts, however, disagree. Yellow shirts are the upper class, rich, educated, metropolitan Thais. Most of them actually come from Chinese heritage, and employ the Red Shirts. The Yellow Shirts believe that the Red Shirts should not be given these liberties because they are less educated, therefore, unable to make the proper decision. A large part of the debate is also the two leaders of the parties, Thaksin for the Red Shirts and Abhisit for the Yellow Shirts, but I chose to leave that out of this explanation, because some people try to make the argument all about the two men, when I believe that the real issue is what I just shed light upon.

It is truly a tragic situation which is tearing the country apart, forcing the Thai soldiers (many of the same rung as the Red Shirts) to kill their own people in a confusing and complicated issue. For the first, and most violent parts of the struggle, all of it was centered in Bangkok. As the conflict drug on, small Red Shirt parties started to pop up in the surrounding provinces of Bangkok. In Lopburi, they would begin to gather at around 9 PM every night in one of the central junctions in town. They would sit there all night, drinking whiskey and watching orators on a projector screen. One night, another exchange student and I walked down to their camp with the intention of trying to buy one of their flags as a souvenir. When I asked a man if I could buy it, he told us that we could have them, and handed us two bamboo sticks with flags waving on them. As we made our way back, a man on a motorcycle followed us, and made us return to the junction. The man who gave them to us had forgotten to warn us about Yellow Shirts (I didn’t know that there were any around), so he had us take down the flags and told us to stuff them in our pants. This was my only real face to face interaction with any Red Shirts, and they were all very kind. Mostly all of the host families here (Rotary, in general really) are Yellow Shirts, and it’s interesting to get their point of view of the conflict.

Besides the Red Shirt crisis, the months follow my last journal have been rather quiet. The two Rotary Trips took place in March and April, and I switched families in between. My family now is very relaxed, and are very good to me. The Rotary trips were good also. They took place in the North and South of Thailand. The South trip was filled with tropical beaches, snorkeling and boat rides, while the North trip’s biggest highlight was Songkran. Songkran is the celebration of the Thai New Year, and is basically a massive water fight. I, and all of the other exchange students woke up early, strapped on our water guns, and took to the Chiang Mai streets. We were splashed, squirted and doused by people riding in truck beds, kids with small buckets and crazy tourist guys. This went on just about all day until we finally were exhausted and collapsed back at the hotel. The rest of the trip consisted of looking at temples, riding elephants, and learning about Northern Thailand’s culture, and in the evening we were given the freedom to roam around the area of the hotel as we pleased.

One of my main goals this year was to learn to read and speak Thai. Now, I can proudly say that I am one of the most proficient Thai speakers/readers in my district. Many people refuse to believe that I am not half Thai, and that I spoke very little Thai before coming, and I am frequently complemented on my accent (or lack thereof), and have a Thai phone conversation is incredibly easy, as I do it daily with my friends. This being said, I know that there is still very much to learn. Thai is a vast language, with multiple forms of speaking, and a ridiculous amount of synonyms (the hardest part of the Thai language, I have decided). In my years at home I intend to keep studying Thai, even just a little bit, to learn more and keep up what I already know, so when I return, it will be even better.

Now, 11 months after leaving the US for the first time, I can say that I am a changed person. I’m bilingual, and more confident. I feel I’ve become more relaxed with things that don’t matter as much, and become more serious about things that do. One of the main reasons I think that our parents send us on exchange, as well as one of the main goals of Rotary besides the learning of cultures and having a more worldly understanding, is to learn to be responsible, and perhaps more grown up in a sense. We learn this to use it now, in our adolescence, as well as transferring easier into adult-hood.

But what I’ve observed is that as I, and the other exchange students that have learned this lesson well also learned another thing: what it means to be young, and how fleeting youth is. Through experiencing what it’s like to be an adult and make your own decisions, I feel we learned even more valuable lessons about how young we are, and how to rejoice in the fact that we are still young, with long futures ahead of us. Long futures that will soon become the present, but this is not near as intimidating because we have known what youth is, and that we’ll do our best not to waste it on ourselves. This comes hand in hand with the ever present looming mountain of adult-hood that we have also learned a tremendous amount about. And though, now knowing youth, it will be more dearly missed, the realization of how great a thing you have is also realizing that it will one day be gone, and therefore, adult-hood isn’t as much as an end, but just another beginning, as is life. Of all the conclusions that one could come to in a year far, far away from home, I believe this is the most important that I have stumbled upon, and it will forever be with me.

Now, as my final weeks in Thailand close in upon me, I can say with no doubt in my mind that I have fallen in love with this country, and its people. And, like so many other exchange students have pledged to do, I will do everything thing in my power to make it back here as soon as I can. Because Thailand is my home now, and I will miss it will all of my heart.

โชคดีนะ

-เจ

 

Joel’s Bio

Heyy! I’m Joel and I was so excited to be selected as a foreign exchange student this year and even more ecstatic to find I am traveling to Brazil, my first choice. I am a junior at St. Johns Country Day School, a college prep school that has a 100% college acceptance rate, so it definitely provides students with the knowledge and skills they need to successfully complete the next step into college.

I live with my mom, dad, and twin brother, Jake, who doesn’t look a thing like me… I wish. I love playing soccer and volleyball, but I prefer watching football because then I can paint myself blue and white with a bunch of friends and cheer on our tiny team. My mom is super chill and so is my dad, and both of their heads are turning gray, I mean they have to put up with twin boys! My brother Jake is one of my best friends no matter what I say sometimes, I know he will always be there to back me up or catch me when I fall. Seriously though, he is the starting quarterback and he could really catch me if I fell. Mainly, he is my bro and he is just awesome. Last but not least, my dad. He has bent over backwards for me, plus he is probably the goofiest guy you will ever meet, but when it comes time to be serious, he is a pretty good guy to talk to.

I have been playing soccer for most of my life, since I was four, and surprisingly 12 years later, I am still at it hoping to make it to the next level. I love volleyball as I said, but I don’t play competitively. Soccer and school take up too much time for that but I play whenever I get the chance. A lot of times the volleyball players at school say I should try out, but coach says that it would be way too much of me to be in that spandex! So I just stick to school soccer. I play club soccer and some of my best friends are on my team. Sometimes it is like I have more brothers.

I am also very involved with school. I am part of the Varsity Soccer Team, St. Johns Interact Club, volleyball club (started by my brother and I), and also the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I love doing service projects and helping people. Outside of school I am actively involved in my church and I am a certified lifeguard, soccer coach, and referee.

Some of my other interests include singing, any kind of athletics, eating, and this might surprise some people, but I absolutely love to shop. I love clothes shopping, my favorite store is American Eagle. My second favorite store is in North Carolina, but I often order from the catalogs. Can you guess the store? It’s Eurosport! There isn’t much better than opening a new pair of boots. Another hobby of mine is cooking. I love inventing new things for dinner. So far no miss hits!

There’s a little bit about me, some fun facts if you will, maybe something you’d find on the bottom of a Snapple lid a quick summary of me. Now before I wrap it up, I want to thank everyone who has made this experience possible and especially everyone who has helped me throughout my journey so far. Thanks mommy and daddy for always pushing me to pursue my dreams, and my brother for always being great competition for me, even though he must be slacking lately, and also everyone in the Fleming Island and Orange Park Rotary Clubs for putting so much time and effort into making this experience a life changer. Most of all, thank you to my future host families for having the courage and the hearts to take me in and assist me in my experience.

Joel’s Journals

September 2 Journal

It’s been just over a month since I arrived here to this wonderful city, Araguaina, this wonderful state, Tocantins, and wonderful country, Brazil. When I hopped off the plane at the dinky Palmas airport, I figured… “O, this is what I expected… I think I’ll head over to the belt and get my bags.” As I got my bags I was looking outside for a sign with my name with a bunch of people standing around it. Well, there was a sign, but a small one. It was an 8 X 11 sheet of paper with my name printed in 48 point font under a 3 in. Rotary International logo. I was kind of… surprised. There were men around the sign, too, but they all looked… confused. Until they all turned and saw the only non-brasiliero in the airport strolling towards them. When they noticed me, they sprang into life, all but jumping for joy. I was swarmed with man-hugs… all 8 of them. then I saw a boy with his Rotary blazer on too… I would soon learn that he was on his way to Mexico. We exchanged pins and we went our own separate ways, I with Andre, my exchange counselor, and he with the other guys from his host Rotary club. I threw my bags and blazer in the back of his small manual VW pick-up and we started the final four hours of my journey.

All the way he talked about himself, about Tocantins, and my favorite part… soccer! It turns out he is a really good player. When we finally got to Araguaina, there were loads of people out in front of a big Rotary statue holding a huge sign. As we drove up, horns were blaring… this is the biggest surprise. Andre and I walked up and were shrouded by a herd of people and pictures. This was very very fun. After an hour of chatting and trying to talk in Portuguese, Diego, Etienne, mae, e pai beckoned me to the car. We put my stuff in the trunk because we had somewhere to be.

It was a college graduation party. it was very different than anything id ever seen. This graduation party for his uncle was the first time I saw a Brazilian dance called foro. I’m learning. The next day we went to the farm. We played volleyball all day and went to the waterfall. That’s right, there is a waterfall in the farm grounds. I love it. It’s so fun to jump into the pool at the bottom. It is so great. I’ve gone three times and I finally got to ride a horse. We also had two concerts, Chiclete was the first and Jorge e Mateus was the second… they were very fun… and very crowded. My highlights so far have of course been soccer… I’m finally getting accustomed to the play here… it is very different from what I know.

Overall things are great. Thank you Rotary for all the opportunities laid in front of me and thank you Fleming Island and Araguaina Rotary clubs for all your support. Until next time, this is Joel Haznedl, signing off.

October 19 Journal

What an incredible past month and a half this has been… I’ve done so many things! I moved to a new family, I got to ride new horses, and I found my favorite one. He is white and brown and he loves to run, which is fine with me… even though when Monday came, I felt like I was kicked in the bum. My family also took me to aabb, a big club for swimming and various sports. I saw some of my friends there too and we played tennis all day… barefoot.

A few days later I would be leaving for my trip to Rio so I needed to get some clothes. I bought some jeans and underwear… it was very very expensive. Another thing… shopping here is much different, when they ask you what you want they take out literally every article within range of your size and lay it in front of you. It’s great!

Also, a great thing is my Portuguese is coming along splendid; I’m so excited to understand almost everything! Some people even missed the fact I was American… until they said something I didn’t understand and heard my signature catch phrase “nao entende,” which means I don’t understand.

Okay, so we finally left for our trip to Rio… our 36 hour bus trip… with loads of stops and days in between. We went to many cities… the only names I remember though are Brasilia, the capital, Rio, of course, and Ouro Preto… which means “Black Gold.” While in Rio, we went to a game… Flamengo v. São Paulo. Flamengo has the support of more than 30% of Brazilian population, and the rivalry is equaled only by Florida and . The game was so fun and was good because it was a “V” for Flamengo. We also went to the Christo and Pão de Açucar, both were excellent!

I met so many people too, I grew closer to people in my class and on our expeditions I met at least fifty Germans, a Swiss, former Rotary exchange student to Texas, and many others. With one of the Germans it was fun debating and conversing American politics. I find myself in political debates more often than not however. Some even get heated, one when I was at aabb, with a friend of my host family, he was getting hot and wouldn’t back down. Well I had to go and he swore in Portuguese. But it’s fun seeing foreign view of the republican, I haven’t met a single person that was pro-McCain. It’s funny, their limited view of American politics, yet they are still itching for a debate.

Also, while in Rio, I got a tattoo… well… I’m leaving it at that. Actually I am on the bus on the way back typing this. I think we’re going to stop in another city… great… I’ve already had to wash my clothes in a sink once. It’s 1:15 a.m. and I think I’ll go to bed.

December 7 Journal

OK… I have to admit… November wasn’t as difficult as everyone said, and boy am I glad for that! Now, having said that, it was tough. I loved all the Thanksgiving wishes but with each wish came a memory, a memory of home, a memory of family, a memory that stung my heart.

Another thing that’s been tough is the friends, always feeling the odd man out, always knowing you’re never THE best… Always second. On the soccer field, the good thing is the look on the other players’ face, but the bad part is when they tackle cleats up, every time. When they come in five times as hard on you, when they just mess with you till you can’t take it.

When all these things happen, I’ve learned, you just have to be yourself. Play your game and watch your step. The life of an exchanger is different than any other. We might hear about how hard the life is at home with our friends in high school, but they haven’t felt the solitude, the hardship, the pressure to do what we are asked, whatever it is. It’s very difficult to hold up, without mom or dad, always coming last… Dead last. Never the first, getting used to your family, or leaving a family you love near the same as your own.

I can officially say these first few days of December have been the most difficult yet. The first time I thought, “man, this next eight months is gonna feel like eight years… I need to get home, back to normal.”

I am excited for Christmas though. I get to go to Goiania which is a city in the state of Goias. It’s only about a ten hour car ride, but I’m used to it, going to Indy every Christmas and summer and sometimes Thanksgiving, 18 hours to grandma’s house.

Well enough for now, everything’s been great apart from the missing home. To the other exchangers, good luck and keep on truckin’. Thanks Rotary:)

January 7 Journal

In this past month and a bit I’ve seen some things, learned some things, and felt some things. These… ‘things,’ are the pieces that I know will put together the puzzle of my exchange, but not only my exchange, but me. These things, anger, loneliness, happiness, and togetherness. I’ve felt all these things in this roller coaster of my late November through December and on to these few days of January. This small composition will probably make some of you laugh, but the idea of this is to help prepare the future outbounds. This month has definitely been a fast, twisting, somersaulting, realization of life in general.

First thing ‘I’m gonna throw at ya’ is the anger, I figure to start with the ugly first so you’ll forget it by the end. There has been many times I got angry, whether my dad forgot me at school, or I got ditched, or even because I got stuck at home. The first one was being left at school, that’s a two mile walk, if you know where you’re going at least, but, I wasn’t too sure of Araguaina at the time. Well it was the afternoon session that ends at five and me and him had it set up to meet there at six. Now, I knew he was always late, so I figured I’d give him some slack, a thirty minute cushion. After the wait, I figured it wasn’t too long so I just hoofed it. I had taken this walk before with my good friend, Edwin, the Mexican exchange student living in Araguaina, so I thought I could make it back quick and easy. That quick and easy walk turned out to be an hour and fourteen minutes, forty-five of that in the dark and light rain.

When I got home, tired, wet, and angry, my mom saw the sarcastic smile on my face and asked where my dad was. I told her, “o, he’s at the farm, he forgot me at school.” I think that’s where I went wrong. The next day I didn’t say a word to him, not the drive to school, not the way home from school, not at lunch, not at dinner. Nothing. The thing was, he seemed oblivious to the whole thing, which not only surprised me, but, well it just surprised me. So I decided I’d talk to him the next day, it was Friday, so, I had to be nice. Well that was when he iced over. That soon came to not talking, “free” money, and not saying ‘no.’ Now some of you guys might see these as a good thing, and at first I tell you I did. It really felt like I had all the freedom in the world, like I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. But I soon figured out this wasn’t the case. Take a second and think what is would be like if a parent didn’t say a word to you, not a word. After the excited feelings left I figured, wow, this is really bizarre, and I tell you it definitely was.

Living in the states I never looked at myself as spoiled, my parents talked to me, they said no, they didn’t always give me money, but that wasn’t a problem… I mean who wouldn’t take a fifty to go to a party or somewhere, where you won’t use it. But all that is just kidding, I never took the money, not because I didn’t want it, not because I didn’t need it. I didn’t take it because I knew that’s how he was trying to apologize. He was literally trying to buy my happiness. But when they say money doesn’t buy happiness, it’s true. All the money buys is something to add to your mask to cover how you really feel. But this offering was different, it almost felt insulting. I can’t explain exactly why, or what I was feeling, maybe it was resentment, maybe it was fear, maybe I just plain didn’t care, but the fact was I couldn’t take the money. I knew that the only way to make it right would be to talk to him, however, due to my feelings, I waited for him to come talk to me. If you were wondering, that rarely ever happens, and I’m sure I knew he wouldn’t come talk to me, but I just didn’t care anymore. So I let the time pass until the last few weeks in the house, after I was hanging with Edwin at his house nearly everyday. This was after I had completely disconnected with my host dad. He had started forcing me to go to parties with the family, well he had my mom force me. I think he finally figured I was mad and the only way he was gonna fix it was to talk and I think he was a bit afraid of the outcome, or he just doesn’t know how to talk about things like that.

I finally figured why I was going to all these parties. The first one I arrived and knew lots of people but the ones I didn’t he made sure I met them quick and talked with them a good while. So that’s what I did, at first I thought nothing of it, until his party for his office where it felt like I was the poster child for the customers he had there and for his boss. I noticed I was being forced into talking to people, ‘no ifs, ands, or buts.’ Once I figure this out I just dropped off the face of the earth. This was about 2 weeks or so before I moved houses. Edwin had left, but I’m still really good friends with his host brother and I do enjoy hanging out with him every once in a while. It came to the point where I was chillin’’ with Guto, Edwin’s host brother, everyday, and sometimes even night too. The last week in that house I spent few hours at home. I can honestly say the hours at home were for sleeping. I had two lunches in that time, one dinner, and short nights of sleep. Well, only about four to six hours a night.

The final weekend came and they were headed off to the farm, and he didn’t even plan on me going, which was great because I was offered to stay at Guto’s house over the weekend, but, my host mom wanted me to go. The phrase that finished it for me was when he said that I had to go unless I had any parties. Well what do you know, of course I did! I had three barbecues on Saturday and Sunday and he seemed right pleased that I had the plans. He didn’t even tell my mom until after they got there. I spent my whole weekend there, three nights and days. Friday night till Monday, night. I thought this was the coolest thing in the world because I was leaving on Tuesday, and some of you might scowl because at this remark, but, I absolutely could not wait to get out of that house. Now don’t get me wrong, my brother’s non stop talking was obnoxious, but bearable. My mom actually treated me like her son, which was pretty cool, even though I still had to make my own plate for lunch when I was there. I guess I was just little exhausted. The day to move came, my brother, I think is still rejoicing, my mom was crying, and well, my dad, I think he was indifferent. O well, it didn’t bother me anymore, but I finally got into my new house. Looking back on this whole thing, I can definitely say I’m still angry with him, but I think I should have looked at all this in a different way. I view him as the bad guy, and for one thing, he was, but I then noticed how much of a jerk I had been by not forgiving him. I don’t know what I was feeling – I think it was just that time, being around Thanksgiving and all. But the feud is over now at least, because I moved houses.

Loneliness, it started about the time of Thanksgiving. I started noticing that I had good friends, really good friends, but not one could I talk to about anything. When I say anything, I mean, AN-NY-THING. Lacking that I started thinking about what I had at home, and quickly realized that nothing could match, Ty, my best friend pretty much since I started at my school in tenth grade. I mean, I used to think about her everyday, and I missed her a lot, but I finally figured out how much someone like that means to a person. That’s when the loneliness set in. It got to the point where the only things I had fun doing were soccer, volleyball, computer, and watching people with just as much loneliness on “Two and a Half Men.”

This soon became the cause of my days, everyday, I would wake up and go to school, after school I would take a short nap or sign in to my computer. Depending if I had soccer or not I would go to soccer, or just wake up and get on the computer and wait. Wait till I could drown my loneliness with laughter at someone else’s problems. Even if they are made up, but grossly true. The point of this ramble is the fact that to not be lonely I was alone, day in and day out, with the blinds, windows, and door closed. I finally saw that I was still lonely. After all, the base of the word alone and lonely are the same, ‘L-O-N-E.’ The word ‘lone’, an adjective, meaning having no companions, being solitary, or single.

I found something that would help, the guy who had the most in common with me, after all, I’m an Republican American with blue eyes and light hair in a democratic environment where only around one percent of the population has light hair and/or eyes. You could definitely say I stick out like a sore thumb. The guy I decided I need to get close with doesn’t have light hair, blue eyes, or even light skin. It was Edwin. Right now you’re probably thinking… “What did yall have in common?” The truth is, except from appearance, everything. He is the other exchange student, he is away from his friends, he is away from his best friend, he is feeling the exact same things as me. This is when we started hanging out nearly everyday. I can honestly say he became my best friend… Definitely no replacement for Ty, but a pretty darn good fill in.

This is when I started letting the loneliness go. I started missing my shows and getting off the computer to hang out with him, I started feeling better, talking to him, and we both started getting way better. We are about as close I can get to someone who is not Ty. This is the thing that helped me the most. Not the synonym, being alone, but getting a “substitute.” I dunno if our friendship will last long after the exchange, maybe it will, maybe it won’t, but I hope it will and I know it’s something I won’t ever forget. Not for the rest of my life.

The next one, happiness, this one is the most interesting I think because it’s not happened to me in a long time. By long time, I mean before I really got interested in girls, which was like, sixth grade. It has been at the point for a long time that the only way I could find ‘happiness’ was, to “Put a Girl In It,” that’s in quotes because it is a song by Brooks & Dunn. There’s a quote in that song that says “if you’re ridin’ in your truck, put a girl in it,” and in the song it is meant how it’s said, but me being me, I took it for more than I should have. I used that phrase as a symbol filled allusion to my life. The truck became my heart, the empty seat became the space in my heart, and what did I think should fill it? Of course, what it literally said, I put a girl in it. I didn’t look at girl as a friend, or in a religious way. To me that part of the statement was just, girl. The double X chromosome.

Well I soon found out that wasn’t the way to do it. I always had my best friends but I had them pushed up against the wall of my space and filled the rest with good smelling perfume and pretty faces. It got me in loads of trouble ever since middle school and I just realized that that wasn’t the way to do it. Perfume doesn’t fill holes well, it just leaks out until you fill the hole with another one that smells good to you. Then the scent dies away and you need a new one again, and it soon becomes a never ending downward spiral. Let me tell you, relationships are not the key to happiness. Well relationships like that aren’t. The relationships that lead to happiness are your friendships, the ones you should really focus on. I found out, when I became really close to Edwin, that I had found it. It felt weird.

The first thing that crossed my mind was the feeling I hadn’t felt since I was a child. What is this? What do I do with it? How do I keep it? I figured out that your friends and family should take first place, that’s the first step to filling that hole. The second is to stop being lazy, get out and go have fun, don’t stay on the computer or watch television all day, that stuff just adds to the hurt. The third thing is, that in your fun, you remember who is with you, who is there for you, and kick it with the funky cats who you can truthfully call your best friends. They’re the ones that help you get out of trouble, they’re the ones that get in trouble with you, they’re the ones that know what’s best for you, even if you think they’re class five bonkers. Now saying this, Edwin is a normal chill dude, not entirely crazy, I mean, he has his moments when the monkey is definitely clapping the cymbals, but when it comes down to it, he’s boss at bestfriendmanship. He helped turn my frown upside down and see the light that I had turned off for so long. He helped me see that I didn’t need a girl to be happy, not even to be content, which I view as a step lower than happiness. He gave me that final kick in the bum that showed me who my happiness comes from. The ones who wipe my tears, my best friends.

One of the things that helped this exchange a lot is the feeling of togetherness that starts to grow on you as you find your group of friends, the binding force you feel when you get to know your family, the feeling you have when you are on a trip with other exchangers. This is one of the most refreshing feelings you will find on the Rotary Youth Exchange. You will find that there will be good times, and there will be bad, but just think about the amount of other students who are having the same problems, who are away from home, who have that same lost feeling you do. Always, always look to them. They are looking for the same thing from you. On your exchange you will have many friends native to your host country, but many of them you won’t remember, and many of them won’t remember you. The ones who really stick are the exchangers, once you’ve had your first encounter with the other students the desire for more time with them will arise. Let me tell you from experience, the other students will like a lot of the same things you, for me things like soccer and other sports. Another big thing most of us like to do is just have a bit of quiet, a bit of time to ourselves. Using this time will come in handy in tough times, times when you miss home, times when you’re alone and have no one to turn to, times when you are just tired of hearing your new language because you have literally been having to think through every word, every phrase that you speak. The best feeling of togetherness is when you get with the other students, there isn’t a more secure feeling in your exchange year than that little time you will have with them. Those are the things you’ll remember. When you get back home your stories will start with, “Well, I was at blank with the other exchange students and so-and-so did this and my friend Kain said this.” Those are the best times you’ll encounter.

Now that I got most of the things I learned off my chest and out into the world, I figure I should talk a bit more about my last month. Like I said, it was a bit rough with my past host family but with the fifteenth of December, I moved into my third house. I know it seems a bit early for that, but so far I’ve been moving houses in two month increments. My first house, I am going back for another month and I expect to stay in this one three months in full. I had many Christmas parties up to Christmas Day. The first party was of my second host father’s business. I knew no one, but this is the party where I felt like the poster boy. This is the one where I got stuck talking to his boss for nearly an hour. But I ended up having fun, I mean, it could’ve been worse. The second was the Christmas party for my first host father’s business. It was fun and I knew some people, but I didn’t take part in the secret Santa. I then had the Rotary Christmas party in which I got a new shirt and a picture frame. The next day I went to a barbeque with Guto and his mom to another Christmas party and I didn’t take part in that as it was for the old people. By old I’m talkin’ older than me.

The house we were at I’d been to many times and I can still say I love it. It’s big, it’s beautiful, and they have a nice pool. One guy even came and landed a helicopter in the back yard. It was so cool! The next day we went back for lunch to help finish the rest of the feijoada. Feijoada is a Brasilian stew that uses all kinds different meat and beans and all sorts of things. It is great mixed with hot sauce in a cup. I’m gonna learn how to make it so I can bring it back to Florida.

The Tuesday after that was the day I was moving out. There wasn’t much left to do. Guto left for Sao Paulo, Edwin was already there, and I had only a few friends home. So most of my days of the last week were organizing the music in my library. That’s over twelve hundred songs, one at a time. My time was finally full and being put to use. I also had to unpack into my new room and repack to have more space in my suitcase. I need more space because I am currently traveling for two full months. Before I started my travels I was hanging out with my friend Gabriella, her brother, and her brother’s girlfriend. We went to the clubbe to go swimming and play a bit of volleyball. The funny thing about AABB, the clubbe, is that to swim, you have to wear a sunga, which is a speedo. I must say, I do enjoy my bright red sunga. I’m actually going to buy some more, well I have to. Those are the plans for now anyway.

But later that day I went with Gabriella to a friend’s Christmas party where an old lady, who I didn’t know, read some parts from the bible. We then did the lord’s prayer in portugues and they recited a catholic prayer. It was really different. We also had a gift exchange which was cool but I wasn’t originally going to go, so, I didn’t take part. I got home at around 11:30 and watched the Simpsons and Criminal Minds until the next morning when we left for travels at five in the morning. The first place I stayed was Goiania. I was there for twenty-three days staying in my brother’s apartment. We were there for Christmas and to wait for my plane to Sao Paulo. The trip is only five hundred kilometers from Goiania, whereas from Araguaina, the trip is something like thirteen hundred kilometers. It’s a lot shorter, and a lot cheaper from Goiania. I think it’s worth staying in Goiania with my brother extra time for the cheaper faster flight. While there, we had three Christmas parties. The first was just a Christmas dinner where we read the same things as the other party the night before. We also sang hymns in Portugues. It really surprised everyone when they heard me singing.

On the twenty-third, we had a party at my aunt’s house. I didn’t participate in the secret Santa because I wasn’t expected to be there. My aunt had no idea I was coming. So the first one was fun, I got to meet my dad’s side of the family and my Grand got me some cologne. The day after, on the Twenty-fourth, we had another party in which I did participate in the secret Santa. I got my cousin who I hadn’t met but holy goodness is she gorgeous. She is the blonde in the picture with me at the bottom. I got her some earrings and a ring to go with it. My sister, Rayssa, the dark haired girl in the other picture with me, drew my name so she had to get me a gift. She got me a new pair of jeans, which I needed. I also need to hem them because my legs are way too short to fit, story of my life.

Then Christmas Day came and I got to talk to literally everyone. I talked to Ty, everyone on my dad’s side of the family in Indianapolis, my mom, and a few other friends. It was pretty cool seeing everyone and they were definitely surprised at my new four eights of an inch hair cut, considering it’s been since third grade that I’ve had my hair this short. I also found out that I had a bunch of things sent to me, however, I won’t get them until mid February because of my travels. After a few days of nothing, we went to a wonderful place with natural hot water. The name of the city is Caldas Novas. It has many hotels that have pools of this water. It’s so great, I could just live in the water. After three days in Caldas we returned to Goiania. For New Years, we went to a show. The singer was Claudia Leite, her name about describes her music. We’ll just say its a good thing that I brought some headache medicine. I mean, the show was fun, but I was ready for bed about half way through.

These last few days were great, some barbecues, parties with the family, going out with my brother and sister, everything you could imagine to complete a stay in Goiania. These few weeks were great! Now I’m waiting at my aunt’s house, here in Goiania, for my flight to Sao Paulo where my Northeast Super Dream Trip will start. It’s going to be a month of fun and beaches with a bunch of other exchangers. I can’t wait!

March 9 Journal

This journal consists of many things, for starters, it involves a month of fun…

So, the day of December 19 my third host family and I left the house where our next 12 hours would be spent riding in a cramped Hyundai Santa Fe. it wasn’t cramped as to there were so many people, I mean, we did have 5 people in 5 seats, but the fact of the matter was all our stuff. We had Rayssa, my host sister, both of our host parents, and the… what is she called… o ya, maid! Well due to my host mom and Rayssa packing 5 bags apiece and my suitcase the back seat wasn’t too pleasant of a place to sit. I had brought my big suitcase because directly from Christmas, I was to travel, but I will save the details for later.

So by the time we got there, we were all stinking to high heaven, tired, and most of all, hungry. We arrived at my host brother’s apartment in Goiania where he and my host sister live during their school. They don’t study in my city, they go to a big university in the state of Goias, UFG. UFG is the Federal University of Goiania, and it is no easy task to enter. They are both studying law.

Back to my Christmas. So the minutes there I met my host extended family… and, well, some of them are a bit strange. They even remind me of some of my dad’s side of my real family. Christmas was very very… interesting. We ate, a lot, like normal, but there was a tradition I had never seen in my life. Everyone got in a circle, and had a little paper with songs and scripture and even a little picture of Mary. We all sang, then ate, and some people prayed. By the time everyone got out, I was ready to crash. I ended up returning to my host grandma’s and lights out right as I hit the pillow. We had a few Christmas parties… six or something like that. We also did gift exchange which was fun and pretty funny. I got jeans from Rayssa. For regular presents, my host parents got me a pair of shoes, six t-shirts, a pair of pants and I think that’s it. I got a load. After Christmas we spent a few days at this wonderful place with natural hot water… The hotel had huge hot tubs, the size of swimming pools. I will remember the name and always return there.

So I was set to travel on my long trip that started the tenth of January, but my family was leaving to go home on the eighth. It was decided that I would stay at my host aunt’s house. I stayed for a few days and was at a churrasco, then I hit the airport.

So I waited for my plane and I saw my friend and fellow exchanger, Hugo, from France waiting also. I didnt talk to him until we landed in Sao Paulo because I knew that he didn’t recognize me, after all I had shaved my head a just few days prior. I got on the plane, put on my music, and my snores soon could be heard through out the compartments. Yes, I snore and yes, it’s very loud. Well, when we finally landed in Sao Paulo and I arrived at the baggage area, he had his bags and was with the Belo Brasil girl. Belo Brasil is our touring agency. So I got my bags and the two of us hopped in our taxi. We left her there because there were more students arriving later. We got to the hotel to find all the other exchangers in one room. We joined them and talked for hours and eventually went to get some food, but by that time everyone was starving… almost literally!

Well as the night drew to a close we all found ourselves out front of the hotel listening to stories and talking in groups. Those of you who don’t know me, well, I was one of the story tellers and in my new group of friends it was easy to talk to them and just have a good time. I met some of the funniest people that night.

So the next morning, 5 new students arrived and we were to get on our bus, however there were two buses leaving from the same point. Mine was destined for Brasilia and my friends, well of course they were off to Rio. This meeting was short but real sweet. The few of us hopped on my bus and were on the road to Brasilia. It turned out good, my friends Philipp and Jay were on the bus and we had some fun on the way. We made many, many stops to get to Brasilia. We had to pick up students and soon our bus was full except for 3 seats. We did a city tour in Brasilia, and watched the sunset off of the huge TV tower… at least that’s what I think it is.

After Brasilia, we were off to the real part of the Northeast Dream Trip. We were to cities and small towns, some had roads, some didn’t, some were brick, some were sand. The town that had no paved roads, Jericoacoara (jer-ree-kwa-kwa-ra), there was a beautiful beach and it didn’t stop by the water! The roads throughout the village were composed of sand, and there was a big rock called Pedra Furada that was excellent. My friend from Denmark, Alex, and I wanted to see it, but we missed when the group went. So we asked our… leader if we could go and he said it will be difficult to make in the two hours before dinner. He told us it would take a minimum of three hours without taking pictures. Well, of course, Alex and I were off. We went at a jog and a sprint, up and down the mountains of sand and sparse vegetation. We ran past other tourists and were told, at a run, we could make it by nightfall. Well, being the fact that we were half way there, it was too late to turn around. We kept on truckin! We made it with light still, and got a few pictures done. Now being me, I led us back through the hills figuring on physics and gravity to help us. Get up higher on the hills and find the paths going to the beaches first. These paths all went down, that’s where the physics and gravity comes in. We were armed with a camera that had our time, but neither of us were sure it was right. To see what time it was or how much we had left, we shot a blank foto and looked at the time it said. We were on our run back and, no lie, I kicked 11 rocks and one huge piece of wood. We made it back with forty-five minutes before dinner, so we hopped in the pool and still had time to shower.

At dinner, my big toe was really big. In our days there, we also took a dunebuggy ride and got to do sand boarding… It was an excellent experience. We went to other beautiful cities like Natal, which means Christmas, and Itacare. Both beautiful beach cities. Another City we visited which was my favorite was Fortaleza. We stayed in an absolutely breathtaking hotel right on the beach. The water was the color of the sky and the sand was white as snow. Fortaleza just was the perfect description a beautiful beach. We went to a bunch more cities, all with shopping malls and beaches. We even had one day where we were at a beach and they had a load of people dancing to Axé music. That’s the music they play at Carnaval. My favorite bands are Chiclete com Banana, Ivete Sangalo, and Banda Eva. At the end of the day, a few of us guys went to dance with them… that’s when it started. First my good friend, Jakob, from Denmark, got called up to dance samba. He got up and faked a ridiculously bad samba, that was hilarious. The next to be called up was of course someone who could dance single ladies… Well, all my friends had heard about my single ladies experience at my school before I left. So I got called up, and danced to single ladies with another guy… Of course it was videoed, and it will be in my memory forever. In front of three hundred people, dancing single ladies… excellent. Then two more guys, one from Germany and the other from Mexico got called up and they had dance like girls… there is a story inside of that, but I will save it for a living room chat.

We finished in Rio with samba and funk lessons where we learned the dance to Créu. Sexy sexy… We saw the Sugarloaf and the Christ and wrapped it up. Some of us were off to our cities on the way back to Sao Paulo, others, like me were back to the hotel to wait for our flight. The long bus ride went really really fast. The end of the trip came with tears from some and laughter from others, but one thing’s for sure… Everyone gained lifetime friends from that trip. For you future Brasil exchangers, the two trips you have to go on. The Northeast Dream Trip and I hear Amazon is a must. Those are the two.

So back to my travels, yes, I got home 2 months after I left for Christmas. That’s a long time away from home away from home… get it? So Carnaval, we were at the parties for 4 days but did other things too, we stayed in Salvador for a week, we, being my family. So after my northeast trip, I took my flight straight to Salvador, where I would land and stay at a family friend’s house for a night and a day and wait for my host family to arrive. So the tenth they met us at the shopping mall. Fantastic, we had lunch in the food court. I ate Burger King, the thing is, Burger King is excellent in every country, there is not a better international fast food restaurant. This is a strong recommendation for exchangers, always go with Burger King, it’s the better choice.

So after the food court we were getting our “abadás” ready. I say the actually word because I’m not sure what it is in English, you future exchangers, this will also happen to you, but an abadá is what we had to wear to get into our block. Carnaval in Salvador has many blocks, each of which is composed of one band or dj and two huge trucks. These trucks are rigged so the VIPs can go to the top and the band also can, they also have a men’s and women’s bathroom in the second one. They both blare music at deafening volume, I still have trouble hearing and it was a month ago from the 13th. They play music at the volume where everyone can jump up and down and dance and sing and go crazy and still hear it. After the first day I kept yelling because it was like I constantly had water in my ear. To decide where the blocks ended and began, there was an incredibly long and heavy rope held by the “Cordeiras,” the people paid to carry the rope. It was incredible!

The Carnaval sometimes started very early. One day, the first block left at 3 pm and the last one usually leaves at 12 or 1 am. There are also people who don’t go inside the ropes. There is “camarote” and also the “pipoca.” “Camarote” is where the people have a type of box. It’s raised off the ground and at some of the bigger boxes, a band might stop and do a minishow for the people in the camarote. The “pipoca” is for the people who didn’t want to pay. They are on the outsides of the street and in street clothes.

The crazy part about Carnaval is the police. There is one group that wears all black, they are riot groups and they do not have rules. If you touch the police in anyway, you usually take a shot in the gut with the nightstick, but I was warned the “black” police were the bad ones. Often times we would walk through an area and there would be tear gas in the air. It was in small amounts, but it’s impossible to not notice it. The security was very tight, but there were still many many fights. One time, we even saw a man who had gotten his head smashed against the sidewalk. It was so crazy.

The one block where the pipoca is the most dangerous was at Chiclete com Banana. Chiclete is a band that everyone in Brasil knows and out of everyone I have met in Brasil, I only know one person who doesn’t like. So it’s always full and always crazy. One day we were on the pipoca walking back to the car because our block finished and we walked by Chiclete. It took twenty minutes to pass two hundred feet of people. Two hundred feet of shoulder to shoulder, back to front, and sometimes people broke out into a fight and it would get dangerous because the bad cops would storm the area. Everyone knows they’re bad so everyone moves and that space of shoulder to shoulder back to front minimizes tenfold. There were times when I would have fallen but it was so tight I was literally held up off the ground.

One specific time I remember was one fight that was really close to our group so we backed off and my feet were literally off the ground but it looked like I was standing. My arms were one on my chest and the other at my side and I was “standing” in the supercrowd waiting for the cops to finish their work. I know I’m talking about the bad stuff but don’t get the wrong idea, it’s not all that crazy, it’s actually really really fun.

In my block, I was there three days. The first day we had Tomate, a singer who isn’t that bad but he isn’t one of the big guys at the show. The second was Banda Eva, one of my favorite Axé bands and the third was my favorite, Ivete Sangalo. The day of Banda Eva was the craziest in our block. There were many many people and everyone jumping up and down. To jump you had to stay with the people near you otherwise you would get some, what I like to call, “Carnaval burn.” That’s when you’re jumping up and down and you are rubbing against the people and friction literally gives you a burn similar to a rug burn.

The days were crazy and like I said, when I got home, my ears were ringing and talking was at high volume. Now I know how my Grand feels:) Love you Grandma!

The day after we did our three days of blocks we went to camarote. We had an excellent camarote. They had free drinks, two floors, and a club! It was amazing! When Claudia Leite, a crescending singer, was to come by, she stopped at our camarote and did a minishow for us! The TV cameras were from above us because the stage was on the second floor, the next day we were watching national TV and guess who we saw! It was so cool!

Back to the 11th, we had a show to go to. We went to see one of the most known American artists, Beyoncé. Her show was brilliant. Ivete Sangalo opened for her, and was also brilliant. I used to not like Beyoncé’s music, but I guess that was just what I needed. I have most of her show music on my iTouch now! It was fantastic, that is something I will always remember. This week was incredible, as was the two month travels. I love Brasil.

June 23 Journal

A few weeks have passed since my best trip on exchange. The trip to the Amazon was the most memorable yet. No, we didn’t see many animals, catch many piranha, stay in a bunch of great hotels, relax on beautiful beaches, or have any good parties, but, what our group had was memories. We danced on top of the boat, the guys team beat the Indians in soccer for the first time in the trip history, we got to jump off the top of our tour boat, we stayed in a hotel that rivaled a castle in size, we took boat rides into the forest to see Indian tribes, we visited a school, we had a canoe trip in hollowed tree canoes that sunk with the slightest movement, we made jewelry, and we just had fun! There is nothing I could say or even show you that would describe this trip. If you have heard the saying, “pictures say a thousand words,” it doesn’t matter how many pictures I show you, it won’t show you the power of this trip. The only way to show justice for you and the trip would be to experience it in the flesh. It is my highest recommendation for everyone to see the Amazon.

Because a few weeks has passed, it means my time is coming to an end. I am in my last month and my date is coming up. I’m leaving home to go back home. Saying that statement feels just as weird as it sounds. A part of me says I’m ready and another part thinks I’m crazy for leaving. Honestly, I don’t know which part is right. I was sent here to Brasil with 2 goals, to learn the language, and to learn the culture. Within six months, these goals were completed. With my last few months, I just honed my Portuguese and became even more Brasilian. I have done my job, and it is up to the next exchanger to finish his work and so on. So as my time finishes, I know that it’s my time to step aside and open the door for the next student to step into my shoes. I wish every one of you new outbounds… and inbounds, the best of luck in your exchanges. This is my last journal… Thank you everyone for your support and belief in me.

 

Kelsey’s Bio

My name’s Kelsey Taylor Breen. I’m 15 years old born on June 17, 1993, and I am a sophomore at Allen D. Nease High School in St. Johns, Florida.

Facts about me

I love warm weather (This is a reason I think Taiwan is perfect for me).

I can’t stand the cold. My dad says I’m cold blooded because every time I’m over at his house I’m wrapped in blankets complaining saying “are you trying to freeze me out of the house”.

I spent most of my weekends at my godmothers’ house on the beach growing up.

Moved from Jax to Orlando with my mom for two years, 7th and 8th grade. Then I moved back to Jax.

I lived with my friend Jamie and her family for a month. I worked at their Thai restraint a little also. (Orlando)

Over in Orlando I did competition cheerleading

I was in a beauty pageant. Ms. Teen Orlando.

I got to sing with the Nease choir at Epcot Dec. 28 for candlelight.

I used to go to John Robert Powers acting agency. They even got me an extra part in Ace Ventura 3.

My favorite color is pink.

Interests

I love acting and singing.

I love reading (If you look in my room you’ll find books everywhere – under my bed, in my drawers, in the closet, I even have some just randomly on the floor).

I love Disney princesses except Snow White.

I own every Barbie movie that is currently out.

I like anime and manga.

Family

My mom is Wendy Cruff.

Older brother Christian Breen (18)

Boxer (dog) named Brandi

My dad is Patrick Breen and my step mom is Holly Breen

My cutest little brother in the world is Charles (4)

Jackrussel named Jackson

Kelsey’s Journals

August 22 Journal

My start to my exchange was what I’d call a half empty half full kind of thing. I almost missed my flight and they said I was too late to check in my luggage. So I have only 2 outfits till my mom can ship over my bags. But I’m trying to see this as half full – I mean I made it on the long boring uncomfortable plane ride and I get money to go shopping with my host sisters. See: half full. The brighter side.

It was so funny when I met my family at the airport. I myself looked like a zombie having just slept 16 hours in the most uncomfortable position. My face was red, my hair was messy, and I’m pretty sure I had imprints from the pillow on my face. But my host sisters were smiling and giggling and said I was pretty. I was so touched. I just wanted to gobble them up because they were so cute. My host brother was so sweet – he handed me the most beautiful bouquet of flowers and didn’t laugh at me when I tried speaking Chinese which I might add I am no good at just yet. We took lots of photos and then we went to a noodle shop. Okay so the food here in Taiwan isn’t what I’d call delicious. It wasn’t nasty either. Their soda was really tasty though. When we went into the little noodle shop I felt like I had a huge sign on my back saying I’m a blonde American so stare at me lol. After dinner my host brother took me next door to the 7-eleven it was so CLEAN … Americans beware: once you step into Taiwan gas stations, you’ll never wanna go back to your own dirty smelly ones.

So my room is on the third floor and it is huge and it’s got pink everywhere. It’s like it was made for me lol. I went to take a shower and I must say I was very surprised at their showers. It’s actually a spray shower head in the corner of a bathroom … there is no tub or anything. There was so much more room than there are in our tubs.

So after that I forced myself to go to bed at like midnight and then I woke up at like 7, wayyy too early, so I decided to start my first journal to kill time till my host sibs wake up which should be any minute now. So I’m going to go now. I’ll write my second journal once school starts.

September 22 Journal

OK let’s start from my last journal and my family waking up…. That day they took me to Llan Ho Da Xie (national united university) for an awards thing because Rotary had to do weekend lessons on how to be a host parent and there I met Nicky who went to Florida 2 years ago (woohooo go Floridians) … then I went shopping for clothes since my luggage hadn’t come yet (but it’s here now) …. OK time skip – I met Nicky and his cousin Kevin again on Tuesday which was my first Rotary meeting. Ok so Kevin went to New York two years ago also …. he and I went around San Yi the next day.

During this past month or so I did something every day but I think you’d get bored hearing it all so ill only say important stuff…

In my second week, I hung out with my brother and his friends a lot and they took me to play basketball and I was awesome at it …. I stood at the free throw line and my teammates kept passing me the ball and then I’d shoot and score so it would be our ball again so they passed it again and I shot again…on and on…

And also in my second week my host cousin and his two friends took me to the movies and then we went to my cousin’s school and I met some of his classmates and then when I got home I was rushed out with my mom and lil sis betty (15) and we did this belly dancing kinda class. It was so fun.

Now down to the important stuff. I’ve finally started school and I hate my uniform – it’s so ugly…yellow shirt and hot pink pants (PE uniform). I like the pants but not the shirt …and then our nice one is red skirt and white nice shirt … I saw a pink uniform shirt like light hot cherry blossom pink and a pink plaid skirt I must say I was very jealous … I want it… I love pink …… OK now back on topic – I’ve made a lot of friends but I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to all the stairs and stares lol … everyone stares at me, it’s embarrassing … and my school is 7 floors high and there are 3 buildings … I’m on the 4th floor … so tiring …

I went out my 3rd weekend here with my classmates for their birthday (the twins in my class). We went to hot pot, then I went with my cousin and his friend Shane to the night market (which I’m in love with). I really love my school food because there is a convenience store connected to it =]…. I don’t do much in class but sleep, study, sleep, listen to music, English, and sleep … but the good part is the teachers come to us not the other way around … soooo nice

So 2 weekends ago I went to Nan Miaol with my friend Emma (she from New York) and we had so much fun …. We went to McD and these 14 year olds came in and bought me ice cream and were like nice to meet you, you’re very pretty…sooooo sweet.

So here is my warning to all people that are thinking about Taiwan for their place if you wanna do youth exchange … you will have to walk … a lot … also you will be taking busses everywhere … and trust me I’ve barely figured these busses out … so hard … tears =[… so be ready to be lost at least once.

Here is some randomness for you readers

The garbage trucks play music (Beethoven that du-nu-nu-nu-nu-nu-nu-nu song)

They don’t flush toilet paper

We had a wild dog come into class (it just walked through front gates and up the stairs into my class … weirdness)

They stay in school till 5 but they have nap time after lunch

Everyone LOVES studying (OK not everyone but a lot)

My sister Betty left about 3 weeks ago … I miss her (she went to Germany)

They don’t have air-conditioning in school

You may get stalked and stared at here (cough cough) so get used to it if you come here

They have camera paparazzi everywhere so get used to taking pics =]

There are metal rainbow shaped poles here that are on the ground that are waiting to trip people … things to block cars and bikes from going that way… (it really just popped up and tripped me … it laughed at my misery)

Also a clock fell down from my wall the 3rd week I was here and glass cut my foot.

Oh and also 2 weeks ago I cut the side of my foot on the door because I accidently closed it on the side of it … it bled … a lot

END OF RANDOMNESS (read next month for more)

OK so here’s my last thing to write about … I started Chinese lessons at National United University and it is HARD!!!! But I’m improving ie dien dien (a little) … and I also am in chorus with Emma at NUU … It’s hard singing Chinese songs that are written in characters not pinyin…

November 13 Journal

As of right now I’m in the beginning of my third month here in Taiwan and it feels like time is passing by in the blink of an eye. I just wish I could have a remote control on life to rewind my time here and do it over and over so it never ends, but time doesn’t stop for anyone, so all I can do is keep going and try to make as many memories as I can here.

So many many things have happened in this past month. But my most accomplished moment of this past month is when I went shopping with my friend Emma. At 8:30 in the morning I took a bus to the train station and even had a short Chinese conversation with my bus driver. Then my friend Emma met me at the train station and we walked around that area for a few hours, then we walked to her house for lunch. After lunch we walked back to the train station and took a bus to Nan Miaol and shopped around there. After shopping at about 3:45 we started walking from Nan Miaol to National United University where we take chorus together and went to our chorus class. After that Emma stayed there and I got a ride from my Chinese teacher’s friend to the Nan Miaol bus station where I took a bus home … I must say that day made me feel very accomplished.

My school life is finally starting to get interesting. I embarrassed myself in front of the whole 1st year grade at my school. My school was having a singing competition, and the night before it, my class told me I would be singing a solo … in Chinese … so that’s about 16 hours to learn the song … IN CHINESE. So of course I did just that and memorized it. But when I got on stage everyone started screaming and there was no accompaniment so it was a capella and I just couldn’t think with all the screaming, so I forgot the tune which in turn made me forget the words … SO EMBARRASSING. But then everyone did the sweetest thing and sang the song with me … it was sooooo sweet and my class tried to cheer me up after =] I love my class.

After the singing competition an officer at my school asked me to join the flag team for the sports festival on the 21st and of course I agreed =] so now I’m a flag girl. And all last week I stayed after school with my class till 8:30 making a traditional Chinese dress by hand…from scratch…..which means me, Ms. Clumsy, dealing with needles and thread…it was not pretty but it was fun haha…and lastly my classmates used me as a model during art class which was sooo fun =]

Actually right now I have half days Monday thru Thursday. Fridays are my only full day at school. On Monday I leave at noon to go to a college for Chinese lessons and Tuesday I go to a kindergarten in the morning to teach English as an assistant teacher and to learn Chinese at the kindergarten. Then I come to school at noon. And Wednesdays I teach English at a junior high in the morning and come to school at noon. And last on Thursday at noon I leave for the collage again for Chinese lessons….I have to take the bus sooo much.

10 random things in Taiwan

Students here think it’s normal to stay after school till 8:30 to study

They have school here on the weekends

Elderly people ride electronic wheelchairs here in the streets….as cars

There is a convenience store connected to my school

Teachers come to you in school so you never have to leave your classroom unless it’s for an elective

McDonalds has pictures of healthy food all over the walls…like pics of apples and salad and water and healthy veggies and fruits…..but we all know…. it’s…… a….LIEEEEEEE

They have 12 courses in their meals here

So I’m at a wedding and sit through 12 courses of dinner and finally I think it’s time for cake but then nope… nothing ever goes the way you want it to… guess what everyone gets up and leaves…reception’s over, time to go…NO CAKE FOR YOU…they didn’t cut the cake in front of us or share it … tears =[

If you have a cold or cough or sneeze they ask “are you okay??? You should go to a doctor.” And if you have a blemish they ask “what happened” like it’s a cut or bruise or something – sooo embarrassing.

THERE ARE NO TAMPONS HERE

WO AI TAIWAN

December 26 Journal

聖誕快樂 (Merry Christmas)

I can hardly believe that just this time last year I was finding out that I would be going to Taiwan and now here I am in my 4th month over here in Taiwan. It’s scary how fast time flies by.

Over this past month I’ve been feeling a tiny bit homesick because Christmas was coming up but my host family quickly diminished that feeling with all of their kindness and love. They made me really feel like it was Christmas in Taiwan. My family told me they would like to do gift exchange with me and that they wanted to celebrate Christmas for me even though they’re Buddhist. so for Christmas I first went to school and brought Christmas stickers to school and randomly sticked my schoolmates with stickers haha … then my class and I played secret Santa and my Santa got me a beautiful red Christmas scarf ( I also got lots of candy and these cool basketball wrist bands that were pink).

