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2011-2012 Longterm Out-Bound Stories Rotary District 6690 Youth Exchange
Ohio Kids Exploring the World Follow their Adventures
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Granville Rotary Club Granville High School
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Athens Rotary Club Athens High School
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Tri-Village Rotary Club Upper Arlington High School
http://everything-indian18.blogspot.com/
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Rotary Club of Worthington AM Worthington-Kilbourne High School
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Rotary Club of Westerville Sunrise Westerville South High School
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Granville Rotary Club Granville High School
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West Lafayette Rotary Club Ridgewood High School
http://chloecrouso.blogspot.com/
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Delaware Rotary Club Buckeye Valley High School
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Rotary Club of Westerville Sunrise Westerville Central High School
http://taiwanandbackagain.blogspot.com/
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Columbus Rotary Club Westerville South High School
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Granville Rotary Club Granville High School
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Reynoldsburg - Pickerington Rotary Club Pickerington North High School
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Granville Rotary Club Granville High School
Argentina
Life on a double decker bus for three weeks
So today is my first day home since
October 24, now what have I been doing since then? I´ve been on
the most amazing trip of my life. Sometimes when I describe it
it might not sound that way to everyone, but even the bad things
or the mistakes are all part of my fond memories of this trip
now. We started the trip from Catamarca early in the morning on
the 25, and I rode my first double decker bus! it was so cool,
and then when we woke up we were in cordoba capital, where we
hung out at the bus terminal for a while, and then walked around
a bit to get to know some basic landmarks, then we went to a
cool shopping center called patio olmos. It was there that I had
my first American fast food bacon cheese burger in months, it
made my soul and arteries happy. There we met up with some of
the other exchange students from the other districts that would
be traveling with us. Finally at 1pm we all were ready and
heading out in the bus to start a great adventure. we spent the
night in the bus, which was ok because it´s more comfortable
than an airplane, and there were nice tvs and a dvd player so we
watched lots of movies, and most of them I´d wanted to see for a
long time so I was quite happy on the bus snuggled up eating an
alfajore snack. Some of the best memories I had on the bus was
when there was absolutely nothing to do and we just talked or
joked around. like how the New Zealanders would criticize us
jokingly over the American pronunciation of certain words, or
word choice for example "the desert is called jelly guys, not
jell-o!". We ended up having multiple debates about things like
that, but they are some of the most hilarious people I know. And
we actually got to know each other really well and we shared so
many stories. One of my favorites is about one guy´s first
experience with a bidet (which is in every single private
bathroom in Argentina) he said at first he thought it was for
washing your feet, and that he turned the knobs so much that the
water hit the ceiling. Our first stop was Puerto Madryn which is
a coastal town, it´s actually where the Welsh settlers landed to
make a better life for themselves, and in that province there
are still people of welsh descent that preserve their language
and customs, which I thought was pretty cool. We stayed there
for three days, and did some great things. We went whale
watching, saw seals, and PENGUINS! Then we went to El Calafate,
which I think was my favorite part of the trip. There we had
these awesome mountain cabins with an incredible view of the
mountains and the lake. We stayed for three days, and we walked
down to the lake, which is one of the largest in Argentina and
there´s actually flamingoes living there! which is cool and
weird because the mountains stay snow capped all year and I
always envision flamgingoes being in a very tropical climate.
The second day we were there was the most incredible, we went to
the parque de los glaciares, and saw the glaciar perito moreno,
which is incredible! It´s a glacier that is right on the lake,
but it´s very jagged and jaded, but then right next to it are
the mountains in spring with so much green foilage and
waterfalls. It´s the only advancing inland glacier in the world,
and we got to trekk on it with crampons. Which was awesome, and
we drank some of the water which tasted amazing. I´ll never
forget it. It was also nice in Calafate to have green grass and
nice sun, not overbearing catmarca sun. So we hung out alot in
the backyard of our cabin and read, listened to music and took
pictures. It was so nice not having to worry about anything,
just enjoy the scenery. Then we left calafate at 3:30 in the
morning to start making our way to Ushuaia, that was at least 35
hours in the bus. We had to go through customs three times
because the only way to get to the little part of tierra del
fuego that Argentina has is to go through Chile, take a ferry,
and then reenter the country. Traveling in between cities in
Patagonia and in Tierra del fuego is unlike any other traveling
I´ve done because when we drive 30 hours in the bus, we only
stop like three times, there´s a lot of nothing out there. It´s
pure nature, it´s incredible. Tierra del fuego is close to New
Zealand is what the kiwis tell me, just change the foilage. It
has the same basic things of mountains, and the ocean, and lots
of sheep. It was at this point where all of the New Zealanders
were a bit home sick, I thought all of the landscapes were
incredible, just so raw and wild. In ushuaia we went to the
national park which was kind of cool, and we also got to play
with some sled dogs just outside of the city. This was pretty
fun there were so many of them and since it´s spring here it´s
not the season so we just got to see some pictures and artifcats
about sled dogs and then we got to play with them. Something
else that´s cool is that Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the
world and so most of the antartic travel and expeditions leave
from there, so in all the tourist shops one can buy just as many
trinkets that say Antartica, and they say Ushuaia, because
Ushuaia is closer to the south pole than it is to Buenos Aires.
And it is a tax free city, this may sound amazing at first but
in reality the cost to get products to the southernmost city in
the world makes it pretty expensive, except for Electronics,
which are manufactured on the island. That´s another thing, all
of Patagonia is pretty expensive, especially food. On the way
back from Ushuaia I was at my low point because I was getting
sick and tired, but I still loved being on the trip with these
incredible people who are like my family. From there we went
onto Esquel which was our last place with awesome cabins. I
really loved the cabins because I was sort of the "mom" of the
house of 7 girls. I had everyone on a schedule, always making
something in the kitchen and cleaning. In the morning we went to
another national park which was cool, it had bamboo, some
indigenous paintings on rocks and we did a hike which had an
incredible view of another lake with a bunch of mountains. Then
we were on our way to Bariloche! Bariloche is the 2nd or 3rd
most touristic city in the whole of Argentina. It´s a huge party
town, there is a tradition that all the seniors of every school
go to Bariloche for a week and just party. When we went the
season was over, so It wasn´t as crazy as everyone had told me.
It was really cool though because it´s the section of Argentina
that looks very German. It has amazing skiing, chocolate, and
the architecture makes me think it´s a little mountain town in
the alps. It also has a really big lake. All of the lakes in the
south were beautiful. Then we made our final stop in San Martin
de los Andes, which was a small town and famous for their
gardens, while we were there it was raining the whole time so we
just chilled when we were there. Which was nice because we
needed a rest. And then we got ready for another long bus ride
between san martin and cordoba which was about 24 hours and then
we said goodbye and then the catamarca people had another 6 hour
bus ride ahead of us. After such an adventure it´s almost
impossible to describe what it´s like until you´ve lived it
because it becomes normal, it becomes your life. And now that
I´m back in my host family it seems like it was all a dream, but
it wasn´t it was my life. And now I can´t wait to do it again in
the north trip, but I will dearly miss the kiwis.
