Long Term

Kerrigan Boyd   Mexico

Report: Well, Hola.

 So here I am, in Mexico for nearly two months!  I have moments of awe sometI'mes hitting at the oddest tI'mes, "Woah...I'm alive...here...in Mexico!!"  I have lived so much these past few weeks.  Mexico is an extraordinary place.  There is so much new to see and experience, and already I see the world differently.  I'm blessed to be here.  Here's a bit of an update on my various whereabouts, as well as cultural notes.

My Life:  

- The City (PUEBLA!!!) - I live in the city of Puebla.  For a reference point it's about two hours away from Mexico City, in the eastern part of central Mexico.  Puebla has a population of two million people!  Pretty big difference from Athens, eh? It's one of the five principal cities in Mexico and also historically I'mportant.  It was founded by the Spanish in 1531 - and still today maintains significant Spanish influence.  Puebla is famous for its Talavera Pottery, which is intricately and brightly painted.  Also, Puebla is home to two huge volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, which have a "Romeo and Juliette" love story in Aztec mythology. The city is where the battle of 5 de Mayo took place when the Mexicans defeated French troops.  Less historically, Puebla is famous for its clubs and universities.  There is a whole street completely full of solely bars and clubs, which is famous and popular.   I have also been told Puebla is known as the Boston of Mexico, because there are so many universities here.

- The Host Family - I hit the host family jackpot.  I have a host sister Sofi who is 19, and a host brother Joselo who is 23. My host dad Jose Luis is an architect and my host mom Ana is a stay at home mom.  My other host brother Rodrigo is 17, but went to Belgium on his exchange.  We get along great and their values are sI'milar to mine.  I am so grateful to my host siblings because they always keep me busy doing cool stuff and always include me in their activities.  It is strange to have older siblings sometI'mes though.  There are a few adjustments in the home, but overall the transition has been as easy as possible.  I am staying with really good people and am so happy about that.

- School -  School here in Mexico is very different.  For one, almost all the schools are private and Catholic.  The public school system isn't nearly as strong as in the US, and as a result anyone who can afford it goes private.  Also, almost all schools have uniforms.  I have surprisingly ended up liking the uniform situation.  It's a lot easier to wake up and know exactly what you're going to wear that day!  My particular school is very small.  We have about 40 people in my grade - and only three grades in the "Prepa" or high school.  We stay with the same 20 person class all day.  Instead of the kids changing classes, the teachers do.  Also, in schools there is much less respect.  Kids talk whenever they want to, and there is no punishment.  It's pulling teeth for the teachers to get the kids to do homework.  The other American girl in Puebla and I shared mutual shock and laughter about the difference in respect level.  In general, school is taken a lot more seriously in the US.

- Homesickness - Well, it's not been a cake-walk.  Leaving, I felt like a mess and had a pretty dark tI'me a few weeks ago.  It was especially hard watching a few other exchange students from our district return to their home countries.  But, I think the hardness speaks to how special of people are in my life.  They're pretty hard to give up.  I've discovered the secret to a happy exchange is busyness!  When I'm out living and trying new things, I don't have as much tI'me to think about being away from the people I love.  Also it's helped to keep in contact with my family and friends.  It's comforting to know that yeah we're separate, but we're still a part of each other's lives.  There are some days when I really want to go home.  On those I just remind myself that I'm here for a reason - to learn about the world and myself, and I shouldn't be wasting the opportunity in front of me by being sad.

- Spanish -  The language isn't terrible.  Like everything else it's day by day.  SometI'mes I think to myself "Ha! I'm master of the Spanish language! I can understand everything and respond with perfect fluidity!!!"  Other occasions I think to myself, "Well, glad I didn't understand a single thing he/she said.  I'm not I'mproving fast enough!  This is frustrating!!!"  But, generally I understand the gist of what someone says (and I've mastered the art of faking it when I don't) and can communicate in a butchered form what I have to respond.  The hardest tI'mes are parties when there are multiple young people talking very fast and using various slang terms.  But, it's going pretty well in general.

 Cool Experiences:

- Mountain Top:

            The first stunning sight came about a week into my stay in Puebla.  I went with Rotary up one of the mountains on a project to plant trees.  We all herded into these tiny truck-beds and off we went.  We started to get up pretty high and before I knew it, I could see eye level with some clouds!  Man, it was beautiful.  We saw bits of the city from a really high point and also into the valleys and other mountains.  It was stunning.   

- Mexico City at Night:

            On the way back from taking Rodrigo to the airport to leave for Belgium we entered the main highway leaving Mexico City.  We were surrounded by the city on all sides and it was nighttI'me, so we could see only little dots of lights in every direction.  There must have been a million of them!  It was one of the most breathtaking sights I've seen and also one of the most bizarre.  It's a strange comparison, but I felt like I was looking at an ant colony from the inside.  I've never been able to conceptualize how big the world is like I did then.  It was pretty cool.  Below is a picture.

- Acapulco Beach (Clavadistas):

            For the Rotary Orientation, we traveled to Acapulco!  The beach was so stunning, and I'm convinced that part of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean must have been filmed there.  The waves were also the strongest I have ever experienced.  The coolest part of the weekend was when we went to see the cliff divers.  These crazy guys jump into this inlet, and then clI'mb up a giant cliff with no protective gear!  Then they take turns plunging into the abyss.  I think this picture describes it better than words.  It was so cool!!!!

- Quinceañera:

            I went to the "quinceañera" or 15th birthday party of a girl I met through Rotary.  The 15th birthday in Mexico is the big one for girls - like the Sweet 16 in the US.  First there is a ceremony in a church for a blessing.  This particular one was in a church painted completely gold on the inside.  Incredible! I was told that if you are a Mexican and you can afford to go all out on the party, then you do.  This was really nice - like something off of the tv show "Sweet Sixteen!"  She looked like a princess and had  multiple wardrobe changes.  There were professional dancers, a big tv screen to show the event, ice sculpture, formal dinner, live band, you name it.  It was glamorous and so much fun!

- Boda (Wedding):

            The cousin of my host family got married recently, and we went to the wedding.  It wasn't as different as I would have thought.  Basically, it is more or less equivalent to a Catholic wedding in the US. Still though, it was a great experience. The ceremony took place in yet another beautiful church here in Puebla.  For the reception we traveled to surrounding town to an "hacienda" which is a really nice ranch or plantation.  It was beautiful and we had fun dancing at the reception.

- French Class:

            My computers teacher is French, so he decided to start up a French class in my school.  We are just beginning, but it's surreal to be learning French in Spanish. I am surprisingly not as confused as I thought I would be. Who knows?  Maybe I'll come back trilingual.

- Alebrijes Classes:

            My host mom was so nice and got me started in these classes to make Alebrjes, which are a really cool type of sculpture art native to Oaxaca, Mexico.  They are anI'mal figures, but mutant or somewhat monster-like.  The class is really fun.  Right now I'm in the midst of making a serpent-dog-insect.  I will show pictures of the final product.

- 15/16 de Septiembre:

            This year on September 16th was the 200th anniversary of the Mexican Independence and 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution!  And man is there a lot of Mexican pride.  Everywhere I look there is a flag, the colors, or some sort of bicentennial advertisement.   For the "quince" or the 15th when the celebration begins, I went with my host brother and a few of his friends to the city center or "zocalo"  for the "grito."  The grito is a fun ceremony where thousands of people cram into the center and wait.  Then the president or governor comes out onto a balcony and screams "VIVA Mexico!!!" and everyone screams it back.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to see that part because we thought the grito was at 12, instead it was at 11.  But still, it was priceless to get to go into that craziness and feel the excitement of the crowd on the bicentennial.   