Then at lunch time the Canadian teacher put on an inflatable Santa suit and we went to every classroom in the school and threw candy to the students. Haha it was so fun. After school I went to KTV with my mama, meimei, gege, and my gege’s friends. It was so much fun. My gege Bill dressed up as Santa Claus and passed out presents, then we played a game where Santa asked a question (in Chinese) and if we answered right we got to pick a card out of a bag and we got the present with the number it matched. I got a watch. We stayed till 11:00 but I got tired and fell asleep on a couch at 10. But privately my host mom got me a beautiful sweater and my host brother and cousin got me a pink scarf <3 so sweet. My other host cousin got me candy and a cool phone case. I got my mama and my meimei matching scarves, my brother new earrings, my cousin a hat, and my other cousin candy.

The junior high school I assist teaching English at also did a Christmas party and gift exchange. It was so funny because the students who guessed wrong had to do some crazy thing like break-dance or pushups. haha

On the 16th of December I went with 3 of my classmates dress shopping for the 18th’s dance. Before dress shopping, though, they somehow convinced me to try stinky tofu – it was so-so. And then we had this liquid drink with these little jubies in it. It was delicious.

On the 17th of December I went and watched the Riverdance with my host family. It was so cold but it was also so cool.

On the 18th or December I went to a Christmas party at a Pacific American school which means ENGLISH AND DANCING. My friends host brother invited us. It was so much fun. I bought a pink dress for the event and went with 4 other RYE girls. We danced till we couldn’t dance anymore. haha. The boys were shy so we would hold hands and circle a shy looking boy and make him dance haha. There was a little girl problem so me and my friend Rachelle had to run out in the middle of the dance to a 7-eleven in cold weather in dresses and heels. So funny. What was not funny was taking a train in a fancy dress….way too many people staring. But Rachelle’s host mom got us professional make up for the night, so nice.

And last but not least there was an earthquake rated 6.4 on the Richter scale. It was so cool but my little sister came into the computer room scared. She was sooo cute.

Now it’s time for everyone’s favorite part of the journal

Randomness in Taiwan:

Taiwan’s weather is almost as bipolar as Florida’s

Shopping is AMAZING AND CHEAP <3

The weekend hi-life bus stop is a 20 minute walk from my house

Commercials here are hilarious

You eat these rice balls with red bean inside during New Year’s which means you’ve grown a year

You get red envelopes at New Year’s

Most everyone is friendly here and shy

There are more motor scooters than cars here. haha

Everybody Loves KTV

Yes! Teas creamy milk tea with brown sugar and jubies is delicious <3

January 29 Journal

Five months. My half past point. There’s many good things about now being here in Taiwan for five months – for example my host parents allow me to go outside to different areas of Taiwan more with my friends, I’ve learned to get by in Chinese and not be completely clueless, and I’ve made many, many strong bonds. But the downside is that in only another 5 months I’ll be packing my stuff to go back to Florida. To all the 2010-2011 youth exchange students: make sure you make every second over in your new country count. To all 2010-2011 Taiwan students: if you have any questions you’d like to ask about Taiwan send me e-mails and I’d love to answer at the best of my abilities all of your questions.

So the month of January has been….very very packed with things to do. For new years I went to Taipei 101 with 8 of my classmates and friends. Taipei is very crowded on new year’s but the show you get to see at Taipei 101 is a once in a lifetime experience for RYE and I recommend to all you Taiwan students next year to go see it.

My host dad’s been gone in China a lot for business but he came home for new year’s weekend and we went bike riding with the family in memorial park and went to Tainan to visits my mom’s family for new year’s and Christmas and we went …BOWLING. It was so amazing I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve missed bowling with family.

My host mom’s birthday was on the 16 of January and I got her chocolates but instead of spending time with the family she went to a hot spring to relax. ahhh I was so jealous….buuttt the next day I went strawberry picking with my friend Emma and her and her host mom took me on my very first trip to the hot springs. It was AWESOME. My skin came out so smooth and silky.

Then the next Wednesday me, Emma, and David went to my little sister’s school camping trip… at an elementary school haha it was pretty boring but we managed to not bore ourselves to death somehow ^^. The next day me and Emma decided to cut our hair and Em got her curly hair straightened and bangs and I got mine cut and curled…it’s so short I’m no longer Rapunzel as my friends say haha. Then that Saturday all the 3500 RYE gathered in Tainan and we WENT.ON.A.BOAT…I’m on a boat was our theme music for the day. It was awesome. We also went to a market and made spin tops and got food yummy yummy food.

I’m officially on winter break now which means no school for a month. I’m kinda sad because I’ll miss my friends but we are going to hang out outside of school as much as we can ^^

Coming up … February fourteenth is NOT Valentine’s Day but Chinese new year’s. Which means red envelopes, lots of food, family gathering and dragons at temples, also make sure to stay awake to midnight so that the monster doesn’t get you and to put red envelopes up all over the house.

To all 2010-2011 RYE here’s my last piece of advice for the month of January. When you pack, pack light and pack stuff you don’t care about. Because your stuff will get ruined here. Your sisters will steal your shirts by accident, your brothers will take your girl boxers by accident cause your mom won’t know whose clothes are whose, so make sure all you have in your new home is stuff you will not miss. and also you’re going to want to shop a lot so make sure you have room in your suitcases to bring your new belongings home a.k.a. you should leave one suitcase EMPTY.

Now for everyone’s favorite

Randomness in Taiwan

Taiwan has a delicious restaurant called Modern Toilet where all the stuff is shaped as poo and bathroom stuff.

In Taiwan there’s Chinese, Japanese, and American haha, so if you’re white, they think you’re American … good luck European countries and Canada

Taiwan doesn’t give money tips

Taiwan has no tax

Taiwan men love to dress as women and dance to wondergirls’ song nobody

Taiwanese LOVE karaoke and beer

Taiwan has the best tea ever….yes! Tea is creamy milk tea with brown sugar…yummmmmm

Taiwan girls are sooo small and cute…so don’t expect to find much clothes that fit you here

Taiwan shopping…is….cheap ^^ so perfect for us broke RYE students … and you can also try and make price lower and sometimes they agree $$ CHACHING

April 9 Journal

I know I know 2 months with no journal….SORRY….. (insert super juniors song “sorry sorry”)

So the last time I wrote was in the end of January and now it is April. Hmmm where to start? Well during February we had the biggest event of the year, Chinese New Year. I was still at my first family for the new years. Chinese New Year is celebrated over a one week period. There are fireworks, lots of food, money, temples, and family. During the New Year my parents took me to Taipei to see a Van Gogh and a Da Vinci art exhibit. They also took me too central Taiwan in the mountains to see snow and play in it and I can say for sure that I could not feel my fingers after 5 minutes. During new years there were many dragon shows and fireworks. At the end of the New Year I moved into my second host family’s house.

On a side note….let’s take a second to talk about the wonders of trains….the things you can do on a train while you are alone in a car with only your friends…..imagine a whole car to yourselves…well you could

Sing loudly

Hang upside down on rails you hold onto

Dance

Pretend to be meditate

Act crazy and race along the area

Take crazy pictures

All of the above (I choose this one – which do you choose?)

At my new family’s house I have two brothers in their 20’s and a mother and father. When I first came to this new family I was very scared seeing as I had just spent the past 6 months at my first family’s house and was very much attached to their children and very comfortable in their home. But soon I became accustomed to my new life and new home. There are some conveniences that are, well, more convenient here in Tounglo where I now live. Like for fact I’m only a 5 minute walk from the train station or that there’s wireless internet and even a real bathtub/shower. Lovveee itttt. But the bad part is that the place is even smaller than Miaoli and the mosquitoes here in Taiwan are on steroids. But luckily they’re more attracted to my friends than they are to me.

Around the end of February there was a festival called the lantern festival going on. My family took me to Taichung to see the lanterns. This year was the year of the tiger.

After that there wasn’t much going on until March when we had a 3 day trip to the east. It was very fun, we went to Hualien and Ilan. While there I saw an old woman sewing Haka attires. And we went to coal mines with beautiful scenery and we went to museums and to a swinging bridge I thought would break that led to a temple. At night we were free to go anywhere so the first night we went to a beach and bought fireworks and lit them off and we sent a huge lantern into the sky that we got to write wishes on. On the second night me and my friends went to the ilan night market and ate dinner and walked around. I learned that I am very good at the claw games.

At school I have many friends and right now my class is planning our garden party which will sort of be like our sports festival but more fun. They want me to dance in it…..the Macarena….HECK NO!!! And there’s also a school dance coming up. I am very excited for both of these things and will take lots of photos.

This is my advice to new students coming to Taiwan and even to other countries. A great way to learn the language is by watching their soap operas (Taiwanese have the best) with subtitles and the speakers turned up so you don’t miss a sound.

Now I know you all have been dying for the best part of my journals….randomness in Taiwan so here it is for you

There’s a Casco here….YES!!!

They have no spring break in school =[

The American book prices are jacked up way too high

They think it’s abnormal to have 2 dogs….it’s either 1 dog or 3 and more, never two.

I saw a Ford truck here!!!! The first real truck I’ve seen in 7 months.

The best drink in the world is still jenju nai-cha but seeing as it’s not made in Florida I’m learning to make it.

Couples here wear matching outfits and sometimes have matching hair colors…like per se purple….it was lovely.

Buses and trains hate me.

My iTouch broke and they only have retail iTunes stores here, not the real stores…also they say it’s unfixable so I have to buy new a iTouch … mine was only 7 months old but they already have a new generation out so they stopped producing the one I have … but I only have to pay 95 American dollars for the new one.

Taiwan smells bad!

I LOVE BADMINTON! At my school there are 5 sports you can play. Swimming (seasonal), basketball, volleyball, badminton, and pin gong. Also if you’re lucky there is sometimes a 6th called dodge ball which I have only had the honor of playing once in my 7 months here.

Reading dismissed. That is all!

June 1 Journal

The month of May was probably one of the best months of my life in Taiwan so far.

May 9th was my school birthday where every class was selling something. Be it food, drinks, games, or art. It was all fun. My school sold hand drawn bags (my bag was horrible but my friend still bought It anyways. Bless her kind soul). I bought this drink with some kind of carbon ice that makes the drink all smoky like a witch’s cup. I went to a haunted house that didn’t scare me until the end where somebody grabbed my leg (evil friend). I also shot cans with a big shooting gun thing. It was like a machine gun but with pebbles. It was so much fun. At the end there was a school dance with some famous Taiwan rappers rapping at and some pretty cool dancing. Two of my friends came to it. We got a lot of attention because we actually know how to dance. I had 4 boys ask to dance with me ha-ha.

May 13 through the 22 my mother came to Taiwan for a jam packed full of crazy traveling nine days visit. I picked her up from the airport at 6:45 (she was 35 minutes late) and from there we stopped in Hsinchu for breakfast and bubble milk tea which she gasp did not like. I just don’t know how I can call her family anymore. Trust me it was really tough after that. Then my host dad took us to a temple and to lunch at a beautiful place called green arc. We then went to the hot springs and after had dinner. My mom couldn’t believe how much they could eat here. It was very funny to me. The next day we went and saw my school then went to Sanyi which is famous for its woodcarving. For dinner we went to a Rotary meeting where I showed my mom the Sorry Sorry dance and the Nobody dance with all the Rotary people. And my mom kept having people toast her and drink. She was very confused for a while ha-ha. Here you can only drink alcohol when you toast so the people just kept coming up to her to toast her.

The next day was Saturday and we traveled to Hsinchu for my speech contest and then we took a fast train to the very south called Kaohsiung. The next day we traveled to a beautiful beach called ken ting for 2 nights and 3 days. On the third day we then went to Taichung which has an amazing night market. We stayed there for one night. The next day we went to Sun Moon Lake and about 4 temples and Old Street and a wine factory all from 9:30 to about 4. We traveled that night to Taipei and had dinner at a restaurant with my host brother called Modern Toilet where everything is shaped as bathroom things. It was very humorous for my mom. We stayed in Taipei for 3 nights and 4 days. We went shopping, saw a movie, ate sushi express, and went to a temple and a zoo. On the 4th day I took her to the airport where I sadly had to say goodbye.

On the 28th of May I moved back to my first host family and on the 29th I went to a Rotex meeting in Hsinchu where pp.ent gave us all our MONEEYYY oh how I love money.

Randomness in Taiwan

My mom doesn’t like bubble milk tea

My mom doesn’t like stinky tofu

My mom loved my host families

My mom loved the countryside more than the city

I got my mom to say I’m stupid in Chinese ha-ha

Everyone thought my mom was my sister (which I quickly fixed)

My classmates made a beautiful book for my mom with notes to me inside and photos.

It’s so much cheaper to travel in Taiwan than it is anywhere else.

My mom loved the umbrellas in wine bottles in Taiwan

My mom is a camera-holic

My mom asked me to translate the craziest things into Chinese.

My mom said she thinks she’ll need a vacation after her vacation

We noticed that every house had water tanks on them in Kaohsiung

The gods couldn’t hear my mom

The gods can’t speak English mother.

The gods heard you this time mother congrats ;]

On June 17th I WILL BE 17 =]

Thank you for reading the month of May’s journal.

August 6 Journal

I’m no longer the foreigner. Now I’m just Kelsey. And I’m no longer the “special girl”.

I have now been back in America for about a month and It just doesn’t feel real. I feel like when I wake up in the morning I’ll be putting on my uniform and hoping on the bus to school.

Though I miss Taiwan I have learned many things on this once in a life time opportunity. I feel that I have grown up. Even if only just a little. I now have friends and family across the world and have formed bonds that will last me a lifetime.

I would like to tell about my last 2 months in Taiwan. In June it was my birthday and my classmates threw me a “surprise party”. They aren’t really good at the whole surprise thing but it was very sweet and made me cry on the inside a little bit. They hand made me a cake with an elephant decorated on top. My class is the art class after all. They got me beautiful presents like hair ties, key chains, earrings, my name on a traditional Chinese stamp, and even a cover case for my iPod that they bought on their trip to Japan. They then shoved cake on my face and tied me in ribbon and made me hobble around school all day. Supposedly its tradition….yippee. I hand-made a shirt that day that said 17 on the back and on the front it said in Chinese characters “give me birthday a.) Hugs b.) Kisses c.) Presents” many people were surprised that I could write in Chinese ha-ha. My host mother got me the most beautiful bracelet from Swarovski and my second host mom got me a beautiful necklace. My host brother and cousin got me a music box and my little sister a cute teddy bear. It was my most happy day in Taiwan. I had a dinner with a lot of my friends and brothers friends at a hotpot place and was very very very happy.

On the last day of school in June my classmates threw me a surprise goodbye party and I went to the city Hsinchu with my best friend Maggie. I was extremely happy. And I miss my best friend very much. But we call and text every day. We even got best friend matching rings that say forever friends on the outside and Kelsey & Maggie on the inside.

In July I was leaving. And for the last 10 days I stayed with my third host family. They were so kind and took me to night markets and got me a traditional Hakka parasol and a beautiful lantern. I spent my last days with my family and my best friend. For my last dinner we all went out to an American restaurant. we then after went to the night market for the last time. And that night my best friend and I packed about 3 times before we got my luggage perfect….she’s not the best packer ha-ha. It was very sad at the airport but my family was there and so was my best friend and we had bubble milk tea. I will never forget my life in Taiwan. And I promise to go back as soon as possible to visit.

Thank you for giving me more loved ones rotary. They are not my “Host” family they are my family.

 

Things that weren’t left behind in Taiwan:

1.) Throwing my toilet paper in trash can….my dad’s not too happy with that habit I got from Taiwan

2.) My love of bubble milk tea

3.) My best friends best friendness. We are still best friends even if we are on opposite sides of the earth.

4.) My knowledge of the trains and busses and all of Taiwan

5.) My awesome Taiwan clothes and jewelry

6.) My Chinese skills =]

7.) My hatred for vegetables and healthy food

8.) My love for Taiwanese soap operas

9.) Wearing masks when sick

10.) Wanting to eat with chop sticks

11.) Wanting to take my shoes off outside

12.) Saying “wei” whenever I answer the phone

13.) Saying “niga” which means UMMM whenever u don’t know what to say.

14.) My HATE of pop-a-squats!!!!

15.) MY LOVE FOR TAIWAN!

 

 

Lauren’s Bio

You’re a harbinger of good things to come

A sign that it’s all changing for me.

It’s a happiness, euphoria

Something out of a fantasy.

And that is exactly how I felt when I received that one phone call informing me that I would be going to Brazil for my junior year of high school. When I hung up the phone all sorts of emotions hit me at once. It was probably one of the happiest moments in my life, and probably the biggest life change in such few words. I can guarantee that I have absolutely no clue how this will effect my life, but I know it will. This knowledge has brought up a very common question … Who exactly am I?

The easiest, most unique way to describe me is I am Lauren Youngerman. I attend Fleming Island High School as a sophomore. I’ve spent all of my sixteen years living in northeastern Florida, and I am a total wimp when it comes to cold weather. I started off my life being an only child, but about a month after my fifth birthday I had to move over and share my family with my brother Tristan. Since then we’ve gone through many things together as a family, and I love them dearly. Throughout the years we’ve also gone through many pets, leaving us with our current dog named Jake, and cat named Spaz.

Well yes, that is all the easy stuff…. Yet again, the question does appear, Who exactly am i? Being a “Lauren Youngerman” that defines me as many things. Fun, unique, crazy, kind, caring, lovable, helpful, independent, friendly, entertaining, and so much more that would take forever to list! If sounding self-centered, that is the last thing I aim to be, I’m just confident on who I am. I’m the kind of girl who will hold her head up high no matter what happens, and I enjoy to make the best of any and every situation.

Fun is guaranteed when I’m in a place. Anybody would easily agree with me, no matter the situation, I can make things fun. There isn’t much that I do grudgingly, and I will try everything. Sure, sure try everything, but one may ask what I really truly love to do. Sailing is my most favorite thing to do in the world, and I try to do it whenever I can. I love the feel of rushing across the water being powered by an aspect of weather, the wind pushing me along the horizon. It truly is a magical feeling. I also enjoy the simple pleasures of life, however, such as hanging out with friends and family, exploring what there is around, shopping, and just watching a decent movie.

Well, I’d have to say, that pretty much sums me up. I’m ready for anything life throws at me, and I’m very excited about being able to spend a year abroad. I’d like to thank everyone who has made this wonderful opportunity possible, and I’m very honored to be a part of it.

 Lauren’s Journals

September 24 Journal

Oi Florida! Tudo bom?

So I’ve been in Brazil for over a month, and I’ve done an AMAZING job at putting off this journal. It’s not that I don’t have anything exciting to write about, but it’s just that I keep putting it off, I’m a master at procrastination. Sorry about that (: So, how do I put the most amazing month and a half of my life into words? It’s honestly not at all fully possible, it’s been so much more than I expected and over all just completely wonderful. I’ve had the best experience of my life so far, and I’m sure it’s only going to get better.

I left the United States August 2, 2009 on a flight leaving Miami at 9:20 PM (I did have another plane from Jacksonville to Miami before then, however). The 8 hour plane ride went by much quicker than I thought. I only was able to sleep for 30 minutes but I kept myself entertained by watching a movie and coloring, and I spent nearly 4 hours coloring in my Disney coloring book that I brought along. Landing in Salvador led me to confusion. Almost no one in the airport spoke English and I had such a hard time trying to find where I go to check back in to another flight after Customs! But luckily I experienced right off the warm and friendliness of the Brazilians and someone showed me the way. 3 hours later, I was on a plane again on my way to my city! I hadn’t really began feeling anything until I began to see the beach and the outline of a big city in the distance. I instantly knew I was going to fall in love with this beautiful beach city.

Leaving the plane I was greeted by my host family waiting outside the doors for me. Exiting that airport was stepping into another world I was so unprepared for, so excited for, and so ready for.

Sometimes, it’s so hard to believe I’m doing this. I’ve become so accustomed to everything that goes on in my life here, it’s feeling all too normal! I have to remind myself sometimes that I’m in Brazil. I already can see myself changing, I know I will never be that same girl I was before I left.

School here is wonderful. I don’t understand a thing, but it’s good. Everyone here is so much louder in the US, and at times school is so much more fun. However, one thing I noticed upon reading my friend’s journals was that most of them seemed to be really enjoying English class. Honestly, my English class is my LEAST favorite class. I don’t understand ANYTHING! How, one might ask, can I not understand a class that teaches the language that I actually know? Well, to begin with, my English teacher does NOT know English, she’s taught the class things that are wrong, I try to tell her and she ignores me because she doesn’t know what I’m saying. Also, when people try to ask me a question on how to write a certain form of a sentence, I get so confused! These were things I learned maybe in the 2nd grade and do not remember a single thing about! My friends here are quite disappointed that I can never help them with their English work. On my first English test I received a mark of 7.3/10 on the test. That shows how well my English is, right? Well besides English class, I have a variety of other classes which I still can’t remember what they are or what days they come on. I know I have 2 chemistry classes, 2 physics classes, 2 biology classes, a math class, a Portuguese class, a gym class, an English class, a composition class, and I think maybe another one or two that I’m forgetting. Here, teachers switch classes instead of students, so I never had to worry about going to the wrong classes. Overall though, school started off great but now has just become school, but I completely adore it and the people inside!

About my city? Rotary didn’t tell me that I’d be living my year abroad in complete paradise. I live an entire four blocks from such a beautiful beach! I go at LEAST once a week. I love it. However, you can’t swim in the beach here (or at least you aren’t supposed to, but I have anyways) because of a shark problem they have in this city. It’s so much more beautiful than the Florida beaches I’ve grown up with. They are definitely much cleaner and much more lively here! Someone is always trying to sell you food or jewelry or clothes or anything on the beach, it’s neat.

Since I’ve come to Brasil, I’ve already been on a few trips, but none of them outside of paradise. I’ve gone to the prettiest beach in the country, in my opinion the world, called Porto de Galinhas. I had never seen anything like that! It is the kind of beach you only see in pictures, yet it was completely real! I’ve gone to Maragogi, a beach in the state to the south, a few times as well. The first time I went to Maragogi was with Rotary. Oh, that was such a wonderful trip! I got to meet the other inbounds in the Norbrex multidistrict, they are all such lovely people. This was our inbound orientation, and we honestly did little with Rotary. We spent the weekend creating friendships, playing games, swimming in the ocean, building sculptures out of people buried in the sand, dancing, eating, feeding monkeys, turning guys into girls and vice versa, and overall just having an amazing time! I adore the other inbounds and cannot wait to see them again in December! I also went to Maragogi this weekend, but this time with my family and my sister’s best friend to my family’s beach house. I had a lot of fun (:

Brazilian food is the best thing in the world, really. I was a vegetarian before coming here, and I hadn’t eaten beef in YEARS. I just thought it was nasty. Now you wouldn’t hear me say that or even anything close. I love the meat in Brasil. There is such a variety of meats and flavors, it’s all delicious! A fairly common food here is chicken hearts, and as disgusting as that sounds, it’s very good.

Many of my friends here say that they prefer American (US) food more than Brazilian food. I am usually very confused by this statement and have to ask them what they mean by “American” food. This leads to disappointment for me, they respond with “Oh, my favorite is the Big Mac!” or just simply say “McDonald’s.” I then usually hear about how when they think of the US, all they think of is McDonald’s and Disney. It disappoints me to hear this, I don’t even like McDonald’s, but I’m glad I can be here to make an impact and change their views on what they think of “All Americans”. In being an exchange student, I realize there is a lot thought about me, especially when I am in a place that hasn’t seen other exchange students from Florida. They look up to me, this is how they will think of Americans. It’s a lot of responsibility, but I think I can handle it!

One can easily see that I’ve changed, at least a little already, and will continue changing. I’m welcoming said change. I’m also helping change the world around me by “sharing the sunshine state with the world”. Thank you Rotary for giving me this opportunity, I’m going to make the most of it.

Beijos!

-Lauren Youngerman

December 1 Journal

Oiiiiiiiii Florida! It’s been a while, huh?

I’d like to begin with apologizing on how long it has taken me to write this journal. It’s hard, so many things happen at once and you can’t help but be overwhelmed. Brazil is treating me wonderfully! I’m having a tremendous time, and it’s only getting better! I have the most wonderful friends (some Brazilian, some other exchangers), a great family, and the most beautiful city.

Since my last journal I’ve done many things. I’ve gotten incredibly ill, I’ve visited some of the most beautiful cities nearby (Olinda), I’ve gone to the beach countless times, I’ve seen new moon at midnight with my host family, I’ve gone out with exchange students, I’ve gone out with Brazilians, and oh so much more. However, recently was when the real fun started to happen. A couple weeks ago I went to Miribilandia, a local “theme park”, with my school. Honestly? The park was terrible. It has very few rides/attractions, and some of the rides are the same ones that we have at our local fairs in Florida. It was an amazing day however. I know the rides definitely disappointed me, and I was going through kind of a funk at the time where I was just completely having a bad day. But this time of the year, the park hosts its Nights of Terror, where every night there are shows of pirates and cannibals while they run around the park with other frightening figures scaring people and there are also multiple horror houses to enter which will scare the socks off of you! This didn’t scare me at all, but it definitely made my day. Actually, no, what made this trip so great wasn’t because of the monsters, but my friends’ faces in fear of the monsters. The most hilarious thing I think I had seen. It was so wonderful; it was an amazing day for sure. I always have a good time with my friends from school. They are such wonderful people.

I’ve also done some pretty amazing things as well. A couple of weeks ago, Rotary had this “small walk” on the beach. This “small walk” was actually 25 kilometers, which is approximately 15 miles. I am not sure if I’m proud, or angry with myself/Rotary to be able to say I walked the entire way. It was pretty great though. With all my exchange student buddies, we walked along some of the prettiest beaches for 25 kilometers and just had a blast. When we finally arrived at the house we were going to, we had lunch and went swimming in the pool. All the Americans and other pale skinned foreigners were bright shades of red, and everyone was just exhausted. That morning, I woke up at 5 to make this walk, and we met at the beach at around 5:30… That’s even earlier than I wake up for school! I didn’t return to my house until maybe around 5 or 6 that evening, and shortly after I made plans to go to a party that night. I ended up staying at this party until after 4 AM and I arrived in my house shortly after 5. This was the most killer 24 hour day of my life, but definitely a great one. I had so much fun, and I really do love all of the people here.

Saturday, I went to a place where they make sugar. That was actually kind of interesting, minus the horrible smell. However I think what made it so great was going with the other exchangers. Not only did we go with the 8 kids in my city, but we went with about 16 or 17 other exchange kids from other nearby cities. When we arrived at this sugar cane factory place, we were made to wear these very sexy hard hats, and bright orange ear plugs. Watching the sugar cane being transformed into sugar and then into other products, such as Álcool for cars, was a really different and neat experience.

After that the 20 something of us piled into a small bus and took off for lunch. While eating lunch, I spotted a monkey in the restaurant. Not a little picture of a monkey, or a stuffed animal, but a living monkey climbing around the restaurant walls. This is one of those “Only in Brazil…” moments. Before coming to this country, I had never seen a wild monkey climb around in a restaurant, or have cats walk by and rub up against my leg in the middle of lunch, and the strangest part is that nobody thinks anything of it! It’s completely normal!

After lunch we all piled back onto the bus and went to a “reserva floresta Darwin.” We took a hike through the woods while being told about plants and such, and how many of the plants only found in Brazil are used in many medicines. It was pretty neat, and the best part was when our little tour guy dude spoke about this stuff –  it was in Portuguese but I could understand everything he was saying! This is always a wonderful feeling. After our little hike, we went over to this little place to see animals. The animals we got to see were a 2-headed snake, a “dog rat”, a variety of screaming monkeys, a two-toed sloth, and a large snake. There was something very interesting about these last two though, we all got to hold them and take pictures with them! That was really neat. I never would have thought of having a giant snake draped around my shoulders and feeling it slowly move with every muscle across my arms, or of being able to pet the fuzzy lazy animal that I only ever see in the Jacksonville Zoo when it’s sleeping! I really had so much fun this day.

Portuguese is a very difficult language, but I understand it more and more each day! I can’t say I’m fluent yet because commonly I stumble over words or am not quite sure what I’m trying to say or just some days I can’t seem to understand anything… But I am learning! Commonly when I talk to friends or family back home I catch myself slipping into saying something in Portuguese, or when I’m talking with friends here in English I suddenly change languages on them. It’s really cool thinking about this. Sometimes I even begin to think in somewhat broken Portuguese! However, I have not had a dream yet in this language, and that’s a real downer. I’ve been here for almost four months, and still nothing. I can’t wait for it to happen though!

Well, that’s all that is occupying my mind at the moment, except for the fact that I’ve got a lot to look forward to! My birthday is quinta, or Thursday, which also marks 4 months in Brazil. I’m quite excited and I plan on going to the beach for sure (since I can do that here). There is a downside though. My host parents will be in FLORIDA on my birthday, visiting Orlando and Disney World (How slightly ironic, huh?). Either way, I’ll still have a good 17th Birthday, and I’m actually really excited about that. A week and a half after my birthday, I get to go to a nearby city in the north east, called Natal, with all of the other exchange students. This will be a blast, I can’t wait. Then after that, Christmas and New Years, and so much more! J Sometimes, recently, I’ve been feeling quite homesick (because of the holidays and such), but all that I’ve got to look forward to and my amazing friends get me through it all! Eu amo Brasil!

Again, I must say Obrigada to everyone who has helped me get here. Thank you Rotary for making this possible, Thank you Rotarians for helping me out along the way, Thank you Mom and Dad for just being there and helping my dream become reality, and Thank You to anyone and everyone else who deserves a thank you!

P.S. In my last journal, I mentioned paradise. Right now I’d like to take a moment to reflect on that. It hasn’t changed, it is currently around 80-something degrees outside, and it will only get slightly warmer for the next few months. Because of this, right now I LAUGH at all of you back in FL or in more northern countries at the moment. I hate the cold, so this area of Brazil is absolutely perfeito para mimJ. It’s also very nice being on summer vacation right now, not having to wake up for school in the morning, and being able to go to the beach or shopping center every day? Oh, it’s simply perfect!

January 9 Journal

Before I begin telling you about my life in paradise, I’d like to wish everyone a feliz ano novo, or a happy new year. I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and New years, and wish that all is well for you in the new decade.

Since my last journal a lot of things have happened. In December my parents and friends threw a surprise birthday party for me at the local Pizza Hut, my best friend took me out to dinner on my birthday (which I spent most of the day at the beach), I went to Natal with all the other exchangers, I survived Christmas away from my family and friends, and so much more.

One weekend in December we went to a city in the northeast called Natal for our “Natal em Natal” (Literally translating into Christmas in Christmas, but the second “Natal” is the name of the city), and it was just absolutely wonderful. We stayed with families rather than staying in a hotel. The family I stayed with was really wonderful, I stayed with a girl (Paula) who went to the US a couple years ago and who has walls COVERED in harry potter, no joke. Paula and I quickly bonded over the food we miss from the US, such as Froot Loops and Mexican food, and easily became friends. Saturday, the only full day we had in Natal, began quickly. We were on the beach at 9:00 in the morning to help clean the already decently clean beach, and to give Christmas presents to the kids who helped us.

After this we all piled into a numerous number of Buggys and took off for the dunes. Being from Florida, just the site of these dunes was breath taking. These sand dunes were notably bigger than any hill I’ve ever seen in Florida. This experience was completely terrifying but undeniably one of the most fun things I’ve done. It was like a rollercoaster without restraints through mountains of sand. Near to the ending of our great sand adventure we stopped to take a group picture and hold some animals. In this area, when you looked around, you didn’t see much other than sand for such quite a distance. Here, there was a guy with a monkey, and a guy with an iguana that allowed you to hold and take pictures with the animals. So, I held a monkey. Actually, I didn’t hold it. That little monkey jumped around from people to people if anyone was near by. The little monster attacked my sunglasses which were on my face at the time, but it was incredibly cute. After our little break we all packed up and headed back to the dunes and on our way to a little stop where you could take something like a swing on a zip line into a lake. That was an incredible amount of fun. Once everybody got their turn, we headed out to lunch then back to meet with our host families again to eat dinner and get some rest before our party that night. Our party began at 10 PM and lasted till around 3:30 am. It was nice to be with all the exchangers talking, dancing, eating, and just having a good time (:. The next morning was even earlier, we had to meet at 8:00 in the morning for breakfast, and shortly after we were on our way back to our cities again. It was kind of sad knowing that I wouldn’t see most of these amazing people again until the district conference, but it was awesome because the kids from Aracaju (a city farther south, by a 10 hour bus ride or so) came to Recife that day.

My host parents were still in Florida at the time, so I ended up staying over at the house of Laya, my best friend from Germany. However, the exchange students from Aracaju needed a place to stay as well, and we ended up having 5 people in total sleep in Laya’s reasonably small room. Lexie, from the US, Johanna, from Germany, and Erin, from Canada, all stayed with us. We really had a blast. That night we went out to Skillus, a little restaurant in the shopping, to have dinner with all the other exchanger students from Aracaju and some Rotex. We then returned home and stayed up late just talking about all sorts of things, and just had a good time. Eventually we got to sleep and were awoken early the next morning to travel with everyone to Olinda and Recife Antigo. The day was a blast and ended with us going out to a bar with all the exchange students from both cities for several hours. Most of these people I don’t see or talk to too much, but still people that there is no problem connecting and talking to. I really love the group of exchange students in Norbrex. Everyone is really wonderful, and I’m really grateful to have such good friends here from all over the world. The next morning, the Aracaju exchangers packed up their van and headed back home. It was sad to say goodbye, because they are so far away, but I know I’ll see them again some dayJ. Finally, I went back to my home where my host parents had already arrived home from their Florida vacation as well.

However, December was a difficult month for me, but I’m sure it was difficult for most people. I was away from friends and family on my birthday and Christmas, and I did get a bit homesick. Here in Brasil, it’s summer time at the moment, and I’m so close to the equator at sea level, meaning it was quite far from chilly. Christmas didn’t really feel like Christmas, and there weren’t any crazy different traditions. Of course Christmas was definitely different. Instead of celebrating on the 25th, we celebrated on Christmas Eve. I went to my host grandmother’s house for a ham and turkey dinner, and nobody could open any presents until midnight. It was nice, but I definitely admit that I miss the anticipation of waking up on Christmas morning to go look under the tree to see what was left there for me the night before.

Before I knew it, Christmas was over, and I was packed into the car with my host family on the way to their beach house in the beautiful town of Maragogi, where we spent our New Years. We spent 5 days there laying on the beach, swimming in the ocean, staying up till 5 am to watch the sun rise, going to the pool, playing in the sand, laying in the hammocks, and just had a great time.

New Year’s Eve, it’s common to wear certain colors to bring good luck into the New Year. Most people wear white because it symbolizes peace. I’m not sure what any of the other colors symbolize, but most people just stick with white anyways. I transitioned into the new year sipping champagne (less than half of a flute of it) with my host family on one of the prettiest beaches I’ve ever been to, watching the fireworks shoot off all along the beach and looking up at the stars. It was wonderful. Sadly, I got sick around 2 am and decided it was best if I went to sleep. For some unknown reason I always get sick to the stomach whenever we go to the beach house. However, at 3:40 I received a phone call from my best friend who was still back in Recife wishing me a happy new year. This phone call woke me up just in time to go see the first sunrise of the year on a beautiful beach in paradise. I relaxed on the beach till around 5 when I was tired and decided to go back to sleep. I then woke up around noon, and the crazy Brazilian summer vacation cycle started all over again, and I wasn’t back in bed until 5am on the 2nd of January.

Ever since arriving here, I do believe that the number one cause of sleep deprivation is Brazil. I had one day of rest after coming back, then the next day I was out with friends again. This week I’ve been to several different parts of the city, out to Olinda, to Plaza Shopping on the other side of the city, to Shopping Recife several times, the beach numerous times, a variety of bars, and to several cinemas. This week I’ve been inviting anyone and everyone out, because I simply do not want to be sitting around at home all day every day. It’s been great.

Monday was tough, I got some bad news and was upset most of the day, but then I went on Tuesday out with Laya to see Avatar on her side of the city (that’s an hour and 20 minutes of busses just to get there) and everything was better. Wednesday I went to my shopping center with Laya where I bought these beautiful enormous shoes, and then out with my sister and a bunch of people to an oyster bar that night. That was fun. Thursday I spent the day at the beach with Carol (my sister) and some of our friends. That day ended with going out to see Couple’s Retreat that night. Friday we went to the Center of the city to this little market that was seriously located inside of an old prison. Call me weird or whatever, but that really was a creepy feeling for me. The little stands/shops were located in the old cells, and it was full of people, and I was just overcome with this incredibly creepy feeling. Afterwards, we went out to Olinda to take some photos of the beautiful city. That night my sister and I once more ventured out to the cinema with friends to watch Sherlock Holmes. I wasn’t overly impressed, but we had fun. We then got a bite to eat and headed home. Some friends of ours were at downstairs in our building, so we stayed out with them till around 2 before going back and going to sleep. This week has been incredibly exhausting, and I honestly haven’t gotten too much sleep!

There’s so much to look forward to, and I’m so excited about everything! Maybe this upcoming week I will be taking a trip to Natal again to visit Paula and see the city a little better. I will change host families on the 19 or 20 (Note, I’m still in my first host family). Carnival is in February, and that’s definitely an experience I’m looking forward to. School will start, and I will meet new people again. Life is just great at the moment, I’m enjoying every day in Brazil, and I don’t want to be anywhere else but here. I can understand full conversations in Portuguese, and I can take part in them.

However, I know I will never fit in completely here in Brazil. I look incredibly American, but I kind of like that. It’s kind of fun and nice to have people stop on the street and tell me that I’m incredibly beautiful, and then continue on once more. It does nicely for the self esteemJ. However, I’m still not dreaming in Portuguese. However when I dream, I seem to notice it lacks a language. There’s never any speaking, thinking, or dialect. I remember feelings, but never words. I’m thinking in Portuguese sometimes now. Not all the time of course, and I know this. Sometimes, I’m incredibly confused on what language I’m thinking in. I catch myself remembering conversations that were spoken in English completely in Portuguese, and vice versa. When I try to think about what language my thoughts are in, it honestly confuses me. Subconscious thoughts are really hard to follow and remember, and I’m not sure what goes through my mind at times (don’t laugh =P).

Carol, my host sister here, leaves this month for Germany. Germany was never one of my top 5 choices, but I can’t help but feel incredibly jealous of her. She’s getting all of that attention of people wanting to hear about what she’s doing and where she’s going. She’s filling out paperwork, buying presents and pins, clothes and necessities for her trip, and I’m incredibly jealous. Seeing the new outbounds on the site, and knowing that they are going to their first conference at Lake Yale, and starting to prepare for their adventure makes me incredibly jealous. It feels like just yesterday I was filling out my applications, shaking in my seat at my interview, getting that depressing letter in the mail that said “alternate”, getting the call saying I would be living in Brazil for a year, writing my bio, going to Lake Yale and getting lost, meeting some of the best people I’ve ever met (aka RYEFL Exchange students), working on a 12 page report about Brazil, giving a speech in Portuguese (which I’ve honestly not even done in Brazil yet), and just everything.

However, all of this dates back to farther back than a year ago. Half my exchange is almost over, and I’m so glad to be here. Thanks everyone who made this possible. I’m seriously living my dream. I’m changing. I’m learning. I’m teaching. I’m exploring. I’m helping others. I’m being helped. I’m being independent. I’m being ready for anything and everything. I’m trying new things. I’m speaking another language. I’m in a foreign country. I’m having the time of my life. I now have friends and family from all areas of the world. I don’t know what I’d be doing if I wasn’t here right now, but I don’t think about it, I don’t really care. Nothing could be better than this.

Thanks Rotary for making this all possible, I’m doing the best I can of representing everyone back there, juro. Thanks to my family, for helping me financially, physically, mentally, and for everything you’ve done for me. Thanks to my friends for always being there for me when I was stressed out. Thanks to everyone. I can’t tell you how thankful I am to be here, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

April 26 Journal

This is honestly the strangest feeling I’ve ever had. I can’t tell you how much I can’t wait to get home, but just the thought of leaving this place brings me to tears. The people, the culture, just everything is now a part of me. I go back home in 72 days, and that scares me even more than boarding a plane to a foreign country where I don’t know anyone for an entire year.

I can’t even begin to describe how much I’m enjoying my time here in Brazil. Seriously, what’s not to love? Since my last journal I have not had much access to a computer or to the internet, which was actually a good thing. A little note for any future exchangers: When the Rotarians tell you not to bring a computer, sure go ahead and bring one, but if you go on everyday to check your facebook and email your friends back home, you won’t be as happy as you could be. Being without connections back home made me just completely forget my life back home. Honestly, now, it’s difficult to tell anyone about my life “back home,” because I think of Brazil as my home now. Florida is a thing of the past, and Recife is where it’s at. Its scary thinking that I’ll have to go home this summer, it’s a scarier thought than leaving for a year to a foreign country where you hardly know the language and you don’t know anybody. But yeah, I’m completely in love with my life hereJ. Since the last time y’all heard from me, a lot has happened, and a lot has changed. I’ve ridden a horse in a fazenda in Gravatá. I’ve fallen off a horse in Gravatá. I’ve gone to the beach several times. I’ve experienced the Brazilian holiday of Carnaval. I’ve started school again. I’ve switched host families. I’ve eaten foods that don’t look to be edible but taste so delicious. I’ve just been enjoying the wonderful Brazilian culture and life style.

January 28 was my last day with my first host family, and the last time I have seen my host sister, Carol, on exchange. I feel terrible, I never had a chance to say goodbye to her because I moved while she was at the movies with friends and she left the next morning to begin her exchange in Germany. At some points of my exchange, we were really distant, but I think within that last month with her we managed to get pretty close. I don’t know if she will end up reading this, but I would like to leave a little goodbye for her:

Carol! Minha irmãzinha! Estou com saudades de você L. Você vai ser minha irmã para sempre. Gostei muito de você, e eu não vou te esquecer. Espero que um dia você vá me visitar na Florida ou eu vou voltar para Brasil. Desculpa que eu não disse “tchau” para você… Eu queria muito, mas estava na aula quando você foi. Estou pensando de você, e to com saudade! Beijos minha irmãzinha!

If you didn’t understand that, don’t worry, it wasn’t about youJ.

So, Yes, I switched host families on January 28, 2010. I really love my new host family. It’s much more “normal” for me. Instead of having two sisters, like the previous family, I only have one younger brother of ten years. My new host family made me feel welcome right away. They are great people, and I’m really glad that I’m living in their home. My new home is two blocks from my first, and about 6 blocks from the beach. Tragic that I live so far away, isn’t it? This is one of the larger buildings in the area with 30 floors and decent sized apartments. I now have my own room to stay in, it’s quite nice. The building is facing the beach, so there is always the most wonderful breeze blowing through to keep things cool. Speaking of the lovely breeze, I have absolutely no complaints on the weather here, it’s perfect. Okay, so back on the topic of my new building, it’s completely filled with life. There’s always a group of kids or teens running around downstairs. We’ve got a decent sized pool and a soccer court. I spend much of my time downstairs just hanging out. The people in the building are pretty amazing too. On the 13th floor, there’s another Rotary exchange student, from Poland, it’s really nice living so close to her. However she’s already gone back to PolandL. On the 29th floor lives a friend of mine who did exchange in last year and the view from his balcony is one of the prettiest things I’ve like ever seen. Also on the 18th floor lives one of my best friends, I met him here and have become very close with him and his family. I’ve met many other incredibly amazing people in the building as well but I don’t think I’ll bore you by talking about all of them. Within my first two weeks here I decided to play a game of futebol with some of the guys in the building. I can now honestly say I’ve played soccer until my feet have bled. Playing soccer with bare feet hurts the first time you do it; I got some pretty nasty blisters that popped. It hurt to walk for the next week and a half or so, it was pretty bad, but while playing I didn’t notice them at all. I guess I was having too much fun to notice.

Okay, so honestly when I started writing this, it was like early March. Now it’s Mid-April, and I’ve realized that I need to finish it.

So in February the Brazilian holiday of Carnaval took place. I wish I had great exciting stories to tell everyone about this, I’m sure every other exchange student does! Well I went to Olinda one day which was great, and Maragogi beach another. As for all of the other days, I passed really sick. It was not a fun time, and I’m so disappointed that I didn’t get to experience it more.

In March a lot of things happened. Or maybe you would think a lot of things happened, but in truth, not that much has. I’ve just been living my life here. These past eight months have felt like such a short period of time, but yet it’s also felt like forever. I think in Portuguese, I dream in Portuguese, I talk in Portuguese. My friends are Brazilians and other exchange students. My classes aren’t in English, and neither is the language spoken in my home. My English honestly sucks now. But, somehow, all of this is incredibly normal. I’m completely okay with it and wouldn’t want it any other way.

In the end of March I went with Rotary to the Paixão do Cristo. This was an Easter spectacular about the death and rise of Jesus Christ. It was really kind of cool. We hopped into the 3 hour van ride out to Nova Jerusalem and went to see the show. Before we entered, we being exchange students decided to take pictures. Soon enough there were crowds of Brazilian teens swarming us wanting to take pictures with us too. It was quite awkward but yet quite fun as well, Brazilians love their photos! Okay, so then we went in. This show is much different than any other show I had ever been to before. Instead of sitting and having the scenes change behind the curtain, you walked around from scene to scene. I thought it was a cool Idea at first, but after 3 hours of walking, I was exhausted! Afterwards we all headed back home.

The following weekend was Semana Santa, or the Easter weekend. I went to Gravatá with my family and stayed there for several days. I actually got a bit of a tan as well! It’s funny how I go to the beach and get sun burnt and go to a farm to get tanned. Well it was a nice weekend. I ended up going to a friend’s hotel one night and staying out till four. I was incredibly exhausted afterwardsJ.

This past weekend I went out with all the exchange students again to some hydro electrical dams. It was actually a pretty neat trip, but sadly a 7 hour bus ride. It was also quite sad that it was the last time that I might ever see some of those exchange students againL. We left early on a Friday morning and everyone was in the hotel by about 5 PM. We stayed in a little hotel in Paulo Alfonso, Bahia. Friday night after dinner, everyone collected on the roof and most of the exchange students ended up in the pool. There was a little band playing, and all of us were just goofing off and having a good time.

Saturday morning we were off to AL to see Xingo, one of the biggest dams in Brazil, or the biggest, I don’t quite remember. It was neat to see it. After the tour we went to the river that lead to the dam and rode a catamaran boat around. We stopped in this really awesome super deep part of the river with these giant rock walls surrounding to go swimming. We stayed there for a while, got a bit sun burnt, and just had a lot of fun. After we went back, we had lunch, and then started to head back. However before going back, we stopped in this little town called Piranha. Oh my gosh, definitely the worst part of the trip. Rotary, being the evil that it is, made us climb this huuuuuge hill with sooo many steps leading up to the top. This climb nearly killed me, I really do not like stairs. After we finished with this, and went back to the hotel, everyone was pretty much exhausted. It was a much less eventful night.

Sunday morning we all packed up and left the hotel at around 8 in the morning, but we didn’t go home just yet. Our first stop was the Paulo Alfonso Dam. This dam was SO much prettier than Xingo, but for sure much smaller. The river leaving from it also has some pretty waterfalls that we got to go see as well. After this stop we said our final goodbye to some of the exchange students that we will never see again, and began to head back to our cities. It was a really fun trip for sure; I absolutely love my fellow exchange students. I stopped thinking of them as friends a long time ago, these kids are my family. I will definitely miss themL.

Since then, nothing overly interesting has happened in April. It’s just been normal life. Don’t get me wrong, I love EVERY second of it, but it’s something I’ve become so accustomed to that it doesn’t have that initial thrill of “Oh I did this, and this, and I went shopping today, Oh I went to a party and I also did this…” It’s honestly much better this way. I couldn’t imagine things being any different, and I don’t think I’d want them to be. Sure I’ve had difficulties, things aren’t always perfect, but that’s how I learn and grow. I love my life here, and I love all the people in it.

So yes, Brazil has been treating me wonderfully. My English is getting terrible (and please don’t tell me you didn’t notice by reading my journal, even when I re-read it over and over again I can’t seem to get things right. Oh, and my mom comes this weekJ. On April 29, my mom arrives in what has been my home for the last nearly 9 months. It’s a very strange feeling for sure, but I am totally stoked! Without my mom finding the program I probably would have never gotten the chance to come here anyways. I’ll show her that getting me into this program was for sure the right thing to do. Okay, well I’m in the middle of the shopping center right now stealing their free internet, and I gotta get home so I can start getting ready to go out tonight!

Tchau! J Beijos Florida! Vou te ver no julho!

July 6 Journal

I’m not exactly sure where I left in my last journal, but anything since before then until June 11th, stopped being important on this date. On June 11th, 2010, the World Cup started. Brazil wouldn’t be Brazil without its soccer. The country literally seems to stop for every Brazil game. I had never had much interest in soccer, but I have watched almost every single game. I followed several teams through their games and actually became quite educated in the world of football. I watched the US do better than any Brazilian thought they would do. I saw two normally really good teams (Italy and France) lose quickly. However the Brazilian games were the ones that the whole country stopped to watch.

The first game was against North Korea, a game that everyone thought we would win in a heartbeat. This game I went to watch with that friend of mine that from the building. I mentioned him in my last journal, the guy from the 18th floor, his name is Caetano. He has become my best friend here in Brazil. He is closer to me than anyone in the world. I’ve also become close with his family, and they are such great people. This first game I went up to Caetano’s house to watch Brazil win. To make things interesting, we got together a bet of what the outcome of the game was going to be. I put my 5 Reals down on 2-0 for Brazil… and I almost won! Outside, no cars are on the road, nobody is out walking around. Everybody is gathered in front of a TV somewhere nervously watching the game. The first half, nobody scored anything, then in the second half Brazil made their first goal. A Brazilian goal is something totally indescribable. You’ve never heard anything like it, trust me. When the ball flies into the net, the city screams. You’re able to hear screams from probably everyone in the city. People are constantly blaring horns and just yelling “gooooooooooooooooooooooooal!” Fireworks get shot off. It’s unlike anything I’ve experienced before. Not too long after Brazil scored again. Things were looking good for me, until in the last 5 minutes, North Korea scored!?! Brazil was a bit confused at first, but we still ended up winning, so it didn’t matter too much. For the rest of the day the city was basically in party-mode, with everyone super excited about the win and the wins to come.

The next game was one June 20th, and I wasn’t able to watch all of it. I really wasn’t overly upset to be missing the game. The reason I missed half of it was because I had a flight to Rio de Janeiro! This trip ended up being the best trip I have ever made. I went with my best friend, Caetano, who actually lived in Rio for 2 years a while back. We stayed at his grandparent’s house which was located 2 blocks away from Copacabana beach. Rio is the prettiest city I have ever been in for sure. I had such a fantastic time.

My first day in Rio was spent visiting the “Sugar Loaf” or pão de açúcar in Portuguese. It is such a beautiful site. You can see basically the whole city from the top of this mountain thing. You go up by taking two different little car like things hanging from wires. I was completely terrified of them. But all in all, it was BEAUTIFUL. I enjoyed it so much J.

The next day we spent traveling to shopping centers and walking along the beach at Copacabana. There’s actually a Starbucks in one of the shoppings in Rio, called shopping Leblon. Oh my gosh! I was so excited to see Starbucks. I quickly got in line, ordered my “usual” and felt so incredibly happy afterwards! My friend Caetano was so amused at how thrilled I was to have Starbucks that day.

The following day (or maybe two days after, or even the day before, I’m honestly not sure; it’s difficult to remember which day was which) we started the morning off by watching a very emotional US game. I was so thrilled to see the United States win and pass on to the next stage. None of my Brazilian friends could believe that the US made it to the final 8 games. I also managed to watch on Saturday the US lose to Ghana. That was a very emotional game too, and we were SO close! I was honestly a bit disappointed afterwards, but all was good, because Brazil was still in! Oh and I did go to the “FIFA fan fast” on Copacabana beach when I was in Rio to watch the Brazil-Portugal game. It was a bit disappointing, but at least we didn’t lose this game.