Traveling to other parts of the country it makes me realize how distinct each province is in their own culture. For example the people from Tucuman use some different words and phrases that I had never heard, the same for Cordoba, and the students from Santa Fe have a different accent, some of them told me my accent was wrong, and I was like well I speak like everyone in the northwest of argentina. And the Siesta is not really done in the south, they don´t really need to escape the heat so there´s is really just an extended lunch, it´s not like catamarca where things are closed for like 5 or 6 hours. Also in the south we met way more tourists from our countries, which was kind of cool because some of them had amazing stories to tell, like this one dutch couple had been all over the world and they had been doing it since they were 18, and they were telling us about Africa and how they really enjoyed Rwanda, and a week after they left the genocide started. Then again it also cements commonalities in the argentine culture, especially food. Like how here cereal is not prepared with milk, it´s prepared with a very think yogurt which is typically flavored vanilla or strawberry or something. This type of drink I saw in France, so it´s actually really delicious with frosted flakes. Another trype of food is the alfajore which is like a cookie with dulce de leche sanwiched with another cookie and covered in chocolate, this can also be donce with a brownie like mini cake, both are amazingly delicious. One of my favorite foods here is like a grilled chese sandwich but it has jam and mayo in it to but the way it´s made is different, there are three layers of bread, and no crust. they´re called tostadas and it´s my comfort food. Another thing is the highway infastructure is not very good. Most of the time we were traveling on dirt roads, and there are even dirt roads here in Catamarca which is a sizable city, same goes for sidewalks there is commonly piles of gravel or things in the way when you walk around which is why I usually wear flats around, because it takes skill and pacience to walk around stuff like that in heels. Street dogs, there are so many dogs on the street here, there´s a plaza in every town we go to, and something has to be named after San Martin. Another thing is the money here is really worn out and most of the time cashiers don´t have enough change so they´ll ask you for change, or give you something that´s the equivalent of a peso or two, like a little candy. Having to go back to a regular schedule will be kind of weird because for two weeks we had a different schedule every day, some days we´d leave at 3am, others at 7, others at 1 pm. I´ll have to regain knowledge in spanish, tango, and guitar. But I feel the bonding that we did on this trip was incredible and I want to see this group again. It´s weird to think summer is only two weeks away. I´m not sure what I´m going to do with all of that free time. There is so much change coming that I´m waiting to see when more definate things come so then I can plan out my time.
Month numero dos
So I´ve now been in Catamarca for 7
weeks, the first four weeks were a lot of fun, but after the
real work began this month I began to struggle more and began to
realize that it takes a strong person to become an Exchange
student. While I´ve been having a lot of fun hanging out with
the Exchange students, my school classmates, and learning tango
and guitar at the culture school, it hasn´t been without its
challenges.
One of the main challenges has been directions and transportation. I am not a directionally smart person, I´ll be the first to tell you that. There are many family stories where I have been the one to completely screw up the orientation of the group, and frankly it´s been a miracle that I haven´t really been lost for a whole 7 weeks. But I did have one scare, which was incidentally to a rotary Exchange student barbacue. I made my way to the center and then took a cab to an adress that Zatik texted me(the event was at his house) I wound up on the other side of town, luckily my cab driver was nice enough to realice that I was not where I was supposed to be, and once we figured out the real address he began to educate me about directions in Catamarca. To make it even more challenging there were four streets with the same name in Catamarca the city, and then each house has an old number and a new number for directions, where my host family and I live in San Antonio there aren´t any numbers. Luckily we live on a corner but even then if you wanted to deliver a package it could be one of four houses. So I´ve had to learn quickly street names and bus stops, which is good for me. And I would say that so far it’s been pretty successful because I still cant tell anyone street names in Granville. To make it more difficult buses here never come on time, there is a hypothetical schedule but no one knows it, or sticks to it. So the thing is I just assume that a bus will come at about every quarter of an hour, which is true sometimes. But that´s been a point of frustration that it takes so long for me to get where I need to go especially if I want to get there on time because I live about 30 minutes away by bus from the center of the city. So to be on time for guitar lessons and tango takes a long time, and sometimes I don’t get home from tango until midnight depending if the bus is actually on time. It´s also been harder this past month because my host brother has been in cordoba for the past two weeks and I really miss him. When he´s around I feel more engaged and like I do more things and see more things. It´s good that we´re separated for this time I guess because it means my security blanket is gone and I have to really navigate everything without him. But it´s definitely harder without him, especially the transportation part since he drives. I feel like I´m improving my tango, guitar, and language skills a lot. I feel way more comfortable dancing now than ever before in my life, I can kind of play a argentine folklore song on the guitar now and I feel my Spanish is developing nicely. I feel very lucky that I came to Catamarca because The inbounds here we really are a tight group because there´s a lot of us for such a small city. So I´ve had a lot of fun getting to now all of them and we´ve done a lot of fun things together everything from doing eachother´s hair to going out to the movies. I feel like we are so close even though it really hasn’t been that long since I got to know them. I guess that´s one thing about long term exchange, all the inbounds bond faster because when you think about it we´re naturally drawn to people who are in similar situations, and not many people are teenagers, thousands of miles away from everything they ever knew, and non native speakers of the language. While I´ve enjoyed getting to know everyone from exchange and their siblings, I´ve also had fun getting to know the people from my school. I go to the same school as my host sister (which is rare among inbounds in Catamarca) so I´ve had the advantage of getting to know the younger group from her, but also the older group, my classmates. Our school is very small, I used to think Granville High was small, but by comparison Granville is huge. I´ve really enjoyed my Sociology and Literature classes because we work and analyze things and we think about the big questions when we study a certain subject. My other classes are fine, but most of the time we don´t really do anything, and when we do half the time I don’t understand because there is so much noise in the classroom and its hard to decipher what it is the teacher is trying to explain. I´ve really enjoyed sociology though because we´ve been talking a lot about the way society structures itself and how societies change and now about different cultures and relations to other cultures so I get to talk about cultural differences between the US and Argentina and the teacher is really nice. Its now officially spring here and it actually rained rained here three times this past month woo hoo! It was nice to see that spring actually exists here because we had a hot streak of 97 degree days, which was interesting because the school has no AC, we have fans. So my classmates and I made fans out of paper and I kept buying water at the little snackbar, that and my host sister and I every day would buy loads of ice cream and eat it during siesta and watch tv in the dark to keep cool. I really like the whole siesta concept. It´s really awesome, the only negative thing about it is that I don’t fall asleep until 2 am and then by 8:30 am I´m really tired and have issues paying attention in school since we don’t change seats all day, it´s the teachers who switch rooms. Siesta is usually from 2 to 6, most shops are closed during this time, then they reopen and maybe stay open until 9 or 10. This is really in Catamarca, I hear that in larger cities like Cordoba and Buenos Aires they cut down the siesta. Another thing I love about being here is sense that dancing is essential to life. Everywhere I go there is a different style of dancing and guys aren´t shy to ask you to dance. In fact some guys here dance more than the girls, like my classmates in between classes will turn up their music and just start dancing. I like to think I´ve learned a thing or two from them, but in reality I think