Outbounds 2011-2012

Hola, me llamo Carter Suzanne Grant! I mentioned my middle name because I am often confused for a boy, due to mi nombre.

Primero, meet me. I was born in the big city of Atlanta, Georgia. My family and I moved around a bit (Ohio and Colorado), and then settled down in St. Johns Florida eight years ago. I am a Presbyterian, and active in my church, Geneva. In addition to attending church religiously, I am in youth group there and help teach classes for children.

I am very academically inclined and a tenth-grader in the International Baccalaureate program (IB) at Nease High School. Me encanta biología, and would love to work in the field of plant genetics for a living.

In my spare time, I play tennis and spend time with my family. I have one sibling, mi hermano pequeño, Jarrett, and two amazing padres, Adrienne and Kevin. I am very thankful that my family members (immediate and extended) are so supportive of my international endeavors.

Also, I love to travel and meet new people, so this program is perfect for me. I got a little taste of international travel when I visited Europe this past summer.

You might be wondering why I am writing this short autobiography with Spanish words mixed in- I am because I will be going to the exotic land of Peru next year!

Before I became interested in this program, I didn’t know very much about Peru. However, the more I research, the more excited I get! Now that I am learning about the country, I am psyched to actually see it all!If I can, I would love to see: Machu Picchu(one of the new seven wonders), Lake Titicaca, and the Nazca Lines.

I would like to thank Rotary for this incredible opportunity. I cannot wait to begin on my adventure.

October 19, 2011

I’ve been living here in Lima for about ten weeks now, and I am having the hardest time starting this journal entry…. I’m trying to think back to when I got here, about my first impressions. Which is a hard thing to do, because they seem normal to me now. But, I’ll try!

So, when I got off of the plane on my first day (2:00 AM on July 29th) I was met by a crowd of Peruvians- my family, my counselor, my host club president and his family, my district president, and many others too. Even though it was so late, they were very excited and greeted me with many kisses on the cheeks. Like many other South American countries, a kiss on the cheek is how you greet people. It was sort of challenging for me at first, because I have never been one for PDA. But now I am used to it, and I like that part of the culture. Peruvians definitely seem to be more warm than Americans.

When I arrived, we were on vacation, so I didn’t start going to school until about my third week. My two host siblings also go to my school, Colegio Santa Rosa. It is a Catholic school, and my uniform involves a plaid skirt and tie. It sounds weird, but I really like having a uniform! I’ve never been a big fan of shopping, trying on, or deciding on what clothes to wear. So, I don’t have to worry about that 5 out of the 7 days of the week!

Someone once said that writing just shows us how messy and unorganized our minds are. This is definitely the case with me, and as I am writing this there a thousand thoughts and memories running through my head. I would like to tell all of my readers (really just my parents and grandparents, probably!) everything. But, I’m leaving to go on my trip to Machu Picchu in an hour and I don’t have very much time. Speaking of trips, I have at least five planned with Rotary during my exchange year, so if you like awesome trips- Peru is definitely for you!

January 11

When I last submitted a journal, I was getting ready to go on my Cuzco/Puno trip with Rotary. So I’ll start off with that.

Peru (apart from the giant metropolis that is Lima) is a beautiful country with a varied landscape and I’m happy that I’ve been able to see so much of it. I’ve traveled by bus all over Southern Peru and up the North coast. To recount all the things I saw and did would take a long time (and we are supposed to write more about our normal lives and not so much about trips- sorry!), so I will let my pictures do most of the talking.

Here is a lowdown on what I’ve been doing. How it’s organized is sort of random.

We are in our summer vacation now until March, when I will be studying gastronomy in a university in Lima called Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola (USIL). Peru has some of the world’s best chefs and Peruvians take pride in and always talk about their food. Lima has some of the world’s cheapest and freshest seafood, and I can say that ‘ceviche mixto’ is probably my favorite Peruvian dish. I can’t wait to learn how to make it in university!

Dancing is a huge part of the culture here, and pretty much every town in Peru has it’s own traditional way of dancing. I have learned the Salsa, Samba, Scia, and Marinera. Whenever us exchange students are on a trip, we always dance with the locals. I saw one dance in Colca (Southern Peru) that was partly reenacting a folktale. It involved a “poisoned” orange, a scary cloth mask, and a rope with a rock tied to the end of it. Kind of frightening, and very Peruvian.

My family here is amazing, I have three siblings, although one is on her exchange in Citrus, Florida right now (Joseline). My brother, Luis Miguel (14) and my sister Fernanda (12) both go to my school too. They always help me with my Spanish and are patient with me. I can always be my self with them. I really couldn’t ask for a better family, and I know that I’m lucky to have them.

Living in a big city (Lima has almost 9 million people!) is a great experience for me, I’ve pretty much lived in the suburbs or in the country my whole life before this. Before I got here, I used to think that all huge cities were like New York City, with huge skyscrapers and a very fast- paced way of life. I was wrong. I call it “La Hora Peruana,” or Peruvian Time. It means that arriving to anything less than 45 minutes late is early. One time, my brother and I arrived at a Quinceñera (a party for a girl who is turning fifteen, it is very important in Latin American culture) over an hour after the time stated on the invitation, we were the first ones there and they were still people setting up for the party!

Rotary here is very involved with my life here, and I go to their meetings with my family every Wednesday, and I already feel close to all of the Rotarians. Peru is a third world country, so there is a lot of poverty and so forth. With Rotary, I have been to the poorer parts of the country and volunteered. The last time that we helped was the week before Christmas, and we handed out presents and food to families in the outskirts of Lima. This thought brings me to another point… la Navidad!

Peru is around 80% Catholic, and celebrating Christmas is a huge deal down here. Christmas Eve is much more important than the actual 25th. We stayed up until midnight on the 24th, and then we ate turkey, rice, and Paneton. After eating, we opened presents (I got a watch!) and then stayed up until 6 AM or so. The entire next day we just rested and went to church. My parents might be hurt from what is coming next (sorry!), but I wasn’t very homesick over the holidays. I truly had a great time, just hanging out with my host family.

Well, in short, I’m having a fabulous time here, and I am so happy that I decided to make the decision to spend a year in Peru! I feel like a part of my host family, and I rarely have trouble with the language anymore. Now, I know my way around Lima and I can use public transportation with ease. I really feel like I fully understand Peruvian culture. The only sad part is that I am more than halfway done with my exchange now. I only have about 5 months left to enjoy Peru, and I plan to make the best of them!

Hello, my name is Casey McDermott and I am 16 years old. I am from Illinois and moved to Palm City, Florida this past summer. Now, I am attending Martin County High School and am enjoying the time I have here with my newfound friends. Although, next year, my journey will continue as I spend my senior year as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student in The Netherlands!

It all started when my Spanish teacher told the class one day about the program, it was right as we were walking in and it was loud in the class but I heard loud and clear. After class I immediately asked for a website with more information. You can imagine her surprise because I had just arrived as a new student from Chicago, but she believed in me from that moment on. I knew that I wanted to study abroad because of stories my dad tells me from his many business trips and my positive experience from moving it was definitely what I wanted. My family was more than excited and has been 100% supportive of me.

As for me, I enjoy time with my family and my friends, and volunteering with the kids each week at church. I also like traveling, ballet, and adventures. I also love to read and watch movies. In my family, I have three siblings. Including, my oldest brother Ryan who is currently attending North Park University in Chicago, Illinois. Also, there is my little sister Lindsay who is attending Martin County High School as a freshman. Youngest, is my little brother Joe who is three.

This next year is going to be one I will never forget. I cannot wait to start my year of adventure. Thank you Rotary for this amazing experience. I would not be able to have this opportunity without all of you.

My name is Chelsea Holmes and I live in Saint Augustine, Florida. I live with my parents, Katherine and Thomas Holmes. I have a twenty year old sister/best friend, Candace, who is in Nebraska attending the University of Nebraska Omaha.  I am currently enrolled as a Senior at Saint Augustine High School.  I participate in the chorus, drama, visual arts, and student government at SAHS.

I am ecstatic to say that I have been chosen to be a 2011-2012 RYE student.  I moved from Nebraska to Florida my junior year of high school and I can strongly say I never thought I would feel happy that I ended up moving; this program changed that.

The country I am being sent to is Turkey. Of course, my mind is constantly wandering about what next year will be like, but my goal is to have absolutely no expectations.  I will prepare as much as I can here and then go to Turkey ready to absorb as much knowledge and culture as I can.  My two favorite things are people and art, and I intend to learn as much as I can about these two things in a completely different environment. Thank you so much Rotary for this incredible opportunity.

December

Before I go much further, I will warn everyone that my english is getting worse, and it is 12 AM currently, because that is when I have time to write this, so please excuse my bad grammar etc. 🙂

The one piece of advice I will give to everyone is your exchange will not be like anyone else, you will probably think yours will at least be like the other people’s in your country.. but it could be more similar to someone in a different country considering how much your house location, school, host family, rotary club, and you effect it. I believe it is 50 percent what you are given to work with, and 50 percent how you choose to work with what you are given. Make your exchange what you want it to be. If you want to learn the language, study the language enough so you can only speak that language, don’t let people speak with you in English. If you aren’t happy with what you are doing everyday, find new things to do, you live in an awesome foreign country. If you don’t want to get fat, only eat what your host family gives you to eat, and don’t eat other things voluntarily (this helps save money as well). And altogether when you feel super bummed, depressed, or bored (I can honestly say I have yet to be super bored), look around and remember you are in a freaking foreign country and no matter what you are doing its so awesome!

Since I don’t know have exactly one thing to talk about, because I have been here for a while, I will just tell a few things that come to my mind about being here. Enjoy.

My host family was out of town when I first arrived so I had to sleep at a Rotex’s house my first night. My first night I went out with him and his friends, and then the next morning I was dropped off on a different continent (Istanbul is the coolest city ever), at my host aunt’s work, and shortly after, was on a six hour bus ride to the capital of Turkey, Ankara, with her. She knew no English and I sadly knew very little Turkish, gotta love dictionaries. The thoughts that kept going through my head included, “This is so ******* cool and beautiful, and I am so lucky” and, “Literally no one on this bus can communicate with me and no one knows exactly where I am right now, hopefully my aunt is safe *giggles to self*”. That night we arrived and I met tons only Turkish speaking people, was forced to eat lots of food (everyone else hadn’t ate all day because of ramadan), and had no idea which of the people were actually the family I would live with later hahaha. Later in the night I figured out which family was mine, and we were off from the major city, Ankara, to a village in Kirsehir, I spent the rest of the holiday there with extended family. It was overwhelming and I never knew what was happening, but it was so beautiful and eye opening. I kissed old people’s hands for candy, watched a chicken be slaughtered, and walked around mountains while hearing the call to prayer. I will never forget my first Bayram (Turkish Holiday).

I have been to Anıtkabir twice now, and it is extremely breathtaking. if you don’t know what it is, LEARN :). Atatürk is a fantastic guy, and made this country what it is today.

One day I was wondering around my school campus, (because it is a large campus on top of a bunch of mountains, including a preschool, middle school, high school, and university), when I stumbled across a ceramics building. I ended up going in with my close exchange friend, Fernanda, and now I go at least once a week. I have developed a great friendship with the old Turkish man that runs the building. I can come and go as I please. Some days I go alone and I study Turkish and drink tea with him, which is really good for me because we only speak in Turkish. Some days I go and make pottery while meeting University students taking ceramics class. I am so grateful for this discovery and love my pottery teacher so much. I can honestly say he is a huge reminder of why this program is so cool, I don’t know how else I could have had this relationship, and it is so important to me.

We had Turkish classes in a really famous area of Istanbul, where most night-life and tourists are known for going, Taksim. All the exchange students in Istanbul had to go every Saturday and Sunday for six weekends. I can honestly say the entire process made my Turkish worse, but I just think of it as something I paid for to learn my way around the city. My house is kind of far out on the Asian side, and to go to Taksim every weekend, I have multiple options of transportation. I usually include the ferry ride, because it is so beautiful and relaxing. Also, because my house is kind of far and my host parents do not let me come home late, I have ended up staying at at least half of the other exchanger’s houses. This has ended up being a really good thing for me, because I have seen different kinds of Turkish life, exchanges, and can get myself around lots of different areas in Istanbul. I can proudly say I could be dropped off at a random part in the city and I would be able to get myself home, I might be scared and laugh at myself a lot, but I could do it. I frequently use minibuses, otobuses, metrobuses, trens, dolmuses and ferries to get around (okay, an occasionally taxi, if I’m feeling lazy).

By the way, being foreign and using public transportation makes for the funniest stories.

Example number 1: My purse kept hitting this lady in the face one time, while she was sitting down and I was standing up. I tried to move, but it just kept smacking her in the face. Finally, she asked me in Turkish if I could please sit my purse down, but because of my Turkish level, I at first thought she was asking me if I would like to sit down, so I answered no with a huge smile. Then I replayed it in my head, laughed, and set my purse down.