There was one night we went to see a play called “A Giaola das Loucas”. It was a play about a bunch of gay men in drag. I can honestly say I have never seen anything like that before. I really enjoyed it, but wow, I have NEVER seen so many men in dresses and actually make decent looking girls!! It was a bit strange, but it was really good. It had apparently a lot of very famous Brazilian actors in it, which I thought was quite interesting. Speaking of famous people, we actually encountered one of the most well-known women in Brazil, Xuxa. She’s been on the TV for years, and basically everybody knows her. She was sitting in the row in front of us. Sadly we were without our camera, but at least we got an autograph from her and talked a little with her! When I told my friends back in Recife, nobody believed me at first 😛 but it was true!

One day we spent by visiting the Corcovado. That is one of the most beautiful places I have EVER been. If you don’t know what the Corcovado is, it’s only because you don’t recognize the name. You know the big Christ that is in Rio, the one that is always shown with the city? Yeah, that’s the Corcovado. The view from up there is absolutely beautiful! You can see the entire city from up there. And the Christ statue is so beautiful as well. I’m so happy that I got the chance to go and see it. Oh, and for any Brazilian who wants to say that the Corcovado is bigger than the Statue of Liberty, I researched it, and the Statue of Liberty is significantly bigger. And for those of you who don’t know, the Christ at Corcovado was a present from the French, like our Statue of Liberty was.

Throughout the rest of the trip we just had a great time, walking on the beach, visiting other parts of the city, going to several delicious restaurants and many different shoppings. It was such a great time. It’s a trip I will honestly never forget. On our last day there, we went to the Copacabana fort. I really enjoyed that. The sight from on top of the fort was beautiful, and it was such an interesting thing to go to. My Rio trip was the BEST trip I have EVER been on. Thanks to Rotary for giving me permission to go! I had an amazing time there J.

I came back from Rio on the 27th, and I basically went home and slept most of the day. I was so exhausted. However on the 28th was the next Brazil game. Again I went up to the house of Caetano to watch Brazil kick some butt! The game was Brazil and Chile, and of COURSE Brazil won J. It was a good game to watch. The next day I spent working on my Rotary presentation which I had to present on the 30th. I believe that my presentation went pretty well, I was really nervous about it though.

Now I’ve gotten up to the July 1st, 6 days before I’m supposed to leave. Today as I write this it is actually July 5th, and I’ve got only one day left in Brazil before I leave. I’m a little bit afraid of returning. I think the thing I am most afraid of for when I return is how people are going to react to my English. I’m sure that you while reading this can’t believe this is a 17 year old American writing this. I can’t believe my English is so bad, but I know it is. I’m sure I’ll get it back quickly when I return, but for the moment I’m terrified. I still can’t believe it’s going to happen. In the last week I’ve been going out with friends a LOT. I’ve gone to several good-bye parties, and several days just going out to a bar to drink a soda with some friends. I also went to watch the final Brazil game on the beach here in Recife. It was a lot of fun, but it was honestly incredibly depressing watching Brazil lose to Holland. The following game of Argentina-Germany was an interesting game. I would have sworn it was a Brazil game with the way the city screamed for every Germany goal. There is a really big rivalry between Argentina and Brazil, and everyone here was so happy that they got completely killed by Germany in this game.

So, tomorrow is my last day, and I can’t believe it. Not one bit. I don’t want to leave, but I am honestly excited to be going back. Brazil has become my home. Portuguese has become the language I speak. The people here have become my friends and family. I love this place. There are so many things I miss back in Florida that I am so ready to have again as well though. I’m caught between my two homes, my two nationalities, and I don’t know what I’m going to do about it. I can’t even begin to describe how much I’m going to miss Brazil. However this year has been perfect. I had ups, I had downs, but overall the year couldn’t have been better. I wouldn’t change a thing, and I’d gladly relive every second over again if I could. I had such a wonderful year, and I will never forget it. Thank you Rotary and to anyone else who has helped me get here. You don’t know how grateful I am to you for that. Thank you thank you thank you thank you! I’ve had an amazing year, and it wouldn’t have been so amazing if it hadn’t had been for you all. Thank you for everything. J

 

Liz’s Bio

Dobry den! My name is Liz Kane and am currently a junior/senior at Bartram Trail High School in Jacksonville, FL. I am working on graduating a year early to make my exchange a reality. Ever since I started high school, I knew that I loved to travel. Experiencing the world in my eyes is like being the kid in a candy store. I never wanted to read about places from a text book … I just wanted to be there. I guess you could say that this is the exact reason I fell in love with the idea of being a Rotary Youth Exchange student.

So here I am, about to take the greatest step in my life.

Sure, Mom and Dad were slightly hesitant when I brought up the idea… but after lots of hard work on my part (and lots of support on their end) I have finally been given the opportunity to experience another culture first hand.

Do you want to know the most exciting part?? I am spending my senior year in the Czech Republic!!

Besides my resounding happiness, I am quite normal. I have 4 dogs, a cat, a hamster, and an older brother. I enjoy playing soccer, snowboarding, and spending time with my friends. I also have a place in my heart for fashion and art. I love making my own clothes and experimenting with creativity. When I go to college, fashion and international business is what I want to study. Who knows…. Maybe after this experience my life will take a completely different path. I am so blessed to have family and friends who stand behind me in everything that I do. Without them, I would not have the chance to do something this amazing. I also need to thank Rotary for choosing me to participate in Youth Exchange. You have no idea how grateful I really am!

To say the least, I could not be happier.

 Liz’s Journals

August 10 Pre-Departure Journal

This is it. In less than 2 weeks I will be stepping off the plane in Prague and meeting my first host family. It is hard to imagine this sight after thinking about my arrival in the Czech Republic for so long. For the past few months I have been preparing for what is quite possibly the greatest adventure of my life. I went to orientation, attended Rotary meetings, and even tried to study what seems like the most impossible language in the world.

Today I signed up for a skype account and posted the message on Facebook reading “less than 2 weeks until departure, I am so excited.” It is this excitement that led me to put my thoughts into a pre-departure journal for all to read. Right now I feel as if my date is never going to get here. I read about all my other friends who are already abroad in envy that they are already experiencing life in a new way. Then I stop to think… gee Liz, that’s going to be you. Someone will open this page, read your journal, and feel this same envy… only you will be the one in the other country. Time is funny that way. You sit and play the waiting game only for it to sneak up and surprise you in a way you never felt possible.

Take the past 11 months or so. It started with a thought of being an exchange student. This led to an initial waiting of mom and dad’s approval. After I received said approval, it continued on to many late nights of application filling, letter writing, picture perfecting, and yes more waiting. I continued this state of waiting anxiousness up until I received a letter with my interview time and date. I talked at school with other exchangers to be like Jaime and Sarah, who happened to be just as nervous as me about interviewing. So the day came and went…. and I left my interview with a smile, unlike most I talked to. I felt I had made the perfect first impression and I had nothing to fear.

Soon came a random phone call from Daphne about the change I had made in country choices, and a new letter in the mail stating that my sponsor club is the Rotary Club of Mandarin. These little bits of information every so often kept me in the spirit of being an exchange student. This next wait was the worst of all. In the club sponsor letter it had said, “your country assignment will be coming shortly.” With this I gasp and run circles around the kitchen. That also happened to be the reaction when Jody called in the middle of December with “Liz, would you like to know where you are going to spend your exchange?” (well duh!). I could not forget the reaction of the two girls I was babysitting: “What’s a Czech Republic?”

Then came the January orientation, followed by waiting on news from my host district. This news came in bits and pieces throughout the following months including: host club, city, school, and best of all Family. I have not even made it into the Czech Republic yet, and I am in love with my host family. My host brother Ondrej and I have become very close, and even though we will only meet for 3 days (he is going on exchange to Minnesota), I have already made a Czech friend.

Now is the time. I have watched an inbound arrive (Yuri), I am picking up my host brother Laurenz on Thursday, and my last trip to the airport will be all about me. I am still nervous about some aspects of this new life I will become a part of, but I think the excitement has overcome all the bad emotions. I have 2 more Rotary meetings, 13 more days in Florida, and the next year to make my mark on the rest of the world.

Na shledanou!

Liz

August 28 Journal

All I can say is wow. What a roller coaster these first few days have been. There have been ups and downs and all kinds or crazy twists and turns. Where to begin…

On my way to the Czech Republic I had some minor mishaps. My flight from Jacksonville to Detroit went quite smooth, as I coincidently sat right next to my best friend’s dad. The 2 hours or so didn’t seem quite as long with a familiar face to talk to. He asked me all kinds of questions about youth exchange and my new family. All of which I was eager to answer. When we landed in Detroit I said goodbye in the tram that took me to the area of my next gate, to Amsterdam. (This my friends is where the trip starts to go crazy.)

The flight to Amsterdam was set to leave on time, until we were taxing toward the runway… and had to turn around. There was one broken toilet (granted there were 6 on the plane) and we had to go back to the gate to get it fixed. This is another one of those examples from cultural boot camp where any normal being would simply place an out of order sign on the door, but as Americans, we are required to ask maintenance to fix the problem. So, one hour later…. we are off the ground and on our way.

That being said, we landed in Amsterdam at around 6:45. In any normal airport, making a 7:05 flight from this would be do-able. But let me tell you, Amsterdam is no ordinary airport, it is the New York Stock Exchange of Airports. There are people running all over to catch missing flights, there is a mob standing in front of each line of the passport check, and they even have a special area called transfer (big yellow sign) for all the flights they usually move due to crazy delays and their own bad line management. I was in this special area. That’s right everyone… you know when you were late during orientation (which I wasn’t ) and Al or Daphne said “You just missed your flight,” well that was me. Missing my flight to Prague.

Unfortunately, my host family drove two hours from Ceske Budejovice to meet me at the airport, which I did not arrive at until about 6 hours later than expected. They picked me up and we headed home from there. Just me. No luggage, for that was still sitting in Amsterdam. I was pretty excited when I got there, until we got in the car…. about an hour into our journey I had my host dad pull over so I could throw up. This was mostly due to me being so tired from my flights and all the chaos my journey had ensued. Needless to say, I got home and slept all afternoon and all night.

Two days later, my oldest host brother left for his exchange in the United States. I miss him being around because while he was here he was the best translator I could ask for. He showed be around Budweis and where I would be going to school.

Now comes the worst part. I hate to be negative but I think it is only right that I share my feelings with all my journal readers and future RYE students. I have faced the most terrible home sickness that anyone could imagine. My first few days have been rough and there are many contributing factors. My luggage got lost, my host family speaks little English, my wall adapter for all my electronics is broken, I have nobody my age around, school has not started, I feel like I am wasting my time, and I miss my family very much. Two nights ago I even called my mom and said this is it, I have had it, bring me home right now.

I am hoping and praying that this feeling of sadness goes away soon, because I did not expect this at all. But RYE is all about the surprises and running into things that you never thought you would face. So I told my family I will give it a few more days and try to deal with what is in the present. I have turned off the distractions, and am trying a new approach. I am keeping a daily journal to make sure that I am trying hard enough for myself. After all, this whole thing is about me.

On a happier note, I would like to share some observations that I have here in Ceske Budejovice, CZ.

-The weather is currently perfect.

-I can now properly pronounce Ceske Budejovice

-I like watching Harry Potter movies in Czech with English subtitles

-As long as I take bus 2 or 15 I will make it home eventually.

Ahoy!

-Liz

September 11 Journal

I am doing really well here. It was hard at first, but now I could not be happier. Since writing my first journal I have started school here and attended orientation in Strecno, Slovakia. I am slowly but surely adjusting to my new life here in the Czech Republic, and keep falling deeper in love with my new home everyday. So let me share with you some new experiences I have had.

School is very different. I am with the same group of students all day long. Sometimes we move to a different classroom, but for the most part we are in the same seats all day. I have found that there are some tiny cultural differences that will take some time for me to get used to. One of these differences being socks with sandals in school. You are expected to change out of the shoes you came in and put on slippers or sandals. Oh, and did I mention the crocs? I thought I would be able to run away from them, but alas… just as popular in the Czech Republic. I do, however, greatly enjoy that once a class is over and the bell rings everyone pulls out food. My host mom always packs me a sandwich, candy bar, and drink everyday. In school my classes are: Economics, Sociology, History, Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English, Czech, German, and on occasion Physical Education (I say on occasion because it’s only one time a week). I am pretty sure that is it, but if I remember any others I will be sure to add an aside later on.

I think school is taken much more seriously here than in the United States. Everyone has a notebook for each subject and during lessons all they do is copy notes. I however sit in wonderment either staring out the window or asking the rebound in my class what the teacher is talking about. The teachers do not expect much out of me until I get to English class. This is when I get frequent questions on pronunciation or how to say certain phrases. On Fridays, I take optional English with a teacher who is British. This is nicer, because the class is a little harder and me and the other exchange student are asked more things. It was funny though, because halfway through class the teacher said it was time for a break, and we took like 20 minutes off. Me, the other exchange student from New York, and the English teacher walked next door to the pub for a coffee break. It was quite strange, but I thought it was nice at the same time.

Orientation in Slovakia was fun. There are roughly 40 inbounds in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia combined, which is one district. It took us 9 hours by train to get to Strecno from Ceske Budejovice. I was so tired. We ended up getting lost when we arrived in Strecno because it is a very small village. It was fun though because we went to a pizza shop and had Kofola until we received a call with directions from some Rotary people. Kofola, if you do not know, is like the Czech or Slovak version of Coca Cola with much more caffeine. During the time of communism they could not import Coke so they created their own version. It tastes nothing like normal Coke at all. I think it is pretty good, but my host family does not drink it. At orientation, I got to go rafting and see a castle with the other inbounds. I made some new friends, and realized how much language I need to study.

Two days ago, I went to go see the Prague Symphony Orchestra in my city. I went with my Rotary club and the two other exchange students hosted by my club. I will say that this kind of music is not necessary my favorite, but I really enjoyed the concert. I kept telling myself that I don’t have to like everything that I do here, but it’s part of the culture and it’s good to try it all.

I am learning new words and phrases everyday. My host family is very understanding that my language skills are terrible at best. My Rotary here is arranging for the inbounds in my city to take a language course soon, which I am hoping will help me out a little bit.  

In the meantime I will continue to sit in school and pretend like I know what they are talking about. I have learned when they say Americhanka or Anglitsky that they are talking about me, and hopefully soon I will be able to understand them.

I am going tonight to the Cinema with my host family, and tomorrow we are going on a bike ride down by the Vltava river. Chao for now!

September 23 Journal

I have two words for you all: Hladový vokno.

This may lead to the question… What on Earth is Hladový vokno? My friends, Hladový vokno is the Hungry Window. It is one of my favorite places. It is not clear to me what kind of magic is placed on the items that come out of this window… but I know there is something special going on. So if I go down the road of the Rotary 10 or 15 (I do not know the specific average), you can most likely blame it on the Hladový vokno. There are two locations known to me in České Budějovice, and both are fantastic. I always order a Slaninová II. It has bacon, onions, this strange cheese sauce that blows my mind, and maybe a few other things. I did not really read all the things on this sandwich. I think it was just one of the only ones I could figure out how to pronounce without sounding like a foreigner. I have found, however, that people here are very forgiving about my language skills. Even strangers are happy when I try, and the conversation usually will end with “Czech language is one of the hardest to learn, good luck with that,” in some variation of broken English.

Other then the sandwiches I am learning new things everyday. My host family told me how to take the bus to the zoo, so I went with one of my friends (yes, friends) this weekend. It is nothing like the Jacksonville Zoo. I had to find out how to waste 3 hours because that was when the next bus came back to that stop. The most exciting animal there was Medvěd hnědý or for those English speaking folks Grizzly bear. He was a cutie. I also made friends with some Klokan rudokrký (which are baby kangaroos). The day at the zoo was very fun, but the aspect of the trip I was most proud of was traveling to and fro without any problems. It was a good day.

Another thing I would like to share with you all that is cool is that me and the other exchange students are teaching a conversational English class for three weeks while the normal teacher is at home with a family emergency. Under any normal circumstance I would have said no way to teaching English. I have no experience and I feel like people my own age would not want to listen to me gripe and give them assignments. But, since school is not necessarily that exciting, and I really had no choice (the headmaster looked so desperate for our help)… I said yes. I teach English 3 days a week for two class periods. I do not think that teaching English is the best way to absorb Czech, but the kids that we teach are very nice about it. We teach them items such as American holidays and customs and in return we get our own lesson about how the Czechs participate in such things. I think the best lesson we had so far was an hour and a half with about 15 students comparing the United States education system and the educational system in the Czech Republic. It was neat to see how eager they were to learn about the life that we were coming from and how much they wanted to share opinions on the advantages and disadvantages. I have two more weeks of teaching English before I go back to having a normal class schedule.

Other then these things, life seems to be pretty normal for me here. I wake up, eat some food, catch the bus, walk to school, sit in school all day, explore the city, catch the bus home, eat dinner with my host family, do some random family activity (watch TV, or movie), take a shower, go to sleep, and then repeat. I like how comfortable I have become living with my host family, and love how they have adopted me into their family as their new daughter. When I meet new people with my host family, my host mom always introduces me as her daughter. It makes me smile that they think of me as a real part of their family.

Lastly, happy one month to me! YAY! It feels like it has been so much longer…. (I know in a few months I will be saying what the heck… where did all the time go).

Ahoj.

October 2 Journal

AHHHH!!!! I finally visited Praha! It was amazing.

My host family took me last weekend to see some of the touristy things that people usually come to the Czech Republic to see. It was really nice. We also participated in many of the touristy things that people always do in Prague. The funniest part about the whole thing is that I did not feel like a tourist. I felt like I was watching people come to my home and take lots of silly pictures and speak too much English when that is not what we speak here. It was strange how that affected me, but I thought it was really cool at the same time. It was very crowded in Prague when we visited. This was most likely because it was the day that the Pope was in the city visiting the “Baby Jesus of Praha,” which is a centuries old baby Jesus statue in one of the old churches.

The most interesting fact about this is that many people travel to Prague just to see this statue, that is everyone except the Czechs. Not many people here believe in organized religion so the people we saw in the church around the statue visiting were from other parts of Europe and some from South America. Also, the Pope never comes to the Czech Republic. This is his first visit in about 15 years. So that being said, people were crowded around the barriers of the Prague castle waiting to catch a glimpse at the Pope-Mobile….(and yes I was one of them).

The other highlights of the trip included a trip through the Baroque gardens, a trip on a boat down the Vltava to see the sights, walking across the famous Charles bridge, eating lunch off the old town square, and of course finding Starbucks (Al is probably reading this thinking.. how American is that?!?!?!). It was really funny however because I had to explain to my host family that Starbucks to me back in Florida was a very frequent occasion, and there are only two in the entire country here. Starbucks to them is much too expensive, because a coffee at a cafe is only 20 crown (about a dollar). That is why the only Starbucks in Czech Republic are in Prague, because people can afford it here. So when I saw that sign, my face lit up like Christmas. They made mention that we may have to go to Praha more often just so they can see me smile the way I did when we walked into Starbucks. My host brother even managed to tactfully acquire a bag of Starbucks coffee to bring back home (oh how I love my host family).

The next adventure I would like to tell you about has to do with package hunting. My dad sent me a really big package with some Florida shirts, a hoodie, some Halloween goodies to share with the family, and other random items. He wanted to gauge how long it would take so he would know in the future what type of mail would be the most economical in combination with receiving time on my end. This being said, when I checked my email I was able to see where my package was also. Well, once I saw they had tried to deliver it 2 times without leaving any sort of note, I became slightly confused. So being the motivated individual I was, I took the tracking number up to the main post office and managed to find out it was not there. But I did get a phone number and location of my package. This made the hunt go on. I called the number, listened to a murmur of Czech… and then got hung up on. Which meant in my book… ” Liz, good luck ever seeing that package.” Well since I was already looking forward to the Reese’s cups and had already explained how good they were to my host parents, I felt this obligation to find my package so I could share them with my family. I took a bus around the city too a post office that I thought was the one I needed, but was not and then was not able to look for longer that day because I had a Czech lesson in the afternoon.

I felt like the search was never going to end. Until at school the next day, in the English class I’m temporarily teaching, one of the students asked if I wanted him to help me at the post office. So he came with me and helped sort it all out. Long story short(er), I got my package the next day. My one friend who helped me said he was so happy to do so because he thought it would be a nice way to show his appreciation for all the help he has gotten in English. It made me feel really special. This adventure also gave me a great real world opportunity experience to practice my Czech skills. I learned every Czech word having to do with post office and sending and receiving packages. Should be a breeze when I start sending or packages.

Tak (so), I feel like I have written a lot for you all to read for now, but I promise the next journal will be more exciting because my family and I are going to Italy! So until then, na shledanou!

October 12 Journal

I thought the drivers in the Czech Republic were crazy, but they are most certainly not as wild as the ones in Italy. I think that this is a nice way to start what might possibly be a very long description of vacation hilarity and wonderment. As you may have read (or not) in my last journal, my host family took me to Italy for the weekend. This was amazing not only because I got to see Italy but it also gave me an opportunity to get to know my host family even better than before. We planned on leaving the house at 7 am…. so at 8:30 we were on our way. Here’s a cultural aspect for those thinking of visiting or coming here on exchange: the Czechs like being on time, enjoy being on time, but if they are not on time… it’s not the end of the world (You will see this later in the journal on the ride home also).

We made the 7 hour journey to Verona, our first stop in Italy, by way of Austria and Germany. It was so beautiful. The small villages that lined the roadway were picturesque and I felt like I had a postcard taped to the inside of the car window. My host dad also embraced the road trip as a way to give me more of the interesting history tidbits I pick up while living here. We drove through a small city in Germany by the Austrian boarder where my host dad went on a Hitler history tangent, throughout which he was very reassuring that he was by no means a supporter of his regime. They just love history. As the car ride wore on, I continued to sleep. It’s the easiest and fastest way to make it safely to your destination. At one point during my slumber I got a very gentle poke on the leg, “wake up, we are almost in Italy.” At this I was so excited, mostly because Italy is somewhere I have always wanted to visit, It was even very high up on my list of countries I wanted to go to on exchange.

When we finally arrived in Verona and it took us a solid 30 minutes to find the hotel, which was not bad at all. The streets are a confusing labyrinth of don’t turn this way and I don’t think so if your vehicle is bigger than a Vespa. When we reached the hotel, we discovered they had a guest parking area, to which my host family was most certainly relieved. We took an hour to unpack and refresh before going out to explore the city. My host family has been to Verona 5 or 6 times before, so they know what places are nice to see. If you are reading this thinking…”why does Verona sounds so familiar?,” it is because it has been way too long since you have thought about Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This is the setting for the play. Even though the play is fiction, there is a family Capulet and they did live in Verona. Anyway, enough about Shakespeare. The town is so pretty. The ruins of the Roman empire are all around, and you feel as if you have stepped into a time machine while walking the streets. There were multiple occasions when I had to stop and pinch myself because I really did think that I was dreaming. We visited the Julieta house, the Verona Castle, the Roman theatre, and ate dinner in the town square (and yes I did have pizza).

I had to laugh at how small the espresso was. I think that is what keeps people going in Italy late at night. During the day there are less people, then all of a sudden…. bam! Let’s eat dinner for 3 hours. It’s culture and even with this I found myself thinking and relating more with the Czech lifestyle. I had conversations in Czech with my host family about different things. They explained to me one of the benefits of speaking Czech is that not a lot of people can. If you say something bad in English about food or the hotel you are in, then more people are likely to understand you. But if you say it in Czech, nobody around you knows what you are talking about. I love this! I feel like the new language I am learning is a secret one. My host family and I agree that Czech is one of the best languages to speak while traveling.

The second stop on our Italy trip was Milano. I was in awe with the dramatic change from small romantic Verona, to fashionably large Milan. We spent 3 hours in Milano just driving around (yes, looking for the hotel). I felt like there was this connection to one of the National Lampoon movies instead of “hey look kids there’s Big Ben… hey look kids there’s Big Ben again…,” it was “hey look Liz there’s the Duomo… hey look Liz there’s the Duomo again.” I like the Duomo. The gothic style just draws me in. It is amazing how something this spectacular has lasted so long. Here’s a fun fact: Did you know that the Duomo in Milan is the 3rd largest Cathedral in the world? Well, if you didn’t, now you do. We also visited the Santa Maria delle Grazie, that housed Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” until they moved it to the museum next door. I did not get the opportunity to see the painting itself, because it is necessary to make reservations at least 3 weeks in advance. I did however see my fair share of churches and monasteries while in Milan. I would name them all, but there were way too many! I also enjoyed going through the fashion district. I could not afford anything by Gucci, Prada, Valentino, or Armani but it was sure nice to look.

After a nice night’s rest, I packed my bag and was ready to hit the road for an exciting ride home. My host parents thought it would be nice to drive up to Lake Como in Northern Italy and then go back the Czech Republic by driving through the Alps. Just think… (it took 7 hours to get here by highway), when we left “ake Como at around 2 pm I was ready for a nice mountain ride. At around 8 pm, we were still in Italy. We stop at a light on the road where they were doing construction work. My host dad turns around and asks “So Liz, you like adventure right?” Of course I say yes. Because that was what we were on, the adventure of following the mountain road. We had a road map of Europe and my host mom turns and points…”tade” she says. I’m going to be completely honest, we were nowhere near where we needed or even wanted to be. That being said… when we found the one sign that said Autostrada, we followed it. It took us 100 km to even reach the highway. And when we did, we were probably 2 hours away from where we had started. It sure was an adventure, and I loved ever second of it. I learned more about how my host parents function and can now recognize many Czech words having to do with travel. I also found that my host parents sort of function like the Jetsons. Do you remember that cartoon? We would stop at a rest area to use the restroom and fill the auto with gas and my host mom would stick out her hand for the money to go inside and get some food. It was adorable. It reminded me of the Jetsons how George Jetson would work and make the money only to have Jane spend it all. That was all I could think of. Our trip continued into the wee hours of the morning as I slept. We arrived back at the house at 4 am. That’s right… 7 hours to get there 14 to get back. I love it.

So today is a day of resting and fasting. The resting is because of the long trip, the fasting is because I ate way too much while I was in Italy. I was gone for 2 and a half days. In that time I ate 3 pizzas, a calzone, 2 plates of pasta, continental breakfast at the hotel on both mornings, gelato, tiramisu, and I’m sure much more that I can’t think of. Needless to say, I do not need to be doing any more eating today. If I do, it should only be fruit, yogurt, and water. Until next time….

Čau.

P.S. This has nothing to do with my trip to Italy. But I thought I would let the members of the Mandarin Rotary Club know how openly my host club has accepted Fluffy as a member of the club. They are fascinated with him. He even has his own chair at the end of the table. I cannot explain how or why, but Fluffy is a hit! More info and pictures coming soon!

October 20 Journal

Ahoj! It is very heavily debated as to which languages are the most difficult to learn and I do not think there will ever be a definitive list without one language fighting to be known as more difficult. So short of Chinese I would like to put in my vote for Czech being the 2nd hardest language. Nobody thinks of it being a hard language because they never think of the Czech Republic. If they do, it is probably assumed they do not have their own language. It is only spoken by about 12 million people worldwide, 11 of which live in the country. So, it is a rare occurrence abroad to find someone else who speaks Czech unless you are in the country itself. I think that is the best part, because once I have learning the language under my belt I can have side conversations in Czech so nobody understands (except the person who I find to speak with in Czech). Alright, so this means it is time for a brief Czech language lesson.

-The way it is spelled is the way it is pronounced. Very simple if you can actually get your mouth to make the sound of whatever letter you want to say. This goes well for me until I get to the letter Ř. It does not matter how you slice it, this letter is my least favorite letter in the alphabet… and surprise it only exists in Czech! Apparently it is to sound like: “rž” or like ‘rg’ in bourgois. It is so awkward. My classmates love trying to get me to say words that have that letter (which seems like all of them). Příští zastávka means bus stop, and I can’t even say the first part. It sounds like I tried to vomit way too many sounds at once.

-The accents are nice and not so nice at the same time. It helps with recognizing the sounds, but then when I try to type something on my English computer keyboard it takes me 20 minutes to write a Czech sentence. I bookmarked a Czech Alphabet link on my computer so I can copy and paste the letters. It works for now.

-The Czech language itself can be traced back to the 11th century. Pretty impressive if I do say so. It’s a synthetic language, which means a lot of word changing, but not as much word adding. It is perfectly okay to make a one word sentence. I will give an example: you go – jdeš or you will go – půjdeš. Another fun but bummer is that j is y, y exists but sounds like I or ee, and I is still alive too, and sounds just like I or ee also. So in the end, the only letter that got his sound stolen was J. Jan is a very common name here, but it pronounced like Yan or Honza. Or, if Jan is introduced to me he says you can just call me John (with hard J sounds). What?? you just say your name was Honza. Come on people. This whole concept throws me off.

-I am a fan of names here. Some of my friends are: Alžběta (bětka), Magdalena (Magda), Petra, Veronika, Kateřina (Katka), Ondřej (Pozzy), Flantišek and Eduard (Eda). I will use Eda as an example. When I talk about Eda to someone else it’s Eda. If I am calling him from across the room or trying to get his attention I say Edo. It works the same with everyone else. This leads to a constant situational ending letter change that makes my head hurt sometimes. The system of conjugation is really complex.

-My current favorite way to learn new Czech words is to go on walks with my Czech friends and have them point things out in the environment and tell me the Czech word. Then, about 2 hours later they will ask me what the words are. It’s a fun way to get to know the people and the language at the same time.

So that’s a good overview language for the moment. When I start drowning in grammar I might bore you all again with another language lesson. I have lessons 2 days a week with a teacher who has taught exchange students in the past. They are going well. Also, is it possible to decline in your native language? It often takes me a very long time to think of words that were once so easy to come by. Just a thought.

Until next time (soon I am sure, I like writing too much!). Čau.

November 1 Journal

I wish I could freeze time. I know that a little over two months is barely a dent in my exchange experience, but I already know that it is going to be over before I know it. It is November… last year at this time I was awaiting my interview and acceptance into the RYE family. Now, I am living my dream. What was once a thought, turned into an action, led me to being in this very seat, on this computer, writing my journal for everyone to read (well I like to think there are a lot of you).

Time is fascinating. Moments come and go. Feelings range from happy to sad, people that were once a very integral part of your life slowly disappear into the shadow that time has created. But the best part is that all that once was gets replaced with something new. The actions seem more kinetic, the people seem more relatable, the world is literally at your fingertips. I wish I could really put into a properly stated sentence how much I love all of these feelings. I am learning how to react on my own, there is no need to look behind me, for the future is what I make it. The Czech Republic is peculiar. Not in a bad way, but just… well peculiar. If I asked anyone back home something about this place they may say Prague, or that’s where you are on exchange. They would not be able to tell you that the people I have shared my time with so far in this place are amazing. They may seem to be quiet or shy at first, just like myself. But when the candle is lit, you can feel the warmth of the souls around you.

Since my last entry I have cooked an entire meal for my host family (which they called “American Day”), and I have shared and experienced Halloween. On “American day” I made pancakes, mac and cheese, hot dogs, cornbread, bbq pork, and brownies. Even though I do not think myself a distinguished cook, they seemed to think that I was the best one ever. The great feeling that I got out of that day, however, had nothing to do with food. It is the realization that there really are more cultural differences than you notice. When I sat down with my host family and they asked me what they were eating it was strange, because all of these foods seem so normal to me. It is like when we have brambory at almost every meal. I mean, I like potatoes, but I did not know I had to be prepared to love them.

Halloween was a very family oriented day. They treated it like an “All Souls day” where we went to 3 different towns and villages to visit the graves of deceased relatives. We lit candles at each gravesite and signed small crosses over the graves. All of the graves had been previously adorned with a multitude of flowers, still some families brought more. It was strange to see some of these graves, because many of the people who had died were war victims or soldiers. Which always leads me back to the line “If we could make every high school student in the world an exchange student, there would be no more war.” I feel that this is true. I have been accepted into a family and new life that I have created for myself. I feel like everyone who thinks of the United States that I come into contact with will think of me. Just as I have done in the past with other exchange students. It’s a great feeling knowing that you can change the world with small actions.

If you were wondering (I bet not), I am still not fluent in Czech. I fear I will not be for quite some time. But, all I can do is keep working on my language skills and they will come. I often get frustrated because I want to know what people are saying when they speak fast or slow! In school I want to learn everything that my class is doing. I want to be able to think and feel just as they all do. I want to be able to close my eyes and read the back of my eyelids in some sort of gibberish that only a small percentage of the world may understand. I want that to be me.

Lastly, I want to applaud all of the future exchange students out there. I have no idea how many of you read or even follow my journal, but I do not think any of you are fully aware of what a truly great experience this is. I wish I could tell you everything I knew about youth exchange, the emotions, the friendships, and the sense of self that you gain slowly over this year. But honestly, I would be lying if I told you anything. Because it is different for all of us, but we are all learning to become ourselves.

November 18 Journal

“What you think you create, What you feel you attract, What you Imagine you become.”- Adele Basheer

This quote is on the front of the journal my best friend gave me as a going away present. I did not think I was going to have to use it this soon. I have already filled up my first journal with pages and pages of stories and notes. When I grabbed this journal off my shelf, it was honestly the first time I had thought about the quote on the cover. I wonder how long it took Halie to find this journal in the bookstore… because this quote is so relevant to how I am feeling now. It symbolizes all the change that is happening and will happen in the months to come. My brain is always on the move. I don’t crave the old things that I once loved and could not be without. I do not miss the old life I had, as I did when I first arrived in this country. I have been here for about three months. I am at a level of happiness with people and surroundings that I once wanted to castrate (yes, I said castrate). Now, a blink feels like a wasted moment, until I realize my eyes are actually opening into a big adventure. When my mouth opens, my brain automatically responds with this gibberish that has become so warming. I almost fail to recognize myself, but I know this is only the start of a new me. I am becoming me.

I have seen new sights and sounds in addition to knowing my own home like the back of my hand (yes, I call my town home now). In the past feel weeks I have been to Prague (again :D) to see the musical Carmen, Jindřichův Hradec for an inbound weekend, and Bad Schallerbach in Austria. In Austria I went to Aquapulco, which is this amazingly fun indoor water park. Good news was that the sun was shining… so like any good Floridian exchange student that has been deprived of mass amounts of sunshine, I spent 2 hours of my stay in Aquapulco sunbathing. My body was very happy.

The only thing that is going downhill is the lack of warmth and sunshine. I had to go out and buy an even warmer jacket, because the walk to the bus stop every morning keeps getting colder and colder. Also, no wonder I am sure when January rolls around I will be frozen into an icicle. Generally, I find nothing else to complain about other than weather. If anything else, it is probably only how I have to wake up, go to school everyday, sit while they learn and look vacantly out the window at hopes that something a little more interesting will happen. NOOO WAIT!! What I meant to say was… I love going to school. We learn the most interesting things. I understand fully and comprehend all things that go on through the day and it brings me to tears the moment class is over for the day. * I really miss Sarcasm… it does not exist in this country.*

Other than this… I am not losing anything except the English language. I make the stupidest vocabulary errors, and I can’t even think about grammar. My friends in school will ask me questions about things that are so particular that I have no idea what to tell them. I almost always refer them to the other American exchange student and admit to myself that I have been defeated by the lack of English stimulation. I have just let that go though. I think it is such a fun experience to be so consumed in the new life you have created that you forget basic things. Today I mixed up the words savage and salvage. I have no clue what context it was in… but I was oh so wrong. I find the best solution to anything you do wrong: Laugh. It really is the best medicine.

So that’s about it. I am at a loss… I have found so much normality in my life that everything I could write would sound so mundane. You don’t want to hear about how happy I am riding the bus when I would have rather drowned than ride the bus in America. Or, how I clean my room and do my own laundry. Heck, I even offer to wash the dishes. Al, when this gets posted make sure you have EMS on stand-by… I don’t think my parents can read this sort of information without having heart attacks. 🙂

Zatím na shledanou.

November 29 Journal

Wait… what is it… did you say that there is a Christmas Tree in the Square?!?!?!? Does that mean it’s the official start of mass chaotic shopping and eating way too much food?!?!? Not only that, but it means that I am over 3 months into my exchange (holy $#!%), time really is going way too fast.

Until I start blabbering on about holiday traditions here and so on, I should tell you about my experience with Thanksgiving in a foreign country. Everyone was extremely interested in this American holiday. In fact, I happened to eat three separate Thanksgiving type meals! That’s more than at home, but I suppose in Florida it is made up for with days of turkey related leftovers. I had a meal with the Rotex at our inbound weekend, I had one with some friends from school, and another with my host family. Overall, I am very pleased with how well it went. I made some monkey bread for my friends and family and helped my babička (Czech for Grandma) with the turkey.

I love my babička. The only words she knows in English are “yes, no, and cabbage,” which in my opinion, is perfect. I wish that those were the only things people could say to me in English. Every time I go to visit her for lunch or baking cakes, I leave her flat with the biggest smile. She forces me to use my language skills and it makes me feel so good to finally understand almost everything that she says. While we were eating our “Thanksgiving” we were talking about dance lessons. She asked my host dad to help translate so I would understand. Here’s the best part: before he said anything to me in English, I translated it to him. He looked at my babička and then back at me and said “See, you don’t need me to tell you anymore, you understand fine.”(This is when you imagine that moment of running into the bathroom, locking the door and doing the happy dance while screaming in excitement.) It was one of the best moments I have ever had. All of the little moments like this one make me grow even closer to the family that Rotary has given me in the Czech Republic. I cannot imagine how I am going to leave them in January, but I know my next family will take care of me too J.

Now, it is time for the scoop on Czech holiday shenanigans. It’s true, Christmas is coming way sooner than I expected. This realization did not come until I had my babička strapped to my arm, while sipping punč and waiting for the city’s tree to be colorfully lit for the start of the Christmas season. The temperature was way too cold (5 degrees Celsius with a steady breeze is enough to make me want to hibernate for the winter). I stood next to my family in the square and listened to some Czech carols sung by a children’s choir. I looked all around the square… an ice skating rink had appeared, as well as a plethora of lights and decorations. It’s beginning to look and feel very much like Christmas. There are a few things that I am going to have to get used to. For example: Did you know that here presents will be delivered by Baby Jesus (in Czech Ježíšek ) ? Or, on the 5th of December we have Mikuláše (St. Nicholas day) when St. Nicholas comes to visit the children of the Czech Republic with an angel and devil by his side. The good children (if they promise to be good) receive a small gift or some candy while the naughty ones get coal or (typical) a potato. This all tends to be very confusing to me because 60% of this country is non-religious.

So when the tree was lit and my host brother said, “Advent. do you have in U.S.?” I looked and said yes, but then thought to myself they celebrate Advent? The answer is yes indeed. Advent is one of the most important seasons here. They do it just like textbook Catholics. They light the candles on the table (one for each week), small children keep Advent calendars, and they set out Nativity scenes. But, I was assured that even the people who aren’t religious can celebrate Advent. They just use it as the 4 weeks before Christmas to anticipate opening presents, which sounds legit to me. Personally, I am going to use Advent to get a better understanding of holiday traditions, which means saying yes to anything having to do with holiday things that are typically Czech. I have already promised babička one of my Saturday’s to bake cakes and candies and I am oh so excited to beat down Christmas dinner (I’ll explain in a future journal).

For now, I’m trying to stay busy and not let the holiday season be a low point. Everyone always says it’s one of the hardest parts of exchange and the homesickness will most likely be unbearable. Me, I am going to smile and embrace everything new and different for the next few weeks. I never know if I will get an opportunity like this ever again, so I am going to make the best of every moment no matter how embarrassing, disgusting, or strange I may find it to be. Tak čau.

December 9 Journal

This is called Půjdem spolu do Betléma (Let’s go to Bethlehem together):

Pů-jdem spo-lu do Be-tlé-ma duj- daj, duj- daj, duj- daj, dá! Je-žíš-ku, pa-náč-ku, já tě bu-du ko-lí-bat.

Zač-ni, Ku-bo, na ty du-dy: duj- daj, duj- daj, duj- daj, dá! Je-žíš-ku, pa-náč-ku, já tě bu-du ko-lí-bat.

A ty, Jan-ku, na píšť-alku: dud-li, tud-li, dud-li, dá! Je-žíš-ku, pa-náč-ku, já tě bu-du ko-lí-bat.

A ty, Mik-ši, na hous-ličky: hud-li, tyd-li, hud-li, dá! Je-žíš-ku, pa-náč-ku, já tě bu-du ko-lí-bat.

A ty, Váv-ro, na tu basu: rum-rum, rum-rum, ruma, dá! Je-žíš-ku, pa-náč-ku, já tě bu-du ko-lí-bat.

I am still learning it, but it is by far my favorite Czech carol…

Roughly translated: It is a story of going to Bethlehem to meet the Baby Jesus. It is calling on different people to play music for him. The first is Jim who plays the pipe, the second is Jack who plays the flute, the third is Mickey who plays a small violin, and lastly Lawrence who plays the bass. The sound in the middle of each verse represents the sound of the instrument being played (pretty creative, huh?). I just like it because it’s fun to sing… and watching my host mom and brother sing it on Mikuláš when the Czech Devil showed up at my host grandma’s flat was priceless.

Speaking of.. I think this is the coolest holiday ever. Mikuláš is epic. The square had thousands of people gathered to watch the small angel rappel from the Black Tower to the other side of the square. Then, after that was over, there was a huge angel who was paraded around the whole square. Then most people go out to the pubs or go to their home to wait for Mikuláš or čert (the devil) to show up at their house. Unfortunately for me, I was a terrible person this year… which meant my house was visited by the devil. So without any interruptions, screaming and chaos entered my host grandma’s flat and I got a pitchfork stuck in my face. I was prodded until I started singing a song (I chose Jingle bells because it was the first thing I could think of), and then the devil was pleased. Since I did not fail his test, he left me alone.

My host brother on the other hand was not so lucky…. when asked to sing he just sat there. Violence ensued and like any other child who gets visited by the devil, he was dragged to hell (in this case meaning across the living room with fierce resistance). I, of course, like any big sister would do in the situation….started laughing and pointing and taking lots of pictures. Did I mention how much I love this? My host grandma must have a way with holiday figures though because Mikuláš did us the honor of stopping by grandma’s with presents earlier in the day. Isn’t he sweet?!?! (Okay more like host dad and mom went shopping so Liz would eat her own weight in chocolate and gain all the weight she’s been trying to avoid since she stepped foot in this country.)

Since it is winter now and there is only really cold weather and rain, which in my opinion is much worse than snow. My host family told me that the weather this year is quite odd. It snowed for two days in October and now when people are looking for a white Christmas, their hope is dwindling. I am looking forward to everything that’s happening in the future (snow or not). My host family is taking me to the Christmas market in Vienna and we are also going to the Alps in Austria for a ski trip over winter holiday. So, whether or not there is snow in Czech does not matter, because I am still going to have a great time. Now, I am enjoying the winter nights with my friends ice skating on the square. It is not so expensive and it gives me a chance to do something that I don’t normally do in Florida (which is ice skate). My second host dad even invited me to play ice hockey with them if I want. I’m not so sure about that one….

I hope that everyone has a fantastic vánoční svátky (Christmas holiday)!

And because Sarah May did it in her journal, I must add a Rotary Blazer picture…. and those of you who know my creative persona will understand exactly how my blazer came to be this chaotic before I even hit 4 months.

 December 24 Journal

This, my friends, is the heart wrenching tale of my long lost friend. His name was Emil. And this is his story….

It was early, on that cold December morning, the 23rd I suppose. Emil was canoodling with the others waiting to be picked up by his new, loving family. His friends were coming and going as he stood quietly amongst the wake. Finally, the hand reached in from above, and plucked him from his slumber. He was confused, alone, and very scared. Once he arrived in his new home, a mere 10 minutes later, he was welcomed by a plethora of water and new smiling faces. It didn’t take long for Emil to make new friends and refresh after his journey. Of course, you know how outgoing those Rotary exchange students are ;). Emil and I were instant friends. We took pictures together and discussed our holiday plans. Little did he know, my family had something else in mind. A plan, in which, he became the victim. My poor, poor friend Emil…..

As the story continues, Emil and I parted ways, but only for an hour or two. I even received word that he was still doing just fine, and I needn’t worry about him at all. As it turns out, I was duped. When I went to visit Emil in the evening I was greeted with what looked like a vicious crime. I was assured, however, that this was not what it looked like. Emil was in no harm at all, especially in the comfort of what appeared to be a plastic bag. I held him as we rode in the car on our way to some sort of rendezvous. As I exited the vehicle, I held on to Emil with all my strength. I handed him over at the door to a man who appeared to be a caretaker. He was wearing an apron and I was greeted with a smile. (If you have a weak stomach please skip the next paragraph).

To my dismay, my young friend was taken from me under false pretenses. It wasn’t until I heard the muffled banging sounds that I became worried about Emil and his safety. Shockingly enough, by the time that I had thought to go check on him… It was too late. The man who greeted me previously had filleted my new friend. Emil was handed back to me in pieces, and I was on the verge of tears. I couldn’t help but think… this is not the happy ending I thought our friendship would have. As I took him home, in what was now a cooking pot, that I had started referring to as an Urn, I questioned the morals of my family.

But oh was he tasty!!! And I can’t help thinking that Carp on Christmas is the coolest tradition in the world.

What you have just read is indeed, quite true. It is what I have found to be one of the most interesting holiday traditions here in the Czech Republic. At first the idea seemed rather barbaric, but after being a part of the whole process and experiencing it for myself, I couldn’t help but smile at the differences. If you think about it, it can be compared to how most Americans always have turkey on Thanksgiving. Only here, you get to live with you dinner before you eat it.

I am going to try and keep this journal short because that story said it all. I just wanted to thank Rotary and my family again for letting me experience this. You have no idea what it means to me. So to everyone in the United States, Czech Republic, and all my other exchange friends in the world have a Hezký vánoce a štastný nový rok!! I love you all!

January 10 Journal

One day Lift ticket for Sternstein: € 22,00

Wiener Schnitzel mit pommes: € 9,50

Car ride back to Czech Republic: 64.4 km + gas

Visit to Hospital after said day in Sternstein: Nothing except the pain in my wrist and an excruciatingly long wait for various doctors to look at my x-rays because my host mom is a doctor so she has taken extra care to make sure her baby isn’t dying and hasn’t broken anything.

Finding out that my wrist isn’t broken and I can still enjoy my week long Snowboard trip to the Alps in Austria: PRICELESS!!!!

Thankfully, it was only a sprain. Regardless, it was still (and still is) painful, but I was so excited when they told me I could still snowboard with my new nifty wrist brace. Two thumbs up if you ask me. Basically… the story is, we went to the Czech/Austrian Boarder (on the Austrian side) so I could try out snowboarding before our week in the Alps. Because I am a goober, I fell and put all my weight on my arm. Then, of course, it hurt really bad. We got back home, and I asked my host mom to look at it. She told me it wasn’t broken (to which I didn’t believe her) and wrapped it up. I think I slept for a total of two hours that night and woke up still with gross amounts of pain in my wrist. Host dad calls host mom, who then arranges for x-rays and to have every doctor in the region examine my results. Turns out there’s a small crack in one bone in my arm not big enough to cast and some torn innards. No big deal says the 5 doctors who examined it and all tried to overanalyze it because I was the doctor’s daughter. They arranged for me to get this sweet brace for my wrist that allows me to feel like I’m Iron Woman. I can do virtually anything with this thing on and not cause any more damage to my wrist! This meant that I could still enjoy my vacation!

Speaking of vacations… I WAS IN THE ALPS!!!! THE ALPS! THE ALPS! THE ALPS! THE ALPS! (Okay sorry). It was amazing to say the least. When you live in Florida and the most you get is a freeze warning that declares a state of emergency by the Governor due to the citrus crop (thank you CNN on Austrian television that I don’t get in CR) you tend to get very excited when you see things this magnificent. The air was cool, the snow was….. well, snowy and the food, holy cow! Forget hungry window causing my weight gain, what I really meant to say was “I gained all this weight on my one week trip to Austria.” The ski/snowboard philosophy here from what I have experienced is much different. In the United States, when I go snowboarding, it’s an all day event. I start at 9 am and finish as soon as the lifts close with a small break for some sort of food. This food is shoveled down so fast that I don’t even have time to socialize and it’s back to the slope. In Austria… the story is so different. We start around the same time, perhaps a little later but, we stop for lunch. I mean STOP. About an hour later we get back on the slope (around 2 or so) and take a few more runs. Then around 3:30 (slopes close at 4:30) we stop for coffee, tea, or for the hardcore people some sort of Austrian bar concoction. Then we slowly make our way all the way back down the mountain to the lodge or the car. This is followed by a short break at our mountain flat which leads into more eating for dinner. After dinner I played Carcassone with my family and then stayed up to watch CNN, because I was so excited that there was a channel in English. My TV at home here only has Czech channels. It’s cool for learning, but when you are looking to inform yourself on the latest stories of the world, it’s nice to see the news. Downside: when there is very limited newsworthy coverage, you see the same headlines over and over (Thank you, CNN). Besides all the food and multiple bruises from falling so much, I had the best week ever! We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast type place run by Brun Hilda. No, I’m serious… That’s really her name. She made me breakfast every morning complete with eggs that had hats. They were the cutest thing ever and I regret not taking any pictures of them. She only talked to me in German, which was an experience… because I had no idea what she was saying. But, I put on that “Rotary Smile” said Guten Morgan, Auf Wiedersehen and good. For one week, I’m pretty pleased with my German language knowledge.

The way home was bittersweet. I knew that the best week I ever had with my host family was ending. Packing up all my belongings, I made my way to my next host family. It’s one of the best/worst moments in Youth Exchange that I have experienced thus far. I have become so attached to my 1st host family that when I was getting ready to leave they were trying to find excuses for me to stay. For example: “I think there is too much snow on the street to drive the car,” “I think it will be better if you have more time to pack,” “So… maybe you should move next week or the week after.” All of these made me realize just how lucky I was to have the time that I did with this family. I know that they will forever be a part of my life and I am so grateful to have been a part of theirs.

Moving is all part of the experience and as much as I am going to miss my last host family, I am going to move forward and give my current family the best of my time. I want everyone in my new life here to be able to share the same kind of relationship that I have conceived with my first host family. Step back world. I have a new family for 2 ½ months. It may only be the first day, but I promise to make this time of my exchange even better than the last.

January 22 Journal

Ahoj World.

Let’s see, what can I tell you that’s new? Well, you already know that I changed host families. You already know I’m gaining lots of weight. But, perhaps I can find something new to talk about. How about this: I started dance lessons! Not ballet or jazz, but traditional ballroom dancing. Many families send their children to dance lessons between the ages of 15 to 19 so they’re children can become “more refined” and “more cultured”. Since doing new things is one of those awesome little traits of being an exchange student, my host grandma, whom I love so much, seized the opportunity to buy me dance lessons as one of my Christmas presents. Lucky for me, the lessons are taught only in Czech.

This leads to the very interesting side topic of last Monday (about a week or so ago). Oh last Monday, how you made me very confused. The first week I moved into my new family, it was only my host parents because my brother was on a ski trip with his class in France. Seeing as my host parents do not speak very much English, this led to mass Czech language learning on my part because without that my answers would have been quite repetitive of yes’s, I understand’s, no, I’m not hungry, I really am hungry, and I’m going to sleep. I say this simply because those are usually my most important phrases of the day. But, since I was thwarted into this new environment, there is no time like the present to start studying much more than I was before.