I need some more practice. Personal Space is something that is engrained in every culture, and every culture interprets it in a different way. In the United States everyone has their own imaginary "bubble" a fake boundary to ensure the safety and comfort of said person. In Argentina my bubble was popped. Everyone here is warmer, everyone wants to touch everyone. Kiss them on the cheek to say hello or give them a hug or just pinch their cheek occasionally or just joke around, which we do in my class a lot. This was a huge adjustment for me. In Ohio practically no one touched me except close family and friends and to go from that to my first day of school where I said "Hi, I´m an exchange student from the United States" and my entire graduating class sawrmed me to greet me with hugs and kisses was a huge shock. When I told my friends that we don´t greet eachother with kisses in the US, they remembered my first day at school and how I was happy to be there, but that my expression was a mix of happy and shock to be touched by so many people. Technology Technology here in Argentina is actually very expensive, but of course every member of my generation is wired to it. While they have different websites and programs that are popular I like swapping knowledge over the technical side of things. This makes me miss my laptop from the US, because I really want to show them how something works or a specific song or file that I don´t have here which is very frustrating. I did bring an external hardrive here with all of my files from my laptop but for some reason it crashed and only opens the new files from Argentina. So this means that I have no way to update my ipod for a whole year! I completely understand my districts rule and I respect that but I am an exchange student who loves music and the exchange of music so naturally I want to download all the songs I´ve already fallen in love with here, but I can´t. All of the public high schools here by law of the minister of education must provide each student with a netbook, I think it´s nice because it really gives each student an equal oppurtunity to do their homework. Another thing is practically no one here has an ipod, the main thing they use here is to have a cell phone with an mp3 in it, the most popular being a blackberry. People here love Facebook, I thought I was on Facebook alot in the US, but the truth is here my classmates are on Facebook more than I think I´ve ever been on. Whenever we´re in the computer lab everyone goes straight to Facebook, to our facebook group of this graduating class, and then chats. It´s ridiculous, and I told them so, I think it´s actually very funny, but to them it´s kind of normal. There are many different styles of music in Argentina. There is everything from Folklore, which is with Spanish acoustic guitar and more native to the northwest (Catamarca), to Rock Nacional (Rock). Now Rock may sound very generic, but it´s legitamate that Argentina really loves rock and has certain guitar patterns throughout this genre that were unfamiliar to me with Rock from the US. Then of course there is all the dancing music like Tango, Cumbia, and Cuarteto (from Cordoba). Cumbia is hard to describe, it´s like a mix between electronic sounds and rapping/singing, its mainly for dancing. If you´re curious about it youtube "tirate un paso" by "los wachiturros" its the cumbia anthem right now. Cuarteto is very upbeat and fast paced, and I really like the dancing style to it, it involves lots of spinning and twirling. It´s really cool, and most of the singers who sing cuarteto aren´t very good according to my host brother. He says that their voices really don´t matter since it´s really all about the beat. Tango, of course is beautiful and dramatic and more of a Porteño thing (Buenos Aires). People here don´t really tango. In Catamarca most people have a large passion for Cumbia. I like them all, so I have no problem dancing or listening to whatever, but there are some people here who say "oh I don´t like Cuarteto" or "I really don´t like Folklore". You could say the same in the US with country music I guess but to me they´re all beautiful parts of the complex Argentine culture. Drinking Soda with a straw Eating Customs south of the border are very different, some of them are the exact opposite of everything you´ve ever been taught for example the communal cup. The first day I came here I had one glass of coke for three people which is ok, but if there´s a big group of if someone buys a coke in the classroom people want you to share. They see everything as communal, which makes sense and I don’t want to be seen as a hog so I´m always happy to share, I just give people fair warning “I´m sick” when I was sick this past month with a cold. Another thing is that everywhere where you can buy soda there are straws. They drink all types of the small soda bottles with a straw, which was interesting the first time I saw it. I was like “Why did the lady hand me a straw?” Another thing is there are all kinds of sodas here, some that are from the coca cola company that we don´t even have in the united states. But mainly there are lots of different types of fruit sodas, which are really delicious. Another typical little snack you can find at any of the kioskos (which are everywhere) is these mini cakes or little cookies that are filled with dulce de leche and then covered in chocolate. Yum. I´m planning on learning how to make Dulce de leche soon so then I can make my life complete when I return and my host mom makes it homemade! Which it’s a very specific process I´ve heard so I´ll be experimenting with that soon. While at the same time the eating customs here are very different, I feel that my love of food has made my transition here easier. Many of the foods here are similar to ones I love in the US, and everyone always asks me about what food is like in the US. Plus one of my best friends here also has parents in the restaurant business so We´ve cooked together once and we´want to learn more about argentine cooking so we´re going to try to organize a recipe exchange activiy between US, Holland, and Argentina. Since food is universal I think it´s made our bond stronger, and since Argentina shares a brotherhood with Italy and many foods take from that root I feel comfortable because all my life my father has cooked Italian food for me. There is one week until the South Trip! I have never been so excited for something in my life. It´s times like this when I am so glad I decided to do long term to Argentina. We´re going to all the provinces in Patagonia and going to many different national parks but we´re going the farthest south you can possibly go Ushuaia. I cant wait to plaster my blog with pictures of Patagonia, there are things there that I am sure I will see no where else on the planet. We´ll be gone for 17 days and we´re travelling with another district. I can´t wait to have this incredible experience and to bond with more exchange students! While this month has been more regular with schedules and filled with more challenges like directions and coordinating transportation I still feel the need to stay here. I really love it here and I´m so glad I´ve had the chance to meet all of these incredible people, from inbounds, to host families, to my classmates. I´ve learned so much already about all kinds of subjects, I can´t wait to learn more. Even though it´s weird to think once I´m back from the south trip I only have two and a half weeks of school left and then it´s summer! I guess we´ll see what that entails since everything here is pretty spontaneous, but now I´m off to prepare to go south!
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Athens Rotary Club Athens High School
Italy
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Tri-Village Rotary Club Upper Arlington High School
India
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Rotary Club of Worthington AM Worthington-Kilbourne High School
Italy
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Rotary Club of Westerville Sunrise Westerville South High School
South Korea
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Granville Rotary Club Granville High School
Ecuador
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West Lafayette Rotary Club Ridgewood High School India
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Delaware Rotary Club Buckeye Valley High School Belgium
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Rotary Club of Westerville Sunrise Westerville Central High School
Taiwan
November had probably the largest amount of interesting activities
to date compared to the other months I have been in Taiwan. In some
ways it was also one of the most frustrating. It may be because of
homesickness but I don’t know.
Let’s start with the interesting things. On the same day I had both
my school’s birthday and my Rotary’s birthday. Only problem was my
schools birthday was on a Saturday. My class made BBQ meat on a
grill, which took up most of my day. There were a bunch of other
games and activities including the clubs doing a talent show, but I
couldn’t see much since I was busy tending to the fires. But for the
most part it was really fun. Afterwards was my Rotary Club’s
birthday, and in order to celebrate their sister/ brother clubs in
Malaysia and Japan sent some representatives to help celebrate.