Example number 2: My real mom in America sent me a package, you think it would just come to my house, but noooo that would be easy. It was held in customs a good hour away from my house. My host dad took me in morning traffic to pick it up, but I was left alone at a random place to get home… with my package. My host dad thought I knew how to use the metro bus from there, and I just told him I did, because he was clearly already frustrated that he had spent so much time driving me for a package probably filled with peanut butter and tampons, on his work day. I then got lost in the city of Istanbul for a good three hours.. with my huge box in hands. Public transportation is crowded, and conducted in Turkish. Throughout this day I had to set my box on multiple people’s laps and dropped it a few times when getting off wrong buses I tried to take. Altogether I made it to a familiar place, just to find that I didn’t have my home key wooooo. I then sat at a starbucks with my package, an americano, and Christmas music in the background; feeling pretty accomplished. At a certain point you don’t notice people staring at you anymore.

Example number 3:One night I was taking a taxi ride home from a close friend of mine’s house, because it was late and I didn’t know an easy public transportation route from her house yet. I had never explained to a taxi driver how to get to my house before, and I only knew how from one landmark. I got in the taxi, gave him the area and address, and he acted like he knew, and started driving. We talked a good amount, because he quickly found out I was foreign and was interested haha. I explained that I was a foreign exchange student, what I was doing here, and he told me about how he usually works on the European side and which shopping malls and places I should go to party hahaha. As we got closer to my residence, he started asking me questions, in which I would respond “I’m thinkinggggg (in turkish obviously)”, nervously. This ended up being an extremely humorous time. As I struggled to direct him with my terrible Turkish, he started chanting “SPEAK TURKISH CHELSEA”, in the rhythm of England’s Chelsea soccer team’s chant. Later he stopped at a gas station and bought himself cigarettes and some chocolate for me, explaining that he couldn’t handle me without a cigarette. Finally, with 35 liras to pay, I arrived home. The ride was completely worth 35 liras, I had a half hour conversation with an enjoyable guy in Turkish. And there was no English to rely on, because he didn’t know any. 🙂 Everyone going on exchange will find out that having English as a first language sucks, because even the other exchange students from different countries are learning English well, but we are just getting worse at our own language from having to use simple English all the time haha. With this being said, it is definitely still possible to learn the language, in the last month mine has definitely improved, because I remembered learning a new language is a huge part of why I am here and have been trying really hard.

Altogether, I have had difficult times here, but almost every difficult thing came with hilarity and was not impossible to handle. I have learned a lot about the way languages form culture and personalities, and have realized so much about my own country and language from experiencing another. I am so grateful for this opportunity, and am so glad I am in Istanbul. Talk to you all in another three months. 🙂

April 24, 2012

I apologize for my lack of journals, you can either blame me or a large starbucks coffee that was dumped on my computer making it so I do not have a computer. I am finally got myself to an internet cafe so complete things like the RYE journal. Although I do repeatedly replay the starbucks coffee falling on my computer over in slow motion in my head while cringing, it has brought some things. I am getting more sleep at night time instead of staying up on my computer , and I am watching more turkish television downstairs with my Turkish family.

Anyways, considering I am paying for my time spent on this computer, I will shortly summarize my wonderful last few months spent in Turkey.

December was definitely a landmark in my exchange and just for my life in general. Although the first month is really wonderful because you are seeing everything for the first time and kind of starstruck, December was much better for me. I was completely exhausted constantly, but I had finally figured out how to completely become independent and was holding conversations in Turkish. My close exchange friend and I decided to take a turkish class in a different part of the city after school, so we would take a bus from school everyday and then go home in the evening. This made us really start using our turkish more because the class level we got into was all taught in turkish and most of it was just for talking practice. It was mostly enjoyable though because we really got to know our way around and this certain part of the city, and it is definitely where I come now the most and where I will miss the most. I loved this class so much because it was made up of probably around ten of us all from different countries and different age groups, discussing topics in turkish. I learned so much about different cultures in a language that was so new to me, but I was able to understand and communicate my point, which is such a rewarding feeling. It is so much more rewarding than just traveling to a different country and sight seeing, in my opinion.

I have definitely learned here how much human connection is the reason I like coming to other countries. Of course it is nice seeing beautiful places, but being able to learn a different language and really understand someone’s personality through their language is so cool and beautiful, and it is definitely the reason I will continue to travel.

January and Febuary were more related with exchange fun and Rotary life. In January I moved houses multiple times, which was interesting but exhausting and pretty confusing haha, but if I wasn’t already someone that just goes with the flow, I really am now. I was at one house for only a week ,when Rotary found out I was sleeping on a couch while living with a single woman and her son was coming home for a university break and the three of us were going to share a one room apartment. Although that one was a little confusing (why am I the exchange student getting the super weird house situations? etc haha), I did get some good turkish practice from late night chats with the single woman. Honestly, most of my difficulties here have made for the most interesting learning opportunities. The family I am in now is so great and I have a really realy good connection with our bakici, which means looker and is the person that makes the food and watches my little brother when the parents aren’t home etc. She is one of my favorite people, I enjoy my time with her so much and will really miss her when I go home. In the end of January I went on a tour to southern parts of Turkey with Rotary which was very enjoyable. The weather was really cold, but the places were still all so beautiful and the time spent with the people was constantly fun. Turkey is such a beautiful country; honestly, if you are someone who likes traveling for sightseeing and history, its a really good choice for you. Pammukkale was the coolest place I have ever been by far. In Febuary I honestly can’t remember exact details other than I was just going out in the city a lot with friends. We made one street performer friend from Canada that was traveling the world this year, and he was here for Febuary, so a few of my friends and me enjoyed exploring with him and learning about his travels. I definitely learned how possible it is to travel if you want to from him. He is on ly 18 and just goes by street performing and meeting people on the way. If you want to travel, you can.

March and April have been filled with really working on my Turkish and just exploring the city. It might sound funny to say exploring the city since I have been here for so long already, but the first few months I didn’t have complete freedom how I do now, and honestly even if I lived in Istanbul for nine years, there would be places I hadn’t gone. I have been taking lots of photos lately now that the weather is finally nice, and really am just loving life as cheesy as it sounds . I am just thankful to be here. In about two weeks my family comes here which will be super weird feeling, but really awesome at the same time. There are so many places I go or things I do that I think “I wish my sister was here” or “I wish she could see this”, and now she will be able to see some! After my family leaves we have another Rotary trip which I am not sure if I am going on yet or not, then we have a district conference for a week in another city, an d then in June I am planning to travel a little bit around Turkey and maybe in Europe with some friends, and thhhhhhhhhhen I go home :o. Crazy. Although, I will miss it a lot here, I have a lot to distract me in America, and I am ready to come back to Turkey without a program and host families, to live on my own. I’m excited to go to University next year and become more prepared to travel and learn more languages etc .Thank you so much for this opportunity Rotary.

Hi! My name is Devante Gonzalez; I’m 16 years old, and a junior at University High School. I’m so excited, because next year I’m going to be spending my senior year in Taiwan! This is a once in a lifetime chance to immerse myself in a different culture and surround myself in a totally different environment than what I’m used to. I think this will be so much more of a rewarding and fulfilling experience rather than a traditional boring senior year. Right now since I am a junior, I’m taking the classes I need online so even though I will be studying abroad I will still be able to graduate next year.

I live in Orange City, Florida with my mom, two sisters, Janay and Tiana, nephew Jasiah, and puppy Cali. We have lived here in Central Florida for almost eight years now; we are originally from New York. My family and I are very close and they are nervous about the fact that I will be out on my own in a foreign land without them. But they know how much it means to me to be able to do this, and therefore I am thankful that they are being so supportive.

I play soccer on our High School Varsity Team and I have either practice or a game everyday after school, so when I come home I’m exhausted. I’m not that great at it, but it is fun and I just love the game. I love music and like to dance, and I always have a song in my head. I also like to swim. I am a very good cook, I think. I make dinner at home sometimes, and I love to bake different kinds of desserts just because. I am a very outgoing and friendly individual that is easy to talk to and funny. I love to make people laugh. I always strive to be an optimistic and positive person. I appreciate Rotary for giving me this once in a lifetime opportunity that will change my life forever.

August 20

WOW! Yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life. It is not as interesting to read from a computer rather than actually experiencing everything in person! I guess now would be a good time, everyone is asleep and it is early. Also I want to write this before I forget everything. Hope you enjoy!

So… It is Friday morning. Just like any morning, but vastly different! This particular Friday morning I was leaving my home and going off to live in TAIWAN for a year which you already know! So I woke up at 6:30 with the family, walked my dog and got ready with a little last minute packing. And of course we are running late (nothing new). SO from my home to Jacksonville airport is about 3 hours away. So we were all in the car arguing at first but then reminiscing about really good memories and funny events in my life. It was nice. Then we finally get to the airport. Check in. Then head towards the security. My friend Kelly who is also going to be an exchange student to Taiwan was there waiting for me with her family. My family and I took our last pictures together and said goodbyes. Surprisingly my mom didn’t cry, though she had been crying for the past week. I guess she wanted me to leave with the image of her smiling. She is really the best mom and I already miss her!

So I go through security with Kelly by my side and I am texting and calling people to tell them goodbye. Then it’s 12 o’clock noon, we board our plane and begin our crazy journey! The flight from Jacksonville to Detroit was fast. I slept through most of it. Then when we arrived at Detroit airport were we met up with a whole group of people going to Taiwan including Elycia and Marco who took an earlier flight from Orlando airport. The other people in the group however are from rotary like me but from different states of the USA. This was the best flight I have EVER been on. All the kids going to Taiwan including myself were all together in the airplane so we got to know each other a little more. It was a huge plane and it was such a smooth flight. But the only problem was the horrible service! WHY ME!! The people that bring you your drinks and food were so rude to me! It was ridiculous! But other than that I was having a great time! So after like 17 hours on that plane we land in TOKYO, JAPAN! That was the quietest airport I have ever been to! I felt so cool because I used some of my Japanese skills to good use! Then we find another group of kids from more states of the USA. We all stuck together. About an hour passes and we go on a different plane. Taiwan here we come! This plane ride was different. Not so much exciting as it was anxiousness and nerve racking. The flight only lasted a few hours but it felt like forever!! AHHHH we finally land!! Woohooo!

When we get out of the plane we walked strait to immigration to get our passports checked. Then we go and get our bags from of course baggage claiming. I said bye to all my friends who are about to start their new life here in Taiwan including Kelly and Elycia, as I wait for my bags. I finally get the two big luggage bags that belong to me and head to where the exit is. When I went to leave the baggage claim there is a whole mob of Taiwanese people waiting there for their exchange student with signs. My family was in the back screaming for me and I recognized my host father! As the group of people waiting for me came close my hands were shaking so all I can do is hold on to my luggage’s tight so they wouldn’t notice! It was insane! I was so nervous and they were all so nice and welcoming! My host father and two guys around my age who will be a part of my second or third host family introduced themselves to me as Vinny and Filan. They both helped with the language barrier. The other people who greeted me I did not know. But they were nice.

My host father Richard asked me “are you hungry” and I said “YES!” We went to McDonalds! Taiwanese McDonalds is so much better then American McDonalds. After we ate, we brought home Filan. My host father Richard and I went to Vinny’s house to get washed up. Then we finally got to my host family home where I met my host brother Lucas! He is very kind but not very good English. They showed me my room which was awesome! Then I met my host mom. She is so nice and doesn’t know any English. She was very worried I wouldn’t like her house or the room she and the family prepared for me. But I LOVE IT! They really wanted to make sure I liked everything. There hospitality is the best. They always check to see if I am tired or hungry. Very nice people.

I am very happy to be here and I am so excited to become close with this new loving family.

February 3, 2012

August-

Well after I wrote the first entry that night I didn’t sleep much. (I had slept too much on the plane.) So when the morning sun came up, I was up with it. I waited for everyone to get up so I could know what to do. I finally made enough sounds unpacking to wake everyone up! No, I didn’t unpack last night. I unpacked in the morning because I was just being the lazy American!

After I was settled in my room my host brother knocked on my door and asked me if I wanted to get breakfast and of course I said yes. We took his moped to this breakfast shop close by! Oh yea, it was HOT outside 好熱! Summer in Taiwan is just as hot as Florida, if not more!!! My host brother tried his hardest to use his horrible English skills to tell me he will order me some “America breakfast.” The food here in every resturant is fast. I recieved my breakfast in less then 2 minutes. It was an egg and cheese wrap thing. It was good except for all the extra cheese. Apperently every american likes extra cheese on all of their breakfast foods. But not me. So I ate most of it and we went home, took an hour break and then Vinny came to the house and we went to lunch…. I wasn’t hungry and they were suprised. We went to a common noodle shop in my small town of SanYi. It was good but I was NOT hungry!!