Mexico:

- Dancing -  The Mexicans lllooooovvvvve to dance!  When considering dancing in Mexico beforehand, the thought struck fear into my soul.  But you know what?  I love it too!  Absolutely everyone can dance.  It doesn't matter if they're old or young, coordinated or uncoordinated, fat or skinny - everyone does it!  I've dance more the past two months than I have in the past four years of high school!  They dance the "cumbia" most commonly and traditional salsa. I am lucky to have very patient teachers and can now do the basic moves without looking completely foolish!  

- Partying -  In Puebla going out to clubs and having parties is a lot more common than what I'm used to.  They love to go out, dance, and have fun - but most all I know are responsible about it.  The attitude about drinking is different.  For one thing people start drinking and going to clubs younger.  Many start at around fifteen when the legal age is eighteen.  Also, they don't always drink to get drunk, like many young people in the US.  SometI'mes they will just have a margarita with lunch or something.  The adult attitude toward youth drinking is more relaxed.  In one of my classes, a classmate was talking about going to the clubs and drinking with the teacher!  And then, more shocking to me, was when I was talking with my gym teacher about the Independence Day he asked me, "Are you going to drink a bunch of tequila?!?" and gave a hoot.  My jaw dropped at that one. I like the attitude they have here - I think it's more modern than in the US.

 - Smoking, Coke, and Hair gel - There are several overwhelmingly popular habits here.  One would be smoking.  In the US smoking is a frowned-upon behavior.  In Mexico it's perfectly accepted.  They smoke like chI'mneys.  The other thing is coke.  Everybody drinks coke.  They drink coke as the replacement for water, and also a lot out of glass bottles instead of cans.  Especially since water is undrinkable from the faucets, it is easier in Mexico to get a hold of a coke than it is a water.  Hair gel is an epidemic among many Mexican men.  It's really popular and not just a little bit to style the hair.  The type that leaves shiny, crunchy lines in the hair.  Still haven't figured that one out. 

- FOOD!!! -  Well, no surprise the Mexican food is delicious.  However, I am slightly startled because I just bothered to start counting the number of tortillas I eat a day - it's between 5 and 7.  haha.  I could do a whole report on Mexican food alone, so I'll just write a bit every tI'me.  The main staples consist of beans, rice, tortillas, chili peppers, cheese, and chicken.  They like food much spicier.  The food schedule is different.  They eat breakfast whenever they get up like normal.  I eat two quesadillas for breakfast everyday and chocolate milk with milk straight from the cow and a specific type of cheese native to Oaxaca.  Then we don't eat lunch until about 3 or 4. It's the big meal of the day called the "comida."  Then they eat dinner right before they go to bed - anywhere from 8 to 11, and it's smaller - a quesadilla or sandwich.  They eat less, but it feels more filling because the big meal carries over. I like their food schedule.  

- Colors - Mexico is so colorful!  This is something I absolutely love.  In the US a building painted lI'me green or bight orange would stick out like a sore thumb.  Here, nearly all of the buildings are brightly colored!  It's especially cool to look out and see the city from a high point because it resembles a skittles bag.  Pretty cool.

 - Poverty - The poverty is the first thing that caught me off guard here.  I had known Mexico is a poor country - but to see it in daily life hits home.  I must say when I looked up pictures of Puebla, I fantasized this beautiful colonial city with cute little Mexican houses.  Don't get me wrong, there are still many beautiful areas of the city, but the less touristy parts paint a different picture.  At every main stoplight there are men and children offering window washes, cigarettes, kid toys, you name it - whatever they can sell to make a couple pesos.  It's sad.  Another unforeseen aspect of the poverty is the stray dog population.  I see at least 10 stray dogs or more a day.  The poverty here really breaks my heart, and also makes me realize just how privileged we are in the US.  My host mom is looking for organizations for me to start volunteering and I think that could be a great thing this year.  I hope it works out.

- Social Status -  While I'm on the social subject, another large aspect is the class system.  I had a conversation with my host brother (who has traveled to the US seven tI'mes), where we talked about the differences in prejudices in the US and Mexico. I think he hit the nail on the head.  He said in Mexico, there are really just two divisions: the really rich, and the poor.  There is an existent and functional middle class, but it is small, especially in comparison to the middle class of the United States.  The majority of the money is in the hands of the few.  The prejudices in Mexico are less on race, and more based on class.  The poor are discrI'minated against, which is ironic considering they are the majority.  I dislike the attitude of the super rich here.  From what I've seen and heard it's more condescending and entitled, rather than generous and humble.

            There is also a racial divide in Mexico.  More typically, the high class is of Spanish decent, so they are white.  In Mexico "Indio" which means "Indian" is an insult if someone is called that.  I think this goes back to the colonial tI'mes, when the Spanish conquered the natives - but parts of the hierarchy still seem persistent today. 

- Safety - This was a big thing coming to Mexico.  When told I was going to Mexico the majority I'mmediately responded, "Mexico? Be careful!!!!"  I've been mulling over the whole safety issue here and I think I've got some sort of working theory down.  In the US, you have the right to safety.  It is your right to not be assaulted or robbed, fall in a hole in the street, have your tires stolen, and whatnot.   In Mexico, this right does not exist.  If you fall in a hole in the street it's not the government's fault for not putting up signs; it's yours for not looking where your going.  If you're assaulted, well that suck shouldn't go down that street next tI'me.  It's a lot more of a "you are responsible for yourself" mentality.  It costs money to be safe here.  The people that can afford it live in gated neighborhoods called "fraccionamientos" and pay for security every month.  Nearly everyone has a big locking gate in front of their house where they park their cars too.  Robberies are fairly common - especially where they take the wallet or tires.  Now that I've thoroughly scared my friends and family, I should say that I doubt anything will happen to me here.  In Puebla, if you are safe and smart about where you go, who with, what tI'me, etc. - chances are slI'm anything bad will happen.  There is some truth to every stereotype, and the stereotype that Mexico is dangerous is to a degree true.  In general, the attitude about safety and individual responsibility is different. 

- Gentleman -  I love how gentlemanly the Mexican men are, or at least most of the ones I have encountered.  This is a perfect example.  My host brother and I were walking to the grocery store and he told me to please change sides of the street with hI'm.  I said, "ok, but why?"  He explained to me that in Mexico the men should always walk on the outside of the street towards the cars because it is more dangerous.  Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for some good old-fashioned gentleman, but that really touched me.  Little gentlemanly things like that I see the men do daily. 

-  Traffic - Driving in Mexico is absolutely insane.  Basic and necessary driving rules do not apply here. The pedestrian right-of-way does not exist.  On many roads there aren't even lanes, and it's a giant free for all.  My first trip off the plane driving from Mexico City to Puebla I saw my life flash before me a few tI'mes.  My first two weeks I would sit clutching the handgrip and praying as my host dad weaved through traffic skI'mming semis, smoking his cigarette, and having a conversation like nothing was amiss.  It's pretty comical.  There are two other major driving differences here.  One is the speed bumps.  In Mexico, they don't trust people to go the actual speed lI'mit, so there are speed bumps or "topes"  everywhere!  They're really hard on the cars and a pain because a lot of the tI'me they aren't even painted yellow, so the driver has to be super aware to spot them.  The other big difference is the potholes or "ollas", which are gigantic and common.  The government doesn't take nearly as good of care of the roads here.  The roads were the other great shock for me upon arrival, and also makes me appreciate how our government is diligent with the roads in the US.

- Attitude about TI'me - In Mexico, tI'me is very relative.  "We're leaving at 5" really means "ehhhh, we may get out the door at about 6:30."  Obviously not EVERY Mexican is this way, but the majority are.  Even to I'mportant and formal events like weddings people are late.  It's a good and bad thing.  I like that they aren't super uptight all the tI'me and don't feel the need to rush everywhere.  But then other tI'mes I just think to myself "you've gotta be kidding me?! This is ridiculous!" Just a difference in culture.