(They were interested to find out my mom was from Malaysia as well).
I even had to do a weird Taiwanese dance with other people. But
overall it had great food and was lots of fun.
The day after I climbed up a mountain with the Malaysian Rotary club
(and their version of mountain climbing is a lot of stairs. Really
steep stairs.) You get a really nice view of the port town of
Danshui from the top viewing platform. After that I visited my
second host family’s home. It. Is. Amazing! I will put more details
in next month’s report but I am excited (: The farewell dinner that
night was great up until the last part. Where me and the other two
exchange students in the club were forced to do karaoke. That went…
erm… well.
The Culture Class this month (a.k.a Rotary weekend) was a day trip
out to a place called Shifen which is famous for its sky lanterns.
Sky lanterns is a tradition where you make a big paper lantern and
write your wish on the side and then light a fire inside it and let
it off into the air. Then the wish will come true. I would tell you
my wish but I don’t know if that affects it or not, so let’s just be
on the safe side, eh? I also made a little grass birdie while I was
there under the instruction of the tour guide :D
Everything has been pretty good, but like last month, frustration
yet again has overcome me. The Chinese teacher that I have is
annoying me beyond all reason. Despite the fact we have told her
many times, she still refuses to pick up the pace. Me and some
others have begun to self study a little more but it still
frustrates me. Also going to school has become an annoying chore
(more annoying that what I used to think, at least :P). But I mean I
can easily handle these problems so I just have to work on them.
Besides that there’s nothing to say ^.^ thanks much.
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Columbus Rotary Club Westerville South High School
Germany
http://elliemckinney.tumblr.com
Christmas is in 3 days!!!! OH MEINGOTT I don’t know if I’m more sad or excited. I guess it’s about the same on both sides.. it’s just.. weird. We don’t even have a Christmas tree yet! And I’m super sad I missed out on decorating the tree this year. I mean sometimes, after the 20th ornament, I get a little bored of it… But it’s because I didn’t get to do it this year that I missed it haha. You always want what you can’t have! I sent out SOOOOO many cards though. I probably spent over 20 euro on postcards and letters so I hope no one cares that I didn’t get them anything…. :D it’s going to be a really nice Christmas though. I really like this family. Yesterday I had some friends over for the first time! And we made Buckeyes for our class party tomorrow. It was really fun. My friend Vanessa is always going on about all these things we have to do while we’re here. I like it though because she’s like our little tour guide “while you’re here you must try this” and “when you come here we will do this!” hehe She’s so suess.
*OH MY GOD! I just realized that Dr. Suess mean Sweet! Like his stories. Ohhhhhhhhhhmy. Suess in German means sweet. Oh he’s such a cool man.
Sorry anyway I just cleaned my room ;) and it smells nice in here because I light a candle every night before I go to bed (don’t worry I blow it out before I go to sleep or leave the room!). I feel really stupid though because I bought a packet of lighters and I always have one on my dresser to light the candle and one in my bag because whenever we go for coffee or food the restaurants always have little tee lights that you can light.. so I look like a smoker. And everyone here smokes so it’s easy to make friends if you have “fire” when someone wants to light up! It’s also funny being such a minority because I don’t smoke. Everyone asks if I smoke and I, almost shamefully, say no. hhahaha it just feels like, i’m 18, everyone who’s 14 is smoking and I don’t smoke. But it’s sooo gross and my excuse is always reasonable so..yea.
I found a favorite book store in the city and I go there sometimes for a coffee or a hot chocolate after school and I was upstairs one day and saw that they had a tiny English section. (YEA I KNOW I should be reading in German but it’s sooooo hard with all of the tenses right now that’ll have to wait.) anyway. I was laughing at most of the books they had because they were mostly books I read in middle school or silly vampire books (including all of the twilight books) when I saw One Day by David Nicholls!! The film had just come out in theatres when I left so I didn’t get to see it and I had heard it was a fantastic story and I had wanted to read the book for forever, and, seeing as it was only about 10 euro, I bought it… and read it in 2 days. I was so pissed I read it so fast. But I honestly couldn’t put it down. It was one of the first novels I’ve been able to enjoy in about 2 years because I’m always reading for school! But honestly, it was an incredible story. I cried soo hard at the end and I plan on reading it again in a couple weeks because it’s like…… Atonement (you need to read that book) or even the Notebook that you could read it over and over and never be sick of the story. Or Pride and Prejudice. I have it on my iPod and have already read it once last year and this year. I never get sick of it.
ANYWAY so I’ve read too many books but GUESS WHAT!!?? I got two more for Weihnachten! BAAHAAAHAHAHA One from Berni about Germans hahaha he said he read it a while ago and thought it was a really good book! And Twilight (or “Biss zum Ende der Nacht” auf Deutsch) in German from my gastmutter! I can’t wait to start reading it. It will be cool.
Weihnachten
was really cool. I liked how they did gifts but I still like
Christmas morning gifts better. It’s the Santa thing for me because
there’s no way Santa can get to your house and every other house in
the hour that you’re at mass… but he can within the 8-10 hours
you’re sleeping Christmas night! Silly Germans. But they don’t do
the Santa thing really. Because they have St. Nickolaus they just
call Santa “weihnachts mann” which is NOT the same thing :( I really
missed all the Christmas music this year too. The only songs my
friends knew were “Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart” and “Jingle
Bells”. LAME.. they have Advent music but it’s all major catholic,
choral stuff that’s very beautiful but not…. Christmas-y. But it was
amazing how many songs they knew and how many Dominik knew. AND I
forgot to tell you!!!! I was an Alter Server for Christmas Mass.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha. There were enough of us that I THANK GOTT
didn’t have any jobs. Berni just told me when to stand, when to
move, and everything I had to do and when we were getting Communion
The priest didn’t recognize me I guess and Berni said he gave me a
really funny look after he gave me communion like “wait, who is
she…? should I have given her some Jesus?” hahaha
today is Friday the 30th! And tomorrow is New Years EVE!! (that’s a great movie BY THE WAY I advise you go see it RIGHT NOW. It was amazing and I saw it in a different language I only half understand…) I’m excited. We’re having a big party (adults above, kids in the basement) and I got to invite Veronica and Alison and it’s going to be a really good time. I hope.. we’re just hanging out and watching movies and then at midnight we’re doing fireworks in the back yard and then we’ll go back downstairs and hang out until we crash.!! yay
Dominik is super excited for tomorrow too. He keeps saying “morgen ist ein kleine fest!” and we’re all “jaa ich weiss!” haha but he was like dancing around the floor when KG and Berni were taking up the rugs in the basement because it was what they do in the summer I guess? But it was something special and different so he noticed. He’s such a great little kid. Yesterday at dinner he was asking me if I would stay here forever and I said “no, next month I move to the Akermann house and in Juli I go back to Ohio” and he was soo sad! Hehe he said “OH MANN! Nein! Ellie I miss you!” and we were like “but I’m not gone yet..” and he said “well when you’re in Ohio I miss you!” hahahaha soo suess!