The next few weeks were mostly the same thing because it was summer and all the boys were off from college so they were usually with me. The boys: Lucas, Nikky, Yi wei lai, Vinny, William, and Kevin. Those are all of my host brothers from the three host families I will be living with. I have a little host sister but I seldom see her. They are all cousins. Nikky and Yi Wei Lai are brother. Kevin, William and Vinny are brothers. Nikky, Yi Wei Lai, and Vinny were all exchange students to America before so their English is very good! I became closer to Vinny the most, I think. The whole summer was just us spending the days together and helping out in the family restaurant. It was like everything they did was with me and it felt great to be apart of the family. They were literally like real brothers to me. I never had brothers before.

We went to Taichung together many times to go to night markets which are very famous in Taiwan. The name explains it all. Its just locals who sell anythings and it just becomes a big market on the street, at night. You can buy really good food for cheap and you can walk around and it’s just something to do. In small towns a night market would only be once a week. But in big cities like Taichung and Taipei they have night markets all day, everyday! It’s interesting and very different!

Also in Taichung there are so many nice movie theaters! One movie we saw is very famous! It is a true love story in Taiwan about a boy in senior high school who was in love with this one girl, who many boys liked. It was a very good movie (my favorite) its called: You are the apple of my eye!

We took a charter bus (very common) and went on a family trip to the southern parts of the island with the boys and other family members from my host family including the grandfather. The grandfather was very sick and weak. He needed much help from everyone. But I know he had a nice time. It was a great trip! We stayed in a 4 star ☆☆☆☆ hotel in Kaohsiung and just had fun. It was very cool to see the beaches in Tainan that look nothing like Daytona or New Sumyrna. No waves!! A little boring! I burned my lip really bad from the grilled oyster! OW!!

Yi Wei Lai and I went to a Taiwan singer’s concert in Miaoli where I met a my friend Edern who is an Exchange student from France. He is also in my district! He is cool! The concert was amazing! It was a singer named A-Lin! She is a very famous Taiwan singer. She is extrodinary live!!! Taiwanese people love to give encores. She had about 4 encores!

The first District 3500 meeting with all the exchange students was unbelievably fun and there was so much talking!! The thing I was most happy about was seeing a girl named Hunter! I met her on the plane from Detroit to Japan! She was so cool! But the only thing I could remember about her was that she was from Colorado! So I thought when I was leaving the airport that this was the last time I would see her! But HERE she was!! She is so funny! One of my favorite exchange student friends! There is also Evelyn from California who is my really good friend, she is crazy! The meeting was great! Our district is a normal size but with a small group of exchange students! We ONLY have about 20!!!

That was the best summer of my life. I was starting this exchange off so well! I had families I loved and considered them as real family! I met the exchange students I will see the most in my year here in Taiwan! And I was getting use to the life here! It had to be the highest part of my exchange. But of course all good things had to end and ALL of my host brothers had to leave to go to their college for the new school year. It was sad. To be honest, I cried when Vinny was leaving because it was like I would never see him again. He was my brother. I wonder if my sisters in America felt this way when I left to come to Taiwan. Lucas and William go to school in Taichung 30 minutes away. Yi Wei Lai went to the military. Kevin, Nikki, and Vinny went go to school in Taipei 2 hours away… I havn’t seen Vinny since.

So one more week passed and then it was time for me to go to school!!

May 16, 2012

School. It was that time of the year. I guess it wasn’t clear enough that I was ready to hurry up and leave the house because I was getting very antsy and a little impatient with my host father because he was just taking his sweet time! That bugged me! So we finally set of to the school in Miaoli, 30 minutes away. This morning was not what I expected at all. When I first arrived with my host father we sat down in the office/lobby and waited for I don’t know what but then we went home… what was that???? Never found out but all I knew was that the next day was the real deal!

So of course I couldn’t sleep. My host father told me where and what time I needed to be at my bus stop so I got up, got ready and went off. My bus stop is on the next corner of the street next to a 7-11. So I go get some coffee and waited for my bus. Just then this crazy man drives to the bus stop like a maniak almost hits some students and parks in the middle of the road and gets out the car. It’s my host father! What is wrong with this guy? He looks like he just rolled out of bed and he looks crazy! What was the deal? So he walks fast over to me and says “where are you going?!?!” and I said “i am at the bus stop waiting to go to school.” and He says “NO! I drive you to your bus stop!” In my mind I am just thinking how crazy this man is to rush over here and tell me he wants to bring me to the bus stop not even 100 meters away. I have been there for a few weeks already and i was prety familiar with my small town. If i didn’t know how to get around in my town then I would be an idiot because my town is litteraly one main street… So back to my crazy host father- he end up just standing with me at the bus stop like I am 5 years old and talks to all the students there telling them who I am, giving them my phone number, and basically just telling them I am incapable of surviving alone so I need to be watched at all times. The most embarrasses I have ever felt in my entire life!!!

Finally the bus comes and after my host father talks to the bus driver for a good 10 minutes we are off to school! The buses in Taiwan are all like charter busses. They have cushions and is very comfortable and big! The Taiwan students of course where so nervous to talk to me they would just turn around and stare! Their stares where not comforting. When i arrived at school 30 minutes later i go to my classroom on the 4th floor and there is my class. Classroom 114. In Taiwan you never leave your class like to change periods. It is like elementary school when you have “your” classroom. But we dont have just one teacher. When the classes change the teachers do. So students stay in the same classroom all day everyday. When i first met my classmates in 114 they were extremely shy and timid. Also they were very quiet. When I would walk in the halls during break time in between classes everyone would just stare like I was a ghost! A very tan, tall, big eyed ghost! I would always smile and say hi to everyone (I still do). they usually would either say nothing or just burry they face in their hands and laugh shyly with their friends! They are so shy! Some people were very brave and would ask me my name. So I told everyone my name is “Gonzo.” It is a nickname that my host brothers and my host family like to call me because apparently my normal name is “too hard to say.” So I am Gonzo.

Days passed like months and the students loosened up more and more! Everyone would say hi to me! They would ask me a million questions now! Like:

-how old are you?

-how many siblings do you have?

-do you know Obama?

-what is your blood type?

-do you have many girlfriends?

-why are your eyes so big?

My school is huge! It is two long building. One with 5 floors and e other with 7 floors! It is very tall! We have to wear these horrible uniforms that are very comfortable. They are mustard yellow shirts with bright royal blue pants! My classroom 114 is a freshman art class. They are qa special class for students with special art abilities! I however, am not strong in art at all anymore. So they are very shy and quiet even without me there. Some of them are very crazy and outgoing and I made very good friends in that class. Also when we have break time i visit older classrooms and make friends who are closer to my age and very cool and fun. Like classroom 205. I went to a night market with a few friends from 205 on the last day of september. It was great. That was the first and last time i had stinky tofu! GROSS! I love all of my friends in school they are great! The thing i love most about Taiwan is the people! They are so warm and kind after you get passed the shyness! The nicest people on earth, I think!

October-

So when October rolled around, I am still very fresh meat in Taiwan so everything is still new and unexplored! It was still a very weird thing for me to be here in this school. In Taiwan, school is so important and it takes up your whole day so everything is inside school, like clubs and events.

You can imagine I received so many different friend request on Facebook. So many people wanted to know me. There was one girl I talked to a little more then the others. I met her the first day of school and I thought I remembered who she was and what class she is in. But I remember asking her asking her a question and she said… “no, that’s not me. Are you sure you remember who I am?” so I told her “ok if I run into you in school say something so I will know it is you” she said “ok” and I said “How about taco?”

It was a few days that passed and when I was going to sign up early for a school club I had to bring my sign up sheet to classroom 205. I go inside and give the teacher my paper and this girl in the front row keeps saying “taco”. It took a few seconds but then everything clicked and I said “… OHHHH TACO!!!” so loud! Everyone started laughing. So from then on we called each other “Taco”

This month there is such a cool event in the school. It is when you choose what club you want to be in. There is a big courtyard and every club sets up a type of booth for people to go and sign up! There is every kind of club you can think of in this school. Swimming club, basketball club, badminton club, dance club, anime club, Japanese club, music club, magic club, mountain climbing club, movie club, game club, poker club, and many many more. So apparently they ring the bell and people have to run from their classes (remember 5 floors of students) and try to hurry and get a spot in the club they want. I don’t know for sure how it went… I couldn’t make it that day because I had to help my art class set up for an art show in a location close by. But I missed that whole thing. I was a little annoyed by that. But is ok I already joined the club I wanted before this day. Many people wanted me in their club. But I joined the mountain climbing club! It is not ha rdcore mountain climbing but we get out of school for an hour every other Wednesday and go travel somewhere and walk and chat and eat. What is better then that? I was so tempted to join dance club because I really like to dance but I am so busy and in dance club you have to practice every day after school but I cant because I will start my Chinese class in the University soon.

Speaking of… my Chinese class started this month! Oh it is so cool. In my class I have a teacher who is so very nice. She is the sweetest lady. Then I have two other classmates. All three of us are Rotary YEP students. My friend Edern is from France and Julian from Germany are both my classmates. All of us are beginners with Chinese so it started off well. Edern is in my rotary club so I see him often but he lives in a different town. And he excels with Chinese so much better then me. But that’s ok. Everyone learns at different paces. Chinese language is not as hard as it seems. When you are around it a lot you get accustomed to how things are said and you can pick out different words and understand what people are saying. Of course at this point I am not good at all with Chinese but still I am trying and working on it. You have to put effort in learning Chinese or else you will fall behind.

I didn’t really have an after school life yet because I didn’t know where to go or how to get there. So school was the highlight of my day! I never wanted to be home. On weekends I just wished it was the weekday so I can see my friends. I started to be with the classroom 205 more instead of my home room 114. 205 had Taco and her whole group of friends who are so funny and crazy! I loved spending time with them! Whenever I was with them I was so happy. Classroom 114 students are so very nice too, but they were very busy in art classes and I don’t have any art skills anymore so I didn’t enjoy being in the classes with them. Classroom 205 was just a normal class. Though the students in 205 are anything but normal. They have so many talented people. There is Kiki who is one of the best singers in school. There is 3 students who are really good dancers in dance club and then we have some of the star basketball players like LuLu and Jo-Ting-Wei (wei-wei)! We i-wei is the biggest guy in school (tallest and most muscle) he is just a monster. But he is so cool and hilarious! The only thing about this class is it had the lowest test scores. But that’s ok they made up for it in skill. We also won the tug of war competition in our school. And I say “we” because I was basically a part of that class now. They are awesome. Taco was the first to bring me to a night market near my school one Friday. It was nice. A little smaller then the ones in bigger cities but it was just nice to spend time with my friends.

November-

My favorite month! Not yet winter but over with summer. That’s right, FALL! Also my birthday is November 8th so I am pretty excited! This month has a lot of surprises!

Well to start off my month it was my birthday and some of my classmates in 114 asked to come over my house. So I asked my host father and he agreed. It was nice we picked them up from the train station and went to my home. We ate noodles and watched a scary Korean horror film! Then they surprised me with a cake! Where did they pull that out of? I didn’t even see it with them at the train station! It was so sweet of them! Then we had a cake frosting fight! In Taiwan they love to do that. It was so fun and I got frosting everywhere.

In my few months here I have experienced so many birthdays in school that it was inevitable that something would be thrown at my face, like frosting. For some students in my school they get eggs thrown at them for their birthday or they throw shaving cream everywhere! When I went to school on my birthday SO MANY PEOPLE got me a gift. I got maybe 100 cards and the rest are food or candy or something! Some student I have never even met before made me such a nice card that was hand woven. It was crazy! My friend in classroom 214 knows I love Korean music so he purchased a Girls’ generation album for me with posters and other items. On this same day my favorite class 205 had a surprise cake for me in their class. It was so nice and in Taiwan when you make a wish you have 3 wishes. 2 you say out loud and 1 is secret. I was crying, it was so nice of them! Oh that was such a special day. Birthdays are huge things here. HUGE!!! So it was a little upsetting when my host family f orgot my birthday. Yea… Some people could say maybe it was a culture difference but it wasn’t. Birthdays are very important here. So that made me sad.

On November 21 I went to a SHINee concert! It was amazing. SHINee is a Korean pop group who is really popular out here. The concert was amazing even though it rained. Taiwan audiences are not very great. They don’t get excited easy so the crowd is mostly quiet. But it was still nice.

Winter is almost upon us. The weather here is dropping like crazy so be prepared new outbounds! It gets really cold here!!! REALLY COLD IN TAIWAN!

Oi todo mundo! My name is Hannah Hocker and I am spending the next year of my life as an outbound exchange to Brazil. I live in Jacksonville, Florida and I am Junior at Bishop Snyder High School. I am the baby of the family at 16 years old, with five older siblings and 3 nieces. My brothers and sisters are all currently attending college or have already graduated, so I live as an only child at home with my mom.