Ok, so back to Monday. I had gone to school like any other normal Monday and was home around 2:30. I decided that I would have a snack and just relax before my dance lessons. This led to talking to my host mom briefly, watching some TV, eating a small dinner, and then taking a shower and getting ready to go. I was at my dance lesson from 5:30 to 8. I returned to the house, with my feet sore as could be, talked to my host parents, did not pass go and did not collect 200 dollars. I was so tired. So naturally, I went to bed early (wow, that never happens). Turns out by the time I wake up for school at 6:45 am, I was in so much mass confusion that I had to sit there and regroup for a few minutes. And why is this? Because I had my first 100% totally complete dream in Czech. I have had ones before that had only some phrases that were random and some words that I had used on repeat for any particular day. But never have I woken up and my first thought been “What the HE*L did I just dream about.” because to be honest, I really have no idea what my first dream in Czech was about. I think I was so surprised when I woke up that I completely forgot. I went to eat breakfast and was, well, wow. It was awesome. But at the same time, I am looking forward to the point where I can dream in Czech and be able to completely understand it.

Hmm. so after that interesting life story, I do not have much else to follow it with. Last night I stayed up way too late (meaning early morning) making food and dancing around my kitchen with my host brother. We made some noodles, played really loud music and shared in general hilarity. I think maybe one of my favorites was fighting over which CD’s to play. The creative strategy of “well, we should listen to my music, I’m being a good host sister and sharing my culture with you.” And about 10 minutes later it would be “Well, Liz, now that I know I don’t like that CD, I’m going to put in my music.” This is A.K.A “sharing our cultures”. I, in fact, always tend to lose at this. I don’t mind though. Czech music is usually pretty good, and my host brother also has an extensive collection of older English CD’s that I am also a fan of like The Beatles. My two favorite Czech bands here are Vpsaná fixa and Mandrage. Good stuff.

In the past week I’ve also attended the Rotary Ples for Cesky Krumlov with the exchange students there. It was a lot of fun. I think I met more people interested in me being an exchange student than I ever have in one sitting. I met Rotarians from Denmark, Austria, Turkey, Slovakia, and, of course, Czech Republic. Maybe, by the time Ples (fancy ball) season is over (now until late March) I will be an amazing dancer. I sure hope so.

Alright, well I’ve managed to spend enough time avoiding to walk to the bus stop to get to Czech lessons on time. so I should probably leave now. I’ll write more later, promise J.

February 2 Journal

Does anyone recall that line in the Outbound student handbook in bold print where it says “Be Prepared to Adapt”? For the most part, this really has not been too challenging for me. Making friends wasn’t so hard, and the most complicated barrier in even the hardest of times has been my language skills. And I am by no means complaining in any way, shape, or form. I am just letting you all know what I am experiencing now is a little bit more challenging than what I have faced so far.

Do you recall in my last journal or 2 mentioning that I moved? Well, at first I was just out of place mentally because I am so close with my first host family. I give them a lot of credit and without them, I probably would have been on my way back to Florida much earlier than anyone would have liked. But now, I have been living in my new home for exactly 23 days. This has been the hardest part of my exchange. Adaptation is a skill that I thought was easy.. No sir. Not at all. I literally changed lifestyles overnight. The Kubešovi family is my new family. My host mom is Marie, who I call Marie. Host dad is Honza, who I call Honza. My host brother. well he’s also Honza because 1 out of every 6 males in Czech Republic are named that. And yeah, I call him Honza too. I also have a host sister, Jana, who studies in Germany and another older host sister Maruška who lives down the street with her husband and daughter, Marketa (age 2). I have my own room upstairs, and it’s quiet and peaceful.

On Sunday nights after dinner, I sit down with my host family and I write out my schedule for the week. This is so the whole family knows what each other is doing. All my plans are thoroughly checked prior to engagement. My host mom has a copy of my school classes so she knows what time I will be home from school every day. I have dance lessons on Monday, Rotary meetings on Wednesday, and every other day of the week I normally have nothing exciting planned. In my new home, much more is expected of me. If I have no plans after school, I am home within 30 minutes of my school being finished for the day. If I do have plans, I am home at whatever time they agreed to. When I come home, I am to say “Ahoj,” so they know that I am there before I go up to my room. And. cool for me. best part.. Ready… Set.. No more English!! The only time something gets close to English is if I am so lost in understanding something that they will help me out. Other than that, plans are discussed and made in Czech, dinner conversations are in Czech, and misunderstandings are dealt with in Czech.. which for me means I am usually on the short end of the stick.

If you were wondering why it hasn’t really sounded like I’ve had any issues so far with everything it’s because I haven’t mentioned having problems. The only problem I have had is that it is taking me much longer than I had hoped to adjust to my new life in my new house. Every day I am learning something new about my host family and how they function. Examples: How plans need to be made a week in advance, flattening out clothes before folding is essential, you take-you clean up, even if we offer- you can get it yourself, mom is always right, I don’t eat soup with my left hand so why did you put the spoon on the left, umiš český, we discussed it 5 days ago in Czech.. why can’t you remember?, and we made plans and you’re going. None of these things are problems. They are all things that I have to adjust to. One of the experiences of being an exchange student is having the chance to move and experience a new family life. I just happened to move extremes from fluid to strict. Hence: I am the one who has to adapt. A word to others who may one day be in my shoes: don’t be shocked if you switch families and you think that your life is going to end. It won’t end. It will just take some more time to get used to everything that they do differently. My host family now has hosted multiple exchange students before from Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Ecuador. I am their first American. I really don’t want to ruin their vision of America by being unreasonable. So as difficult as I have a feeling these next 2 months are going to be.. I will overcome it. Because I am an exchange student, and exchange students can do anything they put their minds to. (Yes, I am still wearing my Rotary Smile).

I also want to share with you the awesome time I had at Pec Pod Sněžkou at my inbound weekend for Czech Republic. It took 6 hours of cross country travel by train with some of my closest friends for a day of snowboarding and of course, the infamous Czech Language test. For without this language test, it really wouldn’t be a Czech Rotary weekend. I spent all day on that Saturday snowboarding in a small group (7 people) who actually knew what they were doing. The only part I didn’t enjoy was having to use T-lifts all day long. You know… the old school bars that skiers can use but snowboarders just look dumb because they have to put it between their legs?!?! Okay, well they always designated someone to go after me in the lift line because 9 times out of 10 I would fall within 4 seconds of trying to get on the lift. Regardless it was a really fun weekend. It made me realize how little time I really have left with some of my inbound friends, because the next Rotary function we have together isn’t until the end of May. After my day of snowboarding on Saturday, I said goodbyes and made the 6 hour journey from Trutnov back to Ceske Budejovice. *Side note* I love how easy it is to travel within the country, kudos to Europe for awesome modes of public transportation.

A big Děkuji to Rotary both in Florida and Czech Republic. I can’t thank you enough for everything you have given me. Ahoj! J

February 27 Journal

I started writing my journal awhile back, but found I had nothing interesting to say and/or that I was having one of those days that nobody really wants to hear about. But, now I have much more interesting things to talk about. This week was a school holiday and I had the opportunity to visit München, Germany (Munich). My current host sister is at University there and she offered to take me for the week and show me around the city. It was a nice break from the everyday, and I enjoyed every second of it.

I walked around Olympia park, the site of the 1972 Olympic games. The grounds were quiet, spare all the construction going on to make the park even nicer. I circled the complex and even had a look at the Olympic swimming pool, which was huge. After walking around and taking far too many pictures, we left and got on the underground to go eat lunch. I must say, I am fascinated with public transport in big cities here. I love it. It’s so practical and it makes me feel like I would never need a car. But, that all changed when we went to the BMW showroom.

This place is awesome. I know I can’t drive until I am back in the states anyways, but really… I loved sitting in the driver’s seat of all the cars that I will not be able to afford until I save up in my retirement fund (which is a long time). Me and my friend Rachael, who came with me to Munich, took dozens of photos because neither one of us had sat behind the wheel of a car in 6 months. We were a bit excited. I drove a car on the Daytona Speedway, via playstation and was pretty satisfied that this was the only amount of driving I could do in Europe. I watched an eager couple pick up their brand new BMW and take pictures with it as it rotated immaculately around the showroom floor. It was a fun time.

On a more serious note, I also had the chance to visit Dachau, the first established concentration camp. This was the camp that served as a model for all the other camps set up throughout Hitler’s reign. It was also the training place of the SS and became known as the “school of violence.” Spending a few hours here made me very thankful that I have the life that I do. I walked around the grounds and had a lot of time to reflect. I saw a short documentary film about the camp and what happened to the people who lived in it. I was surprised at how much that I didn’t know about the Holocaust, and how much I learned after I left. It was also interesting for me because I became interested in what happened to the Czech people who were imprisoned here. I started associating myself with Czechs and reading all about what happened to them throughout this time. Turns out, not many of them were actually imprisoned, because the Czech nation was being used to make weaponry for the war effort. So nobody wanted to mess with the people making the guns. Some were still taken, but it was not nearly as much as the other races or nationalities. It was amazing to me how it just started with one or two “imperfect” races and began to spread to other social groups. I feel like they began making excuses to just throw people into camps. It really shocked me. This was one of the most important days I spent in Munich because it opened my eyes to a past that I knew about, but really had not experienced.

On my last day in Munich, I visited the Deutches Museum, which is a technical museum. It was fun to run around the 6 stories of halls related to all sorts of different things. They have history of ships, planes, boats, physics, astronomy, photography, textiles, toys, pottery, glassmaking, and all sorts of other things. I even got a great view of the city from the Sundial garden on the 5th floor. There were more cars there… but I couldn’t sit in them L. I did however get to pretend I was the captain of a ship, make energy from hydrogen, and see a piano that was older than the United States. I usually like going to museums like this one where the exhibits are a bit more interactive. It was enjoyable, and thanks to it I have so many pictures that I have no idea what I am going to do with.

I think the most interesting thing was when I was leaving Germany. I was actually smiling. Because I had a great vacation, but I was thinking to myself I’m ready to go home. But now, home isn’t Florida, but rather Ceske Budejovice. I got back and told my host family all about my trip, ate dinner, took a shower and went to bed. Sounds exactly how it should be at home, and that’s how I felt. Granted I don’t always agree with mom and dad, but that doesn’t always happen in Florida either. Some things are getting shorter here, like my time left in the Czech Republic. I never thought that it would feel like there is nothing left.

Last night, I went out and just sat in the town square. I thought about everything and realized that I really don’t have that much time left here. I looked up and saw the tourists, smiled and said I’m glad that’s not me. I just reflected on the things I’ve accomplished since arriving, and the things I wish to accomplish before I leave. In the next 3 weeks or so, I become so busy that I don’t even know when I am going to have time to breathe. But, I guess that’s how it always goes for the exchangers. Everything seems to be going so slow, then comes New Years, you blink, and 2 months have already gone by. I can’t wait to share the rest of my adventures here with all of you, and I’m sure there will be more soon. Ahoj J

April 5 Journal

WOW! I have not written in so long. CO? I can’t believe it. I have been so religious about writing every once in a while to let the world know what was happening in my corner of the globe, then I became…. the slacker. I guess I should fill you all in on what has been happening with me.

As much as I want to sit here and say my month of March was amazing and super and spectacular, it is hard to do so. I look back now after starting and restarting this journal multiple times and made the decision to just tell it how it is. Because sugarcoating rarely helps anyone. I had a rough time at beginning of the month just due to general blah, I had to go to the hospital to get my leg cut open (uber fun), and I swear my booty has become the size of a wide load tracker trailer. Despite my personal series of unfortunate events, I have managed to keep striding on to enjoy everything that my life has thrown at me. I have decided that I will never enjoy cross country skiing and that no matter how hard I try not to, I will continue to eat everything on my plate to the point of tummy explosion. The food is just too good. I swear that everything that has happened to me, like being sick for almost 3 weeks solid now, has helped me to realize the good and bad that everyone gets when putting themselves through the exchange experience. You can’t always have a great day. Even the most optimistic people can have moments where they want to give up and just go to something new. If March has taught me anything, it is to just go with whatever life throws at you and learn from experience. Don’t let the little things bother you, pick up your baggage and just keep trucking. Without moments that are dull, you can never stand back up to something ten times better.

For example… I just came back from a week of snowboarding in Slovakia with a group of exchange students. Before this week, I was sick. During the week, well, I was still sick. And now, I’m still a bit sick. My second host family told me that if I didn’t get better before ski week I wasn’t going. Turns out that I wasn’t better, but I told them I thought a week away from my normal home environment would be good. I swear that the second I got to Slovakia and saw all the exchange students that I had not seen in 6 months, I was healed (not really, but I felt a whole lot better). My week will all my friends, old and new, made me feel 1000% better than I did when I arrived, and I would have to say it was the best (or one of the best) weeks of my exchange year. I got to share all my thoughts with other students living in a similar (yet MUCH different) culture, and learned that I wasn’t the only person on exchange hitting multiple speed bumps in a row. I felt like everyone wanted to make me feel better and show me a good time in their country (because there were only 3 of us from CR). It was so much fun. I got to go snowboarding every day, I got to climb up hills because it was too windy, and I even managed to start going on jumps.

I spend hours laughing with my friends, and even got some of the Slovak exchangers to play Carrcassonne (which I am pretty sure is the best game since Monopoly). Except none of them wanted to actually call it Carrcassonne, so we just referred to it as “Build-A-World.” I stayed up late every night and woke up to start each morning just as happy as I was the night before. At the end of the week, I did not want to leave. I was fighting with my suitcases at the door because they wanted to go out the door and I wanted nothing more than to stay a few more days. Leaving all of my friends at the train station to go back to Czech Republic was extremely hard. I won’t see most of them until the Greece/Italy tour in May. But lucky for me, some of them are coming to visit our city in a few days J.

The 10 hour train ride from Liptovský Mikolaš to České Budějovice was long, but so worth it. I arrived back in my city at around 9 pm, packed until 3 am, slept at 4 am, woke up at 8:45 to move to my new host family. I moved from super awesome convenient, city bus riding, within walking distance, waking up 1 hour before school starts to à Milíkovice. Now, every exchanger in Budejovice (minus our Aussie) has had the privilege of gracing the settlement of Milíkovice with our presence. You could possibly say that this is the most international settlement of our region. And, I say settlement because there aren’t enough people or houses to call it a village. I am the 28th resident of our little area, and I couldn’t have a more optimistic opinion. When I moved in I was asked, “About what is population in Jacksonville?” To which I answer around one million. Giggles ensued, and I had just realized I was in the “real” country. Welcome to the Czech Republic. *Side note* you know it’s tiny when there isn’t even a pub within walking distance. So in translation … Milíkovice = amazingly beautiful landscape with whatever natural beauty you could ever ask for, with the drawback of leaving for school an hour before you want to wake up. I can’t complain, my new host family is bigger, 2 brothers and 1 sister, grandparents, animals galore, and never a loss for company.

Now, I have a break from the ordinary because my dad is currently visiting from Florida. I have never been able to feel so good about myself ever. I have been forced to use my language even more than before as I show my dad the culture that I have now adopted as my own. I can speak to all my friends in Czech, order our meals, make sure the transport is taken care of, and yes… impress my family. I think my dad almost wet his pants when we were traveling from Prague back to Ceske Budejovice. We had just unknowingly sat down on the train in the first class cabin (with 2nd class tickets), and the ticket collector had said to me in Czech that it was bad and we should move. Well, we had lots of suitcases and my dad was tired from his flight, so I ran down the small corridor of the train and proceeded to ask how much it would cost to stay there. The attendant was so surprised that I spoke Czech (because he heard us speaking in English) that he told us to just sit and stay. About 30 minutes later he came back and we had a Czech conversation about where I was from and how well I was speaking Czech for a foreigner. He told me he couldn’t speak English, but he thought it sounded really nice. I told him that I thought Czech was such a pretty language and that I had felt such a good connection with the culture after only seven months. About 5 or so minutes later he told me that he had to leave to go do his rounds on the train, to which I said goodbye to him, and the door to our cabin shut. My dad looked like a deer in the headlights… or more like what just happened. As I explained the whole conversation in English he was just so surprised. I’m sure that neither of us thought that I would ever progress this far. Czech was always so hard for me, and until now, I didn’t think I was any good at it. Having the confidence boost from random people that ask me for directions now or who are interested in why I love the Czech language so much is the greatest feeling.

I know that this visit from my family will go by so fast and the rest of my exchange will seem to melt away. The last thing I want to do is leave my home. Because that is what the Czech Republic is now, my home. I can’t imagine leaving all of these things that mean so much to me. As I took my dad these last few days to visit my host families and meet the people who have shaped my life in this country, I have been able to reflect on just how lucky I am. I cannot thank Rotary enough for giving me the chance to be in the Czech Republic. As I walk the streets like a local and share with my dad the life I have been living, it becomes apparent to me that I am multi-cultural. I even enjoyed Easter a bit…. which is quite possibly the most violent Slavic holiday. I was hit with homemade sticks (or switches) by my host brothers and wow… it was abnormal to say the least. The switch that my first host family made was bigger than me! So, I was very far from excited when they pulled it out to hit me. It is said that being hit by these sticks is for good health and luck throughout the year. I was so scared. All day walking around the city I was watching carefully around every corner making sure that i wasn’t going to get smacked across the butt again.

Everything that was once foreign to me is normal, and I have to smile as my Dad watches all my quirks. I eat with both hands, wear new fashions, use strange expressions, and have made many mental notes about the the American culture after living here. It’s amazing how much I can say I have changed over these past few months. Nothing will ever be the same, and I am proud of what I have become. There is so much left to discover and so little time left before I have to go back to Florida. Here’s to making the best of the rest of my exchange year. You were all right…. it goes by so much faster than you would imagine. Thank you again to Rotary, my family, my friends, and Czech Republic. I Love you all.

May 15 Journal

Don’t you just love Volcanoes?

I think that they can sum up the last month, in more ways than one. I’m not sure how many of you this affected but this silly Icelandic volcano made me re-organize much of my family’s visit. Nonetheless, everything managed to work out nicely and I enjoyed every moment with both of my parents. My dad had the chance to see Prague for a whole extra week! And my mom, our single week was enough to make me happier than a clam. I had a chance to visit some cities I would never have gotten an opportunity to see on my own here, and spending time with my parents after so long was a breath of fresh air. But of course, both of them would tell you that seeing all the places wasn’t as cool as coming to visit me. With my dad we did a mini central/eastern European tour, and my mom was fortunate enough to see my Ceskoslovensko playground. They both met my host families and got to see where I have been living. They got thrown into Czech culture and both had the same “Everything is so cool” reaction (which made me proud of my little unknown country here in Europe). Overall, my April spent with my family was super nice. I feel like they have already realized that the little girl they sent over here is no longer the same person. I hope that makes it a bit easier when I return… J

The next most exciting thing that I have been doing is a tour of Greece and Italy with the other exchange students in my district 2240, from Czech Republic and Slovakia. I spent two weeks with some of the coolest people in the entire world, and got to see the birthplace of the ancient world. I swam in the Aegean sea (which is no Atlantic in terms of temperature), went to Delphi, and failed to get into Athens because of bombs and political riots. My first week was a bit confusing because we had to keep changing the itinerary because of the Athens riots. Overall though, Greece was very beautiful. And the food, OOHHHPAHH! It was great too. Looking at all the buildings, I felt like I had gone back in time. All the letters on buildings were reminiscent of my childhood remembrance of watching Hercules, and I wanted nothing more than to find some random person wearing a toga. But, sadly no togas. In Thessaloniki I got to walk along the coast and see a large body of water for the first time since being on exchange. As a Floridian, this is kind of a big deal. I also saw palm trees, which made all of the students from the northern US scream in delight. That was also fun to experience. I got to show off my uni-tard (which is another story I must share later on) to all the world. Greece wasn’t too keen on it, but when we got to Venice in Italy… oh man did we make some friends. From Greece to Italy we took an overnight ferry. It was one of the best days of my trip. I stayed up late playing cards with all my friends and watched the sunrise before we entered the port in Italy. As I said goodbye to Greece and realized half my tour was already over, I couldn’t have been more excited to see Italy.

Italy was just as amazing as I had thought it would be, the people, the atmosphere, and of course… the food. It Italy I visited: Naples, Pompeii, Mount Vesuvius, The Vatican City, Rome, Sienna, Lide di Jesolo, and Venice. I started to type what I enjoyed most on this trip and then had to erase my sentence because I realized that I just listed everything over again. I climbed Mount Vesuvius (active volcano…see volcano reference). I saw the Sistine Chapel. I was inside the Ancient Roman Coliseum. I ate the best gelato of my life in Sienna. And Venice, I think it held the best 2 days of my entire life. I walked around Venice with my closest friends all day, checking in every 2 hours with our group, and at the end of the day… I sat along the water with them. We all realized that exchange is almost over, but at the same time, our lives are just getting started. These are really the best days of our lives. Regardless of all the time spent on the bus that I could have lived with being much shorter, I had unreal amounts of fun. I had a 2 week vacation with amazing people and in beautiful places. I took some good pictures to remember it all by.

It has finally gotten to the point where I am fighting to realize it’s all going to be over. My exchange is getting closer to the end every day. I am finally back in my little Milikovice home, with my 28 other residents and my fields that extend to the horizon. This includes, once again, the 30 minute walk to the bus and the love/hate of being in the middle of nowhere. The time I just spent traveling went by so quickly… and in the same amount of time this go around, I will be boarding a plane back to my beloved Jacksonville. Everything is pretty set when I get back. I’m starting university, I’m leaving my home again, and I’ve grown up. I’m definitely not the same person who left. I don’t know who that girl is anymore. I’ve been happier in this past stretch of time than I have ever been in my entire life. I am so happy with who I am and I realize that I can do anything that I set my mind to. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. I have been lucky enough to be a part of or experience everything that I have ever dreamed of. Nowadays, I feel like I wake up and I’m still dreaming. The people I spend my time with over here and the experiences I have shared with them are irreplaceable for the rest of my life. I could not be more thankful or blessed to have this experience.

I never truly understood the millions of thank-you messages at the end of all these journals before I left. But now, after living the dreams I’ve had, I fully realize why thanking Rotary is the least I could do. Dekuju moc, Rotary. You really have helped me into becoming an amazing individual.

May 28 Journal

Ještě jednou časopis pro vas = Once more a journal for you 🙂

As I sit here, once again, I’m starting to contemplate going back to Florida. I have my friends asking me if I’m excited to go home. I have mixed feelings about everything going on. But this is it. It’s happening. My exchange is slowly coming to an end, just like everyone said it would one day. I was packing today for my last mandatory Rotary trip: Ceský Krumlov, Slovakia, and Poland. It has taken me all day, and I still haven’t finished packing. I can’t imagine what it is going to be like when I have to fit my life back into those 2 suitcases and put them on a plane with me. Gah, I’m not looking forward to that at all.

The reason it has taken me all day to pack my things is because I’ve been using my well known habit of creative avoidance (which means my blazer got another makeover for the district conference next weekend). Every time I started to fold something to put it in my suitcase I got this weird feeling like it was already over. My host mom asked me this morning what date I was going back to the USA, and I walked upstairs to see my empty suitcase waiting for clothes and then I just had to sit on my bed and think. I know that there are people already on their way home from various places, and one of my best exchange friends is going home next week. but me… NEVER. I don’t want to think about going back. My room, that is not going to feel like my room, or my house, that my family re-modeled while I was gone, or my dogs. Are they even going to recognize me? There are so many things that I am not looking forward to. At the same time, I do have many AMAZING things to look forward to. I get to see my best friend, who I haven’t seen in months and rarely talked to at all these past few months. I get to hug my parents again. I get to start university in the fall. I get to come back to Florida with a new set of traits and attributes that I discovered about myself while away. I have so much to look forward to. A new me, a new life.

But also, I have to leave everything that I have grown to love: Babička Syllabová and her amazing apple strudel (which she needs to give me the recipe before I leave), My host families, my crazy long walk to the bus stop. Which means I’m even admitting that I am going to miss living in Milíkovice. I am going to miss the way it rains and looks all blah, all the time. I am going to miss walking through the park on the way to school. I am going to miss everything about česke budějovice. I am going to miss Velbloud, Modrý Dveře, švejk, masný kramě, želežna pána, Singer, and all the other cool places that I meet with my friends and have made memories. I am going to miss going to the Cajovná every Wednesday, as has been our tradition for at least 5 months now. I’m going to miss all my friends. I am going to miss how I MUST wear my slippers in the house and at school. I am going to miss eating. I think more than I am going to miss most other things. My poor body….

These past 2 weeks after my Greece trip I have had the opportunity to independently travel. After the 1st of the year, there is a rule in my district that you can go visit friends in the district with Rotary permissions. My district 2240, is the whole of Czech Republic and Slovakia. It makes for a large range of travel locations. I went to Slovakia to visit a bunch of my friends. And the answer is yes, it was a bit hard to get a hold of Slovak instead of Czech, but they are really similar. With most differences being in random vocabulary, I was still able to communicate with Frank’s host family (the family I stayed with in Slovakia). I had the greatest time meeting all kinds of people and learning (mostly comparing) the Czech and Slovak cultures. After my 4 days, I had to get back on the train and say čau. It wasn’t easy at all. I did not want to leave, but then again, I find that that is usually how it is on all the trips I’ve taken this year. Overall, I’m just in this state of wishing time would slow down, at the same time I want it to speed up. There are so many contrasting things going on in my mind. I am so happy with my new lifestyle. I love it here. But Florida. so soon. why?!?!?!?!?! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO. You have such bad timing.

I should stop complaining. I was given a year, a year to make a difference, to discover, to learn, and to grow as an individual. My year was special, and if anyone were to ask me what I regret, or what I would change, I would reply: nothing. This year in the Czech Republic has been spectacular. I learned to speak Czech, which scares me still when I open my mouth. I made friends across many cultures. I grew up, a lot. And guess what? It’s not over just yet. I have a little less than a month. I still have time. I’m going to be in cram mode, speaking as much Czech as I can before I go to the states, eating all sorts of awesome foods, and spending time with all the people who have made my year absolutely amazing. I owe it to all the people who have made this exchange happen for me to enjoy my last few weeks as much as possible.

Note to all those special Rotarians (you know who you are): you were right, the whole time. J Thanks for everything along the way.

June 24 Journal

This is it. The goodbyes have started, followed by the unknown waves of varying emotions, and ending with the hugs and kisses of promises you hope to keep. As I have said goodbye the last week or so, I have learned some vital lessons. You never truly realize how much you have impacted someone’s life, until you are forced out of it. Let me explain: I have said goodbye to almost all the exchange students in Czech Republic, and to my first two families. I never want to leave. These people have affected me in ways that I did not comprehend were possible. As I went on the Farewell Canoe/Raft trip weekend, I started to see what was happening. Slowly, one by one, they leave home. Each date creeps closer and closer until it suddenly passes in a haze. The scary part… my date is the next date. June 26th. I am home in 2 days.

As I reflect on my year, I can be nothing but a proud exchange student. I spent my year battling ups and downs in order to transform myself into the amazing individual I believe I have become. I pack my suitcases only to reminisce on the time I have had, and thank everyone who has made this possible for me. It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that it is over. Maybe the other exchangers know what I am talking about, but until you have lived it, or experienced exchange in one form or another, you will not understand. This is not a vacation. I do not want to leave my Czech friends, family, or life that I have grown to love. I am not ready to walk away from everything I have taken so long to shape and mold. But as it turns out, anything is possible… which means leaving is not the end of the world.

Leaving the Czech Republic is another opportunity that has presented itself (well forced opportunity, but nonetheless)… I can now reach out to people who are interested in the experience. I can be more motivated to study my international courses at university. I can live the life that I have always dreamed I would have, simply because I have the personal confidence that being on exchange has given me. I wish it were easier, in fact, I wish that all the things associated with this year had come without a challenge. But that’s just it. The challenge is necessary. It built my character. It build my emotional boundaries. And this challenge gave me a new lease on life, one that I appreciate and have come to know as my own point of view.

Thank you to everyone who made this possible, the Rotarians, my family, my friends, and everyone else who supported me throughout my exchange. Without all of you, I would not have been able to be as successful as I feel I have been. So in reflection, I can’t believe I actually did it. After all the emotions I ran though this year, and all the hard work, I realized how worth it exchange really is. You become a new person, a new you, and wow, is it amazing to experience. I wish that everyone, someday, could go through this. It is really the best decision I have made in my entire life.

One day, everyone who ever doubted me for one second will look back in appreciation of what I have accomplished. This is not the end, oh no. Trust me. One day, you will see me changing the world. I will be happy. I will live the life I have always dreamed of living. It starts now. Welcome to reality, and the life you always knew you had, but you could never find until this moment. Congratulations. You did it.

July 8 Epilogue

I have always been one of those stunningly awkward individuals you always see catching their gaze in unusual reflective objects. Car windows, ground puddles, the sunglasses of passers by, or even, yes, every mirror that I walk past. Curiously enough, image has never been something that has been overly important to me. For as long as I can remember now, I have tried to avoid make up as much as possible. The only time I would wear it being special occasions and when those around me ran toward me violently with some absurd shade of god knows what goo and tried to apply it on my face, only to tell me “see don’t you look so much prettier.” Truth is it never did anything but make me want to touch my face and rub it all off…

To me, this is how I always looked at my own image. I was constantly lingering at what it was, but never was interested in changing the way it was intended to look with passing time. So, I guess when I started this exchange looking young, cute, and innocent I never really gave it thought. It just happened. A reflection of the personality of the time, I suppose ;).

I entered a life that was… at first strange, melded into awkward, shaped into livable, re-molded into decent, smashed and build up into life itself, re-worked into surprisingly normal, conglomerated into something common, developed into something with ruts, smashed again to reveal even more ruts… (at this point imagine some indescribable low if you got lost somewhere in this sentence), followed by a smoothing of ground, replacing it with new ground, discovering the ground was a solid surface, locating luck and circumstance, noticing the surface is getting more beautiful every day, yearning for time to go faster so you can see what has become of the world you have watched this whole time and suddenly realizing that you want it to stop almost completely, so you don’t leave what you have taken so long to watch flourish.

This life described above was not a battle of self image physically, but the most tiring mental competition I have entered myself into the few 18 years I have lived. I can recall moments where I thought the world was ending, only to be followed by a lapse of something more beautiful than anything human. I subjected my mind to itself. A mental reflection, if you will. It took months and months of guesswork, cultural investigation, language barriers, and exhaustion to come to terms with the real thoughts I had. My personality is now a mix of old and new. My life as most people know it… is just beginning.

It’s interesting how a single year can change the outcome of so many aspects of a life. If I mapped each small choice I made throughout this last year and linked it to other related choices I have made, I could have easily taken my life in millions of directions. The slightest change would have altered things, not drastically, but enough to where it would be just that bit different. It would have become a shade darker or lighter and thicker or thinner.

As I leave the World with my final thoughts (I say world because I’m unsure how many people read this and where on earth they are physically located), I can be nothing but extremely satisfied. It took me a year, but I did it. I learned a lesson that far too many people in their own lives will never accomplish. I have learned to love and appreciate. No matter how many times it is said by various people, or to what degree, I must repeat it now. For this lesson, is the greatest lesson that I’ve learned. I have a love and appreciation for cultures, races, people, and lives that I never could have comprehended. I am happy. I can now go on with the rest of my life, battling the challenges with a stronger mentality, and loving those who deserve it with every ounce I know I can give.

I may look a bit different now, even some of my relatives failed to recognize me. I may use new weird mannerisms. I slowly am relearning to do things as an American, and re-molding my cultural identity. It will not be easy, but it’s not impossible. I have already started to notice the little things… like how doors lock the opposite way, free refills exist, you don’t have to pay to have ketchup at fast food, nobody gives you weird looks when you don’t finish all your food, I can drive, concrete exists everywhere, and of course, I have also noticed how dissimilar I really have become. It’s a good thing J

Being back in Florida isn’t bad. I do miss the life I had in Czech Republic, but as it turns out, I’ve already lived it. It’s time for me to move on to not bigger and better things, but just the rest of my life. It’s out there, and I’m going to go find it.

 

Maddie’s Bio

Grüezi! I am Maddie Sortino. I am 16 and go to Buchholz High School for German 2, and dual enroll at Santa Fe College for the rest of my classes. I enjoy the dual enrollment program because it gives me more freedom and I don’t have to attend the same class every day. Not only that, but I am able to get ahead on my college credits. I live with my mom, dad, older brother, and my adorable dog. My oldest brother is in the Navy. I was born in Gainesville and lived here 7 years, then moved to Richmond, Virginia for 5 years, and came back. In my free time I like to hang out with friends, explore the outdoors, learn new things, volunteer at the Humane Society, go to shows, and play/listen to music. I’m fairly outgoing and enjoy meeting new people.

I have been wanting to do foreign exchange for the past year when I first heard about it from a friend who did it. I went on the website and began learning everything I could, and reading all the journals. My parents were a bit skeptical at first, and didn’t want me to leave so soon. After my mom went around asking people about it, and everyone told her she should definitely let me, she let me. Immediately after turning 16 I went and got a job to start raising money towards it. I was so excited and would not stop talking about it to all of my friends. They think that what I am doing is either insane or amazing.

One night I was hanging out with former exchange students Brad, who went to Germany, and Liam, who went to Switzerland. I got a call from Jody Davis saying that I was going to Switzerland! It was the absolute happiest I had been in so long. The timing was perfect too. I could barely talk except to yell to them, “I’M GOING TO SWITZERLAND!!!” Switzerland was tied for my number one choice, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to go there. It will definitely be the most enlightening, tough, and fun year of my life. I cannot think of a better way to spend my senior year. Thank you so much Rotary for making this possible.

Tschüss,

Maddie.

 Maddie’s Journals

November 1 Journal

So I can’t believe it. I’ve been living in Switzerland for almost 3 months now. In some ways it feels like I’ve been here forever, and at the same time, it seems like only a week has gone by.

When I woke up on August 7th, I immediately was a basket case of emotions. It was a mixture of panic, depression, and utter excitement. I couldn’t believe the day had actually come. Talking about doing the exchange year was so much easier than when it really came down to doing it. When I walked into the airport, I could not stop shaking. All that was going through my head at the moment was, “What in the world am I doing? Am I crazy?” Well the answer to the first question is – I’m having the most enlightening/amazing/tough year of my life.

On the plane ride to Zurich, I did not sleep at all. One of the enjoyable things I did was watch “Taken” on an international flight to Europe. Quite comical they’d have that as a choice to watch. After I finished watching it, the Dutch guy sitting next to me assured me that, “It is really not like that in Europa.” Then again, Switzerland is about the least scary country. Although it seems to be the least scary country, every Swiss home is required to have a bomb shelter, or have a place reserved in one close by. I find it funny that the neutral country is so prepared for war.

After claiming my baggage, I stumbled out, attempting to manage my suitcases, trying to recognize my host family from pictures, while mildly delirious. I hear, “Maddie?” and they try to hug me, yet I had no open hands to hug back. Then for my first bit of culture shock, they all went to kiss me. I didn’t even do it right, because I pulled away after two kisses, even though it’s three. I immediately felt welcomed after meeting them. I never really went through a very awkward time with my host family. My host mom and dad are both really nice and I like them a lot. I also have two host sisters. One is 14 and lives at home, and the other is 15, but is doing an exchange year in Canada right now. I am fortunate enough to live with the beautiful lake of Zug right in my backyard! It is amazing. This country itself is truly amazing.

For the first few weeks, I would wake up in the morning hearing another language, wondering where in the world I was. I always woke up so confused. It was such a strange feeling. I would usually wake up around 12, and here they eat their warm meal during lunchtime. So I’d have to wake up and eat dinner… that was a little odd getting used to. Everyone always eats at the table together, even if there are only two people at home.

I would also like to point out how ridiculous it is that I am trying to learn a language that everyone here hates to speak. I spend my time learning German, although everyone speaks Swiss German. Where I live it really is not similar at all. The people here would also rather speak English very poorly with you than speak High German (except for my host family). It makes it so much harder to learn, and the fact that I have to attempt to learn to understand two languages– one of which is impossible to study. Viel spass!! (much fun). But hey, not many people say they got to learn two languages on exchange.

Some things I did in my few months in Switzerland include: Going to Germany, taking ships around beautiful lakes, hiking in the amazing Alps, getting a terrible sunburn on only the left side of my body, actually developing a mild tan on only the left side of my body (let it be known, I have never developed any sort of a tan in Florida), seeing my favorite Swiss German rap band, going to a rock music festival, visiting cities all over Switzerland, and being ridiculously confused. I also went sailing for the first time in the French section of Switzerland with some of the strongest winds ever. I feared for my life the entire time, and was still soaked under about 20 pounds of gear. Nonetheless, it was an awesome experience I won’t forget. One of my favorite things to do here is get with a group of friends and go exploring in the forests in the mountains for hours.

The school here is crazy. Most every day I begin at 7:35am and don’t get out until 4pm. I take around 13 classes or so, maybe even more, and don’t understand any of them, except for English. I find myself getting lost in my own mind all the time. The school is also enormous. There are 9 buildings, some of which are up to 5 stories high. I get a workout every day just going to class, so I don’t really see why sport class here is mandatory!

In my town, Zug, there is an international school and also about 20 exchange students just in my school. So being a foreigner is really nothing special. That is kind of a shame, but some of the exchange students are some of the best people I have met. I love being able to say I have friends from all over the world. For my last Rotex weekend, we went to the oldest city in Switzerland and slept in a military bomb shelter. It was so much fun being together with all the exchange students doing crazy things. We had to go up to random Swiss people (typically pretty reserved people…) and ask them to draw a picture for us and teach us a Swiss song.

Things keep progressively getting better for me. All of the good times definitely make up for the bad. I think that is really important for someone to know when they are on exchange. If you want it to, it will get better. Oh and another thing to note– unless you are really lucky, you are going to gain weight! Especially if you go to a country with the most delicious chocolate, bread, cheeses, and everything fatty and delicious.

Thank you so much Rotary, my family, and everyone for giving me such a wonderful opportunity.

Bis später! Maddie

February 21 Journal

So a lot has happened between my last journal and now… obviously. I ended up switching schools for numerous reasons. Now I attend school about a 20-minute bus ride away in the mountains where there is plenty of snow. This means waking up even earlier and getting home even later… I have gone to Zermatt, learned to ski, visited French and Italian Switzerland, celebrated Christmas and New Years, had my three best friends leave me, switched host families, went to Austria for a week, and celebrated Fasnacht.

All of the exchange students had a Rotary weekend together in Zermatt and it was really great. Most every Swiss person I’ve asked from my town hasn’t even gotten the chance to go there. It’s about 4 hours away and there are no cars in the town. It is small and absolutely beautiful, and you could see the famous Matterhorn mountain perfectly from the hostel. The first day we got to explore the town, were set off to do some crazy tasks that made complete strangers think we were crazy, went to a museum, ate fondue, and went dancing. The next day we were supposed to take a train up to the Small Matterhorn but there was such strong wind and snow that we had to go to a lower mountain, but it was still pretty cool.

Learning to ski has probably been one of the coolest things I have been able to do my exchange year. It’s something I have no chance of doing in Florida, and something that I really love doing. I was lucky enough to get everything given to me for free because my Rotary officer knew the head of a popular sports company. So of course I took advantage of this and have been skiing any chance that I can. It is absolutely beautiful to go skiing in Switzerland… the views are unreal. I’m pretty happy to say that at least now I can ski down a slope without falling every second or managing to take a wrong turn and become completely lost.

During Christmas break I went skiing and took a trip to Bellinzona in Italian Switzerland. It’s a small town with three big castles that you can explore. It was so weird to be in the same country yet not be able to communicate in the language you’ve been learning. We tried asking about four people directions, most of which were no help because we could not speak Italian. To start my break two of my best friends went home…Misha from South Africa and Rodrigo from Mexico. It was a weird feeling because I had spent so much of my time with them. The good thing is I know I will be seeing them again.

Christmas in Switzerland was nice. About a week before, I went to Bern, the capital, with my host sister to bake traditional Swiss Christmas cookies with a family friend. They were delicious. We celebrated Christmas on the 24th with family, friends, and a big dinner. It was kind of hard being away from my family, but it wasn’t my first Christmas away from home. There was a little bit of chaos though because in the middle of the evening they realized that there were ashes in the bathroom and then in their bedroom. Afterwards we noticed that the couches, furniture, walls, everything was covered in a light black ash. My host mom began freaking out, and everyone was vacuuming and trying to clean the furniture. We later realized that one of the candles had been burning a piece of the Christmas tree. This is why I prefer the rainbow electric lights we use on our tree at home! Oh, and for Christmas I accumulated a total of three kilograms of chocolate for presents. Keep the weight gain going! For New Years I ended up going to Zurich for fireworks and a big celebration on the street with my friend Johannes from Norway and a bunch of his AFS friends that I had never met. It ended up being a really awesome New Years.

Since then I have visited Geneva with some friends. I have also gone sledding a few times, and even night sledding with lights on your head… that was really funny. I switched host families in the middle of January. I had mixed feelings about it since I had it really well at my first host family. So far it has been a good experience and my new host family is also really nice but very different. A week after the switch my best friend here, Zach, from Australia went home. So now my three favorite people have all gone home and I switched families. It was definitely a big hit for everything to suddenly change like that.

Last week in the beginning of February I went to Bregenz, Austria to visit Zach Clauss for a week. That was really nice. It was interesting comparing the differences between the German and how the people/culture differentiates. I ended up meeting some cool people and we also visited two towns in Germany. When I got back to Switzerland, Fasnacht was being celebrated. This is like Carnival where everyone dresses up, there are parades, parties, etc. and it lasts for a week. I went to one of the parades in Luzern, and I also dressed up as an Indian and went out with some friends one night. It’s pretty funny to walk around the city and everyone is dressed in crazy costumes having a good time.

My German is continuously getting better. I can understand almost anything in normal conversations, and I’m slowly beginning to understand a bit more Swiss German. Now I get to look forward to my parents coming in April and Eurotour in June!

Thanks again for everything! Danke!

 

Max’s Bio

Konnichi wa! My name is Max Beard. I live in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. I am a 17 year old Senior and I attend Nease High School. My favorite subjects in school are Physics and Psychology. I am also in our schools NJROTC program and actively participate in events. I hope to attend the United States Naval Academy after my exchange and major in Systems Engineering. Afterwards I am going to become a U.S. Navy SEAL.

Some of the things I am interested in outside of school are Tae Kwon Do (which I have been doing for around 12 years), keeping in shape, video games, technology in general, and hanging out with my friends (football games, movies, etc.).

I chose to do this exchange because I love experiencing the diverseness of different cultures and exploring new places. Once I heard I was going to Japan I was ecstatic! That was my number one pick, so you could imagine why I was so excited. I can not wait to go and have the experience of a lifetime! I would like to thank anybody who made this entire trip possible.

 Max’s Journals

August 26 Journal

Let me just start by saying that the country I will be spending the next 10 months of my life in is truly amazing. We can start off with departure day, I’m not quite sure where all the time went to but I left Thursday morning at 6 a.m. and got to Narita airport in Tokyo on Friday at 3 p.m. I was met by Ms. Matsuba (the YE chair for 2550) and Mai Maruyama, a Rotex who went to North Carolina. We sent my luggage to my host family and left the airport headed to ex-district governor Yoshio Ohtake’s lake house at the foot of Mt. Fuji. It took us about 5 hours to get there, partially because we got lost 5 or 6 times and got stuck in traffic in Tokyo. When we finally got there they showed me to my room and I was asleep within 2 minutes. I woke up at about 1:30 a.m. when the lights were turned on and I met Sam Estenson from Minnesota. We went to the upstairs room and talked for about an hour with the other exchange students and Rotex and then went to bed.

I woke up Saturday morning to a standard Japanese breakfast of sushi, tofu, bread, salad, and soup; among other things. After that we had the chance to go to an Onsen or hot spring but only the boys decided to go, you have to be nude to go to them. Everybody then went to lunch and went sightseeing around Hakone. We went to a Japanese supermarket to look around and it was really cool to see the things that they had there. Their biggest ice cream size is equal to our smallest! Their portions will take some getting used to. We went back to the cabin for a while and after that we continued onto dinner. After dinner we went to a karaoke place and that was a blast!

When I woke up Sunday morning I was ushered to the 3rd floor by Mr. Ohtake to see Mt. Fuji. There were umbrella clouds around the top of it which Mr. Ohtake said only happens once or twice a decade. We had breakfast and went to go sightseeing in Hakone more. We rode a cable car and a boat around Lake Ashinoko and then we went to a hot spring water park, it was a lot of fun and I had an amazing time. We went to a Chinese restaurant on the way back and had a huge meal, which included shark fin soup which is very rare and even the adults had never had it before.

On Monday we went to Fujikyu amusement park which was one of the most fun things I have done in a very long time. We only rode 3 roller-coasters because the lines were 2-3 hour waits but we rode a ton of small rides and got to know each other very well. After we left Fujikyu at 5 o’clock we went to a sushi buffet. It was all you can eat in 1 hour 30 minutes. There was a lot of different food there but I loved it all and decided I may even like Japanese food better than American food!

Tuesday was a blur of activity, we woke up at 6 and cleaned the cabin then we left for the Tochigi prefecture which is where I will be living. We had to give a speech in Japanese in front of the Japanese Rotarians and mine went pretty well, at least I think so. After I got to my host family’s house I was exhausted and I spent the rest of the night unpacking and talking – or trying to talk – to my oldest host brother.

Wednesday we went shopping for various things and visited my high school. I got fitted for a school uniform and then walked home with my host brother. I also went to city hall to register as an alien and then went to the post office to send some letters. I start school tomorrow and will be walking there with my oldest host brother who is 16.

I can tell this will be a difficult first couple of months but I am ready for the challenge and I am going to try my best to learn the language as quickly as possible.

 September 8 Journal

As I walked through the hallway with the only teacher at my school that spoke English, albeit broken English, I felt as if everyone in the whole school was looking and talking about me (which I later found out they were). With the amount of stares I was getting I thought I should have been an alien, which I legally am until Sept. 15th. I crossed the final threshold into my homeroom and walked into complete silence. “Great,” I thought, “Well at least I don’t have to make a speech.” Oh how wrong was I … the majority of the class period was spent of me introducing myself, flipping through my Japanese dictionary, introducing myself again, and answering the uncountable amount of questions that followed. Finally I was able to slide into my seat and catch a breath. The day went by at a crawl and since I couldn’t understand any of the lectures the teachers were giving I decided to practice my Japanese, so hopefully in a few months time I would be taking notes like the rest of the class. Since that day everything has proceeded to get better and better, including my Japanese!

The next day I was approached by a few classmates asking me if I wanted to play baseball that night with them and even the Captain of the volleyball team asked me if I would join him in playing after school! Unfortunately I had plans that evening playing baseball with my host Rotary club in their league match. Yes that’s right, the Rotary clubs in Utsunomiya have organized sports teams for the Rotarians. I also was asked that day, or rather told, that I was to prepare a five minute speech in Japanese to present to my host Rotary club about myself and my life and family at home. Luckily I had prepared a slide show of pictures in advance and would just show that to them and explain each as it came up, right? Wrong… Unfortunately, they do not have a projector, so I was going to be stuck up on an empty stage with all the lights on me. But that didn’t have to be done until the next Thursday, so I pushed that out of my mind and went on with my day. That night was a blast, and even though I was stuck in right field (for those who don’t know that’s the position all the bad players get, the same one I got when I played as a kid…) I still had a great time meeting all the Rotarians in my host club.

Ahh, my first day of school on Saturday. It only lasts until noon and is only one class the whole day, which is Math II for me. During lunch, which we eat in our homerooms, I was approached again by Takasu (the captain of the volleyball team) who told me that I should try out for the volleyball club and that tryouts were on Sept. 14th. I had been looking forward to joining a team since starting school so this was an awesome turn of events for me. After school Yoshi (my host brother), his best friend, and a few of his other friends invited me to go to a festival that the all-girls high school down the street was putting on. We wandered around and I got to see some of the popular sports in Japanese high schools, which include tennis, swimming, traditional Japanese archery, ken-do, soccer, and a tea making club.

School started up again on Monday after a ‘holiday’ on Sunday and I felt like I was finally getting into a routine. I walked to school with my host brother and looking around at all the amazing scenery realized every moment that I’m here I enjoy my new home more and more. After third period that day we were told that school was canceled because of the typhoon that was headed our way! A few of Yoshi’s friends came over and we played wii and baseball (Inside! Don’t worry) until dinner at 7. I used the rest of the time to finish up my Rotary speech which ended up only being half in Japanese and half in English, but my classmate Iida was going to help translate the English part at the meeting.

Finally the big day had arrived! I went through my first 3 periods of the day mumbling the words of my speech over and over again but was comforted by the fact that Iida was more nervous than I was! And he was speaking in his own language! My speech went really well and I met a ton of new Rotarians who, thankfully, told me that my Japanese sounded like a native speaker! Although I’m sure they were just being kind it is comforting to know that I am doing well.

Saturday morning I woke up and felt awful! I took my temperature and found it to be 37.9, and having no clue what that meant I took it to my host mother. Who gave a big “Ooh!” and rushed off into a cabinet fishing out some medicine and telling me to go back to bed. At three my host father woke me up and asked me if I wanted a tour of the city; of course I did! He showed me around to all their temples and shrines and we even got lost in a huge camping park in the mountains. We went by a restaurant to say hello to the secretary for the Utsunomiya West Rotary club he was very kind and even taught me a few kanji to remember! After we got home I went straight to bed, after all I was exhausted from my long day of adventure.

Tomorrow my host family is taking me to the hospital to make sure I don’t have swine flu, although I feel better I still have a fever and the school won’t let me come back until I am checked for the flu. It has only been 2 weeks and I have already made great friends and memories that I will never forget. I can’t wait to see what these amazing 10 months has in store for me.

Hope everything is going well!

-Max

September 20 Journal

Well this has been an interesting 2 weeks to say the least. Well the second more interesting than the first so I’ll give a brief overview of the first week. I went to the doctor on Sunday and got tested for swine flu, which thank the heavens I don’t have. He prescribed me some medicine and told me that once my fever went down and my symptoms were gone that I could go back to school… Unfortunately that didn’t end up happening the whole week! I had a fever all the way until Friday evening. The week off school gave me a great chance to learn Japanese though and I really think that I am catching on to the language pretty well. I’m also getting a lot more interested in learning it faster which makes it so much easier to spend a few hours a day on learning it.

On Saturday I went out to dinner with my dad, my two older brothers (16 and 13), and two of my cousins who were 24. We went to a sushi restaurant that had a huge revolving belt around where all the sushi was made and you would know the price by the color of the plate that it was on so you could just take whatever you wanted. It was really good and definitely really different; I want to try to find one in the U.S. when I get back! At the end we stacked up all of our plates and a waiter came by and counted them out and we proceeded to go up front and pay.

Monday I was back at school thankfully! During 3rd period my English reading teacher took me out of class to give me some Japanese lessons which were actually pretty helpful because I could ask him all the questions that I had about grammar and whatnot. We chose sports in gym today that would be the sport that we do for the rest of the year. The one that I chose was soccer and I actually met a ton of new friends that are doing the same so that is good that I will get to see them every time I have P.E.

On Tuesday I went to school feeling fine but I ended up leaving early because I started to have chest pains and a headache. My mother took my temperature when I got home and it ended up being 38.9 C (102.2 F) which was not good at all! Especially since we thought I was getting better. On Wednesday I went to the Doctors and he took a lot more tests than I expected. I ended up getting a chest and abdomen X-Ray, having my blood taken, and getting a urine sample. He told me to go home and get some rest and that he would call when he got the test results from my blood. He called later that night and told me that I had inflammation in my blood vessels and that my white blood cell count was above 20,000 and that the average was somewhere around 2,500, he also said that I should visit the hospital in the morning to get a more extensive X-Ray and a blood culture test done. After dinner Ruri Suga, a Rotex that went to Canada and is in my grade at school, came over and we talked for a while about how I liked Japan and what my hobbies were et cetera. She is really nice and I think that we will be good friends.