Uhm on tuesday we went ice skating… and it was fun but the skates were different so I didn’t skate long… they really hurt my ankles and I couldn’t stay standing… :P and then yesterday we drove down to the mountains and went SKIING! But I haven’t gone skiing in about 4 years so it freaked me out a little… hha I fell too much this week for my liking. But we did some cross country skiing which I liked and hated at the same time and then I tried to downhill ski again and failed and I was really cold and tired by then so I just put my skis away and went for a walk around the “resort” place. It was cold too but I walked a lot so I warmed up a lot. And we got coffee so that too was warm and then it snowed here last night! So Heidenheim is a little like the mountains but not at all really.. Goodness the mountains are soo beautiful. Have you ever been in real mountains when there’s about 2 meters of snow everywhere and it’s still snowing? It’s probably one of the coolest, most romantic places you could ever go. I didn’t think to bring my little camera and no one else had a camera either so that sucks but I took a few photos on my phone and I’ll try to find a way to transfer them to the computer but I don’t know how. I was sad I was there on a “family trip” just because it was not at all romantic. But it was still cool and I decided that either when I marry rich, or somehow become rich myself, I will own a small cottage in the alps and go skiing every winter. And I’ll get to have one of those really cute ski suits and a hat and gloves that match and I’ll have husky dogs to run around and be in all the photos and have a HUGE fireplace and have a giant Christmas tree that barely fits in the cabin. And maybe a jacuzzi in the back or something. Yea I plan on being really rich.
Today thank goodness we’re not doing much. I’m cleaning my room soon for when veronica and Alison sleep here tomorrow and maybe work more on the blue scarf. PS I did not know that that would be WAY too much yarn! But it’s wayy too much. I was able to make a really large scarf for Vero with only one of the three rolls. And I’ll only need one for “Jeremy’s” auch so now I have 5 extra rolls of yarn! Whoo! I think, after I buy conditioner and maybe ONE sweater with my January stipend (and put aside about 30 for the month then I will buy a larger crochet needle and attempt to make a double scarf…. you know…. is in double colours…. with two strands of yarn… but I don’t know if I can do it. I will try.
Let’s see… what else?
I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE FRANK AND NINA!!! <3 <3 <3 oh that’ll be so amazing!! I have no idea what I’ll do with them but hopefully it’ll be warmer so there will be things to do! Ahhhh! I’ll show them all my favorite spots and the castle and my school and stuff. And maybe take them to Ulm if they stay longer than a day, and I have time to save up some geld.
I had a really bad cold this week but I think/hope it’s getting better. And I have horrible cramps today so I feel ridiculously weak. But no worries the Stracks take good care of me :) they have wonderful drugs that we should get in the US and it’s not all homeopathic schtuff.. I do miss Lipton Chicken Noodle Soup though. That will be one of my first meals back home. Along with Wendy’s, Tim’s, Tacobell, and Spagetti O’s. And maybe some Trix cereal <3 yummm there’s a lot of food I’ll miss from here too though. Like Broetchen and Currywurst. And potatoes on my pizza. It may sound gross but it soooooooo is not. Did I tell you that my Rotary club gave me a Steiff Baer?? I named him Dex. He’s super cute and soft. I tried to find a good German name but none of them fit, and then I read One Day and the boy in the story’s name in Dex and I really liked the name. So there you go. Every name I use is from the books I read. All of the names I plan on naming my children are from books too. This only proves that I need to own a book store. And lots of fat cats to sit in the windows. I bought Dove shower gel when mine ran out and it smells really nice but I realized it could smell like old lady and then I laughed because I’m such an old lady. Hahaha I think I’m being summoned by my dear day planner Dominik… he wants me to watch a film with him but I have to clean my room so I can’t. Plus I watched a German film last night… well a film in German. So I’ll wait again until tomorrow when I’ll be watching a LOT of films in German. The one I watched last night was good too from what I could understand. It’s State of Play with Ben Aflec and ….. someone Russel. I can never remember his name. But he’s awesome. And Ben is beautiful and Rachel McAdams was in it too.
1st
January, 2012
We set off tons of fireworks at midnight and the kids all had a glass of Prosecco and then the adults came out and we all had a little bit of French champagne. So beautiful. It was raining but it was really nice and then we all went back inside and drank and talked and sang to stupid German drinking songs hahaha
Hmmm what else? :) Vero got a surprise call from her parents in Venezuela and they were all wishing her a happy new year it was so cool listening to her go off in Spanish! I have no idea what was said but she TOLD me it was Happy New Year hahaha.
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Granville Rotary Club Granville High School
Finland January Crazy yet again to think that another month has passed here in Finland. Soon I will be starting my seventh month in this country and times seems to go by more and more quickly. This month has been nice and cold! There is snow everywhere and it is so beautiful. I have gone skating and sledding, made snow men and had snowball fights. This month I also switched to my new family on New Years day. It was so strange to leave my first host family, the one that I had lived with for six months and loved so much. I miss them terribly and try to see them when I can. This new family is also nice but I felt more comfortable back in my other family. I enjoy living here none the less and plan to continue to. As of now it seams that there are only two families for me and not a third. I would be happy to stay here for the remainder of the year but still I hope that I get to go to another family and experience a different household. My school is going well, though I find some of my classes to be very challenging, and my social life is also good. I take part in Finnish courses 2 times a week and also have choir 1 night every week. Put that with studying Finnish, reading, writing, and drawling, and normally my weeks are pretty full. Two weeks ago I had the flue and missed a full week of school because I was too sick to go in. I missed out on a lot of work and one of my teachers even asked me to drop his class and take it a different time. It made me really upset, like I had let someone down but I am trying not to think about it. I did not intentionally get sick after all and all of my other teachers have been very understanding. I am planning to come home July 10th this year, just before our Rotary weekend. I want to spend as much time here as I possibly can. For practically the whole month of June I will be traveling on Euro Tour (which I am so excited for!!!) But I will be missing out on the beautiful Finnish summer. I talked to my parents recently and they told me that they would not be coming over to visit me. There are other things that they need to save up for, like my euro tour and my older sister just got engaged! It will be so crazy to go home and see how much everything and everyone has changed, including myself. It is so strange to think that I will not be seeing them until I go home in July(not including skype of course). All of my exchange student friends here are having their parents come to visit and some have already. I am not really sad that mine are not coming just...I really find it hard to put the emotion into words. I have about 5 months left here and I know that I am not going to put them to waste! Hopefully the next time I see you I will be fluent in Finnish! I can't wait to see you and the rest of 6690 in July! Talk to you soon and I hope you are doing well!!- Maura December This month has gone rather well for me. Due to Christmas the people here have been very happy. Everyone has been running around and buying gifts for one another. I got out of school early and have done lots of fun things with my friends and family. For Christmas I got a HUGE chocolate bar and a lot of other great gifts. For New Years we all went out side and set off fireworks. It was really neat to be standing outside because EVERYONE in Finland sets them off. Today, though, I am leaving my first host family. It is both sad and exciting for me. It will be nice to get to experience a different type of family but at the same time, this family has been so kind to me. They are some of the nicest people that I have ever known. Everything else in my life is going well. I understand most Finnish now which is exciting. Now I just need to work on the speaking part!!! I know that this next family are kind people and that I will have a good time there. So HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Or HYVÄÄ UUTTA VUOTTA!!! Talk to you soon in
November
November is a very dark month here in Finland. You wake up and go to
school and it is dark and when you leave school it is dark yet
again! It is also extremely wet here. Throughout all of November it
has been raining loads. Normally by this time there would be much
snow but this has been the warmest autumn in 50 years! Hence..no
snow. I don't mind the rain at all but I will be so excited when it
does start to snow. It will become so beautiful and lighten up the
atmosphere here. This month over all has been a fine one. I feel
that I am settling into a routine here. Nothing new has happened. I
have mostly been going about things normally. Seeing my friends,
going to school and still trying to learn more Finnish. The thing
with studying a language is that there is ALWAYS more that you can
learn or expand upon. Everything is going well. I enjoy my host
family very much my classes are nice and I am making more and more
friends. I am very excited to be going up to Lapland soon. Rotary
pays for all of the exchange students in Finland and Estonia to
travel to Lapland. I am so happy to have to opportunity to go!