 I spend most of my time painting and modeling and I play softball.  I visit Nicaragua each summer to further deepen my love for traveling. I am almost fluent in Spanish, so Portuguese is a wonderful, new obstacle life has recently thrown at me and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Every now and then, you need a change of scenery to get out of your normal routine and Brazil will be a great way to open my eyes to new experiences.

My mom and I have a close relationship and she was fearful of my going abroad but now that it has sunk in, she realizes that God wouldn’t give me anything I can’t handle. I would like to thank my best friend Nikki Frechette and Bishop Snyder’s Interact advisor and Geometry teacher Mrs. Carroll for motivating me to participate in a year abroad and for providing me with the tools necessary to fulfill this opportunity. Without these two influences, I would still be simply daydreaming of schooling overseas. I was very excited to find out that I am hosting Mads Hoxbro, a student from Denmark, for the next few months. This will help me to learn more about the exchange program and see how it works from another student’s perspective. Many people, students and adults, that I’ve informed about my journey encouraged me to rethink my decision considering I will be gone for my senior year, but I know that it will be much more memorable to be submerged into a fresh culture in the long-run. I’ve learned to trust in myself and not other’s opinions.

Thank you so much Rotary for making this once in a lifetime chance attainable. I don’t know what to expect, but whatever it is, I know it’s going to be spectacular.

Today is October 4th, 2011, exactly two months since I arrived, so I figured it was time to check in. A lot has changed, probably me more than anything else. I have grown up. I have learned to open up immensely but also to hold back depending on the person and your relationship with them. I have learned that back home is not being held on pause and you cannot be a source of advice or assistance when you are miles away. You need to live in the moment here because you will never have it again. I have learned who to trust and what to trust them with. I have learned that crying does nothing for you. I have learned that no matter how much you want to squeeze your pride close to you, you need to go through embarrassments, humiliation, and language struggles if you truly need something or need to ask a question. I’ve learned if you laugh through language barriers and stay optimistic, people will give you as much patience as they can and as much time as you need.

I am not going to lie, I have had some days when I wake up, look out my window over my entire city and ask “Why in the world am I in Brasil? How am I even here?” Other days I will just be in the car on a long drive and catch a glimpse of a valley or large mountain and just go into shock thinking “Right now, geographically, I am IN Brasil, and I will be for another 9 months.” It’s a bittersweet feeling, but I love it.

Ending and Beginning

I can’t even really recall leaving. It was a blur. Two weeks before, I had to endure the hardship of saying goodbye to my exchange student Mads when he returned to Denmark. If I thought that was one of the hardest moments ever, I had no idea what was coming in two weeks. It seems now like I could mesh the two goodbyes together they were so close.

I probably did the worst preparing as an outbound. I feel safe to say this now that I am surviving and loving every single day of my life in my host country. I did not study up much on the language, I forgot my blazer before my farewell Rotary meeting and had to return home to retrieve it from my closet, and I packed for Brasil the day before I left. Yes. This is true. I feel like I didn’t sleep the night before, and in what seemed like 2 hours, I was awake, dressed, in the airport, bags checked, and accompanied by my mom, brother, and very close friends, making my way towards the last sight I wanted to see, security. In a very quick amount of time, we ate Burger King. Well I think only I did because I was starving, anxious, and wanted a good final meal in the US. Saying goodbye went by so fast but I clearly remember the embrace with my mom and best friend Nikki Frechette. The three of us were very close and hugged for 3 minutes.

After security I realized I was uncontrollably shaking and started crying hysterically. It came out of nowhere. I traveled from 11am to 6am the next day. The second plane (a 10 hour plane ride) was a red eye but I didn’t sleep one minute of my travels. Part of this may have been because there were approximately 130 screaming, chanting, and singing Brasilian kids my age returning from a Disney tour in Orlando. After entering the airport and greeting my family (my 2 host sisters and my father) we went shopping all day. This was my first impression of Brasil and I did not like it. Eighty reais for a tank top? Not happening. I then decided right then and there I will suffer through my year with the clothing I packed.

School

School started for me the week after I arrived. I was greeted my first day with hugs and kisses from everyone, and I mean everyone. I became very very quickly acquainted on my first day with my current great group of friends. They thought it was funny to introduce me to all of my teachers as Hannah Montana. School was my first really large culture shock. It is daily from 7am-12:50am. We have three 45 minute classes, a 20 minute snack break, four more 45 minute classes, and then dismissal. Cell phones, cameras, and iPods are all allowed during class. No one really listens to the teacher. There is no mandatory homework, no grading system, and exchange students are asked to sit in the hall during tests. The desks are never in the same formation for more than 1 hour. The uniform consists of sweat pants or spandex capris with the school tee shirt and any sneakers. All of the city’s schools are right next door to each other as well.

House/Family

My first host family lives in an apartment. There are 5 floors and 2 apartments on each floor. We live on the 5th and there is no elevator. The house is far from school and I walk home most days. I love this because when I am eating the extremely fattening Brasil foods, I justify this by telling myself “But you walk home every day, you will work it off.” (Trust me, this is not true.) My host sister, Maria Beatriz is my best friend. She is 16 and is scarily my twin. Everyone in the town knows her as Tiz for short. (This in Portuguese is pronounced “cheese”.) She takes me to all of her parties and I have become very close with all of her friends. I thank her and give her much credit for this because I know it is not easy to have a tag-a-long who always needs an explanation to go with her since she looks nothing like the natives. Margarete is my host mom and her husband is Renato, Tiz’s stepdad. Renato is the Rotarian of the family. Pietro is my three year old host brother. Despite him dumping a gallon of rice in Tiz’s and my bedroom and then using my uniform pants to sweep it all around, or constantly running in my room and pushing the power button on my laptop during a skype session, he is the best. I love him. My father owns a construction company and is at work or on work calls often and travels a lot.

Friends/People

Besides the weekend parties, during the week, there are always churrascos (barbeques). At the churrascos, you will find so much meat being cooked and if you literally blink, it is gone. I have probably had 2 bites total since I have been here. There are also often a lot of Quince Anos which is a fifteenth birthday. These parties are very expensive and extravagant. Once in a while, there are class parties as well. I have my good circle at school which I mentioned before who took me in immediately and we are very close now. Their names are: Thais, Thaina, Pitu, Bruno, and Igor. My 2 best friends, who are also inbounds (Victoria from Pennsylvania and Rebecca from South Africa) are always with me after school or on the weekends.

Adaptions/Differences

The clothing here is very humorous. English is on almost everything and it is rarely spelled correctly or it has very stupid phrases. I have seen “Michael Jackson is not dead.”, “Kama Sutra”, and “Fashin and Glamur.” The minute you walk into a store, the employees are breathing down your neck, literally. If you pick up one item, they will start opening their inventory and shoving 6 others that have a similar style in your face. If you go into a dressing room, they will feed you articles of clothing that you didn’t even look at. Another difference that I had to answer many questions about is this concept of wearing a ring on your right ring finger. This in Brasil automatically says you are in a relationship and not available. My class ring makes my “boyfriend” that I have look real rich.

Nail polish is a necessity here, make-up is not. My mom quickly told me my nails were ugly and changed that fast. Appearance is very big here with teenagers. You’re rich if you own: Nike Shox, Gap, Hollister, Kipling, or Coca Cola clothing. This made me laugh because the majority of the above with the exception of Hollister are not flattering or “in style” with kids my age. They love their school supplies too. Pencil bags, notebooks, the whole nine yards. They are designed with things I had in 2nd grade but they love it here, girls and boys.

Road Rules are ridiculously different and shocking. They have lines on the pavement and seatbelts in the cars but neglect to use either. Red lights and stop signs are barely a tap of the brakes and turn signals are never used. Speed bumps are every thirty yards, but the same as red lights, you don’t slow down for them. All streets are one way and all cars are stick shift. The horn is your best friend and you will use it approximately 80 times per day.

I think adjusting to the language was extremely and surprisingly easy. I spoke none before arriving and I learned quickly with my sister’s iPhone translator, gestures, and charades. Now I can have conversations and do daily things like check out of a pharmacy or ask where some place is. I have yet to dream in Portuguese, but all in good time. It may have helped to study beforehand but it never stuck when I tried and I don’t regret it because submersion is still the best and fastest way to learn.

Food

Everywhere you look, you will find cheeses, breads, and Brigadeiro (the amazing chocolate dessert here. It is unexplainable.) My family has fruit in the house but I rarely see it in cafés. There are never vegetables but always French fries or potato chip sticks. My favorite meal is the Stroganoff with chicken. I could eat it everyday. Milk and eggs do not need to be kept in a refrigerator. This has not settled with me yet and I think I will hold out on eating each for the year.

Rotary

Jeans are dressy at the meetings and activities here. No one wears a suit or dress. My club has many service projects and activities or lunches. Everyone you see is a Rotarian and every adolescent I know in my town has been, will be, or wants to be a Rotary Youth Exchange student.

Activities/Daily Routine

Daily after school, I go eat with my family and then either head home or go back out with Rebecca and Victoria (the other inbounds). We usually go to Cravo e Canela Café and/or the shopping avenue.

I am a member at the local gym, which is very different from the Navy base gym I use to attend in Jacksonville. It is like a vacation getaway here. It has a bar, a barbeque restaurant, a snack bar, indoor and outdoor pools, indoor and outdoor soccer, tennis courts, a kids equivalent to Chuck e. Cheese, indoor and outdoor volleyball courts, and spas. It is very highly secured as well, I have to give my finger print to enter any area. Soon, I am going to begin swimming training and tennis lessons.

Nostalgias

I’ve always stuck with the belief that God does not give you what you cannot handle and thought this to be true so far on my exchange until Homecoming week hit back home one week ago. Only after seeing pictures did it hit me that my senior class is living and breathing “Senior” every day, walking my school’s hallways, in and out of classes, going to lunches and extra-curricular activities without me with them and all I can do is watch through photographs. This is by far the hardest part of my exchange. Scents and music are the little helpers, or best friends if you will, of my nostalgias. Often, I get a familiar scent and crave food from back home. I think I miss certain places and atmospheres more than people sometimes. One always has memories with songs as well and this makes it very difficult. I hear a certain song and it triggers a place and a person or people. Hopefully these pass in time.

Funny Incidents:

As I exited customs upon entering Brazil, I recognized my sisters from facebook and hugged my father only to find he was not my father but a mere stranger who was also suddenly flabbergasted that a crazy American girl was embracing him like family. After which I noticed my father on a business call a few feet away.

The week of my second month in Brasil, I realized there were identical twins in my class that all along I had thought were one boy.

One day while walking home from school, a man pulled over and yelled “Nossa, voce e Americana!” upon which I started walking very fast away and panicking inside. As I approached my apartment building I recognized the same man standing outside the door by his car with a to go bag. It then hit me that my father had sent an employee out to pick up lunch for my sister and I and was simply trying to deliver. The worst part was just then I remembered my father telling me to wait outside school for a driver to give me Tiz and my lunch. Poor man.

This is all for now. I couldn’t have asked for a better host country and cannot wait to see what God has in store for me throughout the rest of my year. I am so thankful that this was handed to me one year ago and saying a simple thank you to Rotary is nowhere near enough, but it is all I can give for now. Thank you so very deeply to all of the people who are making this experience possible.

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Today is December 4th, 2011, therefore marking my first 4 months in Brazil. I reread that sentence over and over and am so engulfed in astonishment and awe at how crazy it feels. Sometimes it feels like a year, sometimes 2 weeks, but the feeling of accomplishment for surpassing 4 months and the urge and yearning to continuously learn more is over-powering. If you lay my whole year out on a timeline, you could say I am just about half-way done. This horrifies me so much to think about. Four months down, Christmas tapping me on the shoulder, and then 5 months before I temporarily pause my foreign friendships and Brazilian life to return home. I will not use the word “end” because I plan on returning, more than once. It will never be over.

When I attended my final Rotary meeting in Jacksonville, I gave my farewell speech encompassing the idea of exchange being compared to a roller coaster. I explained (in a much shorter description since my president asked me to keep it short to fit the time slot) that you buckle into your seat, mentally and physically preparing to leave your foundation on the ground. As you slow your breathing, try to relax your body, and fix your flaws like hair in your face or nervous shaking in your palms, you imagine what you are about to experience. Once you’re strapped in, there’s no turning back, you just need to trust your foundation holding you there to introduce you to these new found twists and turns, maybe even several drops. There will be drops you don’t like, straight distances of just track where you’re asking “What’s next? This is dragging on”, twists you never expected in a million years, and corkscrews you wish you could reverse and do all over again. Once you have finished your run through, you are still so exasperated about what you just experienced that there are no words. After the cooling down time passes, you set your opinion into stone and wish you could go strap in again. Finally, once you’re ready to move on to other rides, you have the memories you will hold dear forever and tell to future riders.