            Well, I think that's about all I got for now.  And that's only in 2 months!  Thanks to everyone who has helped me with this and given me the opportunity.  I am learning so much down here, and I can't wait to bring it back with me to the US and share with you all.  I welcome visitors!!!!!  I'll be a wonderful tour guide. :) 

Karen Fullin, Ecuador

 

 

Hello everyone!
Well, for me this has been my last full month here. My flight is scheduled for June 12th, leaving only 20 days or so until I am headed back to the United States. This has got me a little panicked and emotionally turbulent. I feel like there is so much to do before I go that I should get started now. Everything feels so unorganized, and I realize I have photos and articles of clothing spread over 5 or 6 different houses, my host family's and friend's alike. My flight has been scheduled but was never confirmed, nor was I able to confirm it, so I had my mom call, but do to all the bad weather we have been having, they asked her to wait unless it was an emergency.
I have also been feeling the the pressure of getting everything I wanted to do here done. About a month ago, the host mother of a friend invited me to Loja with the family. Clearly it never worked out, but they are still considering it, and I am busy trying to figure out how to make it happen, along with a million other things. A friend from Machala wants to come visit us in Portoviejo, and I thought about hosting her in my house for the few days. But this can't happen if I go to Loja, obviously, and the birthday of a friend is this weekend, along with the birthday party of two exchange students, all on the same day and time. I have spanish classes still two times a week and I should probably stop them for more time, but I still learn from them and enjoy them. I want to organize a trip to Montecristi to buy gifts for the family back home, but still need to find a ride there and a date too. I have promised too many people that we will hang out, told too many people I will go to their parties when it is most likely I won't be able to. My rotary presentation is next Monday and I haven't even started preparing it, so the stress is definitely setting in.
On top of everything, I am beginning to live with my feet already out the door. All my friends are leaving school now-ish and making plans for the summer and I am making plans with them. I am so ready and so excited to see them, that this time in between my flight and now feels like a barrier between me and my firends and family. I don't want to wait.
And yet, occasionally I look at all the people here I have met, the friends I take for granted because I see them everyday and I realize just how much I am going to miss them and wonder what I am going to do without them when they are gone. I hate to say this, but some of them I probably never will see again, although I am planning on returning her to see my host family in a few more years and we have already decided there will be a reunion in Europe soon, too.
Yes, I am ready to leave , but I am really going to miss it all.

This last month has been really cool, though, some of the best and most exciting times I have had. Late April began our final trip, an incredible tour of Quito, the capital, Otavalo, a very famous marketplace, Ingapirca, the ruins, Cuenca, the most beautiful city of Ecuador, and Guayaquil, the biggest city. We got to ride up the teleferico, practice haggling in the marketplace, climb all over centuries-old ruins, explore Cuenca's beautiful and safe streets, and party on a ship on the Guayaquil harbor. It was so much fun, and so interesting!
After the trip, the days just flew, school, school, regular life, a trip to Quito with my first host family! And then right here and now, three weeks away from my flight home.

I know I am going to go home changed. I guess it can't be helped. Sometimes I am afraid though, that I don't like the way I have changed. Before I left I felt so confident and sure of myself and what I wanted from life. I felt very in charge and I had had a paying job, I had my driver's license, I had been accepted to the college I wanted to go to, with some scholarships, even. Now I am coming back to the U.S. and I feel like I have forgotten how to drive, I don't have a job and I haven't been responsible for anything in ages. I hardly work at school and I feel like I haven't used my brain in ages. I am still accepted to my college, and I will go there in the fall, but speaking another language so much in another country has been really stressful for me, it makes me question my choice in a foreign language major.
But I have also changed in ways I never guessed I would. I have tried so many things I don't think I could ever bring myself to do back home. I jumped off a bridge in Baños (with all the appropriate equipment, of course- never, ever try that one at home, kids!) I have stayed out partying until 3 in the morning. I have been on all the rickety, unstable, and prone-to-fall rides of the local feria. Just yesterday, I tried eating cuy for the first time. For those who don't know what this is, cuy is guinea pig. And it was yummy! I really liked it, although I winced when I saw the little claws and some parts I just didn't know if they were for eating, they just looked a little too much like a dissection lab for me to try!

So now I am going to get a start on my final presentation here. Wish me luck! See you all in June!
Karen
 

8th Month Report

  Because I forgot to do a March report, I will have to make an extra good April report.

     March was the Galapagos trip, one of the most incredible experiences of my life. This trip was the one we had been waiting for pretty much since we found out we were going to Ecuador. When the day for our tip finally came, we were all up bright and early to get to the airport on time- like, at 3am. All the kids from Portoviejo, and the surrounding cities of Manta and Bahía were with us to catch the bus to Guayaquil, from were we would be departing.  After about an hour, maybe two of driving, the chaperones got up and announced to us that it was very possible we wouldn't be going to the Galapagos that day, due to the disasters in Japan and the resulting affects on Ecuador's coasts and the Galapagos islands.  We continued to Guayaquil anyways, where we found out no, we would NOT be going. We were all so disappointed, particularly Myia who's birthday was the following day and had been anticipating celebrating it in the Galapagos. After a few hours of chilling in the airport, we turned around and went back to Portoviejo.  They had told us it was possible that we could try again in the following Monday or if not then, a few weeks later. No of us liked these ideas much, particularly the latter. However the next morning I got a call at 9am waking me up and we were going to the Galapagos- that day! So we got back on the bus and off we went!
     The Galpagos was incredible, amazingly beautiful shores with white sand and waters so clear and blue, big black iguanas just lying in the sun and sea lions sleeping on the docks. Pelicans were everywhere and we got to see several types of the strange blue-footed booby. I loved it all, so much! We could walk into town on our own without fear of robbery or violence. Nobody stared because they are all accustomed to tourists there. It was great.
  
     After the trip, however, life took a bit of a turn for the worse. Everybody just kind of lost their enthusiasm.  I was starting to feel really homesick and I soon realized I was not the only one nor the worst off of the exchange students. It seemed there was nothing new to do, everything was boring, we had no energy to be creative and think of something. My friend announced that he was going home early, because he had nothing left to do here and didn't care to start school again. (He leaves next week, I believe, and I am going to miss him.) Some of the others were beginning to feel chafed by the rules- No discotecas, no drinking, no traveling alone or without first getting permission to travel with another family from the club. A few friends, who had been banned from the last trip, also debated going home. School started but making friends was hard- as an exchange student, almost everyone in your class is a friend, but almost nobody in your class is a good friend. As a result, I was really missing my friends. Also, my relationship with my family suffered- I have never been as close with my second family as my first and the homesickness and depression made me shut myself off from them. I preferred to spend time with the good friends I have here, all exchange students, or alone in my room or with the calendar (a really bad habit- I had a countdown of days left and lists of tons of things I wanted to do when I got back).

     Things continued like this until about a week ago, when I left to Quito with my dad, brother, and Ella, the exchange student that lived in the house before me. On the trip there, I received a very angry and hurtful text from my host mother.  I had left the house without saying goodbye, because I had thought she was sleeping and didn't want to wake her. This turned out to be not just rude, but a big problem, too, because my mom and dad here are separated and my dad apparently never told her he was taking me with him to the concert. I hadn't said anything either, which, looking back on it, was a serious lack of judgement on my part. I sent her a text back saying how sorry I was and that I would like to talk to her when I got back. The trip wasn't so fun for me (I also got my cellphone robbed in Quito), kind of the low point of my exchange actually, but when I got back I did eventually talk with my mom and then we went out together to get me a new phone and do some shopping too, and it was kinda nice to be doing something familiar and one-on-one with her. My mood improved and has been improving since. It's still so far from perfect, but I have talked to my brothers here a bit more, and have been making more of an effort to involve myself with the family.