Though I am not as excited for the 12 hour bus ride that I will be
on to get there. Hahahaha. Time here, as always, is flying by. It
almost feels as if I arrived here just a week ago, not as though I
have been here for nearly 4 months!!! I continue to try and learn
the language, live in the moment but now above all enjoy myself. I
will let you know if any concerns arise. I hope you and all of
district 6690 are doing well! I have talked to my family and they
really enjoy having the French exchange student Guillaume staying at
our place :). Talk to you soon. Thanks-Maura October
October was a good month for me, I
traveled to Sweden with my host family for a few days, Stockholm was
BEAUTIFUL!!!!all the buildings are so old and stunning! My family
life is still going well here. I am still with my first family but
now have met my second one. They seem to be very nice. Both my next
two host parents speak English very well. The mother went on an
exchange to Michigan and the father to Australia. While it will be
nice to live with people that have such nice English it will make it
more difficult to learn the language unless I set the boundary that
I want them to speak only Finnish to me. I feel that if I ever do
want to more forward with the language more and become a fluent
speaker I MUST now start to only speak Finnish, even when it is hard
and I do want to say something in English. My next host family also
has a dog!!! Its name is Sampso and I am so very happy to be living
with an animal again. I miss my dogs so much (more than even my
friends, hahahaha). My Rotary club is nice as ever. I just attended
a Gala that they held for End Polio Now. I had a great time with all
the Rotarian's and exchange students. At the Gala the auctioned off
a sauna door to raise money!!! Only in Finland. I feel that now I am
making more and more friends. Because I know more Finnish people
when I talk to them their friends come up and I get to know a lot of
people. Time seams to be going by so quickly, I can hardly catch my
breath. Soon all of the Rotary exchange students staying in Finland
will be going up to Lapland together in December to go skiing and
dog-sledding and see the northern lights. It will be nice to reunite
with all the other exchange students, hopefully now everyone will be
speaking Finnish with one another. After Christmas I think time will
go by so quickly, just as you start picking up more of the language.
School is going well for me. I am doing things that I never would
have before. Like in music class playing all different types of
instruments and performing. And in art class doing fun projects. My
academic classes are nice as well. I am starting to understand more,
though not as much as I would hope to, and my teachers are all kind
and translate if I do not understand something. I feel that now
having been here for such a long time I am used to the culture.
Nothing is shocking to me anymore. I know what to expect when I
enter into a conversation. I know what questions people like to
answer and which ones they don't. The people here are different in
that if they don't have a reason to speak with you, then they wont.
It can be hard at times coming from a place where there is so much
small talk and people are more outgoing. |
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Reynoldsburg - Pickerington Rotary Club Pickerington North High School
Russia
This month has been very up and down for me. The best times that
I've had so far on my exchange happened this month, but this has
also definately been the hardest month for me so far. At the
beginning of this month was the biggest holiday in Russia: Новый
Год!! (which Americans call New Year ;)) It was really awesome
because some of the exchange students from other cities came and
stayed at my host family's house for a few days and we were all able
to celebrate Новый Год together along with my host family and their
friends. Surprisingly, Новый Год in Russia isn't all that different
from New Years in America. On both, people get together with
friends and family, watch fireworks, and count down to the new year.
The main difference is that in Russia people give and recieve
presents and put up evergreen trees on Новый Год while we do these
things in America on Christmas. After New Years, the exchange
sudents and I went to camp for a week. It was really fun, but the
only problem was that it was a camp that kids go to to learn English
so pretty much everyone could speak English and wanted to practice
their English with us, so I didn't speak a lot of Russian that week.
But it was so much fun!!!! Everyone there was really nice and it
felt like a big family, and we exchange students got especially
close. I really hope that I will be able to go back there this
summer before I leave! After camp the exchange students came back to
Barnaul with me for a couple of days before they all had to go back
to their own cities. It was really sad each time someone left
because we live so far apart that we know we most likely won't see
each other again until the Moscow/Saint Petersburg trip in April and
that will probably be the last time :((( And every time someone
left, a bunch of our friends would come to the train or bus station
to say goodbye. My favorite was when the guys who live the farthest
away left by train and all of the rest of us ran along beside the
train waving and crying like in the movies. The week after everyone
left I was really sad baecause I had gotten so used to them being
with me 24/7 that without them it felt like a part of me was
missing. It didn't help that I got my first package from home at
the same time. You would think that I would be happy about a package
from home and of course I was, but I hadn't really been homesick up
until that point, and when I opened that package a huge wave of
homesickness washed over me. I think I cried everyday for about a
week. Luckily, on Saturday night my friend called and said, "We're
going to Biysk tomorrow! Can you come?" Biysk is a town about 2
hours away from mine where 4 other exchange students live. Of course
I reeeeeeeally wanted to go and see my friends, so I jumped at this
chance. My host mom thought it was pointless to drive 2 hours there
and 2 hours back in the same day, so she called one of friend's host
moms and I was able to spend the night at their house. We had a
great time there and it was so great to see my friends from camp
again! When I got back home to Barnaul I had exams at my university,
which were completely in Russian of course. I hardly studied for
them at all because I was in Biysk all weekend, so I was really
nervous for them. Miraculously, though, I managed to get the highest
grades in my class!!! :D I was completely shocked but overjoyed when
I found out because that means that, somehow, I am getting a grip on
this crazy difficult and confusing but beautiful language.