So Thursday I woke up around 5:30, ate breakfast and then headed off to the hospital around 8. I had a CAT scan done and a chest X-Ray first. Then they took my blood yet again, which has always been kind-of cool to me so it wasn’t that bad. After about an hour of waiting around they said my results were back and a long and confusing talk in broken Japanese and English I figured out that I would be staying the next two days in the hospital while they tried to figure out what was wrong with me. I mean of course they were saying “Don’t worry!” the whole time but you can’t help but have some thoughts when they tell you that they have no clue what is wrong with you. I can honestly say that my want to learn Japanese had gone up about 10,000% at this point and I learned pretty quickly that the word for “test” actually sounds quite like “cancer” so I was definitely freaking out a bit until my dad corrected my malapropism of the word, albeit it wasn’t quite humorous on my end my father thought it was really hilarious. So after I got my grim fate given to me I was rushed off to get an ECG done. Afterwards I was shown to my room and promptly had an IV shoved in my arm and a bag of who knows what hanging above me. The food was great though, at least that was a positive. But unfortunately my two days at the hospital were rather uneventful. I had brought a book with me so I finished that and spent the rest of my time sleeping.

Saturday I was finally able to go home! The Doctors still hadn’t determined what had caused my fever and high WBC count but they said that both had gone down enough to where it was safe for me to go home. As soon as I got home I had a ton of calls to make to various Rotary members to assure them that I wasn’t dying and didn’t have swine flu or leukemia. Alas I was exhausted even though most of my time at the hospital was spent sleeping, so after answering all of the worrisome e-mails from my parents about what was happening, as they had only been told that I was going to the hospital not what was wrong with me, I went to bed.

Sunday was a pretty restful day; I spent most of it doing Japanese lessons on LiveMocha though which have gotten increasingly more helpful! I went to my little brother’s baseball game and then had dinner with my family. I watched TV for a while and stayed up pretty late, mainly because my brother Yoshi and his friends decided that they wanted to make a band and bought a drum set and some amps for their guitars. They also kindly decided to set up their band directly above my room and since none of them know how to play the drums yet and they decided 2:00 A.M. was an awesome time to rock out. I’m sure you can see why my night was a long one.

Even though I have been sick for half of my first month here this has already been the experience of a lifetime. The experiencing different sights, people, and culture is something that I have always dreamt about doing and hey, I even got to experience a Japanese hospital stay! Not many exchange students can say that!

さよなら

-マックス

September 29 Journal

This week just happened to be infinitely better than last week, now that I’m out of the hospital… Imagine that! Unfortunately, me being in the hospital ruined my family’s plans to take me to a baseball game in the Tokyo Dome and go sightseeing in Kyoto over our week long school break. In the U.S. it would’ve been a fragmented break, but luckily Japan has a law where if a day happens to fall in between two holidays then it automatically becomes a holiday itself! Who could’ve created a better law!?

Monday was a pretty laid back day but my dad gave my brother (Yoshi) and I our new gym membership cards to the gym town the street so we decided it would be a good idea to go check it out. We were there for about an hour and a half and it was really awesome, way different that the YMCA that is near my house. They have the normal workout area, 2 aerobic rooms that they hold various classes in, 4 squash courts, a swimming pool, tennis courts, and an onsen (hot spring) in the locker room!

Tuesday I had a late breakfast with my brothers, minus Yoshi because he slept in until noon, then went out and got McDonalds and brought it back to the house. I talked to my brothers and cousin and watched TV until lunch-time when they insisted that we should go out to an American style restaurant. And I couldn’t resist! I wanted to see what the Japanese thought American food was like. I ended up getting a hamburger, but the Japanese don’t use buns and you eat it with your chopsticks so maybe a little off the average American restaurant. But hey, not all Americans use chopsticks in Japanese restaurants and my burger was really good so I won’t complain. After that we went bowling in a bowling alley that was at least twice the size of any one I have ever been to and the bowling balls were in size order and organized so I didn’t spend 30 minutes looking for the bowling ball that was just the right size. I ended up coming in second overall with a whopping 118 with which I was pretty disappointed. The man two lanes over on the other hand bowled a perfect game except for the 9th frame where he bowled a spare putting him at 277, which I thought was pretty amazing. The rest of my break was pretty relaxed and I spent most of it with my brothers and cousin.

Thursday was my first day back at school in three straight weeks! It was a lot of fun and after each one of my teachers got through asking me if I was feeling alright and then visiting the president of the school during lunch to tell him myself that I was feeling fine, I finally made it through the day. Friday was a P.E. day and since I’m in the soccer club that is what I ended up doing during the period. I am definitely glad I decided to start to play a sport because it’s a great way to meet other people who are very nice and although my soccer is ultimately lacking in skill I still had a lot of fun.

Saturday was a day that two Rotex and another exchange student who lives in Nakagawa (Sam Estenson) had been planning for a while so I was very excited for it. At 11:00 I went out to lunch with my Dad and we had a nice conversation about his days in high school. At around 11:50 we went over to the Utsunomiya train station to meet Sam who was getting off his train and we also met up with Ayano and Mai, two Rotex students who had gone to America. We spent our day meandering around Utsunomiya and since what we had planned to do, which was go-karts, was closed we went to a park and visited the Utsunomiya tower. We went back to my house, and after Ayano and Mai left, Sam and I went out to dinner with my dad, cousins, and brother to a revolving sushi restaurant. Which once again was very, very good. Sam spent the night at my house since there was a Rotary gathering the next day.

Sunday was an exciting day because everyone from the first orientation got to see each other again and talk to each other about their towns and Yukiko was there! We left for Tochigishi at about 9 and got there in roughly 45 minutes. The first part of the meeting we spent talking to all the Rotex about how we were doing and how we liked our host families and our new lives in Japan. We all had to give introduction speeches to the Rotarians, including the Rotex, and after that we all moved over to another building to have lunch. After lunch we spent the rest of the day walking around and sightseeing which included a boat ride on a river, a museum, and free ice cream! After walking back to the meeting place we all said our goodbyes and left with our respective families to go home and of course we were all looking forward to the next orientation in October!

It has been just over a month and I am having the most amazing time here. I can’t wait to see what is in store for me in the coming months and as my grasp of the language increases I’m sure so will the excitement that I get out of this amazing experience that has been given to me.

October 18 Journal

Alright so it’s been a while since I’ve written about my time here in Japan so I have got a lot to talk about!

We had exam week at school and since the only exams they were letting me take were English reading and Biology I didn’t do much other than study Japanese and play Sudoku. I actually did really well on both my Biology and English exams which I was happy about. I would’ve taken the Physics exam on Friday but my Dad decided to take me and my cousin みょじょ to Nikko that day for a sightseeing trip!

So at around 9 in the morning on Friday we left the house. My host father dropped my cousin and I off at an onsen (Hot spring) while he went off to get some things done. We were there for about an hour and I had a good time. I find the hot springs really relaxing even though the constant influx of questions from strangers doesn’t stop. After we were all rested up, みょじょ and I piled back in the van and we were headed back towards Nikko. To get to the top of the mountain where Nikko is located you have to first drive up a huge winding slope to the top, this particular slope prides itself in having 48 separate hairpin turns to get to the top. On the way up my cousin thought it would be fun to count every turn so every time we reached one we would all yell out the number. It actually passed the time pretty quickly.

We visited 3 different waterfalls while we were there; the first was Kegon falls, the second was Riyuzu falls, and the third was Yudaki falls. All three were really beautiful and I got some good pictures of them. We stopped by the Toshogu shrine and walked around there for a while. I always thought that Japanese architecture was really interesting so I had a great time looking at some of the structures that they had there. Lastly before we headed home we visited the famous Shinkyo or Sacred Bridge. While the bridge is only from 1636 the surrounding mountains were explored during the year 767. After walking around the bridge and snapping a few photos we all piled back in the car and headed home. I would say after about 2 minutes, both みょじょ and I were asleep in the car. What can I say – it’s been a long time since I have been a tourist!

So there were still exams going on when I got back to school on Monday, so more reading and Sudoku for me. Until Wednesday when… my younger brother Atsushi got Swine flu! Now in America this would be no biggie, life would go on as normal and Atsushi would get better, then go back to school. But this does not happen in Japan. My brothers and I were quarantined and not allowed to go to school until the next Tuesday. Now this happened on Thursday so luckily there wasn’t that much time to be spent away from school since Friday there was a big ceremony going on that we were missing school for anyways and Monday was a holiday.

Friday morning I woke up, went running, showered, read some, ate breakfast, and then put on my school uniform for my host dad’s grandfather’s 1 year memorial service. This was probably one of the most interesting things I have been to so far. There was a lot of chanting and praying that I found really interesting, partially just trying to translate what they were all saying. This went on for about 45 minutes before they had an incense lighting ceremony. There were three boxes with coals in front of the shrine and everyone that was in attendance (there were probably about 100 people there) would walk up, sit in front of the box, take a pinch of incense from a jar next to it, and throw it onto the coals. After that my Dad and his brother both spoke about their father and then we all headed off to the Utsunomiya Grand Hotel for a luncheon. The lunch was great and even though all the portions were small there were so many of them by the end it was a struggle just to finish.

After lunch I was really excited to get home because this weekend was the weekend that I was going to go stay in Nakagawa for the rice harvesting festival! I got invited by another exchange student, Sam Estenson (from MN), who is living in Nakagawa. Every year they host this homestay weekend and various exchange students from across Japan come and participate (not just Rotary exchange students). I had a blast getting to know a lot of new people and learning how to harvest rice the old fashioned way, not with a combine.

I left at about 4 for Utsunomiya station and boarded my first train ever! I was really excited about it and actually ended up enjoying it. Although apparently I liked being on the train a little too much because I missed my stop; after going through about 5 minutes of country with no city to be seen, I decided that I should probably get off at the next stop. But when I got off I found out that the next train going back the way I came wasn’t getting there for another 30 minutes. Fortunately my host mom had gotten me some doughnuts for the trip so I sat down in the deserted train station and ate my doughnuts, which were pretty good considering the circumstances. After I got to the correct station, I boarded a bus with all the other exchange students who were meeting at that station (it is the nearest train station to Sam’s town) and we headed off to Nakagawa.

I stayed with a homestay family while I was there that I met as soon as I arrived. I really liked them and they even made me promise that if I came to visit Sam again that I would stay with them! On Saturday we had the rice harvesting and after that everyone came together for a huge lunchtime meal and together we made this giant sushi roll. Before I left on Sunday my homestay family and I went bowling and went out to a soba restaurant for lunch. Instead of letting me take the train back again (since I missed my exit on the way there) my father offered to drive me home and even said it was 45 minutes faster. So their 3 kids and I piled in the van and we made it back to Utsunomiya in record time.

During school this week I had to get an ECG test for the field trip just like all the other students. After the test there was a super long assembly that lasted until an hour and a half after school was supposed to end. I have joined the Volleyball club and can come and play with them any day after school that I want to. I really enjoy playing volleyball and it is a great chance for me to get to know some new people and start to learn the language as it is used in an everyday environment.

Until next time, じゃね！

-マックス

November 13 Journal

Wow, it has almost been 3 months that I have been in this surreal country. It seems that sometimes the moments fly by almost too quickly to differentiate them and other times they seem to crawl by in agonizing detail.

To start, my host parents have cracked down on security around the house, keeping all the doors locked at all times because my Dad’s bag and iPhone got stolen out of our house around October 20th! The thief even ended up spending around 50,000円 on my host father’s credit card.

The Saturday after that I went to Round 1 (An Adventure Landing type place) with a group of current and past Rotary Exchange students and a Swedish exchange student from a different program. This place was amazing let me tell you they had anything you could imagine. Down on the first and second floors were all kinds of slot machines and chance games, up on the third floor you had all the arcade games like Time Crisis, Dance Dance Revolution, and Racing games but they were all free! Unlike at any other place I had been to you could play any of them as many times as you wanted to for no cost. They also had a ton of mini sports rooms set up for ping-pong, a mini pond with real fish that you could catch, basketball, bowling, roller skating, and even a huge magazine room with about 20 massage chairs! On the roof they had 7 or 8 batting cages, 2 tennis courts, a volleyball court, a soccer field, and even an archery range!

The next day we had our District Rotary conference and I was under the impression that I had to write a speech that I was to present in front of about 250+ Rotarian’s that were going to be there. Only to realize once I got there all I had to say was my name and my host club, you can bet I was pretty relieved after that.

Volleyball at school has been fun but I am thinking about joining the Soccer club because I enjoy soccer a lot more and there are only about 6 people on the boys volleyball team. Halloween came up pretty quickly and left just as fast, I don’t think one person that I knew even mentioned it, hah! On the 31st Nikko was hosting a Soba festival so my host family and I drove there for lunch and walked around a bit and then come back home. The next day was my school’s festival which I spent a couple of hours at with my host brothers, it was nice to see all the students since normally I only see those that are in my homeroom. Sunday I went to a Jazz festival with my host Dad and my little brother Hitoshi, the music was great and it was fun just to get out and see the city with my family.

The next two days were Holy days which meant no school but on Monday I almost walked out the door because my host Mom had forgotten. If it wasn’t for my Host father I would’ve completely shown up at school and been really confused.

That weekend we had another Rotary orientation but this time it was for the new outbound exchange students who would be leaving the following year. We had to make Power-points on our states and countries in order to promote them to the outbounds.

The Friday before Gustaf (Swedish exchange student), Ayano (Rotex from MN), and I went to Karaoke in Utsunomiya. It was a blast as I have never done real karaoke before. After Karaoke we got dinner before all of us headed home.

The overnight orientation at Akiyama was a blast. When we all got there we had lunch and then had about a 3 hour break until the meeting started. We all gave our speeches and the rebounds gave their presentations on their respective countries. We didn’t have time for our presentations so we postponed them until Sunday. After we all had dinner together the exchange students and outbounds got together and played some games hosted by the Rotex. We played Bingo (I won a Hello Kitty Blanket), a pictionary type game, and some type of game that involved shoving your facing in flour…. Overall it was really fun and it was great to meet the people who would be coming to our homes in the coming year.

Sunday after waking up we all went out to a field behind the cabins for some morning exercises and a quick walk. The fall colors here in Japan are beautiful and are something I am just not used to seeing in Florida. After we got back and had breakfast we finished up all of our presentations. I got a ride home from Ayano and on the way back we stopped for Ramen with her mom and grandmother (可愛い!).

This week at school has been rather uneventful, playing soccer and having Japanese lessons. It’s starting to feel like normal. I am looking forward to visiting Tokyo with some of my friends in late November and then December 3rd I have my school trip to Okinawa!

That’s all for now but with so much coming up in the next few weeks I’m sure I will be writing again soon!

December 22 Journal

Wow… What an amazing time I have been having lately, with my first trip to Tokyo, my school trip to Okinawa, and changing host families I have been truly blessed with this experience. And it’s not even half over yet.

Unfortunately the end of November was more of a routine than anything but that is expected after living somewhere for 3 months. It was filled with school, a lot of running, and even more Farmville (yes, I got addicted). Even in a routine though Japan never ceases to surprise me and I was about to have one of the busiest weeks of my life.

It started off with me going to on my first trip to Tokyo. I went with all the other exchange students in my area and we all ended up taking the same train which was pretty fun. When we got there we went straight to Kaminari-Mon or “The Lightening Gate”. This was followed by lunch and then we all walked around the main tourist area which is chocked full of stores, each one selling their own souvenirs and keepsakes that every good visitor just has to have one of.

After that we split up, half the group going clothes shopping and the other (consisting of only guys) headed to Akihabara or the world famous electric town. Akihabara is definitely something else, the first thing you have to think when you get there is “Where do I want to go?” There are tons of multi level stores with everything electronic you can think of. We decided to head to the first multi-level store we store. This one had (among other things) a floor devoted to figurines and a whole store devoted to Pokémon cards (some pricing up to 99,999 yen or 1000$). A few floors filled with weird and strange costumes and other oddities, some appropriate and some not even close. After that came the arcade, where I was surprised to find a man in skins (running or workout gear) stretched right inside the arcade. I was even more surprised when he hopped on the DDR machine and with about 25 people watching (no videos allowed or I certainly would have taken one) he started to play a song on the hardest difficulty on both of the pads at once! After that we headed back out and went over to a book store where I browsed around for a while Simon looked for a new game for his PS3. Finally it was time to head back to Harajuku and meet up with the rest of the group and after a quick dinner at McDonalds (classy I know) and a 2 hour train ride I was back home and asleep within minutes.

This didn’t end my exciting week though as a few days later I left on a plane out of Tokyo headed off to the tropical Islands of Okinawa. Now I could spend a long time talking about Okinawa but I will try to cut it down and only get at the good parts.

Now I was a little angry at myself on this trip because I forgot my camera and there were a lot of amazing sights to see here but hopefully I will end up getting some pictures from my classmates. The first day we visited two places, the Himeyuri Peace Museum and the Okinawa Peace Memorial. The Peace memorial is a huge area that borders the ocean and has a massive amount of marble slabs that contain on them all the names of both the American and Japanese that died in WWII. But by far the most amazing part of the day was getting to see the ocean again for the first time in months.沖縄の海はとてもきれいでした。This was I can honestly say the first thing that actually made me completely homesick and standing out on the beach with only the ocean in sight it was almost as if I was at home again. After this we had a nice long bus ride to our hotel where we immediately had dinner. There were 7 courses and I don’t think any table completely finished any of the courses. Except for my table of course, we were on a mission and we weren’t going to be beaten. By the end of the meal we were all groaning and definitely ready for a nice rest.

For the sake of space I will combine the second and third day and skip breakfast and dinner. But don’t worry, my table finished our meal every night much to the disappointment of the boy who went to the bathroom and came back to find that his plate had three times the amount of food on it as when he left. Friday we went to a nature preserve called Bios and again I was reminded how angry I was that I forgot my camera. We walked around a little, got to play with the goats, and went on a boat ride in a swamp. Okinawa was really starting to remind me of Florida, except for the mountains of course we don’t have those in Florida.

After we left Bios we went to an old style Okinawa town that reminded me of Williamsburg, Virginia. I picked up some nice souvenirs there to send out as Christmas presents to friends and family. After lunch and yet another bus ride we went to the Churami Aquarium. It was a cool place to see but Aquariums just aren’t something I can stay in for an extended period of time, so after a quick run through my group and I walked around outside and then headed down to the beach to sit and talk. We headed back to the hotel after that and it was a pretty late night but I eventually got some sleep.

The third day was probably the most fun. In the morning there were all different activities that you could sign up for. The one my teacher stuck me with was ironically looking for shells on the beach. Now don’t get me wrong, it was pretty fun. But I do wish I had done one like harvesting sugarcane or learning to cook Okinawa style foods. When we finished that we had lunch at the hotel where we would be spending that night (A different hotel than the night before) and then went to the Okinawa Prefectural Museum. Unfortunately I think I spent longer in the bathroom than I did browsing the museum (which wasn’t long, mind you). Fortunately after my brief visit I went back to the bus and found that my whole class was already asleep and had finished their tours too. When the teachers got done browsing around we all headed over to the main street and they told us we had 2 hours to wander around the many shops and stores that lined the street. I ended up spending most of my time talking to a Marine who was stationed in Okinawa about his time here. After everyone finished shopping everyone was exhausted so we piled on the bus and went back to the hotel for a nice meal and some sleep.

Sunday was the last day of my stay in Okinawa. Overall it wasn’t too exciting, but it was still fun. In the morning we headed off to Shurijo Castle Park. After a guided walkthrough and buying some postcards in the gift shop my classmates and I got some good shut-eye on the bus in the underground parking garage. After a nice nap we headed off to the airport where we had some time to wander around before catching our flight at 12:55. When I finally got back to the temple it was about 7:10 and I was, to say the least, done in for the night. The next day was a holiday off from school so luckily I got to sleep in.

After another day of watching the latest Gossip Girl it was finally time for me to move Host Families. In the morning my room was looking pretty desolate and I packed up some last minute things and then headed off to school. After school we packed all of my things into my counselor’s car and then I rode my bike over to the Baba’s house. It took me a long while and we had dinner at 9 o’clock. After dinner we headed over to the store to get me a pillow, a lunchbox, and a second lock for my bike. When we got back I took a shower and then headed off to bed.

This past weekend was my Rotary Christmas party. It was, to put it simply, a blast. I had gone early with Ayano to help wrap presents for the party. But after about 2 hours everyone else started to arrive. Once everyone was there the outbound students for next year gave speeches about the countries that they were going to be heading too next year. After that we played a version of Russian roulette that involved treats filled with spicy mustard. We got to watch a really ‘cool’ magic show and have a nice pre-meal before we headed over to the bowling alley. I ended up bowling a measly 132 but was pretty happy with myself because I haven’t bowled in a while. My score won the highest for the kids but didn’t even match the highest for the adults, which was 246. Dinner was good and gave everyone a chance to talk and to say goodbye when it was all over. It is always great to see all the exchange students together in one place because we all end up having a great time.

The past few weeks with the Baba’s has been absolutely amazing and I feel like I have gotten closer to them in 2 weeks then I had with the Inaki’s in 4 months. They are nice and always very helpful when I have a question about the Japanese language. My winter break just started today and will hopefully prove to be very exciting. I am headed to Tokyo today to spend 5 days there with some other friends and will be going skiing too! Sorry it has been so long since my last journal! But I promise I will write again soon about my Winter Break!!

January 23 Journal

Well it has been quite a while since I have written a journal, let me assure you though, it is no fault of my own… I promise. Alright well maybe I have been procrastinating this one for a while and I would have liked to have gotten it out sometime right after the New Year. But alas, it is now late January and I am just now sitting down to write about my very fun holidays.

Alright well where did we leave off? Oh yes, the start of my Winter break. Well the day after school ended for the holidays I was whisked away to Tokyo for what might have been one of the most fun Christmases I have had. The first night in Tokyo I got to meet my friend’s, who is also my host sister, host brother from when she was an exchange student in Minnesota. This year he is also an exchange student and was going to be spending the whole holiday with us. So after getting acquainted we headed back to Ayano’s (My host sister) apartment, grabbed some dinner, and hit the sack. Ayano had college classes the next day so Luke and I meandered our way over to Akihabara to look for some games and the other oddities that are to be found there. After grabbing some lunch at a local BK we headed back to the apartment to help everyone else prepare for the Christmas party that we were having. The party was a lot of fun and the night was even more fun because we headed out to see one of the many light shows that Tokyo has to offer around Christmas time. When we had our fill of the night life of Tokyo we found our way back to the apartment and got some much needed rest.

The next few days followed pretty much the same schedule. We moseyed around the Imperial Gardens, caught glimpse of Tokyo tower, went to a very rare Krispy Kreme doughnut shop, and managed (I still don’t know how) to go to McDonalds at least 5 times. We also did Karaoke from 11 P.M. to 5 A.M. which was a blast, although Ayano fell asleep within the first 30 minutes of us being there. The day after Karaoke was spent mostly sleeping and then cleaning up before we headed out to Utsunomiya (home) with Luke in tow. As soon as introductions were over we all went back to sleep and slept pretty well through the night.

The next day Luke, Ayano, and I went over to a Rotarian’s house to participate in their annual Mochi making ceremony. For those of you who don’t know what Mochi is, it is basically rice that is pounded into a paste and then shaped and eaten, especially around the New Year. We spent most of the day doing that and then went to an onsen and got dinner before coming home exhausted. We picked up Sam Estenson (another exchange student from Minnesota) from the train station on the way home and then we all got some much needed rest.

Two days after that we all went skiing, well I went snowboarding (this was my first time naturally, being from Florida) because it’s more manly, right? Well, to start with we thought we had found the easiest route at the very top of the mountain but when we got up there apparently it was a kid’s play zone and was closed off anyway. So I thought “What the hay, I might as well go down the hard slope all the way to the bottom. I’ll just go slowly.” I probably should have learned how to brake on a snowboard before I tried that, so after I ended up flipping head over heels all the way down the slope, I discovered at the bottom that my camera had fallen out of my pocket somewhere along my path of devastation. Luckily, about 15 minutes after I lost it someone turned it in to the lost and found with only a few scratches to bear. The rest of the day went without incident and by the end of the day I was going down the slopes like a pro.

The rest of my break was all a blur. Sam left soon after because he had to be home before the New Year. Luke and I went to Nikko with my host Dad and also went with him to a temple and out for coffee on New Year’s Day. I showed Luke around Utsunomiya for a day, including my old host family’s temple, my school, and one of the big parks around my area. Luke left around the 3rd and Ayano went back to college the same day.

The next five days were spent going running, reading books, riding my bike, and practicing my Japanese. This last weekend I spent with all the exchange students from our district in Sano checking out one of the light shows and looking at some old original school houses.

Next weekend I am going to Disney in Tokyo and will finally see how it compares to Disney in good old Orlando. I’ll make sure I keep you guys informed.

Until then, Sayonara!

-Max

April 8 Journal

Wow! It has almost been two months since my last journal! And to think that when I got here I thought I would be writing every week! Hah!

It has been an eventful past two months so bear with me. At the beginning of February I went to Tokyo: Disney Sea, which is just like the normal Disney other than the fact that there is a canal running throughout the whole park. It was a blast, and was also a great opportunity to get to know some of the outbound exchange students.

February in general was a pretty average month. I started to get used to my host family’s schedule and could probably have rode my bike to school asleep (In fact, I may have a few times). But just because it was average doesn’t mean that is was boring. The month was sprinkled with little events: A District Rotary meeting, various events with friends, and even the occasional Rotary club meeting. March has probably been the most fun month I have had while here in Japan. First of all, I only had 7 days of school the whole month! Secondly, I got to travel Japan with my family, who I hadn’t seen for 7 whole months!

March was a whirl of activity and after I had gotten used to the fact that I was going to see my REAL parents it seemed I was already on my way to pick them up from the airport. We spent three days in Utsunomiya, two days meandering around Osaka and Kyoto, and the last three days staked out in a deluxe suite at the Hilton in Tokyo.

The days seemed to fly by and before I knew it they were on their way back to Florida. There was no rest for me though, as soon as they were gone I was sent off to the annual RYLA seminar, which here in my district is only 2 days and 1 night. The seminar was a lot of fun and since all of the new outbound exchange students were there it was a great chance to get to know them all better. After returning from RYLA I immediately started on a speech about the weekend to present to my Rotary club.

And just yesterday all of the exchange students around Utsunomiya, only 3 of the 5 inbounds, got together and went to Karaoke and lunch. I also found out yesterday that the outbound who is heading to Florida, Chisato, will be hosted by my sponsor club and may even be living with my family next year!

Well that’s it for now, I will write again when I change host families on May 1st!

じゃあまた！

See you later!

May 18 Journal

Hey everyone!

Once again it has been too long since I have written a journal. But as it gets down to my last days here I find myself wanting to do everything so that I know when I get home I won’t have any regrets. This past month and a half started off really tough but has gotten a lot better and I am happy that I will be leaving Japan in high spirits.

At the beginning of the month I found out that my Grandfather passed away. For about a week I was feeling pretty down and thinking about home and my family a lot. In the end I decided to make the most of the time I have left here and to do my best in studying the language and culture.

I went to Yokohama with my host family and got to see the Cherry blossoms in Tokyo, which were absolutely beautiful. That same weekend there was a Rotary event for all the inbounds and future outbounds where we got to make soba (Buckwheat noodles). After making it we all got to sit down and enjoy our great cooking.

I have started to help Chisato, a future RYE exchange student (she will also be hosted by my Rotary Club at home) with her English and getting all her school forms and what not ready for next year. I got to go out to dinner with her parents and had a really great time getting to know them.

I spent one weekend staying with a pair of Rotarians while my host family was out of town and attended a Rotary sponsored event with them at Nikko. We got to plant trees in an old coal mine area where there was no vegetation whatsoever. The goal of the event is to plant 10,000 trees over a 10 year period. My school’s interact club also came and I got to meet the local Rotary clubs Rotaract members.

A week after this event I said goodbye to my host family the Baba’s and after a day of strenuous packing (and sending 2 huge boxes home to America) I headed out on my bike while my counselor drove my luggage. My current host family is Mr. and Ms. Okagawa and fortunately no more 30 minute bike rides for me. They are a leisurely 8 minutes from my school and only about 1 minute from the center of town and 2 huge malls (not that I have any room in my suitcases to buy anything).

My moving host families also coincided with Golden Week (a string of Japanese holidays that is 5 days long). That Sunday my host father and I (keep in mind he is 82 years old) made an hour long trek/climb up Kogashi mountain, which is about a 20 minute drive from my town. I had a great time and really got to know my host father well, I also found out that he is the Chairman of the Rotaract club so I would be seeing a lot of the friends that I met in Nikko the past week.

On my last day of Golden week I ran in a 10k race at a car/motorcycle track in a town called Motegi. It was one of the first sunny days Japan had seen for a while and was also brutally hot, I got sunburned for the first time since coming to Japan!

Alright, I realize I am being a little long winded so I will summarize the rest of this month. The weekend was a lot of fun. I went to Tokyo with a fellow exchange student and we spent the day shopping (well she did, I didn’t spend a dime), eating, and just having a great time. The next day was the District Rotary meeting in which myself and the other inbound students would be giving our LAST speeches! Albeit we still have our host club speeches to give but we were excited nonetheless. Before the meeting started we all got to visit a very special ceremony at a temple that few people (especially foreigners) get to see. After we had finished giving our speeches and making our goodbyes my host father and I went over to another Rotarian’s house to see his two Katanas (Samurai swords). Mind you, these were not fake and each one was around $4,000 when he got them and he said they are probably worth double that now. It was a really interesting experience and I am definitely glad that I had the chance to see them.

This past week was exam week at school so nothing too exciting going on. There has been so much during this exchange that I am thankful for and I’ve got no clue how the time has passed so quickly. All I can do now is make the most of the 30 days that I have left here, and of course look forward to writing one more journal for Al!

Until next time,

-Max

 

Michael B’s Bio

Hello! My name is Michael Cody Booker, and I’m a junior currently attending Fernandina Beach High School in Fernandina Beach, Florida U.S.A. I have lived in Florida for the past nine years after being born and spending the first six years of my life on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, home to the largest estuary in the United States. My Virginia family ties leave me with a strong sense of pride and hard-working philosophy from growing up along the Chesapeake Bay, where both of my paternal great-grandfathers earned their living working in the seafood industry. The water is a very important aspect of my life and fishing, clamming and crabbing are hobbies. My current town is small with a population of a little over ten thousand but rapidly growing and home of the Fighting Pirates! (our school mascot)

I have many extracurricular activities outside school. I am a PADI certified Master Scuba Diver. Which means I am the highest non-professional certified level being a Rescue Diver with seventy dives and a combined bottom-time of over forty-two hours! I also am a certified sailor with International Yacht Certifications for basic mate and VHF certifications. I also have completed a hunter safety course and enjoy hunting and being at one with nature with my dad and brother. Another hobby of mine is traveling. Traveling has brought me to realize how truly beautiful the gift of life is and how I would like to stretch my life to the limits.

My brother, who is one of my heroes, has diabetes and I’ve grown up seeing the unfairness in his disease. I have learned through him, and many of my other experiences, that I want to make a positive difference in the lives of others. After learning of India as my host country, I am excited to experience a new culture and different part of the world. I hope that from these opportunities, I will be able to make a lasting impact on the world of today and tomorrow.

As a foreign exchange student I will experience a new culture and language. To learn Hindi and the culture in India is an amazing opportunity that few will ever experience. With our unpredictable future, it seems we are destined for change. Our world is not virgin to change, life is a state of constant change, often chaotic, and men always end up playing catch up. Have we not learned through our mistakes and indifferences that we are one people? Will we no longer be ignorant of our contradictory actions? Destiny can call on men at all times in their life. All men have to do is just have the courage to reach out and grab it. My foreign exchange experience will enhance my ability to participate in the opportunities I encounter in life.

I would like to thank everyone in the process of my acceptance and my success so far, but especially my mom and dad. These individuals have shown me an honest way of life and enlightenment through furthering my knowledge. Now, I leave this unfinished biography, for it will not be finished soon and next year I will add another chapter of my experiences in India. May my name be written across the pages of history for fame, or be cursed for failure, but I will continue on with a clear conscience, because I have given my all.

Michael B’s Journals

August 1 Journal

While staying the night in Mumbai I learned a very important lesson: while being a foreign exchange student you skip from A straight to Z. The culture and the language are parts B through Y and hopefully during the next couple months I’ll hit some other letters.

I had my first meal here! An omelet with bread and tea, taste buds that I’ve never known have started to hit the fan. I think my senses will explode because it seems everything is in exponential form compared to America. The driving so far has been an adventure in itself, we even go the wrong way on the road! While driving basically everything goes, however, just make sure to check for police.

India is where the older orthodox and the modern world collide to form a rich, diverse country. On the roads the diversity is even shown by the method of transportation. For example, you may see a camel walking next to a Mercedes Benz. My host brother and his friends talked me into riding a camel. I would have to say it was unique. If I had anything similar to compare it with, it’s like riding a horse, except much higher up. Also, while being here I haven’t had to use an alarm clock. We have a natural one. It’s not a rooster but the vegetable man yelling “Bhajji lelo,” (Take the Vegetables) usually around 8 a.m. This took some getting used to.

During my first weekend the Rotary Club of Nagpur South invited me to go on a trip to Chikaldhara. It was a Hill Station that was used by the British. We rode in a Volvo (a chartered bus with seats on the bottom and beds on top). It took seven hours! When we got there it was worth the journey, I couldn’t keep myself from sticking my head out of the window, it was beautiful. While doing so I managed to scare some Rotarians, they thought I would fall out, so I obliged to their advice and kept my head inside. The twisting up the mountains led us to see waterfalls, monkeys and of course more cows. It was very windy at the top and we went to see an electric generating windmill, it was massive with blades as big as semi-trucks.

The next morning we awoke at six and booted up to see all of the sights. The sun at that point was high enough and we were walking amongst the clouds; it was rather cold. There were random trails and I couldn’t help myself from straying from the road and listening to all the sounds of this mystical place. While walking along the roads we passed villagers herding buffalos and cows to find new fodder.

After the rest of the crew awoke we took the Volvo to a temple beneath a waterfall. There they carved a little doorway and straight inside was the idol of the Hindu God. We had to take off our shoes to walk inside, water was dripping from all of the cracks in the rock and everything was wet. We also visited a rural village and I got to see first hand the poverty of India. The elders in the village were complaining that they don’t even have drinking water. I don’t think they’ve ever seen a white man before.

There is never a dull moment in India, there is always something going on. Nagpur, which is a rather big city, doesn’t have many of the chain stores that you think are everywhere back home. No McDonalds, Burger King, or Wendy’s; there is only one Domino’s. However, that doesn’t mean that I’ll be losing any weight. My host mother is an excellent cook and they feed me very well, I actually think I’m gaining weight. Before arriving I was worried about sickness from foods but I feel more healthy now then ever. Also, I no longer eat with any utensils, it’s all in the hands. Rice was rather difficult at first, however, I’m getting the hang of things. The other day I went to a restaurant and had a fork to eat some noodles, it was very awkward and I didn’t like using it!

I’ve been very popular so far during my short stay here. Everyone stares at me! I’ve even managed to meet the Deputy Police Chief and a Minister to the Mahastrata State Government! I also went to see my first Bollywood movie Love Aaj Kal (Love Now-a-days). It was mostly in Hindi so I was luckily sitting next to my host brother and my good friend Salil who were my personal translators. I’ve been getting good at Hindi and my host family has steadily increased the usage of Hindi. Afterwards they translate the conversation for me. I’ve come to find that India is a new mystery unraveling before me. I can’t wait to find out what’s around the next corner of tomorrow!

September 11 Journal

Time has started to slow down. The initial rush of living in India has worn off and now I’ve developed a daily routine. I’ve steadily been taking tabla, dance, and traditional flute lessons. Hopefully soon I’ll start Arabic. Even though I’m used to living in India, I don’t believe the locals are used to it. Wherever I go I’m still stared at as the “foreigner.” It gets annoying at times but I’m sure when I get back to the US, I’ll be so used to it that it’ll be weird when people aren’t staring at me. Another thing that takes getting used to standing for a foreign national anthem. This is something new to me. They have it before movies at the movie theaters and in the morning before school. I’ve gotten pretty good at humming along.

This is a very festive season and nearly every other day is a holiday. They are mainly Hindu holidays. However, the Muslim month of Ramadan, or Ramzan in Urdo, is also going on . It is a month of fasting (no eating or drinking) from sunrise to sunset. As my host family is Muslim, I have been observing Roza along with them. This means waking up at around 4 a.m. for Sehri (breakfast) and then waiting until Iftar (the meal which we break fast) that always occurs at sunset which is around 6:30 p.m. Since the time of sunset is consistently changing, we follow a time table. We must first break the fast with a compulsory date. A date is a certain type of sweet fruit available all around the middle-east.

This wasn’t forced on me. I volunteered because I wanted to test myself. Many people are gracious that I am doing it while others think I’m insane. I want to challenge my will power for that is one of the things that determines our outcome in life. It also has been a good excuse to be lazy because I can’t exert myself. This has gotten me out of dance class a number of times.

Besides Ramadan there are many other holidays, almost too many to count. To start off the month we had friendship day. The name explains it all – we tie bracelets around each of our friends wrists and then hang out all day. Then came Rakhi. This is a very old Hindu holiday where the sister ties a Rakhi around her brother’s wrist for protection and in return the brother gives the sister a present. Nearly every other week there is some type of festival for one of the many Hindu gods. The 10 day festival for Lord Ganesh called Ganpati is one of the most popular. In Maharastra (the state I’m in) it is heavily celebrated. Every house has their own individual idol and also the community throws money together and to buy a huge one. When they bring the community idol to and from where it is placed they hire a drum music group and the everybody in the town is dancing in the streets. I was invited to go into the middle of the drums many times and every time I came out i was drenched in sweat. Many people are surprised to see a “foreigner” participating and a photographer took my picture for the newspaper. After the 10 days they submerge the idol into water and that caps off the festival.

Also to celebrate Lord Krishna they have the holiday of Janmashtami. This is when teenage boys form a huge pyramid to reach a pot suspended around 30 ft. in the air. If they are successful they break it with a rock which is followed by insane dancing. Kids die from falling from these man-made pyramids every year; however, the devotees won’t stop its practice. Another important holiday is the Pola festival celebrating the bullock. Only on this day do bullocks not have work and are decorated by their owners in elaborate colors. The bullock is the Indian workhorse on the farms and since many are without machines it is a very important animal. Since farms are mostly rural it is celebrated the strongest in the surrounding villages. One of my drivers left to go back to his village and was gone for over a week celebrating this one day holiday.

This is one example of how Indian time works. You never know when someone will show up because to some people being thirty minutes late is being on time. It takes getting used to for some people, but for me it’s the perfect place!

November 2 Journal

When the festival of Ganpati was ending to celebrate Lord Ganesh (The God of Wisdom) and we again danced in the streets. This time I could see people taking videos of me dancing and I became very popular with the people in the surrounding area. We had to dance in front of the Idol while taking it ceremoniously from its public place to a lake where it was to be submerged in water. After all of the decorating it ended up spending the rest of its existence in the murky lake water. While going we stopped at every intersection and danced for a good amount of time. This time it was rather difficult since I was fasting and it was a very hot day. I had to resist the urge of water when everyone else was drinking. I managed to keep my Roza and dance for hours under the strong sun, but when I arrived home I was exhausted and spent the remainder of the day under a fan.

I’ve managed to experience many new things as was expected. A typical example of lack of communication happened when we were invited to an English play. We thought it would be nice, however, only upon arrival did we find out that it was a children’s play: The Mystery of the Pantomime Cat. We had to sit through it for two hours and it was even worse since it was a musical. Later on it was very funny to recall the torture of the English accents and the outdated music. Also, after two months of reading the local newspaper I found out that it was owned by a BJP party leader and was very biased as well as anti-American. I did notice some offensive articles earlier so now everything started to make sense. Now I no longer read the newspaper except for a few interesting articles. One such article that caught my eye was one about the Chief Minister dying in the neighboring state of Andra Pradesh in a helicopter crash. He was so heavily followed and looked up to that 23 of his followers committed suicide. I was in disbelief. Never would you see such news back in the U.S. He did a lot of work for the poor in India and it’s a shame that such a good politician is gone amongst the numerous corrupted ones.

As the holy month of the Muslim religion was coming to a close many family members came to Nagpur to celebrate Id. Now Id may also be spelled as Idd or Eid, but I like to keep it simple. Id is the celebration to cap off the month of fasting by a feast. After fasting for 29 days, we went to the terrace looking for the moon. It is believed that if we see the moon then we no longer fast and Id is the following day. If not, we must fast for another day. Thankfully a little sliver of it was there and we went around congratulating everyone saying Chan Mobarak. The translation being, “Moon Celebrate,” which was very suitable for the occasion. As it was the Eve of Id my Uncle who is a doctor took me and his four year-old son to Mominpura Market. It was a late night occasion and we left to go at 11 p.m. When we made it there it was amazing. There were huge crowds and it was very difficult to go anywhere. The market was on a narrow strip of a street and my Uncle guessed that 20,000 people were there that particular night. We stayed until 2 a.m. and left with it still as crowded as when we arrived. It is impossible to tell what time it is while there, the market never sleeps during this part of the year. I did manage to buy some things. I got a new Kurta-pyjama (traditional dress) and a topi (the religious cap that Muslims wear) to wear at Namaz the following day. While at the market I managed to hear the surrounding people utter, “Ask him where he’s from!” or, “Foreigner” but my favorite one was “Australian!”

On the morning of Id I went with my Host Father and another Uncle to offer Namaz (prayer) at a different part of town. I was dressed in my new Kurta-pyjama and topi and it was impossible to differentiate between me and other Muslims. While they went to prayer I stood on top of some stairs overlooking the congregation and took a video. Their prayers have a certain formula unlike Christians and have been described to be like a low-level yoga. It gives the body a little workout. After greeting my host father’s friends and saying Id Mobarak, “Celebrate Id,” we started to leave for the graveyard where his father is buried. Women aren’t allowed in the graveyard and we were joined by the Muslim version of a priest for a prayer. I was invited along and I said a few words myself and then tossed flowers over his grave. Since I have been wearing Kurta-pyjama my family no longer calls me Michael, they call me Mishael. He was an Angel that brought water. I didn’t mind this for it was much better than being called Michael Jackson.

Later on that evening I left on a 16 hour train ride to the capital city New Delhi. I was going along with my host father and his associates for a case briefing. Instead of going along with them to meet the Secretary General, I went to see some of the tourist sites. The city was full of historic sites. I was lucky enough to see Qutb’s Minar, Huymayun’s Tomb, the India Gate, Parliament and the President’s house. After seeing all the sights I was exhausted. We went back to Gurgaon, known as the Singapore of India where there was McDonalds, KFC, Subway and Pizza Hut. I really missed American food and I never thought KFC would ever taste so good! Overall it was an amazing city and I left very impressed. The entire public transportation and many of the private cars ran of CNG, Compressed Natural Gas. This was very cool. After some questioning I found out that it was even cheaper and gas and cut down much of the city’s emissions to make it the greenest city in India! Coming from the Country that uses the most fossil fuels it was a wakeup call that we needed to change in our energy. No longer will we be the slaves to foreign markets and oil prices. We need to control our own destiny.

December 3 Journal

The month of October sped by very quickly. Tis the Season to be Jolly in India for fall is the holiday season. School was out for most of the month for holidays. So with most of the month free I spent maybe half of the month in other cities outside Nagpur. The month started off with Gandhi Jayanti. This is the birthday of Mahatama Gandhi and is very much like our labor day. Many people don’t work, but this is very ironic because Mahatama Gandhi was the juxtaposition of a lazy man. He shunned laziness. Furthermore, on this day they don’t allow the slaughter of any animals; so everyone doesn’t eat meat whether they are non-veg or veg, Hindu or Muslim.

The main holiday in October is the Hindu New Year called Diwali. This is a very big celebration for Hindus and usually all of the women of the household redecorate and rearrange the house, like spring cleaning. For Diwali my family invited me and two other exchange students along with them to Pachmari. Pachmari is a Hill Station, a Hill Station is a mountainous area where the British went to escape the Indian heat, in the neighboring state of Madhya Pradesh. It was supposed to take around six hours by car, however, with all the tea breaks and the blasting of Bollywood music by my eleven year-old host sister it felt like twelve hours. When we finally got there our luck changed and it was one of the funniest weekends of my life. A number of unforgettable events occurred on our trip varying being attacked by monkeys on a hotel balcony to para-sailing behind an open jeep on a grass airstrip. Luckily none of us were hurt! You always have to remind yourself, “Ye Bharat he!” (This is India) It can always be used as an excuse for something. You never know what will happen next or what opportunity will drop onto your lap.

Right after Pachmari we had a big Rotary event to attend in the neighboring town on Chandrapur. The event was RYLA or in long form Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. Chandrapur is a medium-size industrial town and as we were riding in on the bus we found out that it was very polluted. It’s not like we had a CO2 measuring device, but since it was getting more difficult to breathe and we could see the smog coming from a huge factory we put two and two together. Furthermore, on the first day they took us down into a Coal Mine. What fun! I have heard so many stories of coal mines collapsing in the U.S. India would be the last place where I wanted to visit a coal. After getting suited and booted with a hardhat and a headlamp I felt a little better, however, once we were about 300 meters down all the headlamp did was illuminate all the skull bone signs for not entering and the rickety wooden pillars for support. The rest of RYLA mainly consisted of leadership lectures that somehow always had a religious parallel to a Hindu Epic Story and performances from various groups that were there. There were also many Indian teenagers there who never have seen and spoken to a foreigner before so we were asked by Rotary to “Interact” with them. All of the Exchange Students performed either a song, dance or skit and then afterwards we all ended up dancing! It’s pretty easy to dance with Indians. Basically anything goes, so you just have to let yourself go and move like a crazy man. Ye Bharat he!

Finally, after arriving back in Nagpur I was contacted by my counselor to attend my first Rotary meeting. I’ve already been in India for more than three months, this gives you an example of Indian punctuality. It seems everyone here is on IST, Indian Standard Time. If they say 10 minutes it usually means 30 minutes, I call this the rule of twenty. Now once days are involved it gets a little complex, I haven’t quite figured out a rule yet. However, sometimes things just never get done. You just need to take things in stride and let some things go over you head. Many things won’t make sense to you because you’re a foreigner in almost a different world. Hopefully by the end of this year I’ll be able to completely understand this complex culture and take a part of it back home with me.

March 19 Journal

The last few months have been jam-packed and I haven’t been able to keep up with my journal. In December we trained almost everyday for our District Conference which was in the neighboring town of Aurangabad. We learned multiple Bollywood dances, traditional dances, traditional flute and tabla. While we were there we also got to visit the famous Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain cave temples of Ajunta and Ellhora. There are many historical things in India, an Archaeologist’s dreamworld. Once we came back from Aurangabad it marked that we were half-way done with our exchange. Looking back throughout the exchange, time has flown by and continues to do so. We have already visited South India, gotten through the holidays without our family and welcomed in a New Year! So much has happened already! We didn’t have much time to relax until we left for another tour of India.

In early March we left for a joint-trip of North India. First, we were off to the Himalaya. Afterwards, we were to meet up with another tour guide to visit more Northern cities. If you noticed earlier I did not make Himalaya plural. It’s because I was corrected by the Head of Outward Bound’s Branch in India by calling it the Himalayas. It can’t be plural because then it wouldn’t make sense in the native languages. I forgot the exact translation of what it meant but I do remember it was something about snowy peaks, which makes sense.

The first night we got there we had a huge snow storm. It was the first snowfall of the year and snowed continuously for a day. We had huge snow fights and ended us sliding down most of the mountains on the way coming down from hikes. We were in the mountains for two weeks moving between Manali, Manikaran Sahib, and Dhramsala. It was so beautiful. Even though the hikes were exhausting I never got tired. The adrenaline kept getting pumped into my bloodstream. Wherever you looked was amazing. You could see for miles. It was a nice break from the smoggy cities in India. While we were in Dhramhala, where the Tibetan government in exile is located, we were lucky enough to see the Dalai Lama!!! We saw him leave in a caravan with some U.S. officials on his way to meet President Obama. We all had some vague pictures of him waving going by in his car. However, this made China angry and this was big in Indian news for a very long time.

After Dhrampshala our Outward Bound program ended so we ended went to Delhi to meet up with our next tour guide RK. He also was our tour guide on our earlier South tour. The next part of our trip was very hectic, we continued on to Amritsar (the Golden Temple), Rishikash and onto Haridwar (a holy river on the Ganges and which we bathed in during a holy month that only happens once every twelve years when the planets are in certain alignment). Then from there on we continued on to Rajasthan, to Jaipur, Jaisalmer (camping in the desert while on camels), and Jodhpur. After leaving Rajasthan we went to the famous Taj Mahal in Agra then onto Mathura where Krishna was born and the birthplace of Holi, the festival of colors. We planned our trip to be in Mathura for Holi. It was definitely an experience! We continued to Varanasi which is the oldest city in India and dates back to three thousand years ago. On the last leg of the trip we visited Bodhya Gayaji (where Buddha gained enlightenment) and then finally to Kolkata (the old capital of the British).

The trip was amazing and very tiring. When we were done we all went our separate ways back to our own towns and host families. We all needed some rest. You can only get so much sleep on India’s rickety trains. After traveling with our exchange group of nineteen people throughout North and South India we have become a close-knit group of exchange students. It’s amazing to think that I only a little bit more than two months in India.

 

Peter’s Bio

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” -Alan Cohen

Hallo! I am Peter Humbarger, and I am a gregarious sophomore at Allen D. Nease High School. I have two sisters that are both in college, so I live at home with my parents, my bearded dragon and my cat. When my sisters come home, I always enjoy hanging out with them at the beach, movies, or wherever. My whole family is very inspirational to me, and helps me through difficult times. They are definitely one of the biggest things that I will miss when I am abroad.

Swimming is a major part of my life, being that I spend about two and a half hours at the pool every day. Hopefully they have a swim team in Germany. I also have an affinity for music, which I find very relaxing. I played violin for 10 years, and my love for music will always be with me.

When I found out that I was going to be studying abroad for a whole year, it was somewhat surreal. The reality of living in a foreign country away from friends and family for a whole year still has not sunk in, but I am very excited for something different. Although there may be difficult times, this process will be an amazing experience, one that I will never forget. The wisdom, independence, and knowledge that I will gain from this will be unparalleled. It is a life changing experience, and I am so grateful to have been chosen to take part in this program. I would like to thank everyone that is making my exchange possible.

Peter’s Journals

October 24 Journal

After “untying the piano from my bum” (Daphne Cameron), I decided to write my first journal. It has been a little more than 11 weeks since I stepped off that plane in Hannover, and I have loved every minute of it. From the different language, to the people’s attitudes, I have had an amazing experience so far.

In the first month that I was here, I realized that no one back in Florida could have ever prepared me for what I felt in my new home. The feeling of normality, the feeling that Germany really isn’t that much different as I thought, and that my life isn’t drastically changing to the circumstances. It’s interesting to think that before I left, we did so much preparation and work to come to a country, but in my opinion, I like learning from my mistakes in the language, I like realizing subtle changes in my lifestyle without me knowing of them taking place, but most of all, I love the people. In Germany, and the rest of Europe I assume, people are not judgmental, and very open-minded about things. For example, I went into a German sauna for the first time last week in Berlin in a hotel, and was blown away when I saw both naked men and women in the same room. People here are not prudes like they are in America, and it is quite fascinating.

Family: When I first met my family at the airport, they seemed like a nice family that would be very welcoming, and they turned out to be that exactly. They have been very hospitable, and have made my experience here all the better. I will not say that they are perfect, as no family is, but I really lucked out.

School: School in Germany is quite peculiar, and much different than school in Florida. I go to a Gymnasium, which is the highest level of school, and am in the class 10Music. I am taking a total of 12 classes, and have 24 hours of school a week. One thing that I am not a big fan of is that the teachers move from class to class, not the students. Therefore, I will have all the same classes with all the same students for the whole year. The even crazier thing is that these people have been in the Music class since 5th grade, meaning that they have had the same 20 people in their class for 5 years!

Language: The German language is actually extremely difficult. Much more difficult than I had expected when I started doing Live Mocha. I had no idea that the 3 ways to say “the” and all of the adjectives would change, according to if you were talking about where you were, who, whom or what. It is sehr schwer. And I am yet to have a dream in German.

Food: One word: Delicious! The food here is truly magnificent. From the schnitzel to the goulash, I love it all. And, I haven’t even had to try very many weird things, which is nice.