     One of the hard parts for me is I am not a real outgoing person and I tend to hold myself back until I receive signs that it is okay for me to join in the family and that they really want me there.  With my first host family I never had problems, or not many, because my mother almost always had her door open. When she was watching a movie or something on her bed and I passed by, she'd pat the bed and smile and I would join her and lie right next to her and watch. When she was in the kitchen I almost always came in to help her cook or set the table. When I saw my dad sitting and reading the paper I might sit down with a book and read in the same room just to be company. Kelly was alwways easy to interact with because when she wanted attention, she would just come by and pull my hair or poke me and watch for my reaction.   
     My new family doesn't have habits such as that. They almost never cook, just eat out or bring home ceviche or pizza or chinese or heat up the leftovers from lunch, which the maid makes. I miss cooking. They don't use the family room area that much either, but go to their rooms and watch t.v. or get on their computers. I miss the communal televisions, board games, and other family activities that they just don't do much of here.
     The last trip is now just six days away and we are all excited! After we get back, just a month or so remaining! Wow... Time is flying, but this trip will be great. Nine days to the most touristical places of Ecuador- Quito, Baños, Guayaquil, Cuenca! Everyone in Ecuador is going (except for those who are being punished or being sent home, which sadly is quite a few)
     I have come to the part of the exchange where I miss home enough to have a looong list of things I miss- some examples being storms with thunder and lightning, bookstores and libraries, streets you can walk down safely even late at night, driving, really good italian food, board games, and much more.  But then I also think of all the things I will miss about here: beaches, mountains, forests and city all within travel distance in just a few hours, chifles and ceviche, ridiculously low prices, ice cream sold at every street, palm trees and roofs perfect for climbing on.
     I guess I am preparing myself to leave, but I know I am really going to miss this place and all the friends and family I have here.

Thanks for everything! See you all in June!
Karen
 

 

5th Month

Finally! I was a little late with this one! Well, I am at the 5 month mark which actually means halfway through the year, and I most certainly don't want to think about that. I have been here for over 150 days, and quite recently I haven't had so much contact with home.  It feels strange to think that my family at home is running on as usual and I am living here so separately from them, but the strangest thing is that it doesn't seem so weird anymore.
     About a week ago I made the switch to my second and final host family, and I have to say the switch was rough.  I had grown very accustomed to my first home and family- I knew the rituals, where things were, what my host parents did and didn't like me to do.  My first family was my papá, my mamá, and a little sister Kelly, who is 11. I lived in a small but cute house, with a room so small it barely had room for my bed.  My family was rather laid back and we weren't the type to go out a lot or go to fiestas or discotecas.  Then I switched to a family with a father and mother that I call David and Marjorie, and two older brothers.  I live in a large house, in the largest room I have had in my life, I think, with air-conditioning, huge bed, computer, t.v., large closet, and my own bathroom. The house is pretty large, and had nice furniture and an indoor pool.  My family are constantly busy- they work or go to the university, they like to go out in the evenings.  They go to discotecas and the movies and parties.  I have to say I was a little intimidated by everything.  I can already tell I probably won't be as close with this family as I was with my first- after all, they're so busy! And I am too- my new address is along on of the main roads, and a few of my friends live close.  In addition there is a gym that I think I will start going to everyday (so far I have gone two days consecutively, yay for the 3rd tomorrow, assuming I will be able to get out of bed for the pain in my legs!) In the 8 or 9 days I have been here, I have gone to a fiesta, gone to the gym twice, to the Shopping Mall maybe twice, to the beach with Anna and her family for a day, to dance class with Kathrin, Anna, and her host mother, learned to make dulce de tres leches, piled 8 people in one taxi on the way to a friend's house, and been out to dinner twice.  I am constantly busy, which I like, most of them time, but it is a little funny because Marjorie just stuck her head in my room a minute ago as I wrote this paper, telling me "Salga, mija!" They really encourage going out, which is a good thing, but my legs still ache from the gym this morning and I am tired from only 7 or so hours of sleep- I got home late from dance lessons yesterday! Wow, I'm tired!
      Speaking  of the gym, that was quite an adventure for me.  I have never really been much of a gym goer, preferring the less strenuous exercise of walking in the park or biking to a friend's house, or an intense pillow fight with my siblings (that can be kind of strenous!) So, Anna, Kathrin, and especially I were quite taken aback when we went to the gym and found tons of muscular guys lifting weights .  Nevertheless, we joined anyway (it costs just a dollar, and they throw in some soy milk when you finish) and we started exercising too.  The gym owner is a great guy, very fun but also quite serious about helping us with our exercises.  We felt a little weird (and pathetic!) to be struggling with simple exercises when all the burly guys around us easily used the machines and weights 4 times the weight of ours, but hey, we tried, and I feel like I have never had such a good workout in my life!
     Difficulties- the problem with being in a busy family and going out a lot is that I still don't have too many Ecuadorian friends, most of the activities I do are with my fellow exchange students, so we fall back on English- a lot. Although, Kathrin and Anna frequently start speaking German to each other, and then I really have no idea what to do! I have started attempting to learn German, and although I don't know much, a lot of German sounds very much like English and I am able to respond (correctly, too!) to what they say to each other (but in English, of course).
     I have a little difficulty trying to meet all my family, because they and I are so busy, but I am not too worried yet- it is only the first week and I am making some progress. Also, I have to remember it took awhile to meet my first host family too. My brothers are a little hard to understand sometimes, they speak quickly and not always so clearly, or they talk about things I don't understand. Still, I think I am doing better already.
     My view on how my Spanish is progressing changes each day and with my mood. Frequently I am frustrated with myself and my inability to be understood by those around me.  I dislike saying to much in Spanish to anyone- family, friends, and so on, simply because they don't understand me.  They understand the words, but they don't understand the sentiments behind them- that and they don't really listen all the time.  For example when we are having lunch or eating something and I don't take much they tell me I eat a little and that I have to eat more and why don't I like their food? Then I tell them that I do like the food, but I only can eat as much as my body wants or I am going to get fat.  Then they respond with "but why don't you like my food?!" One of the favorite questions to ask here is "Por qué?" "Why?" it is why? to everything- "No te gusta este vestido? Por qué?" "Estás cansada? Por qué?" Sometimes, there really is no real answer to these questions, I just don't like the dress, or I just feel tired. I try to explain, sometimes, saying "Oh, I don't like the color of the dress, or the style, but then they ask (you guessed it!) "Por qué?" They have even asked my friend Kathrin why she has mosquito bites all over her legs. Sometimes it is hard to hold back a sarcastic response, such as "Oh, she likes them. They are for decoration." But sarcasm isn't really well understood here, so we have to resist. 
     Ecuadorian culture is hard to adjust to, sometimes, especially in certain settings.  The culture is noticeably different in different class settings.  I tend to get along better with the more educated (and often times, the more well off!) Ecuadorians- I can understand them better.  They are the ones that have read the same books or studied abroad or have plans for their lives.  That is definitely not to say that I don't like the other Ecuadorians too, and I like them for their differences, but I have a lot less in common with them and that is difficult.  Ignorance and immaturity, that is a big problem here, too, with the youth and adults alike.  Both Anna and Kathrin (from Germany and Austria) have lived with the same host family (they were Anna's first, and now Kathrin's) and they have both been questioned about Hitler and whether the people in their countries are good people or not.  Anna's host siblings even made jokes saying Hitler was related to Anna's family! These are things that should never been said, let alone to a German or Austrian exchange student far from home missing their family and their culture.
    I am very lucky to have had two such great host families, actually, it feels like more than two but I have been más o menos adopted by Anna's new family, Los Candela. She has such a nice and fun-loving mother and a little sister that adores Anna, Kathrin, and I, so they really feel like my family-away-from-my-family- away-from-my-family.  It is strange, but nice, the relationships I have built here and everywhere I go.  Everywhere I go and every experience I have I meet new people and make new friends and I really love it.  I have friends from all over the world now, and family too!
    