Well in 4 short, very fast moving months, I have been so thankful to be on such a phenomenal coaster. I’ve been praised, scolded, interrogated, moved to my second house, and taught. Learning, learning, learning. I feel like in 4 months, I have aged 6 years. One month ago, I moved into my second family’s home. I am in love. My house is so relaxing and chilled out. I can take naps on the living room couch, peacefully play piano, sleep or read a book in the outdoor hammock, ride my bike around the city, or even grab the city bus into town with a bus stop literally right in my front yard. I have 2 dogs, a Greyhound and a Dalmatian, both which have created great bonds with me. I have 2 siblings, 9 year old Leonardo (Leo) and 7 year old Natalia (Nati). My parents are Marcos and Renata; both young, fun, and very musically oriented. We even have an outdoor “hang-out room” with a drumset, a row of different types of guitars, tambourines, and many other cool intsruments. My father works in the children’s intensive care unit as a surgeon and my mother is a professor at the college UNESP in the forest, nature, and flora and fauna field.

School has let out for summer break so I am very lucky to get to sleep in and casually go to the gym by bus at whatever hour I feel. In 6 days, my mother will arrive for the halfway mark of my journey. We will spend time in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and my city of Botucatu. She is only coming for 9 days which is actually great because it is right before Christmas.

I feel that I have definitely hit the stage where I am asking “Where did the progression go? Where is my improvement?” but it was bound to hit and all I have to do is keep working and keep conversing with natives, focusing on what words I didn’t know yesterday that I do today. I’ve come to the realization that I have also begun to fit in which in most cases in life, this is wonderful, but on exchange it means the exotic, new, interesting foreign girl is not so interesting anymore. She is steadily speaking our language and we are out of questions. This causes a very difficult wall to break down when it comes to asking to go out together, suggesting to spend the night at each other’s houses, and entering into very fast, slang-filled conversations that do not include you. I will say that it has become very easy to manage though. I can communicate well enough to buy minutes for my phone, purchase clothing, get groceries or lunch, or ask when the last bus past on my own. I have even had one or two interesting conversations at the bus stop, Forrest Gump style.

I still love my country here and believe it is ever-changing every day. I will never want to go home, but I have sunk in. I have become a resident of this wonderful city. I have changed even though I do not see it yet. And I have learned and become a better person. Thank you, Rotary. I can’t go a day without thinking where I’d be in the United States right now just dreaming of this adventure without your help.

Happy Holidays everyone.

February 7, 2012

It is February 4th so it’s time for my 6 month mark. Unbelievable. Half a year away from home. Concluding my US life and embarking feels like yesterday, so how in the world has 6 months past here in Botocatu, Sao Paulo, Brazil? I can’t wrap my head around it. At this point, it is all about transitioning. Things are changing. Don’t get me started on the seasons changing because I cannot even walk a block without dripping sweat. But that is the slightest of changes occurring. I have definitely come in and out, depending on the day, of homesickness, but halfway through you have mixed feelings the worst. Most kids will say I never want to leave or I am never going home, but I am much more logical than that. I look forward to going home. I look forward to telling my story. Soon after I return home, I will be shifting my life completely and changing everything I have ever known as I move to Europe. Not on exchange, but as the next step in my lifelong journey towards my destination. In a way, I am very excited to get home. Then there is the feeling of vomiting repeatedly and crying buckets when I think about leaving everything I have learned to love, learned to hate, and learned to accept. I will have to pack up and leave everyone I met.

Since we have past into 2012, the foreign friends I have made has changed. Iny my city, I had 2 best friends, Victoria from Pennsylvania and Rebecca from South Africa. South Africa exchanges January to January, so Rebecca left us. It was very difficult but soon after, Hudson joined us from Australia. I don’t know what we had done without him all along, but I am so glad we have him in the group now.

Things are currently going very well. I just switched to my THIRD host family. So strange to imagine how much time has passed since my first. This family is so incredible and so perfect, I know there has to be someone out there looking out for me. I live in a two story house on the center of town, I have 2 dogs, I have a swimming pool and huge barbeque kitchen all outback, I have a sauna, I have a balcony off the front of the house, and I have a very young, sweet couple for parents who have the most darling little 2 year old daughter named Maria Eduarda, but we call her Duda.

School has resumed and I am in the equivalent to a US senior class with my best friend Victoria from Pennsylvania so school is more than I could ask for. In the spring I will be going on the month long South Tour to the south of Brazil, Iguassu Falls, and other South American countries. I return to Jacksonville, Florida on June 3rd. I have 4 remaining months and I plan to make them the best months of this year. Thank you so much, Rotary.

April 23, 2012

Well I may be 19 days late here on April 23th, but I hit 8 months on April 4th. The last time I wrote, I skipped Christmas and New Years so I will fill in now. A lot has happened. Since February 4th, I have had my birthday, changes have occurred at school, I have gone on a trip, and I just moved to my final family.

I have definitely done my fair share of traveling around Brazil. The week before Christmas, my mom came to visit for 10 days. I met her in Sao Paulo where we toured for 2 days before flying off to Rio de Janeiro for 4 relaxing days in the sun on Copacabana beach. After visiting Pao de Acucar and Christ the Redeemer, we flew back to my city and stayed for 4 days to spend time with my friends and family here in Botucatu and to show my mom what and where I have spent my time for the 5 months before. Sooner than I hoped, her trip ended and my family was taking me right back to Rio for New Years. We spent 15 days there and it was wonderful.

My birthday came on March 9th and I had a wonderful celebration from my friends at school then a nice dinner with Victoria and Hudson that evening. The week after, Victoria and I were moved down a grade because of overflow on student capacity in our grade, so we were placed into second year. Again. We have managed just fine though.

March 23rd, I took a bus to Aracatuba to begin the South Trip. Here, I met with 10 others and we headed to Foz do Iguassu. There we met more and our first part of the trip group was around 20 people. We went to the waterfalls on the Argentina and Brazil sides (even in a boat under the falls) and we went shopping on the streets of Paraguay as well. Then we moved on to the southern cities of Brazil consisting of Curitiba, Florianopolis, Gramado, Canela, and Porto Alegre. We did very many tours and sight saw everywhere. In Curitiba, we had museums and gardens. In Florianopolis, we went to the beaches and shopping. In Canela, we went to parks and German bakeries. In Gramado, we went to chocolate factories and vineyards. Porto Alegre is where we met the last group of newcomers for the South Trip. Here we became 35. With this amazing group of unforgettable people, we went to Montevideo Uruguay, Punta Del Este, Uruguay, and Bueno Aires, Argentina. This was my favorite part of the tr ip. I made phenomenal new friends and saw astonishing places I wish I never had to leave. On April 15th, the trip ended in Aracatuba and I spent the weekend there with my new friends.

Now I am back here settling in again and 3 days ago I just moved to my last host family. They are wonderful. I have a 14 year old sister Isabella and wonderful parents Carla and Renaldo. Renaldo is the president of my club. I have 2 dogs and a brother Arthur as well but he is currently exchanging in Pennsylvania. I will live with this family for approximately a month until I go home. It pains me and even makes me feel sick to think of leaving this incredible place. I have made so many friends, memories, mistakes, repairs, and much much more. I want to stay forever but I know that isn’t logical. I am comforted by the fact I know I can always come back. No one is disappearing off of the Earth, I am just going home. Everyone will just continue living and if I ever feel that I miss them terribly, I can see them with a little money and time spent traveling. The people I have met and places I have seen will always be forever in my heart.

Gutentag!

My name is Jeremy Neal, I am 17 years old and am currently a senior at New World School of the Arts High School in downtown Miami, Florida. I have been studying percussion there for the past 3 years and have acquired an immense amount of knowledge through both my school and my friends. I love to skateboard, listen to dubstep, and throw myself into the unknown. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to visit far off lands and experience all there possibly is in order to connect with everything this Earth has to offer. Now I wait with mounting anticipation for one of the most important years of my life: the chance to live abroad in Germany for ONE WHOLE YEAR!!!! Just going around my house poking around in my German-English dictionary has filled me with both anxiety AND ecstatic joy! My goal is to learn an entire page of German each day up until my actual departure.

I must say that for a while the application process for Rotary wasn’t easy. However, after completing my application, making it through my interview alive, and talking in front of my entire sponsor club I’ve realized that it was 100% worth it! I feel as if the Rotary Youth Exchange has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Therefore, I would like to thank the Rotary Club a thousand times over for providing me with the opportunity of a lifetime.

I can feel myself turning a new page in my life as I prepare for an unknown culture vastly different from anything I could possibly imagine. I will be terrified, overjoyed, lonely, and isolated for who knows how long. What I do know, though, is that with every step I take in a new direction I accept into my life confidence, security, and an appreciation for all that is different.

First Impressions

Ok so today is October 22, 2011 and I have officially been in Germany for about 6 weeks now. When I found out I was going to Germany I thought I would have a pretty good idea about how life would pan out in my first couple months. As it turns out I was actually right in some of my assumptions but in the area’s I hadn’t anticipated, boy oh boy was I WRONG! Of course at first “it was all a dream come true”, “an absolute vacation”, and “the most amazing experience I was to ever have” (yea I might be poking a little fun at what I’ve seen in the other journals). But I WAS having a blast! I was going out to play “Fussball” with all my host brother’s friends around the neighborhood every day, which consisted of about 5-6 guys and two girls. There were still two weeks of summer left before school started and it was even hot back then (not like it is now, haha… ha… rofl…… lol…… It’s cold!). We went to the outside pool and laid out in the sun playing more and more fussball (soccer, I just can’t seem to get enough of it). But as the weeks slowly rolled by I realized I was starting to catch sight of a problem that was only going to get bigger and more depressing the longer I tried to ignore it, “the language”!!

School

Sure the first day of school was amazing! With every single girl turning her head to get a good look at “the new kid” who apparently for some reason looks like Edward Cullen (I swear I’m not kidding, I have been addressed as Edward Cullen and asked for my autograph at school. All the guys were even encouraging me to do it) but I decided I was a bit too modest and politely refused they’re advances. How could I not enjoy myself though? I was basking in all the attention being directed at me and it was quite enjoyable, like soaking up the warm rays of the sun. But of course, most unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and I became less and less interesting once my fellow classmates realized they couldn’t easily carry out a conversation with me in GERMAN. So I decided to grab hold of my resolve and plunge into the extremely delicate, confusing, and complicated language of Deutsch, and thus far I’d say I’m doing pretty darn well. After only 6 weeks I feel very confident in my ability to carry out a basic conversation in German with any German individual, provided that individual speaks slowly and coherently in order for me to understand. The experience I must say has been thoroughly enlightening.

Mental Picture

In order to put it in perspective imagine you were a monkey and wanted to go live for a year with a family of Gorilla’s (of course they’re friendly Gorilla’s that are loving and supportive ). At first it’s all fun and exciting but every now and then you get the idea that those Gorilla’s are saying bad thing’s behind your back and after a while your little monkey self wants to understand what’s really going on. So he works his butt off speaking to those Gorillas’ all day every day until a steady bond of love, trust, and respect is established. Yea that’s pretty much my first 6 weeks in a nutshell, haha.

Recap

As of today I have gone to Nuremburg to witness the Red Bull BMX World Championship, Ridden a train through the beautiful countryside to the phenomenal city of Stuttgart, visited a famous torture museum in Ansbach, and sailed the Croatian coast for 8 days in a southern tour of its beautiful Islands. I have grasped a basic understanding of German with absolutely no prior knowledge of the language other than 3-4 two hour crash courses with a neighborhood friend (Ken if you’re reading this you’re the best), and am now within a month of fluency. I can already see how this year is going to change me, how it’s going to help me establish and independence and sense of efficiency far beyond my average years. This program is above all other things………. Selfless. Thanks to all. I bid you a de.

January 24, 2012

Ok so today is January 24th and I have been in Germany for almost 6 months now. Half the exchange is over (the HARD half) and I’m pretty much just settling in for the ride right now. People were absolutely right when they said this was going to be a roller coaster. The first 6 months were absolutely, without a doubt, me riding up and up, the pressure building and building before finally releasing into the downward plunge, an easy ride back to home base. So naturally right now in Heidenheim everythings been great. I mean of course I miss my family and everything but my host family at the moment is a dream come true and I get to stay with them till around the middle of April.

School’s mostly boring at the moment because I have to sit through a ton of classes without really understanding them. I’ve been through my share of tough times over here as well. When I was prepared for this exchange I had no idea what I was walking into. I mean sure a lot of the time I was having a blast, but for a period of about 2 months I was battling with a host family and dealing with minor depression in the midst of my every day of life. One major factor I had no idea was going to have such a huge affect on me was the absence of the sun. At first I thought it was nothing and that I could deal with it, but after about a month of weather that was mostly cloudy, cold, and rainy I started to get real with how I really felt. People who are in a constant state of sunshine (aka people who live in Miami) can be subject to depression from lack of sunlight. Its a real thing, and I learned it first hand. But after a while I found outlets for myself to start putting all my energy, and in a sense retreat inward for a while.

I read a lot and just kept trying to make more and more friends, integrating myself more deeply into the social network of my small town. No small easy task, and the key….. learning German. It took me a while but I just kept at it until I actually started getting feedback from my friends and teachers. That I was getting a lot better and that my German was quite good for only beginning to learn and speak it since September. On a more somber note, however, there’s always gonna be some problems that stay consistent throughout an exchange, regardless of all the good things going on. In that regard let me just say that some people lead themselves onto self destructive paths that tend to center on their respective ego’s and there’s nothing I can do about that. I can’t change the way a person thinks… and trust me I’ve tried. Other than that its been absolutely beautiful outside the past week with all the snow coming down in my area. Couple that with the sun and its an absolute winter wonderland over here, which definitely comes as somewhat of a shock to someone who has practically never know snow his whole life.

So yea just to wrap things up I’ve been trying hard to focus on the better aspects of life right now and keeping things real with who and what I am. Being truthful with my friends and more importantly myself has been quite an inward, self-discovering journey that at first I was afraid and quite unsure of, but am now wholly committed to. I’m keeping a journal that I started around Christmas time. Its quite a testament to my life and experiences over here in Germany. I hope that someday if I happen to have a kid of my own that goes on exchange, I can pass it on to him just as my father passed his on to me. Its a powerful thing a journal. Much more powerful than I had previously thought. I hope other exchanges might consider starting one because trust me it guided me through the dark days and led me into the light of a new exchange, a new experience, a new me.

Every year Rotary has come to my school and given a presentation on their youth exchange program and every year I have told myself to apply. This year I finally stopped contemplating and filled out the program application. And I am very happy I did because I will be going to Hungary for my senior year!

While school takes up the majority of my time, in terms of hobbies, I enjoy anything having to do with tennis, whether it be playing or watching, baking, though only deserts, because when I try to cook, the food usually burns, reading, watching movies, listening to music, and spending time with my family and friends. I also enjoy visiting my sister and brother- in- law in New York City a few times each year (this year’s visits included a week-long pastry making class and attending the US Open).

I love traveling and have been to several countries outside the US with my mom (including the UK and Italy). I enjoy learning about other countries, their histories and their cultures. I am so grateful that I have been given this incredible opportunity to learn not only about a new culture but even more about myself. I know this experience will shape many decisions I make in my life going forward. So thank you so much Rotary for what is sure to be an incredibly difficult, but rewarding once in a lifetime experience.

September 24, 2011

I arrived in Hungary a day short of a month ago. Acknowledging this also meant it was time for me to write a journal, my first journal to be exact and I’ve been staring at my computer screen for about an hour now trying to figure out how to start it, so this will just have to do…

My flights from Jacksonville to Atlanta to Amsterdam to Budapest were really easy, while only one delayed flight and even then it was only for about half an hour and we were already on the plane. I didn’t learn how easy they were until I arrived in Hungary and Nicole, another exchange student in Szeged from California, told me about her flights which unexpectedly included an eighteen hour layover in JFK, which I guess is a future caution to never fly internationally (or domestically) through JFK.

My first weekend here, I went to Dabas with my YEO, his wife, brother- in-law, and Raymond, one of the other exchange students in Szeged from Taiwan, for a small fish soup festival. There I also met some other inbounds from who are currently live in Kecskemét. It was my first time trying fish soup, but I was told it was solely for preparation of the fish soup festival that happens in Szeged every year. This brings me to the following weekend, when the exchange students from Pécs, Dabas, Kecskemét, and Szeged gathered with the Rotary club in Szeged for the festival. Although you would think that there would be little difference in fish soups, that not true, and the one we had in Szeged was just a little bit better, maybe it was the fact that there were no fish eggs in it, I’m not sure.

School here is a bit confusing, but as I’m in mostly English, Spanish, and PE classes, it’s not too bad, though at times I am honestly surprised when I walk into the halls and hear Hungarian. My school, which I’m told is the best in the city, is located just outside of the city center, so whenever we get out early Nicole and I walk around a bit and explore some.

My favorite night so far in Hungary came about a week and a half ago, when my Rotary club took Nicole, Sami (exchange student from Argentina), and I to Serbia for one of their parties. It may seem random that we’d go to Serbia for a party, but as it was less than an hour bus ride (including crossing the border) it wasn’t that unusual. While in Serbia, I watched some traditional Hungarian dances, and learned a bit myself, had dinner and a tiny bite of what was described to me as “Bambi” and a dessert filled with poppy seeds.

I have gotten used to a sort of weekend schedule, at least one for Sundays: the whole family (including my host aunt, her family, and the exchange student they are hosting) go to my host grandparents house for lunch, which actually really convenient seeing at we all live within a three house radius of one another. Sunday afternoons are when the fun really begins, either my host family or host aunt have a Ping Pong Party at their house. Neighbors and friends come over for a few hours to play multiple tournaments of doubles ping pong.

Last weekend, I spent the night at Nicole’s house where we made chocolate chip cookies for her host family. Needless to say they were a success and were almost gone by the next morning. I don’t know if chocolate chips are sold in Hungary, but Nicole’s host mom declared that if they are sold somewhere, she will find them.

My host family here is really great. I get along really well with my host sisters (Lili and Réka) and I end up getting most of my Hungarian help from them. My host parents remind me a lot of my parents back home, which has made it a lot easier to adjust here. Most times during the week, I end up watching either Game of Thrones with my host parents, or Desperate Housewives with my younger host sister Réka. Both of which are dubbed in Hungarian, so it makes following the shows a bit difficult, but when we walk movies there are usually English subtitles for me to be able to follow.

It may sounds weird, but at times I forget that I’m in the middle of Europe, in a country that speaks one of the most difficult languages in the world, but then you notice things like:

• Stoplights don’t just go from red to green, then go from red to red and yellow, then to green.

• At school you stand up when the teacher comes into the room.

• There is no lunch break at school, only a twenty minute break at eleven, but people are constantly eating throughout the day.

• You take the city bus to school; something I think is much better, if you miss one another comes ten minutes later.

• Ping Pong and foosball are everywhere

Although this past month has not been easy, it has been amazing. So thank you to my family and Florida Rotary!

Olá!

My name is Mackenzie Teek and I am not your average Freshman. Later this 2011 year I will be spending 10 to 12 months in Brazil. Now most people might have never thought about ever leaving their comfortable American lives to go spend a year in a different country, and even more terrifying where you don’t speak the language, and for all I know I might be kidnapped and forced to harvest mangoes for the rest of my life. But to tell you the truth I crave this type of adventure more than anything.

To begin with, I am fourteen year old girl, I am 5 foot 11 and I have an afro which adds to the height. I live in quiet suburban Tallahassee where the most interesting thing that happens on a day to day basis is the mailman coming. I enjoy chilling with friends, long boarding, playing golf, being a dweeb , going on adventures, making up songs that make no sense, trying new foods and sleeping. I like reggae music and I hate wearing pants, if I could I would wear shorts and tank tops year round. I have a younger sister named Veronica; she was adopted from Foshan, China. When I was 4, we went over to China to adopt her because for some reason they don’t ship children internationally. I was adopted from Boca Raton, Florida. My mom’s name is Patti and my dad’s name is Dave and like any parent they want this for me but they don’t want me to leave.

I first found out about RYE through Larry DiPietro who is officially the coolest guy ever. He came to my high school and did a few slide show presentations. I was pumped to start. What I thought was a few applications was much more and I realized this would be the biggest event to happen in my life so far. But as soon as I knew it, I was being glared at by a panel of 10 judges or should I say firing squad, to determine if I was fit for this program.

Finally , after 6 clementines, a tall glass of root beer, long walks with my best friend, and even trying to Google the answer, I have yet to find one reason, simply because I have too many. But as I travel farther into my journey the real reasons come in and out and a basic answer is why not? I have one life I want to find out who I am before I am too old.

So today marks my first four weeks in Brasil, and I can already say I feel like I have been here a lot longer. To be able to wake up to the sound of parrots, futebol, and the ocean itself feels surreal, but surely enough I am enjoying my time here. But a lot more has happened in 14 days than one can sum up in a few sentences, so here we go!

THE JOURNEY

It was the day that I had anticipated and prepared for, for the past 8 months, and finally it was here.  I put on my snazzy navy blue Rotary blazer and transformed into ‘Mackenzie Teek: Exchange Student’, not to mention my pure white pants also went well with the overall look.  Before I knew it I was at the fabulous Tallahassee Airport; bags checked and saying goodbye to my best friends Hunter and Amber and some cool kids from D6940 (Amber gets the pepper next guys). As I made my way to security I had to also say goodbye to my little sister and dad as my mom was the only allowed coming through security with me.  And after a short wait my mom and I had to say our goodbyes, which was probably the hardest moment in my life so far. But that was the moment I like to say was ‘child to adult’. I felt like I had grown up more in those seconds boarding the plane than I had in my 15 years. It was like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders, I was finally going.

BRASIL

So I made it. Alive, happy and tired…let the exchange begin! My host city Joao Pessoa in the state of Paraiba is the most eastern point of all the Americas it is said to be where the sun rises first. My apartment is located in the Cabo Branco district, and the beach is across the street. As for my host family, to them I am a giant; I am the tallest person in the house. I have a host mother, two brothers, grandmother and sister who will be departing to Canada on her exchange soon.

My first few days were spent getting to know the house and the city, I went surfing  with my host brother, hung out with some other ‘intercambistas’,  went to a Brasilian lunch party at my host brother’s godmother’s house (here family is family) , enjoyed my new favorite food couscous cakes and drank agua de coco on the beach.

SCHOOL

After a first weekend of adventure, Monday came around the corner and it was time to purchase a uniform for school the next day. Now I will say under the exchange code that Brasilian school is not good it is not bad…it is different. Though in very simplistic classrooms with white walls school itself is an adventure. The kids sing, shout and dance as do the teachers. Even though the curriculum seems to be very difficult and intense, people here seem to have a lot of fun during school. Compared to classes in the U.S., the students do not switch to other classes but the teachers do, so a group of 30-40 students have the same schedule which is done by block so no two days are alike. Every day during my first week I was surrounded by people asking questions about the U.S. and myself. Like “do you know Lady Gaga”? Or when they told me that this one boy was pregnant.  Though it will take some time to get used to, I am enjoying school very much.

OUT AND ABOUT

So far I have gone to Campina Grande twice, the only mountains where I have seen palm trees present. Tried every food given and only disliked one. Gone to the mall multiple times. Went to the police station to register and not allowed to enter because I wasn’t wearing pants, went again a few days later with pants on and still not allowed in because the officers “were tired”. Gone to multiple family party/dinner things. Chilled with other exchange students. Taken the hardest test of my life IN PORTUGUESE.  Went down a mountain on a bike made for a 7 year old. Fell off of a bike made for a 7 year old going down a mountain. Seen many speedos. Horse drawn wagons in the middle of the road with cars. Saw Smurfs and it was still an awful movie even in Brasilian Portuguese.

I start theatre, xilogravura (art printing) and exercise classes (to work off my Brasilian food baby) this week.

LANGUAGE

The first few days I was here I found that I was learning vocabulary words quickly. NOW I WISH I HAD SPENT MORE TIME LEARNING MY LANGUAGE. I can hold a small conversation, answer some questions and ask a few questions. Learning a new language coming from English as a first and only makes it harder.  I wouldn’t say I am “In the dark” as we were told we would be at first, but I think it is more like being behind a two-way mirror. Sometimes only you can see out and nobody can see in or EVERYBODY can see you but you can’t see them.  But thankfully my host family is very helpful with learning the language; they aren’t afraid to correct or quiz me but at the same time encourage and are patient when I learn something new.  On the other hand I think the worst part about not being fluent is the inability to express feelings and understand jokes.

I think the best part of this experience so far is just to be able to say “I am in Brasil”, that itself is the greatest privilege I have ever been given.  Tchau!

Thoughts on Exchange

Today is September 15th. Time is passing so quickly and I am learning so much about everything . I don’t even remember August. It was a blur which in a sense makes me feel like I wasted a month fooling around not getting adjusted. But then again I did do a lot, so it is almost as if I stopped seeing through the eyes of “the tourist” and now finally “the exchange student”. I think back to days where I was frustrated and lonely or just ready to be fluent, but now I look and see that this whole thing is like a flight of stairs and each experience is the next step to the top. But like any staircase if you try to skip steps you take the risk of falling. With that I finally realized that I shouldn’t try to “skip steps” , take my exchange slower, calm down and let it ride even if it means making mistakes, which I shouldn’t be afraid of. For future exchange students, I think in the first few months observance of the language, the people and your actions are very important things to do, you learn about a lot of things you never knew existed.

1st Host Family

I honestly feel lucky to have ended up in the family I am in. They are helpful, supportive, intelligent, very funny and make really good food. I so far have enjoyed my time with them.