Things that are different from America:

People greet each other with hugs and kisses to the cheeks.

Bread is eaten at every meal

Buses are the main means of transportation for teenagers.

Walk in closets are a luxury.

Houses are much smaller due to the lack of space.

It costs thousands of euros to get a license, and you have to be 18.

People aren’t fat.

Soccer = Life

 

Nikki’s Bio

Once upon a time, on July 13, 1993, a baby girl was born at Florida Hospital, in Altamonte Springs, FL. This was not any ordinary girl; it was the one and only Hannah Nicole Frechette. Hannah’s parents, Ron and Stephanie Frechette were extremely excited when she came into this world because she was their first daughter. She was also the sister of Sean(9), Kenny(17), and Thomas(25).

From the time Hannah was born, she was a strong-willed child. When she made up her mind about something, very few people were able to change it. At the age of six, Hannah decided to change her name to Nikki. It all happened in the second grade when one of her big bad bully classmates dubbed her with the nickname, Hannah Banana. This nickname hurt her feelings, and she cringed when hearing it. Changing her name to Nikki made her feel like a new person.

Over the years, Nikki became very involved in the Catholic Church with her friends and family. She began attending Catholic school at age five. Nikki was very active in her church, school, and extracurricular activities. She was very devoted to spending time with her family, friends, cheerleading squad, and friends at dance.

Due to her strong will, Nikki grew to become a leader in most of the activities she was involved with. She was voted class president in 8th grade, appointed captain of the cheerleading squad, and was active in her youth group at church.

Nikki lived by the motto “If it is to be, it is up to me.” She did not mind standing out from the crowd. She always was smiling and inspired people with her positive thoughts. Her outgoing personality and positive attitude was contagious. Nikki knew she wanted to spread it to everyone, bringing people joy and high spirits.

When Nikki heard about the Rotary Youth Exchange Program through her Interact club, she felt it was a calling and would give her an opportunity to share her positive attitude with people from other parts of the world. With the support of her parents, she applied to the RYE program with all of her heart.

The first week of December, after Nikki applied, she anxiously awaited the acceptance letter. Everyday she would run to the mailbox to see if her letter had arrived. On December 5, 2008, little did she know, this was her big day, the day she had been waiting for. She received her letter of acceptance! Nikki was glowing and felt as if she were on top of the world. She felt even more blessed to discover that she was going to her first country of choice, Spain! Nikki knew at that point she had to be the luckiest girl alive! The end.

A message from the writer

Hello everyone my name is Nikki Frechette! I am fifteen years old, and as you have read I am a training outbound student to Spain! I have always had a passion for language and learning about cultures of places around the world. I wrote my biography in a fairytale form because I feel as if I am living in one to receive this opportunity to go abroad for a year. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to ever become an exchange student. I cannot thank the members of Rotary enough for accepting me into the program, and I promise you will not be disappointed! Thank you so much ahead of time!

Sincerely,

Hannah Banana

 

 Nikki’s Journals

September 3 Journal

So I have finally begun my big adventure and so far it has been exactly what I expected it’d be; exciting, thrilling, wonderful, and very overwhelming at times! I began my trip by saying goodbye to all of my friends and family at the airport. I flew out of Jacksonville airport at 11:55 A.M. and arrived in Detroit a few hours later. In Detroit I was sitting at “my” gate and when a former exchange student from Michigan confronted me. She noticed me in my Rotary blazer so after introducing ourselves we had a long discussion about how awesome Rotary is! After our long discussion we were comparing tickets when we realized I was not at “my” gate I had been waiting at. I had the right country, Amsterdam, but just the wrong flight. At this point I was completely freaked out! Luckily I was next to the real gate I was supposed to be waiting at, so she immediately directed me towards it. When I ran over there they had already boarded and fortunately I made it just in time!

I slept a lot of my flight but woke up when we were an hour or so away. The anxiety was then keeping me awake! I am so happy I woke up when I did though. When I looked out the window I saw the beautiful sight of London, England glowing. It blew me away and only boosted my excitement up another 10 levels! So when that 7 hour flight was over I was very pressed for time. I had about 45 minutes to make it to the opposite side of the Amsterdam airport, and that included going through the 30 minute security lines! It probably didn’t help that I was stressing over that so much. When I finally made it to the desk to have my passport stamped the woman noticed I only had a few minutes to get to my gate so she allowed me to skip everyone in the security lines! Once more I arrived at my gate just in time.

That flight went by very fast and next thing I knew I was running into the arms of my host father, Enrique, and my host brother, Pablo. We went home and they showed me around the house and then we walked to my school, San Juan Bautista, and the surrounding area of our gorgeous apartment complex. After this little tour I was incredibly worn out so I unpacked my things and went straight to sleep. I woke up to my beautiful host mother, Susana, telling me we were going swimming. The pool I swear must have been 60 degrees! It was freezing cold! After the pool we went over to a local supermarket where we picked up some things for dinner. I helped my host mother make gazpacho and then we went to a bar called Rojo Mar. There we ate pescado con aceitunas and mariscos. It was delicious! Then we returned home and ate some more! We had fried eggs, bread, jamon Serrano, and some queso. There is definitely a lot of eating here! I love it! J So now I just finished watching some TV with Susana, Enrique, Pablo, and don’t forget my handy dandy Spanish-English Dictionary! I can already tell this is going to be one of the most amazing experiences of my life! Thank you so much Rotary! Saludos!

September 29 Journal

Hello Everyone! I have just returned from a little town called Sotillo and I feel it is very necessary to share my experiences with you all!

First I would like to mention that the five days I spent in Sotillo were some of the best days of my life! The adventure began with a two hour drive to the town. When we entered the town all of the kids ran up to the car yelling in excitement for our arrival. This is when I knew that the weekend was going to be super fun! In this town my parents have a home that is gorgeous! It is two stories with all wooden floors and a beautiful backyard. Across from this house is a church that is also very pretty. Luckily I had the room with the balcony where I could go out and see everything. So after I was given a tour of the house, we went to meet the parents and brothers/sisters of Enrique and Susana. They were all very nice! Together we all went to a local bar and had a glass of wine. After some more introductions we headed up to the mountains where we went to eat dinner. The walk there was just stunning. The sights blew me away and the perfect view of the stars and the full moon only contributed to my amazement.

When we finally arrived in the mountains I was shown the bodegas. These are basically wine cellars down in the ground. These are everywhere in the mountains! People own them and customize them so that they look like actual houses inside (minus the dirt floors and the rocky walls and ceilings). But inside them there are couches, TVs, surround sound radio systems, bars, dance floors, etc. I’m not exactly sure how they get the cable all the way down there but it is possible. Anyways, we ate dinner and then a friend of my family took me into a bodega that was only for the teens. I made so many new friends there! Everyone wanted to talk to me and be my friend! I felt so loved! At about three A.M. we went to a party in the plaza where everyone dances and enjoys the company of one another. I went to bed at five A.M. this day!

Saturday, my friends came over and took me to the center of the city where they set off fireworks. After the fireworks were finished there was a countdown and then everyone exploded carbonated water all over each other! It was so funny to watch. When this was over I went to the house of Enrique’s parents for lunch. His mom was so sweet! She liked to pet my face and tell me how beautiful I was. She was so cute! Following lunch I went to take a long nap and then went to dinner. This night we ate lamb! It was delicious! And then after I repeated the night before. I went to the bodega and then to the plaza to dance. There was a live band from this day on.

Sunday, I woke up and went to tour the church with my host father. Then we began a procession with a statue of the Virgin Mary. The people of Sotillo danced backwards for a whole two km! This was from one side to the town to the other. When we got to the other side of the town we ate, of course. Eating is very popular here, along with sleeping. It’s a dream come true for me! After everyone ate we rode back to the other side of the town in a tractor! I went to a park and hung out with all my new friends and then went to the bodegas for dinner and dancing. Then again went to the plaza.

Monday, I woke up very early! The reason for this is because all the teenagers of the town came to my house and were playing music at my window. And remember that balcony I “luckily” had? Well I was not feeling so lucky then! When I finally sat up in bed I saw that someone was climbing up into my balcony. He then began banging on my door so I opened the door and I was taken outside and paraded around in my pajamas! Later on there was a big costume contest that is basically Halloween for us. It is a time when all of the kids dress up and walk down a red carpet and people vote on who is the best. The teens do not participate in this, but the adults do! My host parents and all of their friends dressed up and danced to Thriller by Michael Jackson. They won! It was hilarious to watch! After that we went to eat and then enjoyed one final night of the fiestas!

Then yesterday, I took some final pictures with my friends and headed back home to Madrid. I cannot wait to return to Sotillo. I already miss it and all of my friends! Everyone there is so friendly and I love it! We will be going back there next weekend! WOO HOOO!

Anyways! Thank you everyone who has gotten me this far in my exchange! Words cannot even begin to describe the wonderful time I’m having here! Love you all!

Nikki

October 27 Journal

Hola a todo el mundo! Since I have last written I have done so many new things! The biggest thing is start school! I love going to school! (Just not waking up early!) So the schools here are completely different from the schools in Florida! We go to school at 8:30 and have 6 classes a day. After every class we have a 5 minute break, and in the middle of the day we have a 15 minute break (instead of lunch). Then we finish school at 2:15 and go home and eat lunch with our families. Also, we don’t change classrooms! The teachers are always coming to our classes. And if the teachers don’t come to class you can leave the school! It’s great!

So I would definitely have to say my favorite classes are my TWO English classes. J They are always so exciting, and I think I am actually going to pass those 2 classes! (Well I hope!) The other day in my English class we played Blind Date and it was so much fun! I was the blind-dater and I asked the question: “If you could take me on the perfect date, where would it be?” Contestant #2 answered me, “I would take you to the McDonalds! The American’s favorite restaurant of course!” That made my day! But everyone at my school is very friendly with me! I’ll just be sitting in class and people will always say my name randomly. Another thing is they will just write my name on the board for fun! J I love it! I think I got really really really lucky because in my class there is a girl who is Venezuelan and she speaks fluent English! The ironic thing is she is from Florida too! So English is her main language, and she can always translate what the teachers say to me! She is definitely my hero and I would be lost without her! In summary school is WONDERFUL! J

So recently I went back to my dream town Sotillo♥, of course! We also visited a town close to Sotillo named Aranda! There we went to a big carnival and concert! It was so much fun! Another place I visited is Toledo! All I can say is WOW! Toledo is beautiful with a lot of history! I would love to go back to visit there another time! I also went to another place called Avila, which is also gorgeous! I have seen so many new things here and it has only been 1½ months! Oh, one of my favorite experiences I had here within my first month is LICE! YAY! I thoroughly enjoyed soaking my hair in mayonnaise! It was just so great. But with the help of my host parents and some magic shampoo, Nikki is lice-free! WOO- HOO!

I think it is safe to say I have figured out how to take the bus. About a week ago it was my first time to take the bus alone. So I went to the bus stop my friends told me I have to go to and waited there. As I was sitting I kept seeing my bus just pass me? I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t stop for me because they looked at me every time they passed. After about 1 hour at that stop I went to the previous one because I saw that the bus had stopped there. So then I was sure the bus was going to stop! WRONG! The bus did not stop for me, but stopped at another stop before. So after waiting there for 30 min I went to another stop in front of me and of course the bus didn’t stop. At this time I was incredibly confused! I didn’t understand why the busses didn’t want to stop for me. But finally I saw people at another stop and decided I would go there so maybe the bus person would stop. I went there and the bus stopped! When I got on the bus after 2 ½ hours I called my friend and told her the whole story and she just started laughing so hard and followed my story with one question, “Nikki, didn’t you stand up and wave to the bus driver?” J So I now know how to work the bus system!

Next subject: THE LANGUAGE! I am really learning the language fast! I would not say that I am fluent but I have a basic grasp on the language. I am really good at understanding the cuss words because my parents and 4 of their friends got together with me so they could learn all of the bad words in English. So in return I was taught all of the bad words! J But hopefully I will be understanding a lot more in a month or so. I really want to understand! (I have begun speaking a lot better now because my principal is helping me! She said if I create a cheerleading squad for our school she will help me improve my Spanish! So OF COURSE I said yes!!)

Some things I’ve learned, thanks to Spain:

Being American is the coolest thing since sliced bread. 

Cheerleaders are a myth.

Jacksonville is famous because of Twilight.

Americans eat giant hamburgers or pizza for every meal.

Every American has a gun. (They learn this from Grand Theft Auto, of course.)

Cutting off police officers is okay.

Driving 2 inches away from another car is necessary.

My host parents are training to become professional NASCAR drivers. Meanwhile they are practicing on the neighborhood streets. 

You’re not Spanish unless you eat a loaf of bread with every meal.

All Americans live in huge mansions.

Siestas do exist and complete me.

All of the big and manly looking men have little fluffy dogs!

If you go to a restaurant you must stay there for 4 hours, at least. (DEAD SERIOUS)

Scissors are no longer office supplies. They are kitchen appliances. You use them for cutting bread, pizza, peppers, spaghetti, and any other food you need to cut!

I finally feel like I belong here! The little things make such a big difference, from the doorman knowing me and opening the gate for me, to the mother of my best friend telling me she wants me to call her mom. J My love for Spain is growing rapidly! I am so blessed to have the family I have and to have this experience in general! Thank you Rotary! You sure are making my dreams come true!

Favorite question I was asked recently:

“Nikki, can you talk gangster for us?” 

December 26 Journal

FELiZ NAVIDAD!!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! As a gift to you all I have decided to write another journal explaining my recent Spanish adventures!

First of all, if you read the end of my last journal I mentioned that my principal had asked me to start a cheerleading squad. The reason was because there was a big basketball tournament she wanted us to perform at. The whole idea of this basketball tournament was to make you feel like you were in an American basketball game. There is a basketball association here in Spain that goes around doing tournaments and such just like in the USA. Lucky for me when the head man of the program met me, he fell in love with me (theoretically) and wanted to write an article on me! The link for that is http://thegameoftheyear.es/new.php?id=15. J There is another article in which I am mentioned as well, http://thegameoftheyear.es/new.php?id=11. Not to mention at the pep rally AND the basketball game he spent about 15 minutes talking about me and I got a standing ovation! WOO! J So basically I’m famous here in Spain.

Anyways, back to the cheerleaders. The principal asked me to start this squad and make us the best. This was followed by: you have 1 month. WOW! I was up for the challenge and felt I could make it happen, because like my dad says “If it is to be, it is up to me”! I created 2 cheers for them to learn, one was in Spanish and another in English. I also made a dance for them to learn. They picked up the cheers very easily and it all went really well, until the dance came. Apparently my choreography was a little difficult but I was determined to make the girls the best and this choreography would do it. So apart from the Tuesday and Thursday practices I arranged for us to start practicing Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays (keep in mind this was all in ONE month).

After a lot of hard work my girls did it! They pulled through and learned the dance in time for the big game! In preparation for the game we had a huge pep rally at my school on December 15th. It was definitely a flashback of America! We had cheerleading uniforms with pom–poms, there were posters hanging around (the cheerleaders made all of the postersJ), and everyone was screaming and shouting. The cheerleaders all were introduced along with the basketball players and we performed the two cheers they learned. Then later we threw out candy for everyone and they went crazy! It was a very successful pep rally! On December 21 we had the big game! When I got there I was amazed! There were mascots, more cheerleaders, drum lines and everything! It was amazing! Something I found extremely funny was the other cheerleaders singing the cheers from High School Musical and Bring it On. It was hilarious! But my cheerleaders did absolutely amazing and had the time of their lives! I am so happy that I was a part of that!

Some of the next things on my list of things to do are: 1. I am starting an Interact Club with a fellow Rotary member working in my school, 2. My principal has asked me to help her organize a prom. J haha! I really think my principal wishes we were in America!

SO CHRISTMAS! It honestly did not feel like anything at all for me. Christmas Eve I went to my grandparent’s house and we ate dinner and then I went to Midnight Mass with my grandmother. Christmas Day I went to my grandparent’s house again to eat and then I went to the circus with my best friend and her mom. The whole day the same thought ran through my mind and it was that I couldn’t believe it was Christmas! I guess it will feel more like Christmas on January 6th. Here in Spain they normally don’t celebrate Santa Claus coming. For them, the three wise men come with all of the gifts on January 6th. So hopefully then I will get my dose of Christmas from Spain. My amazing parents wrapped me all of my gifts from home and sent them to me, along with my aunt, my best friend Harrison Holmes, and also a family friend, Onie. I am loved! J

New Years is coming! I am getting ready to head to Sotillo (the town where we have a house) and we will stay there for 5 days until January 1st. The following day I am heading to the Canary Islands!!!!!!!!! J I will be there until January 10th and I cannot wait!!!!! J

So yeahhhh! That sums up my recent activities!  THANK YOU ROTARY, MY AMAZING PARENTS, AND ALL THOSE WHO ARE SUPPORTING ME AND MAKING THIS HAPPEN! You will not be disappointed! 

March 8 Journal

Hello everyone! I know it has been quite some time and I apologize! My plate has been very full, to say the least! So anyways we are going to pick up where I left off in the last journal. Therefore this journal starts with NEW YEARS and the CANARY ISLANDS! J

New Years was fantastic! We went to Sotillo where we had a very nice time like always! Everyone dressed up for New Years because it is something typical the townspeople do, but in the bigger cities they dress up very elegantly and go out with friends. We stayed there for those 5 days and then shortly after went to Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands. My trip there was nothing short of amazing! It was beautiful, with clear watered beaches and with volcanoes! I saw a beach with black sand for the first time in my life and it was so cool. I went with my family so it gave us a great opportunity to bond. Being in the sun and in the beautiful beaches gave us a new type of happiness. (Especially after being in the cold snow and rain in Madrid.) So yeah, in Lanzarote I learned a lot about my family and they also learned many things about me, one of them being my crazy obsession of Chinese food. There happened to be 93827642398 million Chinese restaurants on the island, so we went to one almost every day we were there! I was in heaven! In Lanzarote I felt like I had first class service on the beach. On the beach there are people who walk around with coolers selling drinks/ice cream. So every time they passed me they always stopped to talk to me and gave me hand/feet and leg massages! My host family got a kick out of it, and of course I did too! But hey I’m not complaining over free massages! Also when I was there an amazing feeling came over me! As I was translating everything for my family I realized, I’M BILINGUAL, NO WAY! That is one awesome feeling! After realizing that, I was in complete happiness (and still am)!

So that was New Years and the Canary Islands! Shortly after, I went back to the town because we had the annual fiestas of Sotillo again! This was almost exactly the same as the other celebration in September. That weekend was really fun but extremely tiring! Part of the traditions were staying out in the bars all night. WOW. So we all went out with our families at 11:30 pm until about 5 am and then we went off with our friends to the caves until 12 am, and from that we went to a procession across the town and to church. It was overwhelming but a great experience!

Next story is about my phenomenal trip to LONDON! YAY! I went with my host parents and all 24 of their friends from the town! It was soooooo cool! London is beautiful and the movies can’t even capture all the beauty of it! I learned a lot of history about it and saw so many extravagant sights! Something so weird was being around everyone speaking in English! And as I was in Subway ordering my food, I began speaking in English, but when I saw the cashiers awkward face I realized I accidentally began speaking in Spanish! OOPS! It was so crazy! And I have come to the conclusion that I much prefer speaking in Spanish than in English. It might be a little problem when I get back home, oh well. So yes! LONDON=LOVELY and I really hope to go back some day!

So what’s going on with me now? Well, I am taking a little time to relax. I have gone two whole weekends without leaving Madrid! Whoah! I’m really prospering in the relationships I have here and I am reminded everyday of how much I am loved and how big of a difference I am making here. Some of the little relationships I have here that I couldn’t live without are with my best friend and her mommy, my host brother, the owner of a local supermarket, the owner of a local paper supply store, and the owner of the bar in the town.

My best friend and her mommy are my heroes! These girls are so strong! They especially remind me how much I am needed here in Spain, because they tell me every single day. They lost their husband/daddy in June and as you may imagine they still are sad, but they tell me that without me it would have been so much harder, because when I am with them I bring them so much happiness. So we have each other when times are tough! I actually go to their house everyday at 6 am to have a coffee with my mami (my best friends mom).

Next person, my host brother, Pabli! J That’s his nickname from me! He’s the cutest 12 year old boy in the whole wide world! We are really close and he opens up to me and asks me questions he can’t ask anyone else. We also fight and hit and punch each other, but it is all out of love! We are truly brothers and sisters now!

The next person on the list is the supermarket owner! His name is Lalo! He is awesome and has become to be like my father. He gives me advice on everything and always brings a smile to my face! So I always go to his supermarket to help out and I’m always talking with the customers! Being there so much has allowed me to make relationships with many people, for example, I know everyone who works there and we are all like family!

His supermarket is right next to the paper supply store which is how I met my role model, the owner. She is the most patient and kindest person on this Earth. I always go there and she gives me a coffee and candy. I also help her out by putting prices on things and making photo copies for the customers! I have also met so many people from being there. I go there every day except Sunday. She is like my teacher and when I’m there I read to her in Spanish and she corrects me, and later gives me homework! But when she gives me my Spanish homework she has to do the same exact thing in English, so we help each other.

Last but not least is the owner of the bar in Sotillo! She is so sweet! I think I have mentioned before that she has a picture of us hanging in the bar with my flag and she wears my pins every day. She was one of the first people I met in Spain and helped me A LOT because she speaks English. SO THAT’S IT! Sorry for going on, but I owe it to you all after slacking so much!

Anywho! I am counting down the days until I go to Hungary for Easter! I get to see my best friend in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD, Monika Ignacz! For the future outbound students, Monika was a Hungarian exchange student in my house the past year. She lived with me for 9 months and is my best friend. I don’t know where I would be without her, or our “matchmaker” Rotary Youth Exchange. This program sparks so many possibilities and opportunities and we are so lucky to have access to them! I have already confronted so many new adventures I could never encounter in the United States, and have learned so much about other countries, but most importantly myself! This year makes you look back on your old life and you learn many things about yourself, good and bad. I don’t know how it has affected the other exchange students but it has sure made me want to start a new life and become a new me!

That is about it for now guys! I hope you can all see how much this exchange means to all of us outbounds, and I am so jealous of you all because my exchange is almost over! My advice to you all is to practice your language (if you have a better grasp on it, it will take you less time trying to learn it in the country, which takes a lot of time away from meeting people and making great relationships)! Stay positive in your exchange and be strong in the hard times because everyone is rooting for you! You will not regret your decision to be an exchange student!  I can’t thank you enough Rotary for every door you have opened for me. I am trying my hardest to make you all proud!

 

Sarah M’s Bio

I am constantly asked “Why would you want to be an exchange student? You don’t even know the people you’re going to live with, that’s so weird.” Or “They don’t even speak English, why would you want to live in a country that doesn’t even speak English?” Or my favorite, “Belgium? Why of all places would you want to go to Belgium?”

I guess normal people wouldn’t really understand. I think that you have to be a very special person to be an exchange student. That is something that I and all the other outbounds share. I am constantly told how crazy I am to leave everything I know behind and go to an unfamiliar place to live for a year. I guess I’m crazy then because that is exactly what I want to do.

Anyways, Bonjour, my name is Sarah May. I am currently 16 and excited to spend my 17th in Belgium. I am a sophomore at Yulee High School in little Yulee, Florida. I am the first outbound from Yulee, I think that is pretty sweet. J I live with my Step mom Dana and my younger brothers Jackson (7) and Mason (5). My dad is currently serving our country in Iraq. I spend most weekends with my Mom, my Step dad John, and my little sister Amanda (11). I also have an older brother Jonathan who is in college right now.

I like to go to the beach, hang out with my friends, and my big passion is photography. It’s something I really enjoy and I know I will be able to take beautiful pictures in Belgium. I also love to sing and I am a computer nerd. I love to design websites and stuff like that. I am pretty involved with school. I am actually the sophomore class president this year.

This will not be my 1st, 2nd, or even 6th time out of the country but, my SEVENTH. My mom is originally from Sweden so we visit every three years. I have also been to Norway, Denmark, and Germany. I swear that traveling is in my blood. I have family all over the world including Sweden, Norway, China and Australia. I can’t wait until the day when I say that Belgium is my home.

I can not thank Rotary enough for making this possible for me. After those horrid interviews you guys put me through, the tears I cried, and the hope I lost but, in the end look where all that has gotten me, a position in the outbound 09-10 school year. I also can’t thank my mom enough for pushing me and helping pursue my dreams to be an exchange student. Also my dad and the rest of my family for supporting me.

I know that my life is going to change more than it already has and I can’t wait to arrive in Belgium, grab me a Belgian waffle, and write my first journal about how great it is. 

 Sarah M’s Journals

August 25 Journal

Writing has never been easy for me. I have so much to say, so many stories to tell, but it’s so difficult to put it all into words. I have been dreading writing this journal, but after 2 hours, a “cahier”, and a writer’s cramp this journal is what you get. I always have to handwrite anything before I type it so it’s been a nice long process for just this one journal entry.

The last 10 months of my life have revolved around ROTARY ROTARY ROTARY. I’ve applied to be an exchange student, I’ve gone through those wretched interviews, I’ve gotten accepted, I’ve found out I’m going to Belgium, I’ve been to Orientation and met 72 new AMAZING people, I’ve been to my sponsor club’s Wednesday afternoon luncheons, I’ve written a 12 page essay all about Belgium (more like 30 page), I’ve given speeches in French ( or at least attempted), I’ve been to Daytona to do a community service project for District 6970 (the best district of course ), I’ve attempted to teach myself the beautiful French language (but failed miserably), I’ve explained to people what being a foreign exchange student is and that no, Belgium is not in Africa, it’s in Europe sandwiched between the Netherlands and France, I’ve gone through Cultural Boot Camp, I’ve gone to going away parties (even ALL the way in Vero Beach- I love you Brandon!!) and going home parties for last year’s inbounds (who I miss so much), I’ve counted down the days until I’d leave ( I even had a countdown on my phone), I’ve gone to the airport to welcome this year’s inbounds, I’ve gone to St. Augustine and hung out with the outbounds in D6970,and I’ve said those hard “See Ya Laters.”

Now reality has come into play, and right now I am in my back yard laying in the luscious green grass soaking up the last bit of summer sun in my “petite” village of 200 people in Villette, France. Wait, France? You’re probably thinking, “Wait, I thought she was an outbound to Belgium…?” Well I am, and I do live in France. You see here there isn’t a border really separating Belgium and France, just a little blue sign that says “France” that is barley visible. I am nearly 3 or 4 miles from Belgium, and I go to school in Belgium and my host parents work in Belgium. If you were here and saw it then you would more understand what I am talking about. How I am allowed to do this, I don’t know. My host parents talk about it, but it’s not like I can understand them…..YET.

I have been here for 10 short days now. It doesn’t feel like it at all. Time is already starting to fly by, but didn’t they warn us about that? Well I guess I’ll start from the beginning.

Friday, August 14th I woke up at 5am with no emotions, it felt just like any other normal day. I kept thinking to myself “How could I not be feeling any emotions? Why was this not feeling real to me that in 3 hours I’d be boarding my plane setting off on this great adventure?” Everything was packed, everything was loaded into the truck, IT WAS TIME TO GO TO THE AIRPORT!! I took some “last” family pictures, said goodbye to my kitties and my sister in law and off we went. I still wasn’t sad, I wasn’t scared, I was nothing, but excited! We got to the airport, my bags were overweight so we had some adjusting to do, got my boarding passes, and now it was time to go! If you have ever been to the Jacksonville Airport then you understand the lack of places to eat, so my last American breakfast was a nice greasy chicken biscuit from Burger King and an Icee of course J

Then it was time to say “see you later” to my American family and friends. Still I hadn’t cried all morning, and I honestly don’t think that I would have cried if it wasn’t for seeing my best friends crying and of course my mommy and my little sister. The tears just weren’t coming out anymore, but I forced out tears so it didn’t seem like I was completely heartless. We did our last group hug for a year, and then it was off to go through security. One of the security guys did compliment my “nice” Rotary blazer J

I got onto my flight with my stuffed purple unicorn Deuce, my Rotary blazer, my Rotary smile, and a few tears running down my face. Now I was off to Washington DC, Au Revoir Florida. The flight went by very quickly mainly because I was asleep the whole hour and a half, haha.

For some reason the gate number wasn’t posted on the boarding pass, but I soon got a phone call from Andrea (also going to Belgium) asking where I was because she had just also arrived. As we were walking around we met up with two other exchangers, Louis from Virginia, and Kassie from Pennsylvania, who I have been talking to online now for the past 6 months. We ate at a little airport restaurant called Moe’s and had Caesar salads as our last American meal, yummmmy. Then another exchanger, Sarah from New York, called me, I found her, and she joined along also. It was now 12pm and we still had 6 hours left until our flight for Brussels. Of course being the friendly Rotary Youth Exchange Student that I am, I ran around that airport (figuratively) looking for blue Rotary blazers and scared faces. Every time I saw one I walked up to them and said “You’re going to Belgium right, with Rotary?? All the exchangers are waiting at gate D5.” I’m sure their first impression of me is that I am a little bit crazy, but oh well. J

Around 5pm there were at least 30 garcons and filles sitting in a circle in those nice Rotary blazers, trading pins, business cards, and asking what city they were going to be living in for the next year of our lives.

I am 100% sure that those kids are my new lifetime best friends. Sure, I have only met them once, and I barely know anything about them, but those 6 hours that we did spend together was indescribable bonding time. They know exactly how I feel, exactly what I am going though, and understand why I am doing this exchange and support me, because they are doing it for the same exact reason. It’s not like my friends back home where I talk about it and they have no care in the world about what’s going on in Belgium, where Belgium is, or what I am going to be doing in Belgium.

Then the time came to say Au Revoir Amerique, Bonjour Belgique. I made my last phone calls to my best friend Joelene, my friend Eric, and my mommy. Our boarding passes were scanned and then we were on that huge plane. The exchange students were pretty spread out all over the plane, but I was lucky enough to be sitting next to Claire, one of my favorite Belgian inbounds. It was kind of pointless honestly; being both of us slept pretty much the whole 7 and a half hour flight. I did wake up once and got the chance to watch The Soloist, in French of course, but I would love to see it again in a year when I actually know what is going on.

Our plane landed into Brussels, passports in hand, got them stamped in immigration, this was it. That’s when my friend Louis goes, “Well I guess that this is it, there is no turning back, and we are officially here in Belgique.” He was right, and it got me thinking again, “Why hasn’t this hit me? I still feel like it hasn’t hit me that I am going to be gone for a whole year.”

After a nice long wait, I finally got my luggage, waited on a few exchangers and then it was time to go see our host families. I can’t even begin to explain to you how I was feeling at this point. Just imagine that you are the pop star getting out of your limo to a huge movie premier. All of those fans are blocked behind those huge silver metal gates. That is how it was like at the Brussels airport Saturday morning, hundreds of people yelling in various languages, holding up huge welcome signs, and big smiles on their faces. I was completely in awe, looking quickly for my host family before I was about to have a heart attack. I then spotted my host sister Adelaide, smiling and waving. I quickly rushed to her, we both looked like we were about to burst into tears, her because of excitement, me because I was still scared out of my mind. I was greeted by the traditional kiss on the cheek, bonjour, and ca va? We stopped and got drinks at the airport café, I got Coca Cola while everyone else got coffee. Two guys where there from my host club, Rotary Club of Virton. According to them, all Americans drink is Coke, everyday all the time, but I did correct him, because at my house in America my mom won’t buy anything that isn’t Zephyrhills bottled water or milk.

Then was the car ride home. I would say that it was awkward, but jet lag got the best of me and I slept the whole 4 hour drive home. We did stop at my host dad’s brothers house where I met 3 lovely little host cousins that are just about the cutest little girls on the planet.

We got home around late afternoon where I got my suitcases upstairs into the spare bedroom because I will be using Adelaide’s room once she leaves for Canada on Thursday morning. They then prepared some food, even though I was anything but hungry. We ate some noodles, with what I want to say was shrimp – it didn’t look very appetizing so I didn’t ask what it was, but it did turn out to be tasty.

I then wanted to take a shower and go to bed. I took a nap for a couple of hours and then was awoken and greeted by another man from the Rotary Club of Virton, who thought I was from Mississippi, shows how much he knows….. He came to talk to Adelaide about Canada and then about my trip to Brussels next weekend. He had some pretty rockin’ hair, so I will always remember him, just not his name. haha.

Then they surprised me with even more food, some kind of meat, cooked tomatoes with mozzarella, and baked potatoes. It was delicious, but I didn’t finish, all I wanted to do was sleep, so that is what I did the rest of the night.

The next day I didn’t wake up until about noon, and by then my host family wanted me to go meet family. My first host family has SO MUCH family it’s unreal. I don’t remember any of their names, I don’t plan on memorizing EVERYONE’S names because there are just SO MANY. I went to another little village around here for the day where my host grandma and grandpa live. They all drank beer, ate food, played music, and asked me a million questions about Florida. I went to a little museum in the village where apparently way, way, way, back in the day it was the house of some family. It was very interesting and I’m glad I went and my tour guide was Adelaide so I understood every word. There was also an old castle there that was all torn down because somebody had bought it out, but they let me go look. It was neat. I then got to see a French baptism which was interesting and different.

The following day we went to a bigger town in France, where I went to the grocery store for the first time. It’s pretty similar and it makes me laugh when they have the same things as they do in America like Peanut M&M’s and Cocoa Puffs. When we got home we had a nice lunch and my younger sister Elore, took out a game called Triominos (like Dominos) where they made me say the numbers in French every time someone laid down one. Let’s just say now I can count to 20 in French with no problem. J I also got to tour my school that day. CNDB is so big. It’s 3 stories, if I remember right and it’s really old. It has plants growing all over it; it’s the most beautiful school I have ever seen. I can’t wait to actually start next Thursday. Later that night, my host family showed me around the village. I will argue with ANYONE, this is the most beautiful place in the world. There are no words to describe it, no pictures can show its beauty, and you just have to see it for yourself.

Tuesday morning we went to France and went shopping for shoes, clothes, food, pretty much anything for Adelaide before she left for Canada on Thursday. That was the day that I got to be in 3 countries in a mere 3 seconds. I got to be in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg all at the same time. It was so great. That night I got to meet my host mom’s sister and her family. I have two cousins, Louise and Odlie. They both will be going to my school so I am excited that I know some people already. It was a very emotional night because they were saying goodbye to Adelaide.

Wednesday we went into Virton. I love the city. There are so many more people than in my little village. It’s a very small city though, some shops but not many, a few bars, and a paper mill. That was the day I got to try the famous Belgian Fries. My family said that they were the best in Belgium, so of course I was so excited to try them. I found out that day that those are not the best in the world, and I was hoping not the best in Belgium because they were disgusting. That night we drove to Waterloo to spend the night at my host mom’s brother’s house because it is closer to the Brussels airport than here and we had to be there at 4 in the morning.

Thursday, we went to the airport, said goodbye to Adelaide, and that was it. My English translator was gone. Now I will have no choice, but to speak French. To get things off everyone’s mind my host family took me to a small Belgian zoo which I loved. It’s nothing like an American zoo. The animals have a lot more space to roam and it doesn’t even really look like a zoo. It was weird seeing a zebra in a forest, but it was a nice experience. I fell in love with a monkey that was glued to the glass window when I walked up. We then went to the city where my host dad lived for a few years back in his 20’s. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL and IT WAS A CITY!! I was so excited. They took me out for ice cream (Belgium ice cream is the BEST) and then we went and looked at a huge castle that the city was built around.

Friday we again went to town in France (we do this practically every day) where I got to wander the French streets with my younger host sister Elore who doesn’t speak any English. She pointed to EVERYTHING as I repeated in French. It was such a beautiful day and we took a million pictures as we waited for my host mom to get done with her patient. We ate pizza and went home. When my host dad got home from work he handed me this white box with a yellow ribbon on it. IT WAS BELGIAN CHOCOLATE. It is so rich, it’s so good, and Hershey’s doesn’t even come close. Anyone who hasn’t eaten Belgian chocolate doesn’t REALLY know what chocolate tastes like, believe me. That night we drove to a little village that’s the last village in Belgium before you drive into France. It’s apparently really famous. It’s known for its yellow brick houses with red roofs. There is this fountain in the middle of the square where women go to wash their clothes. It’s really nifty. It was chilly that night (like every night), but it was so amazing. I LOVE going on long walks right as the sun goes down. I think it’s my favorite part about Belgium so far.

Friday I had to go and register my visa so that I won’t get deported or something. There were A LOT of complications because of the fact that I live in France not Belgium. They were arguing in French for what seemed like hours, and I was getting scared that they were going to make me switch host families THE FIRST WEEK I GOT THERE. Turns out everything was okay and I won’t have to switch families until January. Afterwards my host family took me French bowling. It is SOOO different than American bowling and I suck really, really bad at it. The balls are WAY smaller and they don’t have any holes to put your fingers. The lanes are VERY narrow and get bigger as you get closer to the pins. I have no idea who won, but it certainly wasn’t me. My ball landed in the next lane plenty of times. It was embarrassing, but everyone got a good laugh out of it and it’s a memory I’ll hold on to forever. They took me out to dinner that night for the first time. We went to a pizzeria. Of course I couldn’t understand anything on the menus so I stuck with just a cheese and ham pizza. The pizza was so amazing, but HUGE. They then ordered me this HUGE ice cream. There were these drunken French men at the table next to us who were laughing and yelling so loud. It was the funniest thing EVER and we couldn’t stop laughing. It was definitely the funniest night.

Saturday we went into Virton and I got to see my other host cousins, Titouan and Glynis. We all walked around Virton, got some drinks, and then went to my host grandma’s place (she lives with Nuns) and visited with her. It was a nice afternoon.

Sunday night I went to my 2nd host families’ house for dinner. I love them so much. They are so nice and welcoming. They make fun of me because I ate with a jacket and a blanket while everyone else thought the weather was nice. They said I’m going to just LOVE winter. I love their sarcasm.

Today I spent the day with my 2nd host family while my host mom and dad went to work, because I didn’t want to sit at the house alone and stay on the computer all day. I watched Hannah Montana in French with my youngest host sister. She is so adorable and always hugs me and says “You’re so beautiful.” My host dad speaks perfect English so I am able to communicate with him well. They are so interested in me and want to know everything about me. They showed me my unfinished room, and around their HUGE house. My host sister Chloe will be in my class in school, she is so nice. I love my 2nd host family so much, just as much as my first. I am going back tomorrow to spend the day with them which I can’t wait.

Tomorrow the other American exchange student arrives and I couldn’t be any happier. I have talked to her online and she seems SO nice. I am going to my 3rd host family (her 1st) on Friday to spend the night with them. We have to wake up early to go to Brussels for our first big Rotary meeting. I can’t wait to see all the exchange students again. It’s going to be such a fun weekend.

The language: French is extremely difficult. I wish that I would’ve studied more before I left yes, but at the same time I’m glad I didn’t. I think that learning the language while you are there makes the experience more exciting and yes very frustrating. If I already knew French then I wouldn’t get to play all the cute games my host family plays with me and I wouldn’t get to bond with my host mom as we do hours of French lessons out of a book. Yes, I get frustrated when I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m trying, and by the end of this year I WILL be fluent in French, I have no doubts.

The food: I don’t like the food much here. It’s too strong for my stomach. I take 3 bites and I’m full. I try to finish my plates they make me but it just doesn’t happen. I try everything just to be nice and if it looks gross I don’t ask what it is. Oh and the French seem to LOVE potatoes and tomatoes. I eat them with every meal!

Homesickness: Yes, actually the first night I wanted to go home. I didn’t want to be here. It was weird being in someone else’s home, who I didn’t know, taking a shower, eating meals, and sleeping in their house. I quickly got over it. It’s not easy, it’s actually the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I know that I am here for a reason. I know that Rotary wouldn’t have gone through all that hard work to get me here if they didn’t think that I was ready for it. Now if they offered me a plane ticket back home right now would I go? Absolutely not. It took me a week to realize that I shouldn’t be thinking about “home” and how much I’d rather be there right now because right now this is my home, this is where I live, and this is my family. I couldn’t be any more grateful because I’m experiencing the best year of my life.

Oh yeah so in Belgium:

EVERYONE sucks at driving. I feel like I am going to die every day when I get into the car. I think they have speed limits, but NOBODY follows them.

Anyone who thinks that everyone in Belgium speaks English is WAY wrong. Nobody does and even if they do they won’t speak it with you. (which I’m glad)

I have been fooled. It has been perfect weather in Belgium every day since I’ve gotten here, until today.

They don’t eat little meals. No actually they take HUGE portions and then they eat 2nds and 3rds. I never even finish my 1st helping and they always think that I don’t like the food. It’s not that I just can’t handle THAT much food.

Belgium has the BEST waffles and chocolate in the world everyone was right.

The cars are EXTREMELY tiny; I even saw a smart car sports car.

Apparently in Florida alligators walk the streets, according to the Belgians.

— Peace&Love;

Sarah May

December 8 Journal

It’s just another normal day in Belgique, it’s cold, it’s drizzling, and the sun is nowhere to be found. It’s the 8th of Decembre which means I’ve been away from home for almost 4 months now. They weren’t kidding when they said that time was going to fly by. I don’t understand why I ever thought that a year was such a long time to be away from my home, my family & my friends; it’s not nearly enough time now that I’m here. Life here is starting to become normal and sometimes I feel like I’ve been living here my whole life, but don’t be fooled – I am still overwhelmed and confused all the time.

So much has happened since last time I wrote a journal. I don’t know what I was thinking when I said I’d write a journal every two weeks … that’s impossible … as if I have the time. I know how it feels to be the next outbound eagerly awaiting the next journal of the person who’s in your country of your choice, so I can’t put this off much longer for those of you who want to come on exchange to this unbelievable country. If I tried to tell you everything that has happened in the last 3 months in detail you’d be reading this forever … and … ever, and as much as I want to be typing all day you can just look at the pictures and see for yourself all the wonderful things I’ve been doing here.

As for the language, it was honestly the biggest slap in the face for me. I don’t know what I was thinking coming to a country only knowing about 3 words of their language. It’s been the biggest struggle for me, but I’ve made it a long way. Before I came here I always put off learning my French. I really didn’t care and had absolutely no interest in learning the French language. Now that I hear, breathe, and speak French all day every day I have absolutely fallen in love with it. I wish that I could tell you that I am fluent and I’m speaking so well all the time, but then I’d be lying. It’s still difficult for me to keep a steady conversation but I know enough to speak to my host family and friends. I have an amazing French teacher outside of school that I see once a week while my host sister does swimming lessons. She has helped me so much and I am so thankful that I have her. Some days I feel like I will never be fluent in French but I just have to keep reminding myself that I won’t be fluent overnight. All the flash cards, the workbook pages, and the mp3s on my iPod will pay off by the end. New outbounds, LISTEN TO AL & DAPHNE OR ANYONE who pushes you to learn as much of the language as you can before you get here. I promise that they are not just telling you that for kicks and giggles.

School is, well, school. I don’t like it for the most part. The majority of my day is spent working out of the French workbook my mom bought me to use BEFORE I left, but never touched. The teachers don’t give me work anymore because I can’t do it. I actually am doing exams this week and I took religion and French today, talk about impossible. I am actually in class with kids that are 3 years younger than me. They put me in them because my host sister in my second family is in my classes. Thankfully they also put me in classes with kids my age and I will be switching to them in January once my oldies leave to go back to South Africa and Australia. :[

I got pretty lucky when it came to schools. I have two oldies, Joshua & Marezaan, who have been nothing but amazing and I absolutely adore them. It kills me that they are leaving me now in less than a month to go back home. I’ll miss you guys so much<3 I also have 3 other Americans at my school. Kelsey with Rotary, James with ASF, and Bond with WEP (YES THEIR NAME’S ARE JAMES AND BOND 😀 ) Bond is only a one semester exchange and leaves in 3 weeks. It’s going to be hard without him around.

The first day of school for me was definitely the worse day of my life. DON’T expect for everyone to talk to you, THEY WONT, but they will stare at you, point at you, and throw stuff at you (which I still don’t understand.) I’m making more and more Belgian friends the more French I speak with them. The only thing that really bothers me about the kids I go to school with is that I am constantly compared to Renee (outbound last year). They all think that I am going to be JUST like Renee and I have to tell them that I am not at all. We are two totally different people & this is my year to show them that. Besides that, I have three days left until Christmas break and I couldn’t be any more excited!!

Belgium has proved me wrong. Don’t be disappointed in your country assignment like I was. I always thought “What does Belgium REALLY have to offer me?” Even if I haven’t seen the sun in three months and my ugg boots are ruined from the everyday downpour, I have fallen in love with this tiny tiny tiny country that I am proud to call home. I love Virton even if it is out in the middle of nowhere and far away from all the other exchange students. I was put in this tiny “city” for a reason and I’m glad. I’m not used to seeing tractors driving down the main roads everyday back home and the 100000 million cows you I see every day here.

About a month ago I went on a Rotex (rotary) trip to LONDON!!! It was with 75 other exchange students in Belgium and it had to be the best 4 days of my entire life. We went to Madame Toussaud’s Wax Museum which was so awesome. We went to Windsor Castle, Canterbury, and Hard Rock Café. Then on Saturday they gave us the whole day to spend by ourselves and explore the city of London. The trip really made me bond with the other exchange students and I made so many new friends from different countries. It was also nice to speak English with everyone and those accents are just so beautiful.

Recently the other American at my school and myself planned a Thanksgiving feast for our host families. Our host families are always asking us to show them part of our culture and we thought why don’t we share with them one of our really important American holidays. We prepared ALL of the food ourselves, we had a 7 kilo turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, Bourbon chocolate pecan pie, homemade pumpkin pie, fried corn, garlic mashed potatoes, and so much more!! It was really nice and it brought all of us closer to our families. It’s defiantly a Thanksgiving I will never forget.

Also last weekend my 1st and 3rd host families took me and Kelsey (the other American) to the FRENCH ALPS!!!!!!! We went to go skiing, but that didn’t end up happening because there wasn’t enough snow which really sucked, BUT I did get to see snow for the first time and man oh man do I love the snow (I won’t be getting much of that in Florida!). We also went to a candy factory which made the BEST candy ever. St. Nicholas also came on Sunday morning. It’s a Belgian holiday and it’s mainly for little kids. St. Nicholas comes and fills up your table with candies, mandarin oranges, and toys. We got a lot of candy!! It was an amazing trip and I’m glad that our host families took us.

Rotary is truly the best thing that has ever happened to me. All the exchange students that I’ve met that are with different programs always talk about how jealous they are with how much Rotary does with us. I have met some people from all over the world whom I can’t believe I’ve lived without these past 17 years of my life and who have changed me and how I view the world. I have best friends from states I’d probably never visit before this, a best friend in Mexico, Australia, and South Africa. I don’t think I could ever say thank you enough to Rotary, my host family & my family back home for all the support, and of course my wonderful mommy who has done everything humanly possible to make this year happen for me. Merci beaucoup!!!!

January 16 Journal

It’s 2010 and I am officially 5 months into my exchange as of today. I am not sure where the time is going, but I have learned to accept the fact that this whole exchange thing is going to go by quickly just like Rotary has told us. Time doesn’t stop for anybody and that’s the truth.

I have changed drastically in the past month and I have really noticed it. It has definitely been the worst, hardest, and most eye opening past month of my exchange and maybe even my life. I have done things and have not done things here that I am not really proud of. I have let not only my family here and over the ocean and my Rotary clubs down but myself. I have failed to do what I came over here to do.

December 23rd, 2009. I was told that day I had to take a French test for my Rotary district here in Belgium. It didn’t go well; no actually in the words of Rotary Belgium it went “catastrophic”. I didn’t even know how to react. All I wanted to do was give up and come home back to Florida. I didn’t want to be here. I felt like I was just a failure and an embarrassment to myself, Rotary, and my families.

Here is some advice to the new outbounds: STUDY YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE. I don’t think that I can stress that enough. I came to Belgium knowing about “Bonjour” and “Merci.” I spent the last 4 months of my exchange struggling, struggling so bad. Yes of course I had progressed since when I first got there. Four months in I could understand French. I could listen to a conversation and understand everything; it was just one thing….speaking. I couldn’t speak, no I could, but wouldn’t. I wasn’t confident. I didn’t want to be laughed at for mistakes. So I just didn’t speak.

I was told by my district here in Belgium I had 6 weeks to improve my speaking drastically or they would send me home back to Florida, no if’s ands, or buts. I was told by Rotary that every day for the next six weeks I have to: read out loud for an hour a day with my host family, watch an hour of TV with my host family, and I am now required to email my counselor EVERYDAY telling him what I have done that day, what I have read in a magazine, and what I have watched on TV every night. It is such a hassle. I find myself now having absolutely no time to relax. I now take 3 French classes, 2 outside of school and one replacing an hour of my Religion class which occupies most of my week. I feel so overwhelmed by the French language and I am speaking like never before. I have no time to think about my family, friends, life back home in Florida and I honestly have no desire to talk to them. I thought it was so hard to leave home, but really it has been the easiest part of this whole exchange process so far. Don’t get me wrong – I miss and love my family back home so much, but it wasn’t worth talking to them almost every day and ruining the time I was supposed to be here engaging in the Belgian culture and spending it with a family who truly tried so hard to make me happy and comfortable in their home. I can’t go back now. It is the past and yes, I regret it every single day. Now I am making up for the lost time. I am NOT giving up. I am NOT getting sent home in February and I am going to show Rotary back in Florida and in Belgium that I can do this and I will.

A little look at the past.

December 24th, 2009. We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve with my host mom’s sister and her family. We all got dressed up nicely, talked, and opened presents. Everything was ca va until my host parents daughter in Canada called crying because she was homesick. Of course I was homesick, extremely, but I kept it to myself so everyone in my family would be ok. Then my host mom started crying so I started crying. Now the whole house had such a sad vibe. I called my mom and cried and cried and cried. I just wanted to be home with my family. No, they weren’t doing anything special for Christmas, we never really do, it was just the fact that I wanted to be with my family. After all the crying everyone was ok and happy. I knew that I couldn’t just sulk around; it was my ONLY Christmas in Belgium so I had to make it worth remembering. We ate some of the best soup I have ever eaten in my life. They wouldn’t tell me what kind of soup it was until I had finished eating it. They made me guess…not chicken, not fish, not cat, not dog, not horse, but…..FROG. I really didn’t care because it was so delicious. I will definitely forever love frog meat!

December 28, 2009. I changed host families. I didn’t think that it would really be all that sad to say goodbye to my host family because they only live 10 minutes down the road, but it was so hard. The whole day everyone was really quiet. My host sister wouldn’t leave her bedroom and all I did was pack. I packed my 2 suitcases FULL, I had around 8 boxes and bags. How am I ever going to get any of this home? I went to my host grandparent’s house and said my goodbyes. I will miss those cute old people. When I arrived at my new house my bedroom was occupied by a German man for the week, so ALL my stuff was put into one of my host sister’s room. Poor girl.

The next day Brandon came to visit from Sweden. My best friend Kelsey, my host sister Chloe and I took the 3 hour train ride to Bruxelles to pick him up. Even though it was raining (like always) we showed Brandon around Bruxelles. We took the 3 hour train ride home, played cards, listened to music, and of course took pictures.

New Year Eve came around and there were SO many people at my house. There were 2 men from France and one of their 16 year old sons, an Italian man from Switzerland, the German man, and some family friends from around here. We ate Swiss cheese fondue for dinner and the rest of the night consisted of dancing until around 4 AM. I skyped with my mom right as the clock struck midnight. There was confetti everywhere, people screaming “bonne annee”, everyone kissing, and still more dancing. I passed the laptop around and everyone said “bonne annee” to my mom and sister. The words of my little sister “You have a crazy host family” and yes that is a true fact.

January 2nd, 2010. My district here in Belgium had planned a Rotary activity to visit a city on the other side of the country to Bruges which is in the Flemish speaking side of the country. It took us almost 4 hours to get there by train, it was cold, and I was sad because it was the last time I would see a lot of my exchange student friends from the southern hemisphere. Bruges was absolutely beautiful. Brandon didn’t even spend 5 minutes with me that day. He went out and made his own friends. It was really good for him because now he has even more exchange student friends from different countries.