4th Month

Winter has come to Manabí Ecuador. My classmates had been telling me winter here is hot and rainy. And I had kept thinking "Good. It has rained approxI'mately 2 and a half tI'mes in the three months since I have arrived. The grass needs it!" Then one day, I woke up and- RAIN! I felt like dancing in it, I was so excited. Then the next day- rain! pouring into puddles of muddy, glorious wetness! And then the next day- rain! I think it has rained nearly every day since. Now I am not quite as enthusiastic about it...
     Christmas is only a few days away, and it is hard too say if this is an excitng and fun thing, or a depressing thing. I think the easiest way to look at it is as a separate holiday entirely. Here, the weather is hot enough I am running my air conditioner, the days are long and bright, there is very little Christmas music and the decorations just look out of place. I mis my family and all our traditions we have at home. However, I am also excited for Christmas here. I  love my host family, particularly my mother, and she has been busy getting ready and it's kind of fun to help her. I put the top of the tree ( a fake tree!) on because I am the tallest one in my family. By quite a lot.
     We had a fiesta de Navidad in my Rotary Club, it was very... interesting. We performed a live nativity, which meant stupid costumes for all the exchange students! I was one of the three kings, and I must say, I had the most I'mpressive hat.
     We switch families in January, but most of us don't want to change. It will be hard changing now . We are all attached to our familes. At least we get to spend Christmas with our families! And I think I willl be passing New Year's In Quito!
      School is almost finished, three more days... All the exchange student at my school have been slacking waaaay more than we should. Often tI'mes we just slip out of class and hang outside and talk. What's funny is that they permit us to do this. One tI'me, one of our professors saw us outside the class, where Chemistry was starting and the teacher asked us why we weren't going inside. She was looking at me, so I answered "No quiero..." and she smiled and went in and told the chemistry teacher that we wouldn't be going to class, we were excused! Something like that could never happen at my school back in Ohio!

Well, that's the news for December ! Merry Christmas everyone!
 

 

3rd Month

Well, all of us Americans survived Thanksgiving... Actually, for me it wasn't too hard. I was lucky enough to have my birthday fall on this year's Thanksgiving, which meant a little celebration here too! There was no turkey, but some pretty awesome lasagna made with love by my mother. At dinner, one of my mother's friends, who knows all about American culture wished me a Happy Thanksgiving. This led to the question "what do you all do to celebrate Thanksgiving?". I had to really think about it, because besides eating and watching American football, we don't do much!

Monday I give my first presentation to my Rotary Club here.  It's just a quick, five minute presentation, just speaking (which sounds boring to me. It'd be much more interesting for the Rotarians if they had some pictures to look at!) but I am already stressing about it.  My Spanish is nowhere near where I had hoped it to be by now. Although I have a sound knowledge of grammar and can easily understand written texts, my listening and certainly not my speaking are where I would like them to be. Guess I really should start watching more Spanish t.v.! When ever I have a few free hours here, I like to read from Steffy's collection of books, but I hardly ever watch or listen to Spanish music and shows.

School is getting better for me. I understand my teachers (and classmates!) more and more, and although I really only have one close friend from here (and she speaks English, which makes it really hard NOT to use English) I think I have a lot of potential friends.  What I mean here is that we could be friends and hopefully will be in the future when I don't have to keep asking "Que? Que?!" and saying "Habla más despacio!" (Which I hope, by the way, is right!) Of course, there are tI'mes when the temptation to pretend not to understand becomes too much. For example, gym class: this Friday all the girls were supposed to go swI'mming. Laura, Ella, and I didn't particularly feel like swI'mming so Friday Morning: "Oh, I didn't know I was supposed to bring my swI'msuit." But it was okay- only four girls DID bring their swI'msuits, and the other 10 or so didn't even have the excuse of being foreign and not understanding!

Although we are still more than a month away from it, all of the exchange students are getting anxious now about switching families. And not in a good way.  We all love our families and don't want to switch.  I think switching will be hard, because when I look back on when I first arrived, I remeber how hard it was to understand my family's habits and behaviours.  Now I know most of them and I am accustomed to them.  Knowing the way my family thinks and acts in a situation really makes this place feel like a home.  More than anything, I don't want to switch becaue I love my family! The others feel the same way, which brings a little relief- because if they all love their families so much, maybe I will love their families too, when I switch with them. We don't know where we will end up yet, either, and I don't think we will know until right before the switch.  There is also another question we exchange students are asking each other: Which families have hot water? My family doesn't, which I think is an advantage. I am used to cold water now, so it doesn't really matter if I got hot water in my next home, but if I do it will be a nice surprise. I miss it a little.

School ends late December ! Summer break is approaching! And that seems really strange to me, and a little scary! This year is just flying by! I thought Novemeber would be the kind of month that just dragged on and on, but it really wasn't. Vacations the first week or so of Novemebr, and afterwards I have kept myself busy with school volleyball lesons, a few Spanish lessons, hanging out with friends, and of course, getting sick! Ugh, no fun at all... I am still recovering...

This past wekend, my Mother, Kelly, and I all went to Quevedo, a city located in the riverous (is that a word?) section of Ecuador. Los Ríos. We took a bus to get there, a first tI'me experience for me, and my mother told me to keep my eyes open, that it would be an amusing trip.  Well, I was only awake for about an hour of the nearly 4 hour trip there, but I learned fast what she was talking about.  Maybe every ten or fifteen feet, it seemed, the bus would stop to let on more and more vendors.  They sold oranges, empanada, yogurt, tortillas, sweets, bread and pretty much anything else you could want.  They crammed on to the bus and somehow made their way up and down it, sometI'mes balancing plates stacked full of their goods. But I never saw anyhting spill.  Also, the buses here are a lot more generous about letting people on than letting them off. You can clI'mb onto a bus, but if you want off, tell them and then prepare for a flying leap off! This may be an exaggeration, but just a small one!

Quevedo was a nice little city, from what I saw of it- which wasn't too much. Mostly just the church where the wedding we attended took place. It was a nice wedding, I think.  We arrived pretty late, just to see the end.  As we were leaving for the reception, all the power in the area went out.  this was at maybe 10pm.  We sat in the dark for maybe 2 hours, just talking.  When the pwer came on shortly after midnight the dancing and singing started.  I was exhausted, personally, but I sat patiently at the table, talking a little, but mostly watching.  My uncle kept speaking German to me, although I informed hI'm right away I didn't understand a word of it.  He knew this, but enjoyed it too much to stop.  I was okay with it, but if he wanted to confuse me, there was no need to use German.  He could have just spoken Spanish as fast as the kids next to me were.  They gave us dinner at 2am, which I didn't eat much of- I really just wanted to sleep!

All in all, November has been quite fun, not the long, tedious month I thought it would be! I look forward to December  and Christmas too- Christmas decorations have been up here for awhile, at least in the mall and a lot of houses- although I suspect I will be dreadfully homesick soon. The weather is the same as when I arrived in August, so it all seems a little unreal to me still.  But tI'me is passing, wheher I like it or not. So the best thing to do is enjoy it!

Karen

 

2nd Month

Yay! I have now been in Portoviejo, Ecuador for officially two months!

For all the tI'me I have been here, I haven't been in school that much! This week was exam week at Arco Iris, but since the exchange students missed the majority of the year and don't particularly understand the classes they did attend, we were exempt.  School has been getting better for me, and I think all of us. We are understanding more and usually we know the drill- which teachers require certain books and behaviors from the class.

Mid-October was our Manabí (the coastal province) trip. All the exchange students of Ecuador (except those who got in trouble for drinking and partying) came to Manabí. It was great fun, I think there were maybe 126 of us there! The majority of the kids are either American or German, I was asked multiple tI'mes (in German) if I spoke German, and I took great pleasure in saying "Nein!" The hotel was great, it reminded me of my summer camp, all outdoors, our rooms were these little cabins with these great hammocks on the porch. My friend Phillipe complained about his shower (the price of hot water was that all these electric cables were wrapped around his showerhead and apparently they started sparking and smoking while he was showering!) Our hotel was right across from Crucita, so there were constantly streams of exchange students crossing back and forth. The beach was very nice, our first day there we took a boat ride to a more remote location of the beach and played in the waves all day. Most of the students burned so badly that first day! I was very careful not to burn (too much, anyway!) that first day because I knew it would make a bad rest of the trip.