These Past Few Weeks

-I can officially say I have activities, I am taking xilogravura on Mondays and Wednesdays but unfortunately the Theatre class was on those days at the same time as well so I went with what I was unfamiliar with. I hope to enroll in a French class because I am slowly losing my two years of previous learning. I also would like to try kite surfing (at my mother’s approval) and Capoeira but who knows, I tend to bounce from activity to activity so the next best thing may appeal to me more.

-I am enjoying school very much so, though understanding what is being taught varies day to day, I LOVE SCHOOL. The kids in my class are very crazy and nice. I have been asked multiple times to read out loud and after each time the class has erupted in applause ,even though I mispronounce some words and read very slow. Everybody in school knows me even if I don’t know them, when I walk into school I get plenty ‘Bom Dia Mackenzie’s. I also have acquired a rainbow of nicknames such as Mackie, Maquina (machine in Portuguese), Quinze (15 in Portuguese), Americana, Mackle and Grorgran (my middle name pronounced in some Brazilian accents) and pretty much any word that sounds even remotely like Mackenzie.

-When out walking, people don’t automatically assume I am from the United States and I don’t exactly meet the characteristics of a gringa ( white skin, blonde hair, blue eyes), so a lot of days people ask me if I am from Africa. This happens in school sometimes as well.

-I went to my first Rotary meeting, in which I gave an impromptu speech that I wrote down on the back of a piece of scrap paper.

-Hung out with friends/went to a party where I sang karaoke…

-I got lost on my way to buy bread at the bakery, a very scary and sweaty experience.

-I dreamt in Portuguese three times, all very strange dreams; each took place in Tallahassee with people from the U.S. , I was naked in each one, and I was bald as well. But hey at least it means my Portuguese is going somewhere.

-I also attended the Inbound Orientation at the gorgeous Maragogi beach or the Brazilian Lake Yale. Except, the food was great, we stayed in awesome bungalows and all of the male Rotarians wore speedos to swim in(yikes). It was nice to spend a weekend with other exchange students who can relate to you. I ate chicken hearts which are DELISH, saw a capoeira show and danced the Forró (badly), I stepped on my dance partner’s feet almost every other step  But it was truly one of the best nights of my life.

-Explained the concept and use of dryer sheets to my host mom and host grandma after my host sister in Canada spoke to them about her crazy host family “Putting napkins in the drying machine”.

-Got yelled at by multiple street vendors.

Differences/Things I noticed

-So many daily actions are done differently. I have really seen the other ways of living, when I never even thought there were other ways to do it.

-Food: Rice, beans and meat : basic Brazilian lunch . The food here is so fresh, every meal I have had here has been delicious (other than the tapioca), I can’t tell if I am gaining weight or losing weight because I am eating so much healthier than I did in Florida, but I am eating more.

-There are a lot more stray cats, dogs and sanguis (monkey/lemur things) , but unfortunately no matter how much I would like a pet sagui , they all have rabies

-People shower more here (2,3 maybe 4 times a day)

-Sometimes, people will just randomly light fireworks on the beach (like the kind they use at Disney), illegal or legal people do it.

-Coffee is served after dinner

-People change clothes a lot more often here but also wear an outfit more than once before washing it

-All people have AT LEAST two cell phones, or two SIM cards

-The bathing suits are smaller than my underwear, my bathing suit bottoms are about the same as the male speedo here

-Don’t drink the tap water, it will end badly.

-You can get a pair of Ray Bans, Harry Potter 7 part 2, a ‘new’ watch, lettuce, if you can name it you can probably buy it from one of the many men selling it on the beach in front of my apartment.

-People almost never touch food with their hands, they use silver wear for most meals and street food is eaten with a napkin.

-Brazilian time is different, if you plan to meet someone at 2:00 then leave the house at 2:15. If you plan on going on a trip and leave right before lunch, you won’t ,you will probably leave at 3:00 . And if class starts 7:00 it really starts at 7:30.

-Traffic Laws are more like Traffic Suggestions, if you’re in a hurry don’t be afraid to create a third lane in the two lane road.

-The cross walks don’t have lights, so you go when a car stops for you, which is not guaranteed so sometimes you wait 10 minutes to cross or risk your life.

-The people: most Brazilians have a really cool attitude towards family, friends and life in general.

September 28th

So far this week has been one of the harder ones, I am not homesick and haven’t felt it yet at all, but my favorite activity xilogravura, has ended for the entire year. It kind of gave me a sample of how hard leaving Brazil is going to be even though this was just one thing ending, and if there is a first there will be more. It also made me think that exchange is really just change, you first change countries; then change your family and friends; change your language; change families here (which I am not looking forward to now as I am quite content with mine). And of course the little things like activities, maybe the way you get home, or the type of toothpaste you use. Whatever it is, it is change, and frankly is the only thing that is forever, and especially on exchange where nothing is forever.

Today marks the end of month 2 in Brazil.

This past weekend was great. I went with my host family to the praia da Pipa or Pipa Beach. Pipa, is the most beautiful beach I have ever been to in my entire life, and being a Floridian I have been to many.

October 2nd

So this weekend I went to Recife and Olinda with my host family, we toured the city, saw the gorgeous churches (most over 300 years old), and spent most of my allowance haha . Though I love João Pessoa, weekend trips allow me to taste what the rest of Brazil is like. For example in Recife I saw some of the most expensive apartments in the world (one had a helicopter pad on the top), but mere miles away from the most impoverished favelas. Seeing houses made out of scrap cardboard/sticks/plastic and basically whatever can be found, made me truly see how we really don’t have the same type of poverty/wealth difference in the United States. It is kind of funny, in the U.S. we have so many things that are supposed to make us happy yet we are not very content, when some kids here have to sleep on the concrete or worse. Now this doesn’t mean that all kids in Brazil live in favelas (of course not), I go to a school with literally the richest kids in my city. But it does mean that we really should put all bad situations in our lives into perspective.

Well that is it for now, and if you are a future exchange student considering applying for Brazil, do it. Exchange is everything you think it is, and then again it’s not.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth – Baz Luhrmann

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

November 15, 2011

I have been living in Brazil for 109 days. Wow.

Life here has become, well, life. It would be incorrect to call my life here normal, because it’s not, but it is getting more comfortable. Friday is the first day of summer vacation; no school until January 31st! My Portuguese is slowly getting better, but I still have a good 2 to 3 months before I think I will be fluent.

A Day in the Life

In these blogs we were told to tell our readers more about day to day life than the specific things we have done. So I guess I will take you through a day of being a Rotary Youth Exchange Student in João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil.

On days that I have school, I wake up at 6 to attend school at 7. But regardless of what country you’re in, waking up at 6 a.m. to go to school is still awful. From 7ish to 12ish I am in school. I say ish because here time is never set exactly. I have lunch at home with my host family, which takes about an hour or so. After lunch I generally help clear the table and wash dishes. Depending on the day I may or may not have something to do after school. Some days I go back to school to design class, if not that just taking city walks or having a coconut on the beach. If not that I am probably hanging out with some my other exchange student friends Shankar from Minnesota, Hannah from Germany and Ondrej from the Czech Republic. I really enjoy hanging out with Hannah, Shankar and Ondrej, whether it is getting lost on the bus system or going to random street festivals, we always have fun. Here there are a lot more holidays, so every other week (sometimes more, sometimes less) I have no school one of the days. On the weekends I usually go to the beach for the daytime portion, and at night I go out to eat with school friends, to the cinema, or on special occasions to a concert.

Knowledge

I can take the bus/taxi/ or walk to almost any destination without getting (too) lost. I know which roads aren’t safe to walk on at night, and which parts of town has favelas. I know to not trust/ignore the men on the beach who sell cashews out of pillow cases, especially when they tell you that you’ve got nice teeth. I know where to get the best acai and which sidewalks smell funky. I know now never flash your cell phone out at the beach, or you and your friend may have to track down a thief and buy it back for 250 reais. Finally I know that Rotary in foreign countries aren’t always going to take the same care of you as they would in the U.S. So if it has been 3 months without an allowance and no 2nd host family planned, you need to stop being polite and speak up. Independence feels weird. But it feels nice.

Frustrating Things

-Back in October there was this holiday Dia das Crianças, or Children’s Day where traditionally you are supposed to give a gift to a child. So of course my Rotary Club had a cool service activity for us exchange students. Our job was to buy/collect as many toys as we could and then on Children’s Day we would go to a poor community and give the kids gifts. So we went to the community of Bayeux, a city composed of mostly favelas, but we went to this old gymnasium with about 40 people living inside because their favela had been destroyed by a mudslide. It was intense, it was poverty, it was a different experience. The one thing I really didn’t like (and have felt this since I arrived here), was the wall between rich and poor. My Rotary Club arrived wearing gold watches, designer jeans and sunglasses. While the people we were giving gifts to, were wearing torn, dirty clothes and had next to nothing. The majority of the time the other exchange students and I were told to take pictures and pose with the poor kids. I felt like we were being placed above them. Though it did make the kids happy, I did not feel comfortable with the air that we gave off.

November 29, 2011

Yesterday marked the 4th month. How do I feel? Weird. Every time the 28th rolls around I get this feeling that I am running out of time. So I reevaluate myself, double take on this new life. It makes me sad to think I have to leave this life in a few mere months. But at the same time, I love the feeling of having done/doing things. I like being able to say things that other 15 year olds can’t. Though not to sound boastful…well yeah I am boasting, I am living a tropical paradise for a year how can I not boast?

Language

I feel like I have a bunch of puzzle pieces for Portuguese and right now I am in the process of aligning them. Though I am still missing a few pieces my Portuguese is moving along slowly.

December 2, 2011

I love being an exchange student. I love waking up by the beach. I love how Brazilian streets smell funky. I love how I spend all of my money on açai, my cell phone and my bus pass. I love how I can buy a day trip of snorkeling in the Red Sand Reef for the same price as 2 bottles of Colgate toothpaste. I love how my hair is turning blonde. I love listening to Brazilians argue. I love being able to say I am a Rotary Youth Exchange student.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of accompanying my host mom and her best friend Suelana at a church procession. Now I thought it was just going to be a walk with a few people from their church but it turned out to be 300,000 people walking 14 km up and down mountains. It started at 10 pm and went to 4am. It was pretty awesome.

As for the holidays, I don’t really feel homesick at all yet. Sometimes I feel that I am missing out on certain holiday aspects of the U.S. (making Christmas cookies, putting up the tree etc). My host family is taking me to Brasilia for Christmas and in January I am going to Fortaleza for 10 days. So hopefully being around a lot of people, and touring will keep me distracted.

January 7, 2012

Last time I wrote it was a bit before my Rotary trip to Recife, Christmas time, and my trip to Brasília.

The holidays in general were really awesome and special for me. To start off with my Rotary trip to Recife. Unorganized, crazy, fun. Though Rotary here originally planned to bus us down to Recife on Friday the at 5 am, we didn’t leave until Saturday at 9 am. It was another fun but too short trip with the other exchange students. We went to a several tourist sites during the day Saturday and at night we went to the Christmas party. Well it was quite a funny party as we all were asked to bring a gift to give in the gift exchange. I wasn’t really sure what to get since it was anonnymous. So I just brought one of the jars of peanut butter my mom sent me, hoping it would land in a peanut butter lover’s hands. Well it did, it was actually stolen in the gift giving game 11 times and eventually bought by a homesick American for 40 reais (30 bucks) .

On December 18th my host family and I flew to Brasília to my host mother’s cousin Sylvia’s house; where we would be staying for the next 10 days. Now first of all I am living in João Pessoa which has the climate of a tropical paradise. Living in João Pessoa is like living in a sweaty armpit. So I of course brought majorly shorts and tank tops only to find that Brasília is freezing. But fortunately my host cousins lent me multiple jackets and sweaters. When I arrived in Brasília I was greeted by my host uncle Guillherme, host aunt Sylvia and host cousins Marina (19), Luisa (15) and Pedro (8). It was like going on a double vacation. Every day we woke up at noon (in which I am usually used to waking up at 7 am or 8 am because it gets too hot to sleep after that in João Pessoa). We toured the city of Brasília which in my opinion wasn´t that naturally beautiful , but more architecturally beautiful. And since it w as the season to be jolly almost every other night there was a Christmas party at some relatives’ houses. The biggest party was held on Christmas Eve and started at 9 pm and ended at 4 am. Nobody really gave or received gifts, the biggest gift was being able to be there with such a large happy family. I really enjoyed it. But on Christmas day we just chilled and had a lunch. For Christmas dinner I ate chocolate pizza for the first time haha.

The best thing I gained from this trip was so much more than I imagined. Over the course of these 10 days I became very close with my host cousins Marina and Lú. When I had to go back to João Pessoa we all started crying in the airport because we knew we’d miss each other so much. It showed me how on exchange you can love and care for initially complete strangers. It was pretty sweet. I hope to visit them again sometime before I go back to the States.