:) School is still going well, and is actually a lot better for me
now because I made a new friend. She was an exchange student in
America last year so her English is really good, but don't worry, we
don't speak English all the time. She helps me a lot with my Russian
and helps me understand what is going on in class better. She also
invited me to her birthday party, which was really fun! It was
actually a lot like American birthday parties: we played games,
danced, had cake, and watched a movie. I am already in my third host
family right now. The plan is for me to stay here for another 2
months and then go to one last family for the remaining 3 months of
my exchange. I think this family has been the hardest for me to
adjust to because in my other families my host siblings were around
my age, but in this family my siblings are both a lot younger than
me (8 and 3). Don't get me wrong, I love little kids! I'm just not
used to living with them 24/7. And my host brother and sister
are especially energetic and loud! But I think I'm starting to get
used to it and enjoy it more. Sometimes they can be annoying but
most of the time they are very sweet. I've been teaching my
host sister how to do Sudoku and make friendship bracelets and she's
teaching me to sing a national Russian song. Then the other day, she
told me she loves me and it completely melted my heart! <3 Another
thing that is hard for me right now is that it's so cold that I'm
not allowed to ride the bus because I would have to walk a little
ways from our house to the bus stop and then wait there for the bus
and my host mom is afraid I will get sick because it is so cold
outside right now (in the -20's and sometimes even -30's!! ). This
is hard because we live far from the center of the city and my host
parents always have to drive back and forth and back and forth to
pick up and drop off my host siblings and me and we always have to
wait for them. So, it's very inconvinient for everyone and I would
much rather just ride the bus, but I can't until it gets warmer.
Although, I think I will have to soon anyway because my host parents
are going on a vacaction in the Dominican Republic for about a week
and a half and during that time there will only be one person who
can drive all of us kids around. This should be an interesting
time... Wish me luck!! December At the beginning of this month my host mom and sister and I went to a "nearby" town called Biysk to see some of the other exchange students. I say nearby in quotation marks because it was 2 hours away, but by Russian standards that is nearby. We went and sat in a cafe and just talked and ate for about four hours. It was a fun day, and it was so nice to see the other exchange students again (I hadn't seen them since the orientation in September). Then, my host my invited them to come stay with us! So, the next weekend, they arrived on Saturday, stayed the night at our house and went ome again on Sunday. My host dad is a pilot (not as a profession, but just as a hobby) so on Saturday he took us to his flying club and we got to ride in a small plane. It was a bit scary at first, but once you were in the air you forgot about everything else because the view was just beautiful! After that, we went shopping for a little while because Barnaul is bigger than Biysk and we have more places to shop. We also saw a short movie in 4D. Yes, thats right, not 3D but 4D! This is where you sat in chairs that move and you get sprayed with water or they blow wind at you so it feels like you're actually in the movie. Then, we went back to oue house and had a barbeque and went in the sauna. The next day, we went bowling and for lunch we went to Subway! It's strange because there is hardly American restaurants or fast food places here, but in my town there are like 3 Subways, and there aren't any in Biysk but the other exchange students have them in their countries so they really wanted to go to one while they were here in Barnaul. It was a great weekend a I can't wait for my next chance to see them again. One of the bad things about Russia is that it's so big and all of the exchange students are very spread out so we don't get to see each other very often. One night, my host mom made some kind of meat for dinner and said she didn't know the name for it in English, but she said it was from a cow. So, I ate it and it was pretty tasty. Afterwards, I was curious so I looked up the word on a translator and found out that it was liver!!! I couldn't believe it because everyone always says how disgusting liver is, but it was actually good! A couple weeks later Rotary had a New Years's party. In Russia Christmas and New Years are the opposite of the way they are in America, meaning that here New Years is the biggest holiday of the year and Christmas is not as big of a deal. The party was a lot of fun. We ate, danced, played games, and had contests such as a dance contest and a contest to see who had the biggest smile. They measured everyones smile with a tape measure and said the one with the biggest smile is the happiest. At this party they also told me that I would be switching host families again soon. Probably the scariest moment of this month was when my host mother was decorating for New Years. She was standing on the counter and suddenly fell off and landed flat on her back. I was so afraid that she would be hurt really badly but she just got right up and was completely fine except for a tiny bruise on her hand. I have no idea how she managed it, I was just glad she was ok! On the 20th of December I moved to my third host family. I now have a host mom, dad, brother, and 2 sisters. Only one sister is living here now though because the older one is an exchange student in Aerica this year. My other host sister is 8 years old and my little host brother is 3. I miss my last host family, especially my host sister, but I really like my new host family too. Now it is almost New Years and some of the other exchange students have come to celebrate with us and then we will all go to camp together for the remainder of the holiday break. I'm so excited to celebrate the most important Russian holiday with my new friends and family! С Новым Годом и Рождеством!! Happy New Year and Merry Christmas!!
2nd Report, November
This month has also been
quite eventful, but not as busy as the first, which is both good and
bad. One day I went to three theaters in the same day! First, a
children's theater with a Rotarian and her family (she has 2 small
children). Then, we went to a movie theater and lastly to a theater
where we saw a dancing show. The last one was my favorite because it
was traditional Russian dancing, which I think is both interesting
and beautiful to watch. The dancers were very good and the costumes
were beautiful, too. They were also traditional and had very bright,
exciting colors. I also went to my first Russian birthday party and
learned about an interesting Russian tradition. We were eating at a
cafe, and when we had finished I started to get out some money but
my friend stopped me and said, "No, Vika will pay." And I said "But
it's her birthday." And she said "Yes, it's a Russian tradition. The
birthday person pays for all of the food." Another interesting thing
happened when my host sister and I were riding the bus. She was
explaining something to me in English and a Russian woman leaned
over and said, "Are you girls speaking English?" My host sister
responded in Russian, "Yes, she is not Russian, she's from America."
To my surprise the woman gave her a disbelieving look, so my host
sister said, "It's true!" But the woman just chuckled and turned
away. "She doesn't believe you're American!" she told me.
I've begun playing
volleyball and sometimes basketball at my school, which is great
because I was really starting to miss playing sports. One day, my
coach came into my class and asked if I would would go to an
arm-wrestling competition! I know I don't have very strong arms, but
I said OK beacuse I thought it would be interesting since at my
school in America we don't have official competitions for
arm-wrestling. It's just something you do for fun. As I expected, I
did very badly, but it was still fun. Some of the kids here take
arm-wrestling pretty seriously, though. And I learned later that my
school took first place! :)
There is a Rotarian here
whose husband is American, and they had a traditional Thanksgiving
dinner and invited my host family and I and another Rotarian and her
famliy. It was wonderful and actually felt a lot like home! :) They
brought a turkey, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce from America
because you can't get those things here! We also had mashed potatoes
and some other things that weren't really traditional like sushi and
rice with vegetables. Everything was delicious! I even ate some
sweet potatoes (even though I usually don't like them) because they
reminded me of Thanksgiving at home. The, next morning I talked to
my American family on Skype while they were at my grandparents house
for Thanksgiving. It was really nice because it was the first time
Ihad talked to my Aunt and Grandparents since I left the States,
which even though it doesn't feel like I've been here that long, was
about two and a half months ago!!!
As for Russian
language, I think it's going pretty well. :) It's a very difficult
language and very different from any I've studied before, but I
think I am picking it up at a pretty good pace. The university
classes help a lot, and I'm so thankful that I get to attend them!