We had a Talent Night, too. We were all anxious about that, none of us feeling particularly talented that evening. Luckily for the us, particularly the Americans and Germans, it was organized by country. Each country had to perform a song or dance or act. The Scandinavian countries teamed up. but poor Rie from Japan was all on her own! (She did great, though, performing sign language to a Japanese song. I heard a lot of music from all over Europe and Asia that I am going to have to add to my ipod!) The Americans did a sort of skit, demonstrating popular stereotypes of American culture. We had, of course, the obese people eating their fast food, the emos, gangsters, cheerleaders, etc. I think it was pretty well received.

We also had a parade through Portoviejo. We all wore our blazers (at first, but we we started taking them off because it was HOT) and carried, or in some cases wore, our flags. We were all very patriotic to our countries, of course, but I think the Belgians were by far the loudest and most enthusiastic! A small group, but mighty!

The trip was great fun, I can't wait to see everyone again in February for the Amazon Trip. However, I was very glad to see my family again too. My Spanish is best when I am talking to my family, because when all the exchange students are together, we often lapse into English (or French or German!)

I realize I am very lucky to be in Portoviejo and Arco Iris too, because there are many other exchange students in my city and school. Rotary was definitely right, the other kids are my support and my closest friends. However, it does make it harder to learn Spanish well. I think I am I'mproving quite a lot, especially my understanding. Speaking has always been the hardest part for me, and I am continuing to practice with my family. Practicing speaking is difficult at school, because they laugh a lot. A lot. I am trying not to take it personally, but it is does make me feel very self-conscious!

This weekend I am planning to make our "traditional Ohioan dish"- Buckeyes! I was able to find peanut butter (mantequilla de maní) down here, but I think it more expensive than at home! Several of my friends haven't tried peanut butter before, I can't wait to introduce it to them and I hope they like it as much as I do! So that's something to look forward to!

I guess that concludes my second month report! Itis been about 70 days since I arrived and although I have my ups and downs, I am just loving it! Again, I want to thank my sponsoring district for giving me this awesome opportunity! I could never have done without you!

Besitos!
Karen
 

 

 

First Month

It's actually been over a month now, about a month and a week since I arrived here in Portoviejo. Looking back on when I first arrived, my Spanish has I'mproved a lot. It's not the kind of thing I have noticed changing; I am still frustrated that there are many things I can't understand or say, at least not very well. But my family here tells me my Spanish is much I'mproved, and that is what is most I'mportant!

I have been very busy here. The weekend of my arrival, my father drove the family six hours through the mountains to Quito, where I was introduced to the extended family, at least on my father's side. They were all so many and so noisy, but fun-loving and probably the most welcoming people I have ever met. I enjoyed being able to meet them all and they all enjoyed telling me this joke about Ohio, which I still don't quite understand although I have now heard it 6 or 7 tI'mes. The drive to and from Quito was beautiful and terrifying, I´m not accustomed to km/hr, but I feel that 100km7hr is too fast to be driving on these narrow mountain roads. Steffy and Kelly were able to sleep peacefully during the trip, but I was too busy dealing with my first culture shock: the road and rules of the road in Ecuador. From what I have observed, it is natural to dodge around cars that are driving too slowly. People here use the horn more than the seatbelt, and in the streets, it seems, you can park your car briefly anywhere you want as long as you turn on your hazard lights. Having just passed my driver's test and received my license a few months ago, I was pretty alarmed by the roads here.

School was another big shock for me. I attend Arco Iris, a private school with kids from kindergarten age through high school. The school is very different from my old school in Ohio, both in physical and organizational structure. The school is mostly outdoors, because the weather here is really mostly nice- everything here is a lot more open. The school is shaped like a giant coutyard, with a pavilion, basketball courts, soccer fields, volleyball net, and a really pretty garden area in the center. We have two breaks during the day, during which we are able to walk around this area. I really enjoy being able to go outdoors- the tiny courtyard at my old school was only for seniors during lunch or study hall. Classes were another thing entirely; the students here are so loud! They talk, listen to their ipods, use their cellphones, sit on each other's laps or on their desks, and just get up and lave the classroom during class and while the teacher is talking! Most of the teachers sI'mply try to talk louder than the students. I am surprised what some of these teachers put up with- however, not all the teachers tolerate this behavior, and the students know which ones do and don't. It is funny to me, too, that in a school where behavior is wild and crazy, on some things the administrators just insist on order. Uniforms, for example. We have three different uniforms for the week. Mondays we wear blouses and ties, nice skirts for the ladies and slacks for the guys. The teachers check to make sure our ties are pushed all the way up and our socks and shoes are the right colors and style. My school is preparing for a Feria, a big sort of festival and performance, so several tI'mes a week we have several hours of practice. At first, I had no idea what was going on, all the other students were using this "practice" tI'me as tI'me to mill around and buy food. Now I understand more about it, which is good, as it is only a week away. Somehow I managed to get a part in a sort of skit, and I have lines to memorize (in Spanish, of course!) and then act out in front of all the parents and teachers and kids from other schools. Definitely nervous. The theme of the Feria is "Somos Latinos" or "We are Latinos" which of course, myself and the other exchange students are not. So my part in the skit is to go out tanning and end up with skin cancer. Great part, huh? :)

The kids here are so friendly, they seem to get along with everyone. I often get frustrated with how loud they are, or the way they touch your stuff and use your supplies without asking, but they are also incredibly eager to help and they love to socialize with you. I have already made a few friends here, I feel like it would be a lot harder to do that if I were an exchange student to the U.S.

Language Camp was great, we stayed in a beautiful hotel in Bahía, right by the beach, and although classes were intense, they tried hard to make them fun, and we got to do a lot of sightseeing (and salsa dancing!) when we weren't in classes. I loved meeting the other exchange students, and all of them feel like friends or even family to me. I really enjoy their company.

Although I have had my ups and downs, it has all been mostly good and a lot of fun, and I want to thank you all so much for sending me! I am having a wonderful experience so far!

Karen Fullin
 

 

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Aaron Lefler Russia

 

The Last Month Report of Aaron Lefler

As the title says, it’s practically over, and as a finisher, I’m sending this on my last day in Russia, not caring at all how many pages it will be, adding everything, all my feelings and thoughts, so that way you can try to imagine how I’m feeling now. This is the end of my Russian life

               I had announced that my departure from my island host city would be within the next 2 weeks or so. And in that time I took every opportunity, every chance to see all in Yuzhno. I started with my old pal, Japan. I had hoped that my club would do a trip to Japan or something seeing as were literally right next to it. But the idea was shot down when they realized that they’d need to get Japanese Visas.. (come on now really!?) that stopped us from going to Japan, but didn’t stop Japan from coming to us. In the library there was a Japanese exhibition. Which I left school early to go see, there I meet some real Japanese natives for maybe the first time in my life outside of a rotary event. I went to talk to them of course and I soon realized that they mistook me for being Russian. I quickly stated that I was American and then spoke the little Japanese I knew at the time and they were stunned instantly asking me if I spoke Japanese. I said a little and then we talked more and I expressed my love for Japan since childhood, how it started with Godzilla then moved to deep cultural understanding. And the Japanese were very happy and flattered to see a foreigner taking such strong interest in their deep culture.. not like most who have shallow roots in anime. I still believe that my real love for Japan as a nation, understanding its culture, liking them not because of anime or shallow perks, but for their true culture, will set my trail to Japan right, and then my life long dream will really and finally come true. After the exhibition of Japanese toys and culture, I was asked for some words about Japan and I. all of yuzhno-Sakhalinsk knows my story of loving Japan since childhood, about my Godzilla exhibition in the Westerville public library, my independent Japanese studies. And that im still deep down under all the Russia ive obtained this year, drawn to the land of the rising sun.