The month of January has been so upsetting in so many ways. Goodbye has never been so hurtful. I have had to say goodbye to the people who have taught me everything there is to know about the exchange life in Belgium. Their year is up and it’s time for them to go back home to their home countries. Knowing that I could never see some of these people ever again is so heartbreaking but like my host mom has been telling me after I’ve come home from school crying a few times these past few weeks “C’est la vie Sarah.” I want to thank Joshua Grech my brother from Australia, Te Aki Moore my sister from New Zealand, and Mareezan Myburgh my sister from South Africa for changing my life and helping me through the hardest parts of my exchange while nobody else knew how I felt. I love you!

My new host family couldn’t be any more amazing. I feel so at home with them. They don’t have a son or daughter out on exchange; they just wanted to host me, so now there are 4 girls living at this house. I have 3 younger host sisters: Chloe 15, Juliette 12, and Clemence 10. They treat me just like a sister. They argue with me, they help me with my French, they are constantly telling me I’m “tres belle et gentil.” My host dad does speak fluent English which comes in handy when I need to ask something really important that I don’t know how to explain in French. My host mom is the craziest women I have ever met. She is so loud and crazy and is ALWAYS on her feet. I have never seen that woman rest this whole month I have been living in their house. I love this family and I can’t wait for Chloe to come on exchange in Florida in a few years and live with me (I am trying to convince her that Florida is better than New Zealand). I am excited to spend two more months with the Denis! (:

I stepped on the scale the other day and “error” popped up, good thing my host parent’s told me the scale was broken….even though I know for a fact I have put on a good 15 pounds these past 5 months! Looks like it’s time for me to go a diet….yeah right…when you live in Belgium you eat frites and chocolate ALL THE TIME!!

I want to say congrats to all the outbound class of 2010-2011. You guys have no idea what you have just got yourself into. August may seem far away now, but I promise it will FLY by. Before you know it you will be at the airport in your nifty Rotary blazer saying “seeya later” to your American family for a year. STUDY YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE, DO YOUR RESEARCH PAPER, STUDY YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE, STUDY YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE, oh wait and did I mention STUDY YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE.

I want to give a HUGE shout out to the lovely Daphne Cameron for giving me the encouragement to move on from the hard time I am having right now and having faith in me. She is the reason that I am here in Belgium and I have so many thanks for her. She is truly my inspiration and I won’t let her down! Thanks Daph!

I am having the absolute time of my life, getting fat, learning French, making friends, changing, and living the life. Thanks Rotary, thanks mommy, thanks everyone for the love and support.

à bientôt!

May 5 Journal

Coucou,

9 weeks from today I’ll be flying in the air crossing the Atlantic Ocean, but this time even more upset and scared then I was back on August 14th, 2009. Of course I think about going home and how wonderful it will be to see all my friends, see all of my family, driving my car, the beach, and the Florida sunshine and heat. It all sounds so wonderful…but is it really? The thought of leaving this country makes me sick. This is no longer Belgium, the country I will spend a year in, but home. I’ve had a truly challenging exchange and I wouldn’t change it for anything. Since I haven’t written a journal since January 16th there is a lot for you to catch up on.

I don’t want my journal to be extremely long so here is a little recap of all the things I’ve been up to:

February 5th: I visited the actual European Parliament with over 250 exchange students from around the world.

February 12th: The night of my Bal des Rhetos. It was a huge dance that my school organized to raise money for our class trip! It was a huge success with 1k + people!

February 18th-20th: I visited the crazy city of Amsterdam with Rotary! Of course it was amazing. I got to visit the famous Red Light District, the Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank’s House, and many other museums.

March 13th: I visited the city of Luxembourg in the tiny country of Luxembourg with Rotary. We took a tour bus around the city and learned about the city and how much that little country impacts Europe. It was awesome hearing people speak English!

March 19th-21st: I visited La Mer du Nord with my host family! It was such a great weekend to get away from work, school, cell phones, the internet, and just bond. Even if the Belgian beach is NOTHING like the beautiful Florida beaches, it was still nice to experience it (even if I did feel like I was at the beach during a hurricane haha).

March 25th-29th: I visited the amazing country of CROATIA (yes, that’s right…CROATIA!!) with my school. It was one of the best weeks on my exchange because I got to bond so so so well with the kids in my class. Normally during school they are too busy doing school work so this gave us a great opportunity to get to know each other. It was a time I will NEVER forget.

March 30th & 31st: Oh yeah and we also visited Venice, Italy! Talk about the most beautiful city in the world minus all the tourist mess.

April 5th-15th: I spent the Easter holidays in well….GREECE! It was a Rotary trip of 11 days…we visited cities like Athens, Delphi, Olympia, and a few others! I honestly think I am the luckiest girl on the planet earth to have visited Greece this year…it was so great.

April 24th: I went to Bruxelles and visited the Atomium and Mini Euorpe for the first time with Rotary!

May 1st: It was the birthday party of my 3rd host mom and sister! There was about 75 people there, mostly family, and it was so awesome to meet all the new family!

May 2nd: I visited Belgium’s amusement park “Walibi” with the Rotex! Even if it rained pretty much the whole day, that wasn’t going to stop me from having the time of my life. It was pretty sad because it was the last Rotex activity for the year!

A lot of the future outbounds always ask me if I am fluent in French yet and when I reply no, most of them are in extreme shock. 9 months ago I stepped off that airplane confused when my host sister asked me a simple “ca va?” Over these past 9 months my brain has gone through something it’s never gone through before, it’s taken a twist and has struggled to learn this language of love. It’s taken ALL and when I say ALL I mean ALL that I’ve got to get to where I am today. I understand the majority of what people say to me. Never do I ask for someone to tell me the word in English – instead for them to explain it to me in French. I’ve come accustomed to the phrase explique moi stp. I’ve advanced from children’s books to novels such as Fascination aka Twilight. I no longer watch French films with subtitles. I dream in French. Think in French. Write in French. Breathe in French. Live in French. Rotary tells you that you should come back to America fluent in your host country’s language. Then again what is exactly considered fluent? I understand, I speak, I sing, I write, etc. in French, but I still have a LONG way to go. I still have a vocabulary to build. I still have conjugations to master. I still have a terrible accent to work on. So fluent? It’s such a vague word and for me I’m satisfied and happy where I am. I came from knowing NOTHING, to being where I am today, that’s a HUGE accomplishment.

I have been through SO much on my exchange. Things I don’t honestly care to share with the world. This year has challenged me in every possible way. I have changed so much. I am nowhere near the same person I was 9 months ago. I have found out who I really am by coming here. I don’t want to share all of my mistakes with you as I have already shared one big one, because I want you to experience your own year. I want you to learn from your own mistakes and make something of yourself.

FUTURE OUTBOUNDS: All I can say is good luck. I know it’s hard, but be patient. You will get your clubs, host families, towns etc. soon. You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.

I am in final host family, the Pyls. They are wonderful and I couldn’t ask for a better family. I now have less than 9 weeks left here in Belgium. I’m not sure where the time has gone. I’m not sure how I am ever going to leave this life. It’s where I live, it’s who I am, it’s what I’m used to. There is so much more to do in these next 2 months including going to Paris to meet up with some of the exchange students in France, SEE MY MOMMY, and I’m going to a Mika concert on Saturday! I can’t thank Rotary enough for giving me this year and putting up with me through all my struggles. Nobody will ever know how thankful I am. I give all the thanks in the world to my amazing mother who has helped me so much this year by backing off and letting me solve my own problems and live my own life and well….grow up. She has been my support through this whole experience and every time I wanted to just quit, give up, and come home early because life got hard she was always there to say no, fix your own mistakes, and give it your all. I love you so much and can’t wait to see you in T minus 36 days  A bientôt tout le monde!

 

Sarah P’s Bio

Hello, I’m Sarah Pierce. My hair color/styles change but… For the past couple of years I have been a red head. I have to admit, that I like the attention my red hair provides for me. Though, I have come to the realization that hair does not convey the kind of person you are. So, this is the reason for my decision to go back to my natural hair color. That being said or “read”…

Again, hello, I’m Sarah Pierce and I’m a seventeen year old senior at Bartram Trail High school. I’m the Secretary of the National Art Honor Society and a student of the Design & Construction Academy at Bartram Trail. I love anything that deals with art, which brings me to my favorite classes which are Fashion Production and AP Art History. I love sewing and designing clothes. I aspire to be a fashion designer. I was born and raised in Florida. Even though I am a natural Floridian, I love to travel. And I’m very excited to take my first trip across the Atlantic to Croatia!!!

So, no matter what, if I have brownish-blonde hair with black tips, red short hair or natural plain dirty blonde hair I will always be the fun loving, caring and creative Sarah Pierce.

 Sarah P’s Journals

November 16 Journal

I’m not sure how to start this journal or exactly where to end it. I know I have waited way too long to write this. I started to write a journal after the first week, then that moved to my one month anniversary then to my second. It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s just that my views of my host family, friends, Croatia, life, school, etc. change constantly. Frankly it’s hard to keep up with. I feel like I’m in a constant battle with myself; should I give this person a hug or a hand shake, should I say this or that, should I turn left or right?

Being in a foreign land you learn to make decisions fast. I was the kind of person that thought too much about one particular thing. Being an exchange student you really have to just start from nowhere and go, so I guess that’s how I should continue writing this journal. It’s really going to start………now.

I woke up to a text message from my Croatian teacher with the good news of snow. I opened my French doors to my balcony (glories of being an only child) and saw my first snowfall. How I treasure this moment. As the first snow of the season fell, I thought of everything that had already happened in my first couple months of being in Croatia. I visited Rijeka, danced folklore, eaten many mystery meats, discovered what some of those mystery meats were (too ashamed to share), have been late to school, had the President drive past me and my host family twice, seen many churches, had a Croatian photographer yell at me, eaten fresh figs, walked in graveyards, cried, actually kept my room clean, made friends, and I even fooled someone into thinking I was Croatian. With all of these ups and downs I realized that, in any situation I find myself in, I need to find joy in the simplest of things. So, I put on my newly purchased snow boots from Zagreb and headed to school. I had one of the largest smiles on my face, that I had been missing. As I walked to school I couldn’t help but sing Christmas tunes and Death Cab For Cutie songs. I didn’t care if the old ladies dressed in all black stared at me. I was genuinely happy.

I arrived at school, found my classmates, and followed them to our first subject of the day, which happened to be English. Students in Croatia take two mandatory languages, German & English. Italian and Latin classes are on Saturdays if you wish to take them. In English class my very wise teacher (also my private Croatian teacher) wrote the scrambled thought of the day on the blackboard. While the students tried to put the words in correct order, it all came to me. “There is no failure except in no longer trying” by Elbert Hubbard. I haven’t given up yet and I’m not going to. Yes, being an exchange student is hard but I know in the end it will be all worth it. Learning the language can be very difficult. I think Croatian is a beautiful language, but it is something I would call a beautiful mess. There are so many hidden rules, different words with the same meaning, or single words with many different meanings. I can definitely say I learned something every day. I have Croatian lessons almost every school day for 45 minutes with my English teacher. All the other Exchange students in Zagreb go to Croatian school twice a week. When I say “all the other exchange students” I mean it. There are twelve exchange students in Croatia. Ten students are in Zagreb, then there is Isabella from Germany in Varaždin, and little me in little Đurđevac.

I do like Đurđevac, however it is really small. According to Wikipedia Đurđevac has 8,862 inhabitants. Nothing like the one million plus in Jacksonville, Florida. Another thing different from Jacksonville is the air. The air here feels so nice to breathe in, and I take pleasure in taking a couple of deep breaths a day just to appreciate it. My town is cute and has character. It’s one of those towns where everyone knows each other. So, it was big news that an American girl was here. My first couple of weeks in school beside getting stared at I heard whispers of “amerikana” or “američki”. Now those whispers and stares have turned into small smiles followed by waves. I’m gradually becoming apart of this community. Đurđevac has one church, a town hall, town square, and I think we even have one traffic light. I like to people-watch sometimes but then the people I’m watching start watching me and it turns into some weird ‘I just made eye contact with you and I don’t know what to do’ tango. I like to watch the little kids pass by with backpacks that are bigger than they are. I see the gypsy kids following behind them and they say things to me that I don’t understand. I see the business men and the super skinny European women. I have started to recognize some of the dogs that roam my town. Some of my classmates know the names of these dogs. At first it really seemed very random when a dog would fall asleep by your feet when you were drinking coffee. But now I’m just accustomed to it.

What is also very common in Đurđevac is the bakas in black, like I mentioned earlier in my journal. I see these old women all the time. They wear all black from the kerchief on their head to their black shoes. To get a mental picture they look just like the grandmother, γιαγιά, from the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Everyday when I walk somewhere I’m always afraid they are going to hit me with their bikes. I swear sometimes they just come out of nowhere. Instead of looking to the left and right twice each, I take an extra third look. I have to make sure that the old lady’s skirt doesn’t get caught in the chain wheel. That would cause her to swerve uncontrollably while I innocently cross the street. Then all that would be left of me would be a half eaten apple and Croatian children’s books. I’m not trying to be paranoid or anything like that; sometimes you just have to think ahead. Oh dear, I really do live in the country. I look out for grandmothers on bikes while Sierra has to look out for motorcycles driving on the sidewalk in Zagreb.

I’m not sure how to end this journal just like I wasn’t sure how to start it. But here I am at the end of my thoughts. Hopefully I will write again sometime soon. That’s the least I can do, for taking so long to write this journal in the first place. The snow has yet to fall again, but every time I look out a window I see all of the possible opportunities awaiting me.

Till next time.

With love all the way from Croatia,

Sarah

May 6 Journal

6 months since my last journal, 8 months in Croatia, and 4 months in my new host family. No, I didn’t fall off a cliff into the Adriatic, I didn’t get sent home, nor appear in some mystery meat stew. I’m here, where I have been, except now I live in a real village, Virje. Things in the beginning were rough, but I stuck it through with all the support of my family, Rotary, Croatian teacher, and friends. Life is not so melancholy any more. Everything is folding into place, got out of the first host family house and now on to bigger better things… only problem is that I’m having a hard time keeping up with all.

Recently, my parents came to visit. Which was nice – I feel like they grounded me a little. I have been so surrounded in Croatian culture that I sort of forgot where I came from for a little bit (oh dear, that seems scary to admit). My parents stayed in my area of Croatia for 4 days, then we went to Rijeka. After visiting Croatia’s coast we traveled to Italy. Bless my father’s soul he drove in Italy; that was an experience itself. Soon our trip in Italy was over and so soon my parents came and went. It was nice to have them meet the people that I love in Croatia and for them to get a slice of real Croatian life.

The strangest part of their visit was when we had to part ways. We were in Zagreb, I could not go to the airport with them so they dropped me off at the train station. We were in front of Glavni Kolodvor and we had to say goodbye. The world seemed to stop spinning. People around us were waiting for their trams, walking to work, talking on their mobile phones, doing what people do. Then there was us, my Mother crying, my Father standing beside her. Walking into the train station alone was the first time I felt like a true adult. I swear if I had the train cabin to myself I would have burst into tears. The world was on pause for that moment then on fast forward to now. Everyone moves on and continues to play their roles in life. So here’s mine….

15/4/10, 19:57 Now, I’m in the kitchen, my host father is making more French fries for my host brothers, my host mother is trying to teach me how to whistle, while my brothers laugh at me. “Jesti Špek!” (eat bacon) they yell, like it’s some trick that everyone uses to help you whistle. Or maybe it just the idea of ingesting food that does the trick for everything in Croatia.

17/4/10 1:46 I can’t stop thinking about what will happen in these next couple of months. Cats are running on top of my roof. The Strokes are going through my speakers and I’m thirsty.

17/4/10, 13:30 I’m home alone, Antonio (my oldest host brother) is helping Grandpa at the vineyard. Leo (youngest host brother) has tennis practice. Mama Sanja is at her university in Zagreb. Tata Željko has a 24 hour shift at the veterinarian office. I’m bored. I go outside, it’s a nice day. I walk through the garden, into the barn, pass the sheep, out the barn, knock on the door to my grandparent’s house. Baka is cooking lunch. I ask her if she needs help, she doesn’t, and even if she did need it she wouldn’t let me. We have a small conversation. As I sit and watch her wash the salad, I wish I could understand her better. Croatian is a difficult language and it’s even harder when people are speaking in Kajkavski (a Croatian dialect known in my region) and not the official Croatian language. It’s a problem that accrues daily for me.

18/4/10 – 12:00 It’s Šimun’s confirmation. One of my best friends (Dino) is the ‘kum’ (godfather is the best translation). Šimun is the younger brother of my other best friend (Tomislav), which they belong to family friends of my host family. I didn’t go to the church sermon at 10. The first and last time I went to a church sermon in Croatia was on Easter. My host mother flicked holy water into my eye and the old ladies gave me weird looks because I wasn’t praying. We are at a restaurant outside of my village. The aspects of this day look like lamb, battle ship, cakes, more lamb, poker, talking, and more lamb.

19/4/10- 6:00- Wake up. Long night of restlessness. It’s my sister’s birthday, today. I’m a little sad that I’m missing it. There are other things that I have missed but at least I have gained a lot in the process. I stop writing a paper for ethics, I have writer’s block. Go eat German cereal. Write more. Listen to music. Finish it. Wake Antonio up, get ready for school. This week we go to school in the afternoon.

23/04/10- 19:00 Recovering from the boring week at school. End of the year festivities have already started to begin. There will be a barbecue tonight. I’m getting ready. Debating rather or not to wear the dress with high socks or with tights. I go with the high socks. The nights still get pretty chilly but I’m ready for warmer weather. Dorotea (friend) and her mother will be here soon to take me to the barbecue.

24/04/10- 8:00 I should have worn the tights. Baking an apple pie to bring to the Tišljar’s vineyard.

24/04/10- 19:00 It was a long day. Got to our family friend’s vineyard at 12. Everyone pitched in to help dig around the vines, even Grandma and Grandpa. I love being in the vineyard, especially since the weather has been so nice lately. We also cleaned up the vineyard a bit. Cooked dinner. They liked the pie I baked. Now I’m at home to rest a wee bit. Then I will go in Ledi for tea, and after that I will watch a movie at one of my friend’s house.

This is my life, that I’m not ready to leave. It may be simple but I’m absolutely in love with it.

 

Simone’s Bio

Time is not a solid object. Time can be bent, warped, stretched to amazing lengths, but also cut frighteningly short. Moments should be cherished, Memories made and saved.

All this being said, I try to make the most of my time on Earth. I do my best to fill my hours with fun and my days with productivity. While I may seem to participate in many varied activities (Musical Theater, Foxhunting, Mission trips, college courses), everything I do I do because of the personal fulfillment I receive. Hopefully along the way I help a few people (and animals!) out, too.

One way I make the most of life is by planning and scheduling as many foreseeable events as possible. While this may seem like I take the spontaneity out of life, that is far from the truth- there’s always time for something more! “I’ll make time.” That’s my motto, certainly when it comes to fitting in activities I know I’ll enjoy. I rarely feel an urgency to leave a fun outing or end a good trail-ride with my horses. And why does “House, M.D.” have to be only an hour long?! I like to have a focus not only for my day or week, but also for my life in general. I’ve always loved animals, and I’ve wanted to become a veterinarian since I was about 2 years old. More recently, I’ve found that I want world travel to be incorporated into my career. International agricultural development seems to be a great fit to include all my interests.

Spending my Gap year in France has been a dream of mine for several years, and for this dream to have become a reality is almost surreal. I’ve always wanted to travel to France, as their country and culture has always been fascinating to me. Even when I was a little girl, Belle was (and is) my favorite Disney Princess, and Madeline was my favorite TV show (you remember, “There were twelve little girls in two straight lines, and the smallest of all was Madeline). And to top it all off, my name is Simone! I’ve felt destined to visit this country which I’ve so admired.

I cannot wait to start this new adventure, spend my time wisely and fully, and learn and experience everything I can in my year abroad. I’m absolutely thrilled to be offered this fantastic opportunity, and I can’t thank Rotary enough for giving me this chance to live as a World Citizen for a little while.

 Simone’s Journals

August 16 Pre-Departure Journal

August 16, 2009: Reality

Little by little the realities strike me that I am, in fact, leaving for FRANCE in just a handful of days. I suppose I could say that last December when I received a call from Jody telling me my heart’s desire had come true, that might have been the first reality, but that would not be true. Now, looking back, it was merely a vague gesture that I would have to defer my enrollment to Sweet Briar College. Even the January Language Camp wasn’t much of an indicator. More like a weekend get-away with a bunch of friends I had not yet met. All the emails from France, the papers and speeches and Rotary meetings, they were just information and good times. Perhaps leaving the June Orientation should have been an eye-opener with all the sweet Good-Byes, but I knew I’d be seeing many of my new friends in the weeks before our departure. And it is true; I have seen many soon-to-be-Outbounds, which only slowed my sense of reality. Even the lack of seeing them wasn’t a huge sign, because it’s only been about two weeks since some of the first have left.

The reality of my departure began falling into place several months ago, but has recently taken a turn on an out-of-control TGV (fast-speed French train). First, it was the ending of a good relationship, knowing of my impending departure, and it was pointed out even at that time that I was denying that I am going, not verbally, but in action and mental state. It wasn’t fair to continue to act as if I were to stay in Gainesville, because that wasn’t true, and I had to deal with what would be my future reality: France. Caitlin (in Denmark) is absolutely right when she says that relationships are a real part of life. But they don’t have to be the only part of life, not when the whole of our lives is to be found, and not when we are about to embark for a new life in a new land with new EVERYTHING. It isn’t fair to hold back someone else or to hold yourself back in fear of growing into a new person, unknown back home, but perhaps the person you are meant to be, even if doesn’t seem like holding-back is what you are doing or about to do.

Soon after the break-up, another piece of reality was finding a home for my wonderful, perfect horse, Lucky. Thankfully, that has fallen into place perfectly, and I bring him to his new home today.

Then it was my eighteenth birthday and receiving a Joyeux Anniversaire card in the mail from my first host family, signed by everyone, complete with “gros bisous!” which made my WEEK! The family cheerfully reminded me that I will celebrate my next birthday in France. Was that a bird, a plane? No, it was another slice of the Reality Pie.

Applying for my Visa in Miami, wearing my Rotary blazer, and speaking very quietly in French to the woman behind the glass, that was an exhilarating experience, because almost no one I know in Gainesville speaks French, save for my French teachers and a few other students who I can’t understand anyways. Now, every time I get the chance to speak French with a French person, ha, I get too excited to communicate comprehensibly. A 20-minute Skype video-chat the other day with one of my host families, haha, it left me excited, thrilled, embarrassed (for my difficulty understanding what they said), slightly confused, and completely exhausted!

In the last two weeks or so, man, that TGV is trying to beat the Concord plane (another French invention)! The Welcome Home Dinner, buying new luggage to withstand international travel, other people’s Good-bye parties, meeting some wonderful new Inbounds (including the French girl, Juline, whose family will be my first host family), learning more and more about what will soon be “My Life In France, the Simone Faas story” (Sorry, Julia Childs), and lastly my own Good-bye party. These all pulled reality from the sky faster that Chicken Little could run for cover!

Maintenant, c’est J-9 (Now, it is 9 days to go). I’m in the single digits, and it’s only coming faster. Dear friends of mine have begun to leave for college, and soon my college friends will be back for another round of Good-byes. I’ve begun to pack, I’ve taken my French final and written countless emails and Facebook messages in French, and I’ve received my final flight information from the travel agency. I’ve even begun to make friends with the “oldies” in my French Rotary District, the ones who are from southern-hemisphere countries and arrived in February and will leave in January.

I’m excited to meet everyone face-à-face, hear French spoken everywhere around me (even if I only catch about 10% of what is ever said), and see what life without ceiling fans is like. Well, maybe I’m not too excited about that last one.

Déjà, j’ai peur. Still, I’m scared. Not so much of what I will see and experience, but of what I’m leaving behind. I know I’ll be fine, and it will just be different. No more trail rides with my mom, or tennis matches with my dad, or impromptu sushi at Shooting Star at 1:30 am on a Monday night with my best friends. Mais, j’ai espoir. But, I have hope. I have hope that these things will be substituted for new things with new people who will love me all the same, even if it takes a little while. I have hope that my new reality will be just as blessed as my current one.

Thank you, Rotary, for giving me tickets for the wildest train ride of my life, so far that is. I’ll have to see just how crazy the TGV really is. I’ll let you know.

Merci beaucoup et gros bisous!

–Simone

September 10 Journal

I’ve been here two weeks now, and I truly love it! While everything is new, my adjustment hasn’t been too hard. So many things here, and the way of life, it’s all very similar to my lifestyle in Florida. My host parents are really really nice, and they’ve definitely made me feel at home, like I fit in very well here. I also love that other exchange students seem to be nearly automatic friends! That certainly makes life easier! I’m lucky that I have two in my town, and we all go to the same school.

I’m settling down pretty well. I don’t quite have a routine yet, but I think in another week or so, I will. I’ve started to make a couple friends in class, some girls who have a friend who was an exchange student in Australia last year- She has an AWESOME accent!! Everyone has been very very nice. Strangers (which is like EVERYONE, lol), classmates, teachers; so much for the rude French!

My French is coming along pretty well, but I still have difficulties understanding what people are saying. I understand my family, other host families, and most of what other students say to me. But I can’t for the life of me understand anything the teachers say! Even when they speak directly to me! The other day in History, we were going over WWII (or as they say here, La Deuxieme Guerre Mondiale), and my teacher looks at me and says “blah blah blah Roosevelt”. “Quoi???” “Blah blah blah parles de Roosevelt, s’il tu plait”. OHHH! Ok. Wait! Panic! “Which one?!” hahaha then I realized 1) my teacher doesn’t speak English, and 2) We’re talking about WWII, which one did I think she meant?! So I spoke (IN FRENCH!) about Roosevelt for like a minute or so (but it felt like forever). Haha, every time I have to speak French in class, I always have to take a deep breath afterwards! It’s so much work to get all the words I want/need out in the right order quickly enough to be understood. When I finished, the teacher said “Merci!” And with a bit of light-hearted sarcasm, I replied “De rien” (you’re welcome/ Of Nothing). But, you know it’s bad when even the lady who takes your lunch tray can tell you don’t speak the language…

But for now, pretty much everything is going really well. I don’t think I’m gonna get quite as fat as I had feared- My current host family is realllly realllly healthy, and they eat a ton of veggies all the time, and today I asked if they had any chocolate, but the only thing in the whole house that had any chocolate was ice cream! I thought I was in France!! Also, I walk sooo much here! My first week here, every night and morning I could feel the muscles in my legs and butt that were being over-worked from all the walking and stairs I had encountered.

I’ve been doing a good bit of touring around the area, and everything is so beautiful and historic. On Saturday I went to a sea town called Boulogne. I told my mom I went to Boulogne, and she said that her father had been in Boulogne right after D-Day in Normandy. But she also said it wasn’t much of a tourist spot then, June 1944.

I feel part tourist, part student. I have a bus card, a train card for students, a school ID card, keys to my house, all the things of someone who lives here and goes to school here. But I also carry around a dictionary, maps, and my American bank cards because I don’t have a French bank account yet. I go on weekend excursions to big, historic cities, see sights, buy postcards, take lots and lots of photos. It’s funny, but I guess this is what being an exchange student feels like. You can feel at home, but also know that it’s not quite home. Not yet anyways.

I have my first Rotary meeting tomorrow night, and I’m sure it’s going to be full of Bisous (cheek kisses) and “merci pour tout!”s (thanks for everything!). This has already been an amazing experience, and I’ve barely begun. C’est seulement le debut! It’s only the beginning! Thank you Rotary!!!

Gros bisous!!

Simone

October 7 Journal

Walking down the street from my school to the Centre Ville and then onto the Gare to catch a train to Lille to hangout with some of my exchange friends, I pass by sweet-scented, entrancing bakeries, nearly overpoweringly-smelly fisheries, countless specialty stores for wines or cheeses, and dozens of little boutiques which thrive on foot traffic. I confidently cross the roads knowing the French actually yield to pedestrians, and with a cautious eye I watch out for the presents left on the sidewalks by the local dogs. Typically dressed in Converse sneakers and an outfit of mostly black, grey, and blue jeans, I fit in fairly well and only provoke a curious look (which the French hide well), when I say more than a few words at a time.

It has now been six weeks since I’ve arrived in France, and it has probably been the most frustrating, most fascinating, most emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausting six weeks of my life, but I’ve also experienced some of the most rewarding moments I could’ve imagined. This is no longer just a vacation, but a real life here, albeit different from the life of a normal French student, it is nonetheless a life. I go to school, I have friends, I speak French to teachers and students and my family, and hurry just as much as the other students to get in line as quickly as possible for lunch. Unlike my French counterparts, though, I don’t receive grades in class, and I’ve worked out a plan with my English teacher to attend extra classes to talk with some of the younger students to get them a little more excited about speaking English, which also gets me out of some of the 6 hours of Economics and 4 hours of Math I have everywhere which I don’t understand at all. I’ve also arranged to attend some lower-level Spanish classes in hopes to re-learn my first foreign language.

The French are anything but rude, having been incredibly warm and generous to me in every way. I love my Rotary club here, as they are very similar to my good-ole High Springs Rotary Club: usually between 15 and 20 older gentleman, many retired, meeting for dinner once a week to catch up about the goings-on of the area and to do a little bit of good for the world. I have one other exchange student in my club, Dario, from Argentina, who arrived in February, and in the chance he reads this, I’m not going to inflate his ego by detailing just how much I appreciate everything he has done for me so far during my exchange, and how I really don’t think it would have gone so well without such a helpful, experienced hand to show me the ropes. Something I really love about my Rotary district here (and I think most of France) is that we have “Oldies” and “Newbies”, for the kids who arrived about 4 or 5 months before from the opposite hemisphere. Mine are absolutely amazing, showing us the tricks of the trade of being an exchange student, what to take advantage of, pitfalls to avoid, where to get the best Kebab sandwiches, where there are free bathrooms, etc. You know, the important things in life!

I was recently talking to Hollie (outbound to Brazil), and she suddenly remarked that it’s incredible how much courage we have to be doing this exchange. But I quite honestly said that I don’t feel very courageous at all. I simply feel like I’m a living a life somewhere other than where I lived not so long ago. More than being rocked by the differences, I’ve been surprised and comforted by all the similarities I’ve found. Yes, the cars are smaller, and people don’t seem to use Dryers to dry their clothes, preferring to hang-dry even when it’s only 50 degrees Fahrenheit outside, but for the most part, life here is not drastically different than the life I’m accustomed to: children are still entertained by puppies, people eat almost all the same fruits and vegetables just in different ways and amounts, and when I turn on the radio, I’ll soon hear a song hailing from the US of A.

Being away from America and Americans, and seeing other perspectives has oddly enough made me a little more Patriotic and appreciative of my homeland. I was certainly not expecting such positive responses from people when I told them where I come from. In the English classes of the Seconde students (like Freshmen for French high school), when I tell them I come from the USA, I often get “Oh!!! Quelle chance!!” (Oh!!! What luck!!), which only increases in enthusiasm when I tell them I live in Florida. It never ceases to amuse me and give me a little pride to know I come from a place so well-regarded, even if only for our music, movies, TV, and clothing, which are the main reasons the kids cite.

Time here moves both so quickly and so slowly. At the same time that I cannot believe six entire weeks of my exchange have flown by, I also cannot believe that I didn’t know these wonderful people six weeks ago, I didn’t know the bus route until just a few weeks ago, and I didn’t know how to say almost anything in French just a few months ago. Some weeks go by so quickly, full of hours of lectures in school, outings with friends to buy frites before the bus comes, and whatever else that seems to fill my days. But then there are moments which seem to last forever, which I’m often finding myself wishing they would.

I’ll leave you with a short list of some things I’ve observed:

People park their cars on the sidewalks, and that’s the right thing to do.

The only way French people could possibly have enough nerve to drive in cities is to have almost complete disregard for their own health, and absolutely none for other drivers.

Pedestrian always have the right-of-way. So do any stray animals.

The only people NOT shocked by hugs are exchange students and their best friends.

Speaking in English with other students always gets looks, from very interested to disgust.

Teenagers are the same everywhere, they just dress better here.

December 3 Journal

How many times have I sat down and began to write this journal? I don’t even know anymore, but since before November I have been thinking of things that I wanted to share, to tell everyone. But time just moves so fast here, it’s not fair that life can take the days away in only 24hrs. I’m a product of my generation, and I feel an entitlement to have more hours in the day to enjoy the good times, but I’m also quite alright with letting the bad or gray or gloomy days slip into the deeper recesses of my memories, traces only to be left in my nightly journal. The last month and a half has been a mix of emotions, as such is the life on exchange. I have felt like there was no better place to be in the world than where I was at that moment, and there were times when it would have been fine to crawl away for a little while. Never, however, have I wanted to leave, unless it was to go on vacation somewhere else in Europe!

Back in mid-October there was an Inbound weekend for about 7 Rotary districts in Northern and Western France. Around 300 exchangers from something like 30 or more countries gathered on the beaches of Normandy at the beautiful Mont St. Michel. Mont St. Michel was once a religious sanctuary, as it was an inaccessible island when the tide was in, helping to keep out most people. For my district which is 7 hours from the coast of Normandy, it was a 3 day weekend, loading up buses at 7 am on Friday morning, and returning to our houses around 8 or 9pm Sunday evening. In between those times, we saw many WWII museums and memorials (including THE Normandy beach from D-Day), toured adorable little coastal towns, and also walked 13 kilometers (like 7 miles I think) barefoot on the hard Normandy sand around the “Mont” of Mont St. Michel. This latter event was a thinly-veiled attempt to tire-out the excited and always-ready exchange students, because Rotary had organized for all the students to have a dance after the dinner that night after the march (there were Rotarians at the back ‘threatening’ the slow students- that makes it a march, not just a walk). Thankfully their efforts didn’t stop us from having a great time together.

Unfortunately, I got a sprained foot from the march, but I didn’t even realize it until about 3 days later when the swelling went all the way down in one foot, but the other was still very tender and swollen. But that didn’t hinder me, either, from dancing until 2 am the night of the dance, along with many other students, determined to enjoy every minute with these amazing people. It was a chance to reconnect with a bunch of people from the flight from D.C., including some of my Florida buddies! I got some Sunshine State lovin’ with Bridget and Chauncey, which was one of the things that really made my weekend super awesome J. Another thing that gave me a little boost of confidence was that my district had progress interviews with all the August arrivals, and they graded everyone’s French, and they gave me 4.5 out of 5!!!! I’m not exactly sure what a 5 signifies, because I am still very very far from fluent, that is for sure, but I know that means that I did pretty well. I have to take joy in the little things!

The next weekend, Diana, her host parents (my second host parents), and I left for the Côte D’Azur, a.k.a., the French Riviera. I think I have found where I want to spend the rest of my days. White-capped mountains dropping into the bluest of blue waters that exist on Earth, all backed by a deep, brilliant blue sky which held the heat perfectly, and a sun which cast everything in a beautiful golden light during the day and a fuzzy pink haze in the evenings. We spent a week between Monaco and Cannes (where they have the Film Festival every year), visiting perfume factories, hand-blown glass workshops, beautifully ancient little towns, and eating some of the best, if not THE best, food of my life. It was pretty warm in the South, and everyday (save for the last) was a day of perfectly blue blue blue skies and maybe a puff of clouds here and there. After lunch most days, I had a chance to go to the pool or beach and take a little nap in my swimsuit. I always positioned my chairs, whether at lunch, a café, or the pool, to receive the most amount of sunlight as possible. It literally made me happy, as pathetic as that may sound. I think being in the grey North takes its toll on my spirits from time to time, so being in the Land of Sunshine and beaches was a little like heaven.

The weekend after the vacations for All Saints Day (Toussaints) were over, there was another Inbound Weekend, this time in my town for our district’s “Exotic Meals”. All the students had to make food typical of their country, an entrée and a dessert. With 41 students in my district, it certainly made for a really interesting array of flavors. I was very impressed to see some things that other countries eat regularly. The Asians all had surprisingly spicy food, but still really good. I made chicken in orange juice and white wine because that’s something typical of my house, even if not all the US. Other Americans made macaroni and cheese, pasta salad, and roasted potatoes, and for dessert we offered TONS of chocolate chip cookies, and a pumpkin pie. After the dinner and cleanup, all 40 some us (some Rotex came along) had a big sleepover in the upstairs loft of our YEO’s house. I don’t think I went to sleep until just before 6am. I love exchange students.

The following weekend (two and a half weeks ago), I moved to the family who took me and Diana to the Côte D’Azur, and they’ve also taken us to Boulonge-sur-Mer for a day trip to the beach, and Paris for a weekend. I had already spent a lot of time with them because of the trips hither-to, and also because I take a weekly tennis lesson with the host mom and I often spend the night after my lesson. So, it hasn’t been a difficult adjustment at all to live with them, and I think we get along really well already.

This past weekend, I made a Thanksgiving dinner for 16 people, with help of course! On Saturday, my host mom and I started cooking around 3 in the afternoon, and later 3 of my girl friends came over (an Aussie, Diana from Colombia, and a French Rotex who went to Australia last year) to give me a hand preparing the desserts and side dishes, and whatever else needed to be done. My host mom dealt with the turkey, thank God, because that was a challenge I wasn’t entirely too keen taking on. I did, however, stuff the turkey and then suture it up quite well. So well, in fact, that when my host mom was inspecting my work, she said that in France, they would say that because I can dress a turkey well, I’m good marriage material! Haha!

In any case, I tried to make the menu as authentic of an American Thanksgiving as possible in a country which calls cranberries a “rare fruit”, sweet potatoes don’t exist, and there is no condensed cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, cream cheese, or many other ingredients we take for granted in the USA. I experimented with making cranberry sauce out of dried cranberries which my host mom had found by the hand of Grace, and she made thick cream of mushroom soup. We made, in the end, salmon mouse in cherry tomatoes and an artichoke dip with tortilla chips for starters, then mashed potatoes, corn pudding, pearl onions in cream sauce, stuffing in the turkey and stuffing out of the turkey, sweet potato casserole from a box of mix my mom sent me, perfect cranberry sauce (tasted just like the stuff from the can, only better!), lots of turkey, lots of green bean casserole, then lemon meringue, chocolate pudding, and pecan pies for dessert. I think I blew my host mom’s mind when I told her we cook green beans in the oven. Through all this, though, I have a feeling that next year, living in a college dorm, I will be cooking all the time, taking advantage of the ease with which one can cook in America.

This next weekend I’m going to Strasbourg by the French-German border to see the Marche de Noel (Christmas Market and festival). It’s supposed to be the most beautiful in France, and there’s a good chance it will be snowing, too, just to add to the Christmas wonder! I’ll be going with my third host family, Dario, and Diana (who is currently living with them). This will be a great opportunity to see a European Christmas celebration at it’s finest!

In school I’m slowly making more friends, or at least on that track with more people. It took me awhile to realize that it was up to me to start talking to people, that they weren’t necessarily going to come up to me and start chatting all on their own. I’ve seen that the more people I speak with, the more they talk back, the more people I have to bisous in the hallways, the more people I have to eat lunch with when my regular girls aren’t there. I used to kinda feel like the kids were a bit closed, but I’m finding that to not be true if I make the effort to be open with them. And that’s a bit what being here is about, right? Opening up to new people and new things and learning and teaching? It seems that way, because that’s what feels good and right to do here.

Other than being flattered by Rotary thinking my French is pretty good, I can feel that it’s getting better by the kind of conversations I’ve been able to have. With my second host mom, I’ve discussed things like the death penalty (which is not legal in France, but there is currently a lot of debate to change that), educational systems, economics, health care systems, and so many other complex subjects. Also, when I’m speaking in English to people who are NOT in France, I have to stop myself from using basic French phrases which just flow next-to-naturally now. Sure, there are many times almost every day when I don’t understand, can’t say what I really want, or am not understood because of my accent or I just plain messed up, but these interruptions in trying to live ‘normally’ are becoming less and less frequent. I recently had a dream in which I went back to Florida for a few weeks, as if for vacation, knowing I’d be returning to France, but when I was in Florida I was trying to speak to people in French, which obviously didn’t work too well. Despite not being able to speak back home, it made me realize that I’ve started to have dreams in French!!! Even though it wasn’t entirely in French, it is still a good start! I feel like learning another language is like holding keys which open magic doors. What lies behind those doors is one of the most treasured and beautiful things known to mankind: Communication. With communication, knowledge can only continue, friendships made and strengthened, eyes opened to insights never even hinted at before. I’m finding these keys one at a time, and I can’t wait for all the doors to swing wide open for me.

Thank you, Rotary, for giving me the chance to do this, to take part in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I wouldn’t change where I am for anything.

Gros Bisous,

Simone

March 15Journal

The 4 month mark passed right at Christmas while skiing in the French Alps with my hosties and Diana. The 5 month mark was a going-away party for a friend on a half-year exchange. The 6 month mark passed welcoming our Newbies, the new Southern-hemisphere arrivals to our Rotary district here, which has made me and my August-arriving comrades official Oldies, a day once-believed unthinkable. I’d like to believe that this time has never gone to waste or passed in vain. Perhaps I could spend a lot less time online and more time reading in French (working on Frankenstein right now), but other than that I feel like I’ve taken almost every possible opportunity to go out and live this life to the fullest.

So here I am, mid-March, shocked at that fact, shaking my French-thinking head, and regarding the warm, clear blue sky with suspicion, as it’s an old friend I haven’t seen in quite some time, one who could change to clouds and snow by tomorrow.

Where I’ve been and how the time has truly passed would take forever to recount (believe me- I’ve written that Rotary journal and it was wayyyyyy too long). I could go weekend to packed weekend, detailing every adventure through this incredible country, laughs with friends, tears when saying au revoir to our Oldies, but through it all some common themes would be found:

I love France and would quite prefer to never leave (except maybe for sunny vacations to visit Florida when it gets a tad bit too grey here…).

I have amazing host families who have been very kind and extremely generous with their time and resources (I’ve been to Strasbourg for the annual Christmas market, skiing at one of the best ski stations in France, seen a ballet at the Paris Opera house, and vacationed in Corsica for a week- all in the last three and a half months)

The friends I have made here, in particular the other exchange students are incredible and unforgettable people. The experiences I’ve shared with them all truly have made my exchange just as wonderful, if not better, than I could have imagined.

I’ve recently started on my 4th journal book since being in France, so my thoughts could go on for kilometers (the unit of measure for everyone ELSE); However, certain moments and memories stand out among them rest:

The sound of thousands of bottles of champagne popping just after midnight on New Years while standing among millions of people in front of the Eiffel Tower.

The sense of awe and peace I felt while seeing the endless snow-covered mountain ranges of the Haute-Savoie in the French Alps.

Dancing until 3 am on a Thursday night with my oldies and then being only 5 minutes late for class the next morning (after taking an hour of trains to get there).

Walking into a church I’d never heard of in the Latin Quarter in Paris while it was snowing outside, and finding a woman singing hymns with an organ and walls covered in hundreds-of-years-old paintings, faded and crumbling away.

Crying like a baby when saying goodbye to my oldies.

Thinking I might leave this world for good while the plane to Corsica dipped and dived in high winds in the mountains of the little island.

Almost getting asked to leave the Louvre with Bridget (Outbound to France).

How I am supposed to leave this new life, this new world I’ve found and fallen in love with, I’m not sure. I do know that I have 4 months left and I plan on having zero regrets when I do leave. So here’s to 4 more months of good fun, great food, and my lovely lovely France!

Tchin!!

May 19 Journal

During the time spent on exchange, one’s mind is constantly filled with thoughts. Even for those more or less philosophical, the thought process will be pushed to its limits. This creates amazing things, but more often than not, this will lead to incredible fatigue. Everyone wonders why exchange students are always so exhausted when it often seems that we aren’t exerting much energy, but I promise that we are, in fact, burning thousands of calories by all the little or not so little notes that pass through our minds.

At the beginning of exchange, the mind is over-loaded with information, trying it’s very hardest to make sense, learn, and continue to function as normally as possible in situations that may seem terribly abnormal. Between the new language, culture, and environment, an exchange student goes through a mental whip-lash.

After a few months, this early whip-lash heals, and things start to settle where they should be. The thoughts turn into those of the host language, the culture becomes part of one’s own habits also, and the environment becomes to feel more and more like home and a natural environment. The mind relaxes and starts to work at a more average rate, still learning, processing, and making many efforts, but more easily now.

As time hits a climax, and the descent begins, thoughts may start to become stressed in the opposite way, worrying about what’s left to come, perhaps trying to fit as much in as possible, thinking about time passed and time to come, things learned, things yet to learn, what’s been done, what is left to do. Just after the mid-way point, a strange phenomenon comes over exchange students. We feel that tomorrow will be our departure date, time is running out, and that this year, this life, these incredible and strange series of events will soon be ending. This may lead to a strange combination of thoughts and emotions, a mix between fears of leaving, perhaps a bit of happiness to see those we left in what sometimes seems like a past life or yesterday, and often much confusion. Perhaps even frustration. Everyone sets these little benchmarks in their mind, saying by such and such point in time they will have reached this said goal. That time may lie anywhere along the course, but by the halfway point one might feel like language, social, and cultural goals should be met. If these aren’t met, stress can ensue. If they have been met, well, I know at least personally, it’s not always easy to see the progress one has made when we can see how much further there is left to go.

Right now, I feel as though I’ve long passed almost all those well-known benchmarks: Dreaming in the host language, holidays, real friendships that have evolved in another language, weight gain (just a lil’ bit!), stints of homesickness, and those ups and downs which are all part of the process. So here I am, with 2 months left before I board that big white bird heading back over the Atlantic. 61 days to check off the last few things on my To-Do. I feel like in this ever-quickening descent things are already winding down. Next week Diana, the only other exchange student in my town, will be going back home. Her school in Colombia starts in mid-July, and she still have some loose ends to tie up before starting at the University. Then my district will have our last Rotary weekend, where we will receive our little diplomas, and then cry our eyes out. Then I’ll celebrate my 19th birthday (gettin’ old!). After that will be the end of the school year. Then my parents and cousin come for two weeks, during which time most of the kids in my district will be heading off in their own directions. Then my school will have its version of Senior Prom (but a LOT less extravagant), then the French National Holiday on the 14th, then I will have only a few more days to soak in my last moments of exchange before that July 20th D-Day. Yes, my own personal D-Day. Departure Day. Oh, how I am not looking forward to that day. Sure, it won’t be all bad. First of all, Chauncey, Bridget and I are all on the same flight to the US and then Florida, so we will have company to cry in. And, yeah, I’m looking forward to stopping off at Publix on the way home from the airport to get crispy Fried Chicken and SWEET TEA! Then the next day I’m heading to St. Augustine Beach for a little get-together with RYE FL’s newest group of Rebounds. And, of course, seeing my family and friends, all that shebang. So obviously my first few days should be alright.

But outside of that… the idea of leaving this country of tiny cars, tiny roads, and huge appetites when the occasion calls, it scares me. I was anxious about coming, but I was also very ready to leave and discover something brand new which I’d been looking forward to for almost my entire life. And now, here I am, fulfilling all those dreams and expectations, without a doubt experiencing the most incredible year of my life. I have host families who I love, and who really care about me, and I cannot imagine not seeing on a regular basis (for those whom I don’t live with anymore). I have friends, French and foreign, who have become such normal yet important parts of my everyday life now. The French language, which even with it’s confusing rules and booby-traps, I love so much and could listen to forever. And oh, France, the beautiful lady, La France, elle me plait. I wish I could articulate all the nuances which entrance me, the lifestyle which even at its simplest still has a touch of class.

Enfin bref, I’ll stop fretting for the moment, I just need to tell myself to take a little breath, stop the churning in my stomach, and enjoy every last hour I have here. I feel the Belgian beaches calling to me soon…

I’d also like to fill in a few details of my adventures, going back a for a good moment. I’ve actually cut this in half, only covering through January. In the next few days I’ll put up February to the present!

The Christmas Market in Strasbourg was great! The oldest Christmas market in France, dating back about 400 years, it’s also the largest, with hundreds of little vendors in little wooden huts. We had fantastic weather, too, clear and mild, so there were easily thousands of people in Strasbourg for the market. We also saw the symbolic bird of the region of Alsace, which is the Stork, you know, the baby-carrying kind. Turns out that story is the same one told in France, as well as Colombia (Diana) and Argentina (Dario)!

The next weekend was the last Rotary weekend with our Oldies. They all left between the end of December and the middle of January, so this was the last opportunity for all of us to be together. We put on our own Christmas Market to raise money for our trips, and then we had a musical evening of talent, where several students played instruments, danced, or sang. Me and another American, Cholpon from North Dakota, did an a capella version of Silent Night (in English) which was rather good, if I do say so for never singing together before that night! After the ‘spectacle,’ our Youth Exchange Officer gave out the Diplomas to the Oldies, which was the beginning of a good many tears. After a small tear-fest, we did all that we could do- We danced the night away!

(I hope you all are still reading this… Sorry about it being so long!!!)

A week later, I was in the car with Diana and my host family at 4:30 AM heading to the Alps for a week of skiing. It was my first time to ever go skiing, and certainly the first time to ever see so much snow. It had been snowing for about two days straight before we left, and the snow continued while we drove south. Not that I remember much of that, sleeping most of the way except for a coffee and pastry stop and later lunch time. We spent the next 8 days in what became my own personal Snow Globe. When we arrived to the mountain range and began mounting the steep drive, the snowflakes were swirling around in the wind, going in every-which-way, eventually falling and attaching themselves to whatever solid object they first encountered on their descent from the Heavens to the river and gorge which lay below. I was truly awe-struck by the grandeur and natural beauty of the Alps. Skiing was a great way to really see some of the nature, especially if you go as slowly as I did! Hah, no, I picked up skiing pretty well, finding my balance and getting my act together nicely. I can’t wait to do it again!!

We stayed in the mountains until December 26th, which meant we spent Christmas there. This was certainly different from any Christmas I’ve ever had before, and perhaps because of the snow, the tiny tree decorated with gift ribbon because we didn’t have ornaments, or the lack of the weird smell my heater makes in Florida at Christmas time, because it hasn’t been used in many months, but it didn’t really feel like Christmas. We went to the evening Mass at the small church in the ski station, and there I felt like it was Christmas, having passed the last 7 or so Christmas Eves in the choir loft at my own church in Gainesville. Despite the differences, and perhaps even because of some of them, I had a great Christmas Holiday. Skiing at 9am on Christmas day (we opened our gifts on Christmas Eve) was certainly something I wouldn’t get the chance to do in Florida!

After getting back from the Alps, I spent a few days in Dunkirk visiting my Australian friend, Holly, one of my Oldies. We made cookies, watched movies in English, and talked and talked and talked. Not too good for the French, but good for the soul, sometimes!

When I got back from Dunkirk, I got the Rotary Go-Ahead I’d been waiting for, letting me know I could spend New Year’s Eve in Paris at a friend’s place. Paris on New Year’s Eve is absolutely incredible. During the afternoon we climbed up the stairs to the Cathédrale du Sacré Cœur (Sacred Heart Cathedral) which gave us a great view of the city, even on a foggy winter night. The energy the city had was palpable, filled with tourists and French people from all the sprawling outskirts of Paris, and all their friends who paid a visit for the night. Millions of people, packed super tight everywhere they went, the city was filled. When my friends and I finally pushed our way as far up in the crowd as we could get, it turned out that the couple in front of us was from Miami, of all the places! Just another reminder that I’m never too far away. Le Monde est petit! The world is small! And the Paris metro is even smaller. What a battle that was. One which we lost. We still ended up walking a good hour after we couldn’t get anymore metros… But no prob, a nice calm stroll after all the excitement does everyone a bit of good. And there wasn’t any snow or ice to be seen!