Life Right Now

I am still on summer vacation right now, and really loving it. I spend my days on the beach with my family or at churrascos (barbeque) with friends. Though my skin is getting REALLY dark, my hair has become blonde at the tips. During the week and especially on the weekends my host city has tons of summer luau type things on the beach. So I have been pretty busy for the past couple of months. During the day or when I have an hour or so I try to study Portuguese. I have made myself some verb cards with the tenses, basic conjugations and rules for adverbs. As a resolution I am trying to better my Portuguese. Though I would love to be fluent, I feel like fluency is something that just comes and you either have it or you are working towards it. Right now I am working towards it.

In the Near Future

This Friday I will go to Fortaleza to visit my host dad’s family, since my host parents are divorced I will be traveling with my brother Fabio and host dad.

Carnaval will be coming soon, but I hope to travel back to Olinda for a day or two. I hear Olinda has one of the most famous Carnavals in Brazil and it is only 1 hour away from my city!

In March my American family is coming to my city! I am extremely excited to be able to show them this awesome place that I live in that I can now call home. They will stay in my city for 4 days and then we will all go to Rio de Janeiro for another 4. We will also bring my best exchange student friend Hannah along with us as well so she gets a chance to see Rio.

News and Stuff

My host mother Verônica has received an invitation to work in Brasília in the Senate! I am very proud of her, and glad she has decided to take this opportunity . So this means my host brother will stay here to finish university, my host grandma will stay with my host brother and when my host sister Flavia arrives from Canada she will go live in Brasília.

So yeah, life is good.

January 27th 2012

Trip to Fortaleza/ Traveling About

-So Fortaleza was a little bit different than my trip to Brasília. First off I stayed with my host brother’s grandparents, Dona Maria and Antonio. I absolutely adored them, they were filled with such life and welcomed me like any another grandchild into their home. Dona Maria is 87 and Antonio is 93, Dona Maria raised 11 children and Antonio is a retired general of the Brazilian Military and fought in WWII. Though hardened with age and parenthood they both were some of the nicest people I have ever met. So with a huge house, 11 kids and over 30 grandchildren the house I stayed in always had people in it. It was like being in a Tyler Perry movie for a week with all the chaos and drama a large family would have. I went to multiple beaches, tourist attractions, a formatura (Brazilian college graduation party) and just relaxed. It was just a nice trip, nothing spectacular but I am glad to have gone.

-Later today I will go to Natal! I will spend the weekend there with Fabio, my host granny and Rafa.

Portuguese

At this point in my exchange, I can understand relatively all things spoken, and I can say whatever I want. Am I fluent? In some ways yes, in some ways no. Though I understand everything and can say almost anything, I still have trouble reading, writing, and speaking as fast as I would in English. So those are things I plan to work on. Portuguese still requires effort to speak, meaning that I obviously can’t speak it as easily as I can in English.

Changing Host Families

Wednesday my wonderful host mother left for Brasília. I cried like a total baby, not only for the fact that I won’t see her for a very long time, but also because this is just another of many reminders that the best year of my life is winding down. These past 6 months with them have been incredible. It did take a while to adjust to a whole new family and lifestyle, but doing so was a great experience. I have truly felt like a member of their family and am forever grateful for all they have done for me. Obrigada a vocês, eu lembrarei sempre de vocês e espero que vocês me-lembrarão!

February 7th 2012

So I switched host families a week ago and so far things are going smoothly. Though it does feel like my exchange has started over again I am enjoying the changes and new adaptations. I have a host mom, host dad, 2 older sisters and 1 older brother. As you can see it is a lot of people, so I share a room with my 2 host sisters. I now live closer to school which is great, so I walk just about everywhere. I recently joined a gym as well so I can start working off this exchange weight. Because I have changed grades (1st year to 2nd year) I have changed classes, and the hours are different. So on Tuesdays and Wednesdays I get out of school at 5:45 and the other days I get out at 1:00. Fortunately on the long days, I have a 2 hour lunch break from 12:30 to 2:30. Generally I walk home for lunch, shower again and return for 4 classes. I am actually enjoying school more this term, I think it’s because I can speak better Portuguese.

Advice for the Noob Outbounds

-Trying. When I got here, I was naïve. Obviously. I thought I would be fluent by December (max.), that the kids at school would just automatically be my best friends, that I would have so many activities and would have (in my opinion) the best exchange ever. So I tried and tried and tried to have “the best year of my life”. It wasn’t until November that I really started to enjoy my exchange. It wasn’t that I stopped trying, but I stopped trying to reproduce my dreams of “the best year of my life”. I just let it come naturally. For a while after I started to enjoy my exchange/love Brazil I thought that August, September and October were just wasted. Well they were wasted trying too hard, and I feel that the person who wrote that bio and blog 1 is not the same person writing this blog now. I have grown more in these 6 months than I have in 15 years. I can’t tell you exactly how I have changed but I can just tell you I have changed . And I am okay with it. So my advice being: take your time, be happy when you are happy ,be sad when you are sad. The worst thing to do is try to ignore the bad feelings and mask them over with fake happiness. Make an effort to learn the language but don’t set a fluency date for yourself. Make an effort to understand, appreciate and love the people you are surrounded by.

I have 124 days left in my exchange.

May 17, 2012

I had left off last around

February-

I thoroughly enjoyed carnival, my city hosted the Bloco of Mosquitos being the second largest in all of the Brazil (therefore the world). A bloco is just a block party with a theme that changes nightly the week before the actual carnival break, so its just a pre-carnival carnival as most people in cities like mine travel to places like Rio de Janeiro, Recife/Olinda or Salvador for the more famous carnivals. One of the nights my friend Shankar from Minnesota dressed as a girl in them e with the current Bloco- the Block of Virgins in which all men dress as women. During the actual break I traveled with my host family to Arcoverde (Green Arc) a small city in the interior of Pernambuco , the state next to mine which holds Recife. Green Arc is actually a really pretty city, but it has nothing to do. Literally, but I was glad to have to chance to learn about life in the farmlands where simple necessities aren’t always as easy to get like in the city. Like water, people who l ive in cities like Green Arc must collect rain water the entire rain season as it can be months, and in some serious cases, years without heavy rain fall.

March-

In March, I was kept very busy with my social life (which somehow boomed this semester) and the preparing for the arrival of my parents and my little sister. My family came and stayed in my city for 4 days and then we all went to Rio for another 4 bringing my friend Hannah with us. I was very pleased to show my family my life here and introduce them to this rich and beautiful culture that I can now say I am a part of. I actually found myself very stressed, it was like the people who generally took care of me in the US, I was taking care of! I was stressed with translating and making sure they followed the cultural rules but overall they did a pretty good job. I really loved seeing my family again.

April-

April came and went too fast. My friends Julie from Denmark and Grace from Colorado came to visit Hannah and I for a weekend. They both live in Recife and are doing exchange with Rotary as well, it was great to see them and as Brazilians say “matar a saudade”. I also participated in my school Olympics and played volleyball, handball and basketball. Having never played basketball nor handball they were like two foreign languages to me, but I kind of figured my way out and we ended up winning a few games and getting silver medals. Soon after the game week ended I headed to the Amazon.

The Amazon

I spent 10 days with 75 other exchange students from other districts and some from mine, divided on 3 boats on the largest river in the world. It is so difficult for me to describe in words how this trip changed my life. I did and learned so much in so little time. We were all asked to take off our watches and not ask for the time, we had no internet and I didn’t use my phone for 10 days. It was alleviating, each day felt like 100 hours, we had 3 meals a day and that is what measured the time. We slept in hammocks, swam in the river, swam with pink dolphins, trekked the rainforest, explored waterfalls, met actual Indians, planted trees and plenty of other things.

The Amazon has so much to offer in terms of beauty and resources, we should if anything be maintaining it and not destroying it. One of the many men living in the rainforest that I met called Paipai said “The city needs the Amazon, but the Amazon does not need the city”. And when he said that I realized how true it was, we need gas for our cars, fiber for clothes, food for our bellies and we can’t naturally get these resources in our big cities. So we look to places full of resources and with few people. But if we want to keep living, we need to protect places like the Amazon. Overall the Amazon rainforest made me feel vulnerable, and I loved that. It made me notice that humans are not the only ones on Earth, we share the space. I plan to travel back to the Amazon and do what I can to save it, I have never felt more content in my life than standing under a waterfall in the middle of the largest jungle in the world.

And Now-I have 3 weeks left here in Brazil so I will be wrapping up this year with a couple day trips, a lot of beach days and a few adventures. My next district conference is on my last weekend here and my last week here will be the first week of the month long Sao Joao forro festival. If I am lucky I may get a taste of it.

I am here. I have almost made it. As I stand a mile or so between my once new life turned old and my new life, I think. When I was 14, I decided to go on an exchange principally to learn another language and travel. I knew I would grow, I knew I would change, I just didn’t know how or when. Through this past year or more so this life I have created in a year, I have learned more than a teacher could have taught me, than reading a book could have informed me, more than listening to an all knowing Rotex could have warned me.

I can tell you I am more patient, open minded, I appreciate the little and big things and I understand people better. The thing I am most scared of is returning and not being my best me. I feel that here I have become such a bigger person, and I am most comfortable with myself here, I love my Brazilian me. I have made so many friendships this year that I know I will never lose. No matter how many pictures I have or haven’t taken I will always have the memories and the place to come back to. This has truly been the most incredible year in my short life, and I look forward to even better ones.

Thank you Rotary. Thank you Larry DiPietro for coming to my school that one day in September. Thank you Mom and Dad, Obrigada Verônica e a sua família. Obrigada Rosângela e Laudivan e a família de vocês. Obrigada Brasil. Thank you to all of my exchange friends, I will see you all in the near future. You all have changed me and I couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.

Päivää, nimeni on Mackenzie (Hello my name is Mackenzie). So right now I’m sixteen, I will be seventeen in October and the majority of the time over seas. I’ve lived in Vero Beach since I was six years old but still love my birthplace, Chicago. I go to VBHS (Vero Beach High School) were I’m a sophomore. Six years ago it was just my mom, my dad and me, but now its grandma, my parents, Lily and Millie (cats), Brandy (dog), and me. So that’s one big happy family, under one roof.

Ever summer since I was in sixth grade I have been volunteering at The Vero Beach Museum of Art, at the summer camp. All those years have add up to over 700 hours of community services (I now what your thinking “that crazy”). The museum is my home away from home. I love all the people that work there and would nerve take back those hours for the world. So when school comes around I usually study and do homework, but this year I’ve joined two clubs. One is French club which I had a lot of fun walking in the homecoming parade. Second is Photo Club, I love photography and take photo and hangout with a cool group of people is a big plus.

I would have never guest that I, Mackenzie Catherine Rockwood, would be a Rotary Youth Exchange Student going to (here it comes) FINLAND! This whole thing has me really thinking about my future, which is kind of nice for once. Ideas of Finland fill my dreams, soon (eight months, not soon enough) those dreams will become reality. I thank my whole family and The Rotary club for letting me do this amazing life change expertise.

September 29

Seeing Finland for the first time out of the small airplane window made me fell like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, I was not in Florida anymore! First stop on the yellow brick road was Language Camp. Here I met all 120 exchange students from 14 different countries who were just like me and were going to spend a whole year in FINLAND. The week went by fast, filled with activities and lessons. From the moment I got off the plane until today (and probably for the rest of my life) I am amazed at all the new things I am seeing and hearing and what a beautiful land this truly is.

The first time I saw my host mom I knew she looked like fun. She gave me a BIG HUG and said that she was glad to have a girl in the house again. Instead of staying for lunch at the camp we left and stopped at the oh so famous Finnish ABC restaurant. After that we had a good two hour drive in which I got to know Paivi (host mom) better. You know the phase “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” well, in this case my host brother, Olli, fell too far from the tree. He doesn’t talk a lot, stays in his room on the computer and for some reason doesn’t like little children. Other than that he is a cool guy. I also live with Paivi’s mother who speaks no English, which I hope will help me improve my Finnish. I can’t forget Sisi our dog. She reminds me of my dog a lot, all she wants to do is sleep and eat. Also if you’re not playing with her or petting her she will bark and scratch you. This is my first host family and it’s been such a good experience that I can’t wait to see what the second family will be like.

School is interesting. For starters, my school is the first Finnish school in the world! There are about 600 students at my school. This number seems small compared to the 2,000 students at my school in Vero Beach. Kids here are very nice and sometimes know more about American pop culture then I do. So when they ask me if I know a certain TV show or what happened to Brad Pitt last month and I shrug my shoulders, they just laugh. Also many kids are here on an exchange basis. whenever we have time we try comparing our experiences. I can’t wait for international day here. They’re going to have a fair with stands representing different countries where people are from or have visited through the exchange program.

The leaves are changing now and the days are getting shorter but my time here so far has been wonderful. I can’t see myself in a more perfect place than here in Finland. If I had one word to describe Finland it would be …FRESH! Everything is new and “fresh” around me. Fresh air. Fresh water. It’s just fresh all over. Everything that I expected before coming here has not only come true, but is better than I expected. So I know that the adventure had started on the right foot.