Well sport seemed to relive itself in yuzhno on some days. My friends and I after school played basketball in the gym. But as we always had an odd number of people, one team had 3 or 5 players and the other had 2 or 4.. you get the picture. This however didn’t stop me and my friend Daniil, from holding off and trouncing thoroughly a team of 3 players. The world of sports is a great arena, im glad that ive gotten the chance to play sports in two countries and get exercise once in a while, really helps take out the anger and stress in situations. Friends also help with relieving stress. My English student Vladimir took me to his company’s private sports facility one day, as a way of saying thanks for me teaching him English. There we enjoyed time in the Russian saunas, played sports, ate great American Pizza and met some of his friends who instantly liked me when I showed that I was a 17 year old American who could speak Russian. Also having to do with sports, in Russia was the 1000 days to the Olympic games in Sochi, which I hope to attend. And our school was chosen to host the “mock” Olympics. I was a judge for table tennis, even though I said 5 times that I couldn’t judge table tennis worth crap.. they didn’t care, but I did little and had other kids count, I guess you can say ive gotten as dedicated to my job as Russians are. Haha..

               My last rotary meeting was held in a concert, conducted by our Japanese Rotarian. As it was a Japanese concert. I spoke to the Rotarian who was Japanese in Japanese of course, but a little as he was busy. The concert went on very well.

               So for some excitement, as the time of my departure grew closer and closer. I soon found myself on the last day with who I can call “the real friends” in my exchange, all my friends I meet from the church my Korean family went to. Because of my school and rehearsal for the last day of school party. I couldn’t go to the church for the last 2 weeks. So I came late to service but early enough to be gotten for one last run with these great people. We went to citi moll. A big shopping center, there we played the game I had wanted to play forever, laser tag. I could never play before because of a lack of people. But we finally got a round in before my departure. In the game I was wearing a light blue, white outfit, and the arena, was lit by neon lights, I soon saw that I stuck out like a sore thumb… but this was good, as in Russian laser tag, you need to hit the spots on a person to kill them. And I was on the light blue team. So nobody saw my targets. In Russian laser tag, you can run, have unlimited ammo, and they blast hard rock music everywhere like “numb” by Linkin Park. When you’re shot, you stay dead for about 3 seconds as if you’ve been immobilized. For the first time in my life, my team won, and out of all the players, I ranked second with 37 or so kills in 10 minutes, the guy ahead of me, had 67 or so.. (jeez!) Then my friends showed me great Korean food called bibin bam (I forgot the name) and we played bowling. As a gift they gave me a bible, saying it’s the only book in the world which has a 100% translation accuracy, as the meaning must be the same everywhere. I soon saw off my dear friends one by one, and soon I was left alone in the elevator in my apartment going home, and thought to myself… “poof… there they go.” The people who barely knew me more than 3 months, were the besets friends I could find on this island. I gave them all gifts

               The last day of school came around, and I graduated Russian school.. Well sorta, as I had never had grades. The 11^th grade was showed around the school in the courtyard, put through tasks and little fun games, planted a tree in our honor, then held a concert where the 11^th grade thanked all the teachers and sung our final song.. I remember the words of the song well, I couldn’t help but think that they were sort of for me “goodbye my sweet home, goodbye my sweet school” as the next day I had a flight to Vladivostok, Russia. Where I would continue my exchange. Upon my goodbye’s I meet my school friends, who asked me what time my flight was, I said 7 and they said “ahhh ok, we’ll try to see you” which usually means no in any country” the next day I packed my bags, then went to see the Brazilian student and my karsakov friends. We saw the new pirates of the carribean, and she gave me a gift that her father wanted her to give to me. It was a coin, a Russian kopeek, current kopeeks challenge the penny for worthlessness. But this was a 150 year old kopeek that was known as “tsar money”. So rare and valuable and he only had 2. And gave one to me. Many of my friends gave me gifts before my departure, my English student vlad gave me expensive snowboarding goggles, and beads worn by real Chinese monks, the family of the French student gave me a Russian hat and Russian cup, and my friend gave me a squid magnet saying “I love yuzhno”.. well when I got to the airport, I was alone for a bit as my family had to leave for a meeting, yet within minutes my club president arrived with the English translator. My president gave me a fragile and expensive Japanese (means Chinese) character, “Happiness” as I must always carry happiness with me where ever I go. Then I was told that I was obliged to go to Japan, it wasn’t a question, and that she would need to leave quickly or else who would start to cry. Then came some girls who were my friends. Then the French exchange student and her sister and mom arrived with some more Rotarians who took me in for a day or so around Christmas. It seemed like a small amount of people, but then out of nowhere I spotted my school friends approach the airport coming to see me, the friends who asked me “what times your flight?” all came to see me when they have government exams within a week, carried my 50 pound bags to the registration, and when we went to the store, wouldn’t let me pay for anything. When I went down the steps in the airport to my flight, I looked back at them, all crowding the door trying to get one last look at me in their lives. I went down the stairs while looking behind me at them, didn’t miss a single step, then disappeared around the corner into the shuttle boarding bay, remembering to this day the last image of them I saw standing at the door. As the plane took off, I took one last look at my city, the city I called home until the vicious fate of failing host families set in. it’s because of them that I had to leave. The district rotary made a big sacrifice to save me from it all. I’m forever thankful that it happened, I cant help but wondering if the Rotary ever saw something in me that they wanted. The Rotarians found me a family in Nahodka, Russia. The lad who took the exchange students from the airport to the orientation was going to be my new host mom. She was also one of the very Rotarians I testified against in the 5 second comical trial we held for my friend when he had his first Russian problem.. and she remembers it.

               I arrive in Vladivostok and I was informed that my friend who I defended in the trial wanted to see me here, but he had practice for football and he couldn’t come. It was nice to hear also that he was dying to see me but rotary forced him to go to practice. We arrive home finally at midnight and the next day (means that day) I head out on a camping trip in a lake sea side resort with the other students, 2 of my Taiwanese friends and the Brazilian boy who wanted to see me in the airport. You can imagine how big the hug was when we meet each other when we thought that 2 months ago, we would never see the other again. During our 3 days in the camp, we hijacked an inflatable boat from an abandoned dock and sailed around the lakes, and then we went rock scaling I was proud of myself, as usually I would be too timid to do such stupid and dangerous things, but adventure called strong. Some teens in the cabin down from us were blasting Russian music all day, but guess which band? My favorite band lube!!! In our free time we chopped wood, sang songs to the guitar, and talked about whats been new in each of our lives. When my friend doesn’t understand, I usually explain or translate for him, and when he makes a mistake, I correct him. So he loves and hates me really much now. When it was all over, the students had to leave for the district conference in Irkutsk. Mom you don’t know about it, because I knew the answer would be no from you, you’ll see what I mean, and thank me when I tell you that the ticket was 20-40 thousand rubles… so it’s about going to Moscow and Petersburg again. So I was left in my new host city with all the exchange students gone except me.. What to do? Well why not get stolen by the natives who I meet 9 months ago at the first orientation who have been waiting for me for months!? My friend Vova (the Korean looking kid from Uzbekistan, whom you guys posted on our website as a Japanese exchange student who’s becoming friends with me in front of a memorial) called me and invited me over to his place for some days. He’s still studying in the university, so I had to go to school with him for a day and I got to see how a Russian university works… kinda like I expected, but hard to explain. In the university I also got to see my friend Aselya, who I also meet in the first orientation. So it soon seemed hard to be alone in this city. With Vova we went to see our rotary district coordinator, she gave me an interview on my year and then we somehow slipped into Japanese. She was actually able to help me study Japanese better. My coordinator speaks some Japanese, as Japan is quote “an absolutely fabulous country” recently, I’ve been learning in the one sided mode, I wanted to focus more on learning the Chinese characters which the Japanese stole, as there’s over thousands of them and it takes years to get a grasp on them and while im still in Russia I should still study Russian more. Well she tells me that I should focus more on just plainly speaking, then uses the examples of babies. How a baby just learns to talk, then he learns to write and read. So because learning like a baby is a very useful method, I took it up. My friend Vova then showed me the first kung fu panda movie.. Which I enjoyed well as I could understand most of it.