The following week was a different story, however. For my host sister’s birthday in August, her parents had gotten tickets for her to see a ballet at the Paris Opera House to see a dance by her favorite choreographer, Bejart (my host sister used to be an avid dancer when she was younger). Her parents had also bought a ticket for the mom, and knowing they would likely have an exchange student living with them, they got one with the idea that student could come if they wanted. Well, that student was me, and I couldn’t have said “OUIIIIII!!!” faster or more enthusiastically! Leaving after lunch Friday on the TGV (only takes an hour to go from my town to central Paris) and staying until the afternoon Saturday, it was only about a 24hour stay in the big city, but it was great. The Opera House is very beautiful, very old (there’s a modern one in a different part of town), and much smaller than I expected, but nevertheless impressive. The ballet was modern and kinda kooky, but also mesmerizing with the way the dancers moved and twisted their bodies. I’m no dancer, but I can see that not just anyone can move like that.

The next day it started snowing while we were eating breakfast. It continued to snow for most of the morning, a slow, clean snow, no harsh winds, making it still pleasant to be out and about. We spent Saturday in the Latin Quarter, visiting the Notre Dame Cathedral, La Sorbonne University, and enjoying walking the cramped and crooked alleys of the original city of Paris, the heart of the city. With the fresh white blanket deafening any noises, this city which just one week ago was filled to the brim with people and noise was suddenly a calm, peaceful sanctuary while I walked along the Seine running next to the courtyard of the Notre Dame. My host mom told me I was extremely lucky to be able to see Paris like that. In all her 40-some years, she’d only see Paris under a new snow maybe once or twice, and still never as much snow as we got that day (maybe 2 inches that stuck to the ground). It seems like just one more occasion when I’ve been graced by chance this year.

Rotary, thank you for everything! If it weren’t for you, I’d be in college right now, worrying about finals. Instead, I’m wrapping up an extraordinary international adventure!

Merci!! Bisous!! – Simone

July 9 Journal

With less than 2 weeks left, it’s all winding down. The Good-byes are starting, the ‘lasts’ are in full swing. I’m trying to optimize the time between friends, host families, traveling, and just getting everything done to make that possible. Despite the fact that I don’t have regular extra-curricular activities here, or even ‘curricular’ activities, either, I somehow manage to fill my days and still procrastinate from doing other things.

I remember reading one of the former exchangers from Florida wrote in a journal that Rotary was almost being cruel, giving us an amazing year, full of adventure and emotions, a new life, a new self even sometimes, and then we have to say Good-Bye to so much of it, maybe to never come back again. Even as I live my life here, knowing in my mind that I’m not actually French, I wasn’t born here, and have only been here for 10 months, it’s already impossible to imagine myself and my life without all that I have here. Leaving my new friends, families, habits, favorites… It’s all too surreal…

I’m gonna go back a little bit, and give an idea of how I’ve filled some of my days this spring time!

In February, I spent several days in Rouen visiting Bridget. We had a great time, cooking, eating, talking (there seems to be a trend here…). Then we decided to expand the RYE FL reunion, and we hopped over to Paris to pay a visit to our Momma Rotex, Anne Breedlove, the one and only. Former Rotary exchanger from Florida to Belgium, she was studying in Paris this spring, and happened to have a very comfortable floor in her cozy Parisian apartment. She was pretty busy with classes, so Bridget and I toured the city a bit. It was on this excursion when the security guards at the Louvre almost asked us to leave. I guess they didn’t care for me lounging out on a bench next to ancient Roman statues, or that Bridget was drinking from a water bottle there, either. But no biggie! We know that Rotary Smile well!

After I got back from Paris, I showered, unpacked dirty clothes, took a nap, ate, and repacked fresh clothes. The next morning I headed to Corsica for a week with Diana and her host family (they were supposed to be my third host family, but I ended up not changing families like normal in January). After a fairly terrifying flight of bouncing around above cragged mountains tops, we were rerouted to the other side of the small island, for a safer plane landing. This was ensued by a 3 hour bus ride through those ever twisty-turny mountain roads. This was followed by a very long line at the car rental place, which was followed by us getting lost trying to find our rental apartment. Somewhere around 10pm we finally started getting settled into our vacation on the beautiful Mediterranean Island. The next morning, it snowed. The rest of the vacation ended up being quite nice, a bit colder and rainier than expected, but very pleasant nonetheless. Corsica is a piece of wild beauty, completely different from the well manicured metropolitan France which I know. It was refreshing to see untamed beauty for the first time in a very long time.

After flying back up to the North, we spent the last weekend of the 2 week February vacations at the host family’s mountain home near Strasbourg. It snowed a good part of the weekend, giving me plenty of time to start planning my parents’ vacation in France in June. And perhaps I threw a few snowballs, too.

The next weekend was a Rotary Inbound weekend, and we welcomed our Newbies (only 4). We also had the Country Presentations, where a couple representatives of each country in our district gave a PowerPoint presentation all about their country and customs. Each country was allotted 10 minutes. We have about 15 countries who presented (Southern Hemisphere didn’t, they just got here). Most were quite interesting, but I will admit to dozing off somewhere between Taiwan and the Philippines… Sorry!

Not long after all that, I had the chance to go to London and stay with some friends for a week. The city was great, very different from the cities in France, and the people were also quite different from the French. It was very strange to be surrounded (well, mostly) by English again, strangers speaking to each other, and understanding almost every single word (except for those weird words that are only said within the Queen’s territory). I was every bit the Tourist, hitting up all the photo Ops, going to a comedy club, and seeing a play on the West End (Wicked! It was INCREDIBLEEEEE!!!). We started off trying to be good, visiting museums, but then we ended up just taking photos in front of the landmarks and trying to keep warm. I had a fantastic little English getaway, and I can’t wait for the next time I can have a PROPER English Afternoon Tea!! Scones, clotted cream, jam… mmmhhh…

In the middle of March, Rotary had a multi-district long-weekend in the City of Lights, Paris. About 90 exchange students from 5 district participated, and I have to say it was one of the best Rotary weekends I’ve ever had. The pure insanity and fun, it was unforgettable. Making new friends, seeing people from the flight and the last Multi-district weekend in October, and just feeding off the energy of everyone else, it was wonderful. And Paris wasn’t that bad, either, haha!

I actually went home a little early from the Paris weekend, skipping out on the trip to Versailles to go home and get ready for a little trip to Belgium. A while back at a Rotary meeting, I was talking with some Rotarians about my future plans, saying that I want to be a veterinarian. Well, turns out one of the men, his daughter is in veterinary school in Liege, Belgium (about 2 hours by train from Lille). So I left the Rotary weekend, pulled a similar trick to the one I did before I left for Corsica, but left the same day, later in the afternoon, to spend a few days with the daughter of the Rotarian. I loved it! There was a moment during this year when I was debating if veterinary medicine was really what I wanted to pursue, or instead perhaps follow a path along the lines of language studies. But after the visit to the school, and finding myself in an anatomy lab once again, there was no denying that this is where my passions truly lie. And if I could do that in Europe, well, that is certainly something worth taking a look at!

A week after I got back from Belgium, it was April 1st, which started the 12-day BusTrip! Racing from city to city, somehow managing to find time to take about 1500 photos, it was fantastic. Once again, I played the part of a tourist: I had a beer in Munich, I got a charm for my necklace from the original Swarvoski store in Austria, visited Juliet’s real balcony in Verona (and saw the love-note covered entry way to the courtyard, which truly took my breath away), took a gondola ride in Venice and have a festive mask to mark the memories, I bought a hand-painted watercolor piece from a street artist in Florence, and took the epic “pushing” photos with the Leaning Tower in Pisa. I also bought chocolate in Switzerland, ate pasta for almost every meal for a week in Italy, and had more gelato than one would think is possible. Good times, good times.

The weekend after I got back from the BusTrip, I changed to my third and final host family. I had been with my second host family for five months, and I really feel as if I have another family across the Atlantic. Before I even moved in with my second family, I already knew it would be good, and it was, to say the very least. It was almost too easy for me to love the family- from the New Year until I left, we watched the entire series of West Wing (Martin Sheen as the President of the US, it ran for seven seasons, and was a great and realistic depiction of life and work in the White House), one, two, sometimes three episodes in one night, after dinner, on the couch, normally while eating some yummy chocolate. With my REAL American parents, we did the EXACT same thing, except it was when I was younger, and we would all cuddle in the bed with the dogs, but otherwise the same- after dinner, chocolate, West Wing. Not too hard to adjust, eh? So leaving was pretty hard, but I only live a twenty minute bus ride away now, and more than month after I’ve moved, I still see my second host mom once or twice a week for lunch (they live less than a five minute walk from the high school). When my parents and my cousin come, they will be staying there for our time in the North of France. And when I leave for the US, I’ll spend my last few days with them, and they’ll drive me to the airport for the final Au Revoirs, at least for now. It was with them that my French made the amazing strides which it has, that I have seen and learned so much about France, that I have grown into the person I am now. I have been lucky with all the families I have had this year, but to find people who are so well suited for me to live with, that certainly goes above and beyond what one can expect.

My new host family is great, too, in different ways. My new host sister just turned 18, so it’s nice to have a host sister with the same age (my other host sisters have been in their early twenties and were only home on the weekends). She was also a Rotary Exchange student last year, when she spent her Junior year in Frederick, Maryland. We never speak in English, but she sometimes helps me when I forget or don’t know a word, and we talk about the US pretty often, especially the differences in high schools. It’s been great to have someone around who really understands what it’s all like, this whole crazy exchange life deal. And even though all of my families are from the Northern area of France, my current family is very much ‘Northern’, which has also been different. They’ve shown me a part of the France that is incredibly regionalized, speaking with the northern accent and dialect even, the habits and oddities of our region, truly embodying the spirit if the Nord.

Just a few days after changing families, Bridget paid me a visit for the weekend (well, Friday evening to Tuesday evening is mostly days during the weekend…). We had a Rotary weekend, which was an exotic dinner, so all the students made a dish typical of their country. She made sweet potato pie, and I made a tuna pasta salad. So once again, we cooked, ate, and talked and talked, but this time we had another 40 exchange students to join us! This was also Bridget’s first visit to the region of Nord Pas de Calais, the most Northeastern region in France. Well, one shining example which sums some things up quite well: “I like having the Red-Necks in the North for once! It changes things up for me a bit.” Voila, Thank you, Bridget.

In the beginning of June, I had the amazing chance to attend the French Open, also known as the Roland Garros in France, in Paris with my second host parents. I’ve been playing tennis regularly for the last 5 years or so, so when my host parents proposed this to me a few months ago… well, actually, I didn’t know how to react because I didn’t recognize the name they used, Roland Garros. It was only later when asking my real dad (the really big tennis fan in the family) if he knew of a big tennis tournament in early June (I couldn’t remember at what point in the year the French Open was held), when I realized that my hosties were taking me to the biggest tennis tournament in France! It was the day of the Quarter-Finals, and on our court we say Serena Williams get defeated by an Australian, and then Rafael Nadal beat a fellow Spaniard. They were fantastic to watch in person, but it must be said that they were long. Made all the shorter, however, by trips to get ice cream and do a bit of shopping in the boutiques!

Other than all that, I’ve had little day or weekend trips all over the North, which has either shown me that my former coal-mining region actually does have some natural beauty, or I’ve gotten rained on. I’ve also been to Paris a few more times (I think I’m up to 8 times now?), eaten wayyyyyy too much amazing food (not Rotary 15, but… I’ll be nice to myself and say 5… my pants may tell a different tale), and just generally been enjoying myself.

I did my presentation for my Rotary club recently, telling them all they wanted to know (and plenty they never thought to ask) about the USA, Florida, Gainesville, and my life before France. I think they enjoyed it! I can’t wait to show and tell my Rotary back home everything about this year, and how much I truly appreciate everything everyone has done to make this year absolutely extraordinary. Thank you, Rotary, for everything!!

Bisous!!

Simone

July 19 Journal

“All good things must come to an end.” Even if I am not always in agreement with this statement, it does hold some truth. In my case, this amazing, unforgettable, eye-opening, life-changing thing must come to an end. But at the same time as I say ‘end’, it’s really just the ending of this chapter. Exchange students with RYE FL know very well that “Once an Exchange Student, Always an Exchange Student.” Al Kalter has told us many times that the process of being an exchange students lasts a minimum of about three years- Year 1, the year of preparation, trying to learn the language, gearing up for the exchange, getting in contact with future host families, etc; Year 2, the actual year of the Exchange, living in the foreign country, learning the language, and immersing oneself in the culture; then Year 3, the ‘Rebound’ year, re-assimilating oneself into their native culture, language, and lifestyle, and learning how to find a balance between what they’ve learned and experienced the year before with where they live and are doing now. That’s the minimum, and between hosting exchange students later, becoming part of Rotex, and continuing to share the ‘Rotary Gospel,’ the experience of being an exchange student can go on and on.

I’m leaving tomorrow, and no matter how many times I say that, or look at the calendar, or say to my friends back in Florida “Ok, how’s Thursday for meeting up…,” it doesn’t seem the slightest bit true. That today is the last day I will spend more of my time speaking French rather than English, watching TV only on French, riding around my little French town which hasn’t excited me in about 10 months, none of it seems real. Despite the contact I have kept with people back home, the photos, and my life I had before, sometimes it feels like it was a dream, and the life I’m living now is the normal one.

At the same time, I see very well that my time here has to come to an end- the children of my host families who went on exchange are all back now, almost all the other students in my district have gone home, my French friends are leaving for their family vacations or summer jobs elsewhere. I also see that my life in the US will pick up and continue when I get home- friends, outings, then college will start a mere month after I return. I’m doing my best to be reasonable and think clearly about it all, so when people ask how I feel about going back, I give a meek smile and vague answers about a good year ending, but I need to go back to school and all. I give them run-of-the-mill responses, knowing that if I started talking about how much this year means to me, and how impossible it seems to just get on a plane and fly away from it all, I won’t be able to control my recently highly-active facial sprinkler system. I can only have so many tissue packets in my purse at one given moment!

Last week, the results of the BAC were released. The BAC (Baccalaureate exam) is a test given to all French students at the end of their last year in High School. It is at the same time their graduation from all their classes, a cumulative exam for almost all the subjects they have studied throughout high school, and admission to all the public universities in France (Private colleges often have other tests and applications, on top of the scores from the BAC). At my school, the principal stood behind a lectern and called out the name of all the students who passed, and the ‘mentions’ which are given for having scores in certain ranges (Quite Well, Well, and Very Well). Almost all the teachers of the senior classes come to congratulate the students, and wish everyone good luck for the future, as it is the last time they will see most of the students (there is no ceremony of Graduation in France like there is in the USA). I saw most of my teachers there, which was great, some final ‘Au Revoir’s (goodbyes) and ‘Merci’s. I’ve become pretty close with my English teacher, who is an absolute angel, even having dinner at her house when my parents and cousin came for two weeks in June. I wasn’t too surprised but was very flattered when she said that she thinks I was the best exchange student she’s ever had in her classes (my school normally has between 3 and 5 exchange students a year), but I was moved to tears when my history teacher told me how much she appreciated the efforts I made, and that she, too, thinks of me to be one of the best exchange students she’s ever had in her classes. The sincerity of things like that coming from teachers I never even took tests for is really touching, a reminder that this isn’t just a year in MY life, but I, too, play a role, however minor or major, in the lives of those around me.

When my parents and cousin came in June, we spent most of the second week in the North of France, staying in my town here, Lens, at my second host family’s house. That week we had a dinner with all my host families, my ‘godmother’ and ‘godfather’ of Rotary, and a couple other friends. I had done a similar event for Thanksgiving back in November, but this time it was also a way for my family to meet all my OTHER families. While we were all having the ‘apéritifs,’ my parents said a few words, which I translated. They expressed their gratitude for everything everyone has done for me this year, that they can’t thank them enough for taking such good care of me, and they were so happy to see that I was in such good hands, surrounded by people who truly love and care about me. Once again, this didn’t finish with dry eyes. As sappy as some of this may sound, it was almost startling to realize that this group of people, about 20 people gathered for a summer evening with drinks in the garden, was all held together by certain a remarkable string: Rotary Youth Exchange. Each and every person present was in one way or another deeply involved in the exchange program, and by extension me, too. I’ve spent this year with these people, these families, living my life, and also being a part of theirs. Despite the students before and the ones who will come after, it’s incredible to realize that my desire to live in France for a year has also truly affected so many others, people completely unknown to me one year ago, but now I can’t imagine my life without.

I know when I return to the States, people will ask about how I’ve changed. For the moment, I can’t really say just how much I’ve changed, because for me it’s been a natural process. But more than ‘changing’ (I certainly don’t feel shockingly different), this year has been about becoming more of who I am, who I was, who I will be, stronger, wiser, and overall more capable of taking control of my life and what I want to do with it.

I keep saying that it’s all over, but I know that it’s not true. I know that I’m going to come back to France and see my families again, my friends will come visit me, and I’ll go see my buddies in Australia, New Zealand, South America, all over North America, and God knows all the other places that are my list! My memories are not going to disappear when I get back to Florida, the photos will not vanish, and the changes in my life will not be washed away by the Florida beaches.

Words escape me to express the depth of my appreciation for Rotary, for all they have done, lives changed forever, horizons widened while the world is made a bit smaller.

Encore une fois,

Merci beaucoup au Rotary!

Gros Bisous ! -Simone

 

Zach’s Bio

Before being accepted to this program, I told my friends that I wanted to do foreign exchange. They couldn’t believe I wanted to do this! Whenever I told people, I was shot the questions “Why would you want to go somewhere unknown and live with people you don’t know for an entire year!?” I still haven’t found an exact answer to that question but the closest I’ve come up with is that, it looks like a life-changing experience and seems like it would be a lot of fun.

Anyways! I’m Zach and I’m a sophomore attending Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Florida. I have been lucky enough to be chosen as a Youth Exchange Student headed for Austria! I live with my mom, dad and younger sister. I have four more siblings that I don’t live with: two half brothers and two half sisters. I enjoy making new friends and expanding my social network. I like to play guitar a lot and hang out with my friends on weekends. I’ve always been the oldest child in the household. It seems that being the oldest comes with the most responsibilities and the youngest always gets the benefits of being “young and uninformed”.

Last year, my freshman year, I ran cross country and ended up being the top freshman, at one point I landed myself in the top ten of the boy runners on the team. Unfortunately, I injured my foot during the season and was unable to run the last race and my foot still hasn’t healed. If I didn’t hurt myself I would expect to be running still. At school I’m part of a lot of clubs such as Tie Dye for the Homeless and Spanish Club.

I first became interested in this program when I found out about Julie and Laura Hundersmarck doing it the past years through their brother Justin, who I’m friends with. Last year when a representative came from Rotary to speak to all of the foreign language classes about Rotary’s Youth Exchange Program, I was reminded of the program and thought about doing it. I didn’t feel I would want to go away my sophomore year so I held off on applying until this year and here I am! I can’t wait until I leave for this experience!

Zach’s Journals

August 11 Journal

This is my third day here so far and I’ve experience so much already! My host family consists of Manfred, my host dad, Manuela, my host mom, Julius and Jakob, my host brothers. They don’t have a TV which isn’t so bad because I don’t watch that much TV as it is. When I first was picked up from Zurich by my host family, I was surprisingly not tired at all. So they made that day FULL of new things. After a tour of the house, a cute little townhouse in the city of Bregenz, Jakob, my host brother, and I took a short tour of the city.

Bregenz was founded 2000 years ago during the Roman Empire’s time and the house is about 100 yards from the original city wall, the entire downtown area is located inside these ancient city walls. The buildings in Bregenz are also a lot older than the norm in Gainesville. After we passed the city walls we came to a giant yellow building. Jakob told me it was an old Nazi prison with a fountain in front of it; I guess they have painted it since those times, haha, there were a few Bregenzer’s out there with their dogs as well.

After that came my first test with my German; we ran into a family friend of the Hellrigl’s (my host family’s surname). I guess she did not know at first that I was American and started using Bregenz’s far-from High German dialect and I had no idea what she was saying (not that I would have if it WAS High German), so Jakob explained to her that I was from Florida and she awed in astonishment. She told her toddler daughter next to her as if Florida was a mysterious and unknown land; it as well could be with Austrians, the same way Austria was with me before I arrived, like a dream. So I did understand her introduction to me, her name was Mimi. I replied with a “Ich heisse Zach” (I am Zach). I told her I thought Austria was beautiful and we were on our way down the cobblestones. The road is in fact actual cobblestones, I’m not sure if they are original from the first city there but they sure look like it.

After the tour, my younger host brother, Julius, who seems much attached to me but is very distressed because we cannot yet communicate and is also the most inquisitive and energetic 7 year old I have met or maybe I haven’t met too many 7 year olds, indicated he wanted to show me the swing out in the woods. The house is a townhouse as I said before and it is the second to last one on the end; after they end, woods replace the road and that’s where this swing is. We put on our boots, I used Jakob’s old ones, and we ventured off. The path towards the swing was on the embankment of a small mountain, we had to hike parallel to the mountain’s side to get to it. My host mother, Manuela, came also. When we got to the swing, I saw it consisted of a rope dangling down from an overhanging tree tied to a stick which we were to sit on. Julius went first and he loved it, seemed like a pro. You were supposed to climb up a little on the mountain, put the stick under your butt and pull away from the mountain to swing into the open space below, where there was a creek flowing. When it was my turn to go, I had some difficulty climbing up the mountain, like I said it was muddy. I got up a little and swung out a couple times, by the end my hands were very dirty.

When we all had our share of swinging, we decided to follow the creek upstream. Jakob said he and his friends have done it for hours on end so he wanted to show me. Manuela had turned back by this time and Julius followed us. We continued up the stream while continuing to take pictures like the rest of the afternoon. There was a lot of brush but Julius seemed to be the best at the climbing and hiking because he was always in front. We eventually came to a tunnel on top of a small waterfall. It looked to be part of the old sewage system. We got up and walked through it, it was big enough for us all to stand up in. Then again we came to a very small tunnel, about three feet in diameter. We managed to get through this one as well. After that tunnel, there was a bridge that crossed over the river so we scaled the embankment up to the bridge. The road followed up the mountain side. We walked down the road up the mountain some but when Jakob found the path that led off of the road we went on it. We continued to walk up the mountain. The point on the mountain that we reached was probably about 100-150 yards higher than the riverbed. We took some more pictures there; it was much cooler than in the city, it felt nice. Then we started our way back to the house.

When we got back, Manuela was preparing Wiener Snitzel for lunch, an authentic Austrian food. I loved it, the easiest way to explain it is breaded turkey. It’s pretty simple actually. Later we went to Lake Konstance. This lake is pretty big, it shares coasts with Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Manfred’s sister owns a yacht club diner off of the lake and apparently Jakob’s cousin, Lisa, works there so she came with us all to go swimming. There were a lot of people at the beach, instead of Floridian sand on the shores, there were small pebbles. We all sunscreened-up and headed into the water. It was SOOOO cold. Colder than any of the springs in Florida that I have been to. Probably 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit. After I got used to it, it was fine actually, quite refreshing. We saw a lot of sailboats and yachts pass by while we were swimming which were heading into the boat yard. After we finished swimming we went to the yacht club again because Manfred’s sister invited us to lunch. I had chicken wings and they were better than most I had ever gotten in the States; so tender. In the car ride back to the house I started falling asleep, my adrenaline had apparently run out and was replaced by melatonin. We made a surprise trip to the ice cream shop and I ordered my ice cream without the server saying “Was??” (what).

So the next day after I woke up from my 16 hour slumber, Lisa, Jakob and I went into town to buy some things and set up a bank account for myself. Jakob went to the tourist place to pick up a lot of pamphlets for pins to make; I forgot to mention he is going to Washington State in 10 days with RYE. I bought some deodorant and chapstick because I ran out of both during the flight over here. I actually found my some chapstick in my jacket pocket when I went to bed that night. After we had everything we needed, we met Bridget, another inbound in Bregenz from the States, and her host mom Martina. Anna is Martina’s daughter and she is going to the States for exchange as well. Martina took us to their house up a mountain some and it was a very nice house, very modern. Jakob and Anna made pins while Lisa, Bridget and I watched MTV in German and the Simpsons in German. Anna’s parents had us for dinner too. We had pizza. They used a fork and knife to eat their pizza, Bridget and I assumed that all Austrians ate like this but Lisa seemed to be having problems too. As soon as Martina said we could eat with our hands, Lisa took advantage of this new privilege. After dinner, Martina took Lisa, Jakob and I back to our bikes which we rode into the city and we went home for the day.

That night, Jakob, Manfred, Manuela and I watched Lost in Translation in English with German subtitles. It was good, I thought the ending was too mysterious, I didn’t know what happened. After the movie Jakob and I stayed up and listened to music and facebooked for a while.

Today, I woke up and ate the Austrian version of Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast then headed to the store with Julius, Manfred, and Manuela to do some shopping for Manuela’s birthday party tomorrow. The party is down by Lake Konstance. In the store, Julius kept putting things in the cart and about half the time he would get away with it and the things ended up at home. The supermarkets are different than the ones in America, you have to pay for parking, the parking is underground and you have to put up collateral for the shopping cart.

Right now, lunch is being prepared, I’m not sure what it is yet but I’m sure its something traditional in Austria. Later, Bridget, Anna, Jakob, and I are supposed to see the Hangover, I have already seen it in English so I am okay, Bridget hasn’t though. I must go now, lunch is almost ready. Tschuss!

Zach

October 7 Journal

Well, it’s been about two months since I’ve written last. I’ve been up to a lot of new things and have been around a bit but I guess the culture shock is past me now and I’m starting to settle into town and starting to feel more like a local, rather than a foreigner. I’ve been making friends with Austrians from the start. My host brother, Jakob, introduced me and took me out in the town twice before he left for Washington State so I was able to make a couple of friends then. Since then, I’ve been meeting people left and right. I think I know the most Austrians out of all the exchange students in Austria.

The biggest and most eventful thing I’ve done since my last journal was language camp in Altmünster. It’s a little southeast of Salzburg. It was from August 16-30th. The town itself has about 10,000 people and the landscape is amazing. The town sits on a lake called Traunsee and opposite the town sits a 1600 meter mountain. The main road in the town is only about 100 meters from the lake, it runs adjacent to the lake and heads towards the neighboring towns. If you head away from the lake, the town goes up hill and the houses just keep going up the mountain which the town is located on. The classes and our dorms were at a boarding school in the town, high up the mountain separated from the main hustle and bustle in the town.

Right next to the school there’s a yellow castle. It’s not a king’s castle or anything but it was impressive to say the least. I think it was built in the 1800s but nobody knew much about it. The castle was closer to the lake than the boarding school so one way down there was to walk passed the castle and down the hill. The first evening after dinner Rotary let us go out on the town to explore and such, I found a couple of kids, Aiyana and Nolan, to partner up with and we headed out via the castle route. Once we passed the castle we saw the sun setting on top of the mountain across from the town with pink, blue and orange clouds as a halo. The rest of the night we walked down to the lake and around the town.

The rest of language camp was filled with 6 hours of class 5 days a week and 4 hours on Saturdays. The nights we went into the town and by the lake. There was a playground down by the lake and many times we found ourselves playing on the zip line or the merry-go-round. Somehow we came up with the idea a couple of times to spin around for 90 seconds and then race and watch each other fall over each other or over ourselves. We found a Döner shop in the city so a couple of afternoons the Swedish guy, Tommy, and I would get Döners. Oh I should probably tell you what a Döner is. I had no idea either when the kids here mentioned them to me. I thought they were saying doughnut or something. Well it’s like a pita bread with beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage, and a white garlic sauce. It’s Turkish and the best thing since fried rice! They eat them here like we eat McDonalds or any other fast food restaurant in the States.

At language camp there were all the “newbies” in Austria, the August group of inbounds. They are from South America, North America and we have 5 from Europe. Our “oldies” are from South America, New Zealand and Australia. They came in January and a new group of them will come next January as well. The oldies have their language camp in January so they didn’t attend.

After language camp I started to meet more Austrians and go out more because right when I got back one of my host brother’s best friends wanted to take me out so I met more people that night and kept getting more and more connections so that almost every night during the two weeks between language camp and the start of school, I went out.

Since school has started it’s cut my nights with friends down to just the weekends. In school I don’t do much, I have a German grammar book and I use it like a Bible during class. I’m in the class below the one with all the kids my age. At first I was kind of bummed out because I knew the kids my age already and all but it’s actually turned out for the better. I don’t have school in the afternoons as much as the kids my age, I’ve met more kids (I had plans last weekend because I met the kids in this class), and the class is smaller. Oh yeah, the school days here are different each weekday, Monday you could have class until 12:30 but on Tuesday you may have to stay until 5. But every Monday is the same and every Tuesday is the same. I’m just getting my own schedule this Friday; I will have more German classes and no Latin and French considering I’ve never taken any before.

The first weekend after the first week of school I went to a town called Tauplitz for a hiking weekend. It was an eight hour train with the other 4 kids from my town, one being an oldie and other kids we picked up in towns on the way. It was the first time the oldies and newbies got to meet each other. Friday I got there at about 4 or 5 down at the bottom of the mountain, our Gasthaus (like an Inn) was at the top of the mountain. All the other exchangers arrived there and we greeted each other and met some of the oldies. The first night we just hung around the Gasthaus after dinner and exchanged phone numbers for the few of us who didn’t have phones at language camp (I’m included within this group). We stayed up pretty late talking with oldies and each other; it was an all around good night.

The next day we had to wake up at 7 or 8 and get breakfast, shower, and get ready for the hike. They told us it was a three hour hike. Apparently they left out the phrase “up the mountain”. The top of the mountain was insane. It was probably about 40 degrees F and none of us came prepared. If you looked in the opposite direction from which we came, there were bare stone white mountains continuously. It was like one of those cheesy fake postcards but it was real. We stayed on the top for about an hour because everyone was so tired. About ten of us all laid down together nice and snug to avoid the wind and keep warm. I managed to mooch a hat and a jacket off people and yet I was still freezing. After we got back I was dead tired. After dinner they gave us all torches (about 70) and we headed down an unknown road to an unknown destination. Turns out it was a dance party. It was all right, again there was a play ground there and I think we had more fun on that than the party (not that the party was so bad, just our interests in play ground is very high.) 😉 The next morning I was on the first group to leave because we live in one of the west-most cities in Austria and none of the events are by us so we always have the longest train rides.

Two weeks ago, I think the weekend after the Tauplitz trip, Sebastian, the oldie in my town, and I went shopping for Lederhosen, the traditional Germanic dress for men. We each got one, we wore them to our Rotary meeting last night and we’re going to wear them in Vienna not this weekend but next weekend because we are going there with Rotary. We are touring the city and going to a theater. I’ll write about that in my next journal. This weekend I was invited to my friend’s 18th birthday party so I’m looking forward to that. For everyone back home, that’s it for now! Take it easy y’all.

Tschau!

January 22 Journal

Well it hurts me to say it but this journal is more than overdue. I think the last one was in early October. The last three months have been going by extremely fast. January 9th was my five-month anniversary here and I couldn’t believe that I’ve been living in a country 4500 miles away, a completely differently culture and most blatantly a different language.

In October, Rotary took us to Vienna for the weekend. This time it was about a 7 and a half hour train ride. Because Bregenz is so far west, all our train rides are really long to Rotary events. On Friday, we arrived in Vienna and walked to the hostel. We all ate dinner there got dressed for the play at the famous Volksoper. About four or five of us wore Lederhosen to the theater. After the theater, which was in German and at the time I didn’t understand enough to understand the play, they took us to an “Asia Restaurant”. Asia. Not Asian. Then we all walked back together to the hostel and got to bed around 11 or 12. The next day they had us touring Vienna the whole morning, back to the hostel for lunch, then back out again in the afternoon to tour some more. A really cool thing I got out of the tour was when we were in the House of Parliament was that you could see the scorch marks on the marble pillars from World War II. At night we got to go out until 12 and then we all came back and went to bed. On Sunday, they had us tour some of Vienna in a double-decker tour bus. Afterwards, we all packed our things and said our good-byes and headed I headed on my train back to Bregenz.

At the end of October, my counselor here, soon to be my host family, took me to England for a long weekend. She is actually English and we ended up staying with her brother and his family. We toured three whole days in England. Two days we went to London and in those short two days we saw all the big London sites on account of she knows where everything is. The other day we went to Norwich and saw the Castle there and wandered around the city for a while. I bought new earphones for my iPod because they were cheaper than here in Austria.

My school’s ball here took place in November and I went to that with some friends. A ball in Austria is similar to a school’s prom in America, but people don’t have dates and everybody goes to everybody else’s balls. I guess you could say that the classiness of the American balls is spread out between all the balls in Austria. One big different is that there are TONS of parents at the balls because the matura class (the equivalent of the senior class in America) puts on a couple skits and dances. I have already attended two balls and there are two more next month. But back to my school’s ball! Before the ball, I went to my friend’s house and her friend was there as well. We hung out and I waited around on their usual “girl” preparations before an event like this. We got to the ball around 9 and after about an hour I left them because I saw some other friends I knew from the skate park that I go to a lot. At one point during the night I lost my wallet, for about an hour I was frantically looking for it and told the security guards, luckily I didn’t have any cash in it and somebody turned it into the place where you put your coat. Realizing that everything was all right, I continued to hang out with my friends. I got home at 2 o’clock on account of that’s my curfew.

Also in November, those two girls invited me to go to their friend’s house because she was having a party. So I met them at the bus stop on the weekend and we went to her friend’s house. It must have been the nicest house I’ve been to in all of Austria! There was a pool at the house and even at the really big houses here, there aren’t pools. There were actually two palm trees in the back yard that reminded me of Florida. There were only about 10 or 15 people there but I met the guys that are in this popular local band here in Bregenz. They invited me to go with them to see them play a couple weekends later in a bar. I went there with the same girls and I found them to be pretty good. I also saw them again in December. There’s a ball at the end of January and they are playing there as well, but unfortunately they ran out of tickets and I didn’t get one it time.

On the weekend before Christmas, Rotary took us again on a trip but this time to Salzburg. This time the train ride was a bit shorter, only 4.5 hours. Before dinner that night they had us all take a German test which we got the results back the next day and I got a 92% on it. We had dinner at the hostel and then they briefed us about what the weekend had in store and then let us go in the city until 11. On Saturday, we walked to Mozart’s house and all around the Altstadt (old city) of Salzburg. We got back in time for lunch and then they gave us the afternoon free to do what we want until dinner again at the Stiegl brewery. They let us go out afterwards but it was a really long dinner because the oldies gave out awards to the other oldies and there were a couple of presentations so we only had enough time to hang out in the city for 30 minutes or so on the way back to the hostel to make curfew. We had to leave early Sunday because we had a group ticket and my oldie in my town had to be back for a dance performance that he was in. He ended up taking 3rd place with his partner.

Christmas and New Year’s abroad are definitely two completely new things. I’m Jewish and my dad was raised Catholic so we’ve never had a proper Christmas in our family. On Christmas day, the 24th (they celebrate it on the 24th here), we woke up and the morning was just like a normal day except that the Christmas tree was only just set up the day before. Apparently most people get them last minute and keep them into January. In the afternoon we went to a bar owned by my host dad’s family and we all laughed and joked for a couple hours. I met a guy from Ireland who had been living there for 8 years in the midst of it. At night, my host cousin came with us back to our house for fondue. My host parents made us wait outside while they were doing something “secret”. When they called our names my host brother jolted upstairs followed by his cousin and me in the back. They had sparklers lit all over the Christmas tree! This was something I had never even heard of! Then we all sat down and had meat fondue for over an hour. And then we opened presents. I got some good Lederhosen socks (I didn’t have any before), a legit Swiss army knife, good gloves (I’ve been using my host parents mittens all winter so far), and some candy which I didn’t know but was REALLY good. On New Year’s we didn’t do anything special during the day but at night we had cheese fondue for dinner and then they set off these firework things at the dinner table. You light the fuse and then the top shoots off and a bunch of little toys come out like whistles and hats and decorations to help celebrate the New Year. After the celebrating with the family had finished, I went to my oldies’ house and we hung with his host family and then we went into a nearby city’s center where there was a HUGE celebration going on and we counted down until midnight and then continued celebrating.

Since New Years, I went to another school’s ball which was fun. Just about the same as the last one. There was a live band that played covers the whole night and I met some new people and saw a bunch of my already-friends there. One of the balls coming up is a ball where you dress in costumes so I’m going to wear my Lederhosen. I switch host families in about two days for the first time. I won’t switch again. Hopefully, the next journal won’t be so far stretched out! Take care all!

Tschuss!

June 7 Journal

Wow! Simply, wow! This year has flown by like none other. Please excuse the tardiness of journal. Ever since the New Year came around, I’ve been doing things left and right and going places and having people visit me here in Bregenz, it’s been a blast. Well, I’ll catch you guys up on some of things I’ve been up to since I last wrote:

In the end of January and some of February I attended three more Balls like I mentioned before. Two of them were other school’s balls and the other one is called Schiball. It literally means Ski ball, but it is the ball for Faschingsfest here. Fasching is a holiday here and the easiest way to put it is that it is similar to Halloween, not in the aspect that kids get so much candy and go door to door getting it, but that everybody dresses up. In all the towns here, there were parades with people dressed up, if you were dressed up you got in free to the parade but if you weren’t, then you had to pay a few Euros. Unfortunately, that weekend I was sick and didn’t get to go. At the Schiball, everybody dresses up as well. I got a chance to wear my Lederhosen to that Ball and all the Austrians loved seeing an American wearing Lederhosen. I’m planning on wearing it as well to the Welcome Home Dinner in August.

On the first day of February, I switched host families for the first and last time. The switch was nice because this way I got to see more than just how one Austrian family operated at home and how their daily life is and my new role in a different family. My new family here is actually an English/Austrian family. My host mom moved here in her twenties from England. But I still speak German with her! She’s been learning it for over 20 years and people mistake her for an Austrian when she speaks! Here I also have a host brother that is just a year older than me and he made an exchange to Colorado a few years ago. My other host brother is in Brazil and is actually coming home next week. I didn’t get a chance to meet him before because he left before I came, so I’m looking forward to getting to know him.

In March every year, Rotary Austrian holds a Skiweek in Schladming for the exchange students here in Austria. I had never snowboarded or skied before and that week I was a bit nervous to see how it would go. Here in Austria and back in America, I skateboard regularly with friends so I was hoping my skateboarding skills would help me pick up snowboarding quickly. After the first day of Skiweek, my legs killed me and I had a massive bruise developing on my backside. I couldn’t fathom how I would feel after an entire week of this. But as the week went on, I got better and the bruises had time to heal themselves and by the end of the week, I think it’s safe to say that I can snowboard now. I even did the small jumps at the funpark a couple of times. Aside from the snowboarding, being with the other exchange students is always a blast! At the end of the month, one of the exchange students had a birthday so everybody went to Linz, the city she lives in, and threw her a big party. Earlier in the year she got her purse stolen and she lost her iPod, phone, camera and wallet. So because of that, the exchange students all pitched in to buy her a new iPod. So there I spent the night with a friend and then I headed to Vienna with another exchange student from Sweden. I stayed at his house a few nights and went out there. It was the first time I had been to Vienna other than with Rotary.

In April, an exchange student from Ohio, who lives in Leoben here in Austria, came to visit me for a few days in Bregenz. While she was here, she came to school with me and I got to show her all around Bregenz. I took her to the Altstadt (old city), all in the city center, took her to meet a bunch of my friends down at the skate park and we went out with them one night as well, and we even got a chance to go to Germany because Germany is just a 10 minute train ride away. Across the lake you can see Germany. So that was really nice.

May was the best month so far because we had our Eurotour then. It consisted of 17 days around Europe then 2 more days in Austria. We went from Czech, to Denmark, to Belgium, to France, to Andorra, to Spain, back to France and then to Italy. We spent at least 5 days in Italy. To say the least, the tour was legendary. Seeing all those amazing sites with all the insane exchange students, you couldn’t ask for a better combination. We also had Croatian exchange students on the tour so Sierra, also from Florida, was there. My favorite city was Barcelona, maybe because the beach scene reminded me of Florida. After the Eurotour was over, the next day my Mom from Florida came to visit me for a few days. We went to Innsbruck and Salzburg. It was my first time to Innsbruck; we didn’t get to have a Rotary Weekend there.

As of now, I have barely over a month left of my exchange. The good times are getting better and the worst is far behind me. I could go on and on about the things I’ve learned during this year, or about all the little things that I’ve started to do or stopped doing due to this year abroad. To say the least, I thank all of Rotary for making this exchange possible and making it the best year of my life so far.

 

Steven’s Bio

My name is Steven Robert Blaize Isicoff. I am a surfer, singer, songwriter, pianist, and producer.

Since I can remember my one true love has been music. Music that moves me, that can make me see the world in a different way, that can show me the bottom of the ocean, and the tip of the highest mountains. For the past two years, I have been writing, recording, and producing my own music, which is the joy of my life. I’m a senior at St. Augustine High School, where I am in the Chamber, Show, and Madrigal Choirs, all of which are audition-only groups of highly talented singers from St. John’s County Center for the Arts at St. Augustine High School. I am also a member of Spanish Club, Interact, and Chorus Council.

I live with my mother, a teacher of anatomy, biology, and physiology at my school, my father, a doctor at an urgent care clinic, and my little brother Nicholas, who was adopted from Romania at 3. My family and I live within yards of the beach, so when mother nature allows, I like to spend my time on the beach or at my pool, tanning, surfing, swimming, or just messing around.

I have been singing since I was a very young child (my mom has a tape of me screeching out some song I was listening to on my CD player when I was 6), and thankfully since then I’ve improved. I use only my iMac, my synthesizer, and my voice to record my music, and I have a whole CD’s worth of original tracks, as well as covers of hit songs of today.

I also read voraciously. Dean Koontz is by far my favorite author, as much as I hate to admit it, because he writes trashy horror stories comparable to those trashy love novels. Nevertheless, I can’t get enough of it, and I’ve read every book he’s written to be found in my local Barnes & Noble. I have also enjoyed many other, random sporadic works, such as Memoirs of a Geisha, and Alice in Wonderland, not to mention the Harry Potter, Twilight, and Lemony Snicket series.

I’m so grateful for this radical opportunity to be completely immersed in a lifestyle completely alien to me, and I’m excited to experience a new culture.

Steven’s Journals

October 8 Journal

How do I begin to tell of this journey? I suppose I will do as the Mad Hatter suggests and “Start at the beginning, and when I reach the end… stop.” This is only appropriate because I feel as though I’ve fallen down the cultural rabbit hole. Saying goodbye to my American parents was much easier than expected (not that it wasn’t hard), as was the sixteen hour flight from San Francisco to Tokyo, with the help of my newfound friends from all over the states. After arrival and regular airport protocol I was picked up by my host family, who called my name as I exited baggage claim. We drove home to Shalu to arrive at an apartment building, the entire four stories of which are owned by the Tsai family.

I will now attempt to list all the members of my family. My host mother and father and their children, Alma (the oldest, recently returned from vacationing in Australia), Ann (a college student), Tammy (studies in Tainan city), and Angela (a student at the local high school and rebound from Brazil.) Next is my aunt and her daughters, Jasmine, Joanne, Celia, and Mei Mei. Then my host uncle William and his wife, as well as their two sons and a daughter. On top of all this is Grandma Tsai and the live-in maid from Korea.

And now for the weather. The heat is very similar to Florida, so nothing new there, but thankfully the nights have just begun to cool down. One definitely gets the “tropical island” feel walking down the streets of Shalu. Beautiful flowers and vines growing everywhere on the sidewalks, a strong wind blowing through the trees walking 15 minutes to school in the mornings, and bats and butterflies to keep me company as I walk home at night. Shalu is basically… Hastings to Taichung’s Saint Augustine to Taipei’s Jacksonville if that makes any sense. Taichung is definitely larger than Saint Augustine, but in comparison to Taipei… it’s nothing.

Five days a week I go to Shalu Gao Gong (an industrial vocational school) wearing my uniform of black, blue, and grey, with my yellow Kool Aid sneaks to top it all off, to enjoy time with my new friends, one on one Chinese lessons with the school’s Chinese teacher, helping teach English class, and 4 hours of Kung Fu on average everyday (my favorite part). Who would have guessed that I of all people would fall in love with running laps every morning, Kung Fu most of the day in school, lifting weights after school, and swimming laps at the pool after dinner with my host sister? Not I.

Lunch is eaten in the classrooms out of huge pots containing rice and other dishes served as well as a daily soup. I kid you not – I live in the biggest Chinese restaurant I could have ever imagined and I LOVE it. The school requisitions to each student a bowl, a spoon, and a set of chopsticks to use and wash every day. Three days out of the week though, I bike to McDonald’s or a local shop to buy lunch with the boys from my kung fu class.

Nothing yet on this exchange trip has felt better than laughing and joking in a new language (I CAN LAUGH AND JOKE IN CHINESE) while riding a bicycle through the streets with my friends from Kung Fu. After lunch is… NAPTIME. Yes it happens here, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Whether it’s head-on-a-desk style with my classmates, or on awesome mats in Kung Fu, my thirty minute mid-day nap is BEAUTIFUL. This is required by the students and the teachers alike not only due to the heat, but also because of a ten hour school day.

Did I mention that central air is nonexistent everywhere except government buildings, from what I’ve seen? This took some getting used to, but once I realized that when I’m sweating, everyone else is too, I made my peace. After school I come home and eat delicious meals consisting of (you guessed it) rice, curry, chicken, squid, spinach, and other unknown, unnamed delicacies. After dinner I go to the pool where EVERYONE wears speedos (I’M NO LONGER ALONE!) to swim my laps, chill in the sauna or hot tub, or use the high powered jets to massage my back and shoulders after a hard day of Kung Fu.

On the weekends I meet my friends from school in Taichung city to go to one of four… or maybe five fifteen story shopping malls, eat at fantastic roadside restaurants, and find unbelievable bargains on mind-blowing fashion in the sprawling night markets, or of course I spend time with my fellow inbounds at Rotary meetings where we sing (every meeting), dance (every… single meeting), and have the best times. Considering these meetings are on Friday nights, I’m glad they’re so much fun.

December 22 Journal

Things have settled into a pretty decent rhythm since my first journal. I get up, eat breakfast, bike to school (I got a bike!), work out before class, exhaust myself with Kung Fu, delicious lunches, naptime, more Kung Fu, etc. A recent discovery is that the weather in the central portion of Taiwan seems to be literally exactly like that of Saint Augustine, Florida. I watched as the temperature dropped around the same time of year, to the same general temperature, and in the same way I hated it in Florida, it’s still unpleasant despite my new surroundings. I wasn’t prepared for the cold (only one jacket, so hard to match with everything!), so of course, shopping ensues. Ah god shopping in Taiwan. I could go on for days. The night markets, a hustle and bustle of people buying, selling, hocking, mocking, wearing, and living fashion. Street vendors market their wares directly outside the stores of high end retailers, and it’s often so hard to decide between a name brand one knows and loves so well and an obscure but unquestionably stylish garment off a table right down the street. Then there’s the 15+ story department stores with everything from Aveda Salons, to Luis Vuitton, from the iStore, to a huge movie theater. They even have a CHILI’S! Highlight of my day. Often times I’ll go to a mall with no idea what it is I’m looking for, but simply by watching the shoppers around me and becoming positively green with envy, I know exactly what I want. The style over here is like the stuff of legend in Saint Augustine. And the HAIR. I’ve watched my Floridian friend strive for hours to achieve what some of these people “wake and shake” to. It’s… upsetting to say the least. Jealousy abounds.

I have also recently been putting my talents to work singing with the school rock-cover band. We’re performing It’s My Life and Every Day by Bon Jovi very soon, and we practice almost every day. Though it can’t compare to the daily 45 minutes of Chamber Singers I experienced at Saint Augustine High School, getting in my daily regimen of singing does my soul good. I find myself singing walking to and from class, in class, during lunch, and almost every hour of the day, never more so than now my kind and wondrous mother has been gracious enough to mail me the deluxe edition of Lady Gaga’s new cd, The Fame Monster. My classmates seem to be very much enamored with her, as am I, considering all the new found Gaga ringtones I’m hearing in class.

Speaking of Gaga, for the past week, I’ve been working on translating my absolute favorite song of hers, Paparazzi, into Chinese. After I had the entire song completely translated, my Chinese teacher and I went through it to check for… well whether it made sense or not, and we actually ended up keeping a surprisingly large amount of my original translation, which I could not be happier about. But I didn’t RANDOMLY take it upon myself to grace the people of the Chinese speaking world with understanding the beauty and magic of Lady Gaga’s writing style, I had purpose. Two weeks ago I received an email informing me that there was to be an Inbound Chinese Free Talking at the District Christmas Party in which all inbounds were expected to give a 3-5 minute presentation using only Chinese. Some chose to sing traditional Chinese songs, still others gave speeches or performed skits or dances. I chose to perform a piano arrangement I had written by ear and sing Gou Zai Duei or Paparazzi for the unsuspecting crowd. I was well received, and everyone seemed not only to understand what I was singing, but also to ENJOY it, which was a huge plus.

After the performances, dinner, a short rest, and the dance competition began. I may not have been acutely aware of a dance competition occurring, but if there is music, I will surely be dancing. I gave the DJ The Fame Monster, and away we rolled. For three straight hours we danced to my CD, other inbounds iPods, and a live band playing a few slow songs on occasion, breaking only to announce that one of the largest earthquakes to date had hit Taiwan. (“We caused an earthquake!? Sweet! Turn the music up!!”) We did partner dances, line dances, lap dances, most kinds of dances imaginable, and at the end of it all, my long time dancing partner hailing from Brazil and I were crowned King and Queen of the dance competition, given devil horns instead of crowns, and huge bouquets. We had a final dance to So Happy I Could Die, which you should really look up, as it basically explains how I feel about all these wonderful people. After the dance, we exchanged presents and went on our way. By far the most fun I’ve had yet.

Because he was so impressed by my performance (only bragging a little), the District Governor has slated me to perform Paparazzi, and anything else I can cook up between now and a meeting of all the districts in Taiwan, in January. That means a select few exchange students including myself will be performing for every inbound, every outbound, and every Rotary member in all of Taiwan. I could not be happier about this development.

All exchange students from Taichung County should be going to Taipei for New Years, though I’m still not exactly clear WHO’S New Years we’re talking about, as I do know we’re going to Sun Moon Lake in Nantou this weekend for a little outing. Who knows, who cares, I’m with my friends and people who love and care about me.

This exchange has made nothing more clear to me than this: It doesn’t matter where you go on this Earth, all that matters is that you’re surrounded by people who love and care about you.

February 15 Journal

Life has been pretty intense since my last journal. I’m in a family I’m in love with and it’s winter break for Chinese New Year which was three days ago, so the parties and family events have been continuous.

On top of THAT, after hearing my translation of Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi into Chinese, the Rotary has collectively decided to make me leader of literally every group, every performance, and… everything until I leave. I have been charged with putting together a performance that must involve all 26 inbound students in my district, teaching them the song (in Chinese, of course), and choreographing a dance for everyone to do for an audience of over 300 Rotary members. All is going very well, and everyone is really working hard.

My Brazilian friend and I have also been doing performances at our family’s company’s New Year’s parties and just about every Rotary event. He plays guitar, and I play piano and sing. Everyone really seems to like it, and it feels amazing to be on stage. Though we only know a few songs between the two of us, we’re always very well received.

The Chinese New Year left me with MUCH more money than before, and considering I still have a few more days worth of family visits to conduct, as well as a trip to Taipei, the money shows no sign of stopping. While this is entirely enjoyable, being a member of a family whose parents are as fashion conscious as I like to believe myself to be is absolutely fantastic. My host brothers listen to the same music as me, and every day I am ASTOUNDED by my host mother’s outfits. Oh also, they’re the most kind, caring, and loving people I’ve yet to meet in this country. I’ve yet to feel as wanted as I do now, with this family.

To me, this also shows that the host family really makes the exchange. My past few families gave me very good perspective about the aspects of both American and Taiwanese culture I do and do not like, and this family encompasses all of them, and because we love each other so much, I accept things I find odd or frustrating, and they try to ignore me when I’m just a bit too outrageous for them, though it’s rare as they seem to be well aware of American idiosyncrasies.