My new host parents don't speak much English, which is great because
it forces me to speak Russian with them. Every day I understand a
little bit more and sometimes I even surprise myself with the things
I know how to say. I speak more with the students in my class at the
university, most of whom speak no English, and I've also started
speaking some Russian with my friends at school who used to only
speak to me in English. I also gave my presentation for the Rotary
Club about myself and my hometown in Russian. My teachers and
friends tell me that I have almost no accent (I don't know how this
can be!) and that soon I will speak just like a Russian girl! I'm
not so sure about this, but words can't explain how happy it makes
me to hear them say it!!! :)
About a week ago,
one of the Rotarians told me that I would go to a new host family at
the end of the week (and didn't really explain why)! Well, the end
of the week came and went and when I asked about it they said I
would move soon, but they didn't know when. I haven't heard anything
about it since and I haven't asked about it again because I am quite
happy in my current host family and don't want to move again so
soon. So, at the moment I'm not really sure what's going on with
that situation, but it's alright because I have leaarned that they
do a lot of things on short notice here and I am starting to get
used to it.
First Report
Hello everyone! I have been in Russia
a little over a month now, and I feel like so much has happened
that I don't know where to begin. So....I guess I'll start at
the beginning. I left Columbus Airport on September 9 and flew
to Houston, Texas. The Houston airport was, of course, much
bigger than Columbus' but it was not very busy and not super
hard to figure out where I needed to go. However, the next leg
of my journey took me to Moscow Airport, which was a completely
different story. There were so many people! And to me it just
felt like chaos and I had no idea where I was supposed to go or
what to do. If I hadn't had so much time I might have had a
panic attack there, but I knew that I had an almost 9 hour
layover, so I had plenty of time to figure things out and get
where I needed to go. Luckily, some of the people working at the
airport spoke English and helped me find where to go and I still
had a very long and boring wait for my flight. Then, I flew from
Moscow to Novosibirsk where my first host family (which
consisted of a mom, Anna, and a 16-year old sister, Alina) were
waiting to drive me to my host city of Barnaul. It was about a 4
hour drive, and I still have no idea why I didn't just fly to
Barnaul since there is an airport in the city.
Anyway, my first host family lived in an apartment, which was
new for me because I have always lived in a house. It was small,
but it was alright because there were only three of us living
there. The only thing I didn't like was the elevator (our
apartment was on the 7th floor). It was not an elevator like
most of the ones you find in America. It was small and old and I
felt like it might go crashing down at any moment. I liked my
first host family very much, though. They were very kind and
welcoming. The first weekend I was there, I found out that in
addition to my mom and sister, I had host grandparents, an aunt,
and two cousins. That weekend, all of us, along with my cousin's
huband, went to my host grandparents' house, which was just
outside the city. They have a garden and potato patch and we all
helped them dig up potatoes. One of my favorite things about
Russian food is that everything is so fresh! It was so cool for
me, as a girl from America, where almost everything is processed
and packaged, to eat potatoes that I had dug out of the ground
myself! We also ate strawberries right from the plant (which
were sooooooo delicious!) and sunflower seeds out of an actual
flower. And the next morning, we went to the forest and gathered
mushrooms, which we had for dinner that night.
After that first week, I began to go to school and to a
university. At first, I went to both 5 days a week but now I go
to the university every other day. There, I study Russian
language with other international students. Most of them are
from China, but some are also from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Afghanistan, and other countries. To my knowledge, I am the only
American. The language is difficult but the university classes
help a lot, and I think I am learning quickly. Although, my
first host family spoke English pretty well and I go to a school
that specializes in Enlish, so all the kids there speak Englsh
too and everyone wants to speak English with me. But I want to
learn Russian sooooo much, so I try to speak it whenever I can.
During my second weekend in Russia, there was a Rotary Yiuth
Exchange orientation here in Barnaul. It began at my school
where we went over rules and talked about culture shock. I
haven't really experienced culture shock, yet. Of course, I have
noticed differences between Russia and the US (like the fact
that so many more people smoke in Russia than in the US, or that
there isn't toilet paper in many public restrooms here), but so
far I haven't had anything like the awfulness they described
when they told us what culture shochk would be like. Next, we
took a bus on a tour of the city. On the tour there was a tour
guide who spoke Russian and also an interpreter who interpreted
everything into English because eventhough there was only one
student other than me from an English speaking country, all of
the inbounds could speak English! There were 7 inbounds (2 from
America, 2 from Switzerland, 1 from Brazil, 1 form Mexico, and 1
form Taiwan), 3 outbounds, and 3 rebounds who came later. They
were all very nice and it was great to talk to other people who
were going (or had gone) though the same things I was
experiencing. After the tour, we went back to my school where
each of us had to do a presentation about our home country, and
many of the Russian students from the school came to watch. We
also put on little skits (in Russian) and a Russian culture
group came and taught us some traditional Russian dances. It was
a very fun, but tiring day. Then, we all drove about 4 hours to
the Altai Mountains where we had the rest of the orientation. We
went to a music festival, hiked up a mountain, and rode a ski
lift that took half an hour each way. I really hope that I will
be able to go back to the mountains because it was the most
beautiful place I have ever seen!
The next weekend, I went to a Rotarian's house for the day, and
at the end of it they told me that I would be changing host
families in a little over a week! This was quite a shock to me
because I was expecting to live with each family for about 3
months, and now I would be changing after only a little over a
month. They also told me that I will have four host families
instead of the usual three. I was very sad that I would have to
leave my first family so soon because I felt that I had not had
nearly enough time with them. After I got past my initial shock
and disappointentment, though, I realized that there might be
some good things about going to a new family. First, both my
host mom and sister in my first family spoke English very well,
so that is what they usually used to speak with me, so I hoped
that I would get to hear and practice Russian more in my next
family. I should aslo mention that I had already met my next
host family because the parents are Rotarians and the mother and
daughter came with us to the mountains during the Youth Exchange
Orientation. So I already knew and liked them, so I didn't have
to worry about that. Next, my first host mom was very nervous
about me doing anything on my own, and I thought that maybe I
would have more freedom in my next family. My first host family
also lived very far from the center of the city, which made
things difficult.
For my last weekend with them, my first host family took me to
Novosibirsk, the biggest city in Siberia. It is about 4 hours
away from Barnaul by car. We left on Friday, and that evening,
we went to the theater and saw a ballet called Спартак, or in
English, Spartacus. The theater was absolutely beautiful and so
was the ballet! I was very glad that it was a ballet because
that meant that the story was told through dancing instead of
speaking, so I was able to understand what was going on. That
night, we stayed with a friend of my host mom, and in the
morning we went to the дельфинарий, which turned out to be a
dolphin show! After that, we drove back to Barnaul.
Now, I am living with my second host family. I have not been
here very long, but so far, they are great! I have a host mom,
dad, and 15 year old sister, but I will tell you more about them
next month after I have been here longer. So far, I have not had
any major problems, and I am enjoying my new Russian life! :)
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Laura
Beckerly
Argentina
Daniel
Bell-Moran
Italy
Janine Berger
India
Hunter
Bonvillain
Dustin
Chan
South
Korea 
Casey
Cliff
Ecuador
Chloe
Crouso
Quinn
Georgic
Belgium
Taiwan
Ellie
McKinney
Germany
Maura Sharkey
Russia