               So I soon went to see the club which saved me from Sakhalin, it’s a very small club, now there’s 16 members, but at this time, only 10. But its probably the most efficient club in all of Russia. They wanted me to tell about my life on Sakhalin. And when I was speaking, I was told that I acted like my coordinator in the US… Walter Lundstrom.  I was then told that I had an excellent coordinator in the states. Walter, you know who I meet in Nahodka club, you meet her at a conference in the west. Something I like about Nahodka club, it’s that they don’t act like chickens without their heads cut off Russian around the street. And they can listen, when I speak about the stuff my host families did, and how my club handled it, they look at me and actually for a change agree with me, especially with my last hose family who treated me extremely bad for plainly existing. The names of my families I won’t speak, only my Korean family where everything was fine. The rotary then wanted me to do presentations about my 2 cities in the US. My entire exchange I’ve been saying that I have 2 cities; I live in Columbus, and go everything in Westerville. Well now they want to hear about my cities, and my life in Sakhalin.. but shortly. Soon will be the installment banquet for the club, and they want my life on Sakhalin presentation then, and my city presentation done by the meeting on the 13^th of June. I agreed of course as I respect their orders because they saved me. It will be my 3^rd and 4^th time doing Russian presentations; my club in yuzhno didn’t have me present about my year. The announcement of my leaving was 3 weeks before my ticket, and the meetings were busy. After rotary I started going to soccer practice with the Brazilian kid, I still can’t kick the ball right, but when it comes to me defending these serious Russian players haven’t really stood a chance. I still miss the old American football, it’s just my game never had one class of football, never played one official second of football. Yet I can still state my dominance against the other team.. I just wish I had ways of still playing in the US, I’m a band geek.. Not a jock, and I’m wondering if I made the right choice. After my year in Russia playing sports, I’ve seen the real talent, the real skill, the real raw momentum I have for American football. I play it better than any other sport I know. And thanks to Russia, I have more confidence than before, and have thought about going out for a team in football.. But my sousaphone is calling me back to the Westerville South Marching Band soon..

               So returning from her year abroad in Thailand is my friend Elena. In Thailand she learned English, somehow. And speaks really good for learning only 10 months, but has a thick Russian accent and cant say most words, so we started to hang out because the other exchange students haven’t returned yet. And she shows me the city and tells me where not to go, and introduces me to her friends who instantly became my friends. My friend Vova and I went bowling with his cousin, Vova and I swapped wins, and then played American pool. Where thanks to his screwing up and scratching the white ball when he sunk the 8, I won. But his cousin who never played before, beat me at AMERICAN billiards.. ive never lost in Russia at American pool! The son of my host family, so my host brother, whose 24 or so, lives out of the house, took me and some friends to the nature, for a 5 or so hour relaxing get out. Where we played volleyball or badminton, and I showed up the Russians by starting a fire in less than 30 seconds with a lighter which lasted until the rain came. My host mom has taught me how to cook. I have asked my families, “teach me to cook” and they say “sure” and never teach me. Well not this time.  I really like this new host family, its just the host mom, her mother, and a big dog.  This is probably the best family I’ve ever had. Probably? It is! I have the freedom to talk with them, they talk to me, the dog loves anyone who looks at it. The family is so willing to show me Russian culture and actually listen to me and take an interest in me. Its sad that I only lived here for a month.. I see now that many of my families didn’t have to do what they did to me in Yuzhno..  I hate saying it, but it honestly appears that I meet 3 nasty variants rotary thought would suit me. On Sakhalin only the Koreans and my karsakov family really got along with me.  The people of Nahodka are simply awesome. When I asked: “Do you consider Nahodka a big city?” they said “no, we consider Nahodka the best city!” and since then we made an agreement. Nahodka is the best city in Russia, and Ohio is the best state in the US.. so far nobody objects to it so were all happy. The family has even showed me the biggest port in the world by freights, located in a neighboring town. When the Exchange Students arrived from the conference in Irkutsk, Russia,  they brought back with them 2 extra students, from Brazil, these students were so happy to see me, that when they both saw me, they gave me a good “Hello after a long time” punch in the stomach. They would stay here for 10 days, the usual time for guests. On that same day, I was shown the museum, and X-Men First Class.

With the students, we were together everyday, we had picnics, we were the happiest people in the world, 6 exchange students, all good friends with eachother, it was  an extremely high point in the last part of my exchange. We were even invited down to Partizansk, Russia for 3 days, where the different nationalities made food that was made in their own country, 3 brazilians, 2 taiwanese, 1 american. I never had to cook, they didn’t bother to give me hamburger patties. The Brazilians made melted chocolate and a cake which was absolutely awesome. Their main dishes were fasoli beans and melted cheese meat rice. The Taiwanese made a tasty bread and rice meal. At night, we watched the Russia day concert on Red Square, and I saw again m favorite band Lubeh, sing the rock version of the Russian Anthem on live TV. We also watched the Brazilian VS Germany Volleyball game. I was the only person rooting for Germany in the entire house. We never saw who won. Me and the Brazilian boys discussed Video Games, we talked for hours about the old games we both grew up with and play now, although I haven’t touched a video game in 9 months, its till interesting to me. Were all excited for the new Gears of War 3 coming out soon. So the Rotary club of Nahodka wanted me to do a presentation about my 2 cities in the US, in Russia I say that I have 2 cities. I live in Columbus, but do everything in Westerville. I had my presentation recorded as a souvenir. And I explained how Westerville was the 15^th best place to live in the US, the project “the Field of heroes” my club does every year, the Japanese shrine in Westerville, the prohibition of Alcohol. And how Columbus has the best zoo in the US and is a business center and so on. I also explained how I wouldn’t say that my city was Columbus if I didn’t live there, as I all around prefer Westerville. At the end, the Rotarians were all saying that they wanted to travel to Westerville. I consider that a Victory.  The Club was also having their installment banquet on Saturday, and wanted all the exchange students to reenact the Russian fairytale “rebka” where an entire family is needed to pull out a vegetable. So to surprise them, we went to the local theatre to get costumes for the fairy tale. (I kinda hated it because I had to do all the talking) but soon we got costumes for the fairy tale. I was also asked to do more assignments for Nahodka at their banquet. A poem by a Russian author (ecenin) and a presentation about my life on Sakhalin. Along with all that, I was also the announcer for the fairy tale “Rebka”. And 2 pther songs which we all had to learn. All in all, I was kinda nervous, but knew if I pulled it off then the Rotary Club who practically saved me, would be glad that they did so.  We also spend time helping the rotary club make paper lotuses for a kids summer camp. We made flowers which everybody learned how to make at the district conference, except me, because I wasn’t there. So when it came time for the actual installment banquet, I found myself as stressed out as ever. And it was definitely noticeable, as I would spend more time looking at my papers than eating the meals they brought us. As I still (after 2 weeks) could get my poem down. The entire time, the students were telling me “Aaron, you’re the best here, you don’t need to worry”. Well when it came time for my poem, I went up, messed up the first line by saying “me” instead of “you”, corrected myself, then proceeded to recite my poem, without flaw. I couldn’t believe I did it. When my presentation came along, I made everyone laugh when I talked about many examples of culture shock. Like cows wandering the streets, and how its deer who do it in the US (nobody in Russia has seen wild deer really) at the end, I thanked Nahodka club for taking me in and all that they’ve done for me. When we portrayed the fairy tale, it was funny thanks to the costumes and our Brazilian students. The rotary said that I was practically a star on the night. When we arrived home, I saw my bed, jumped on it, and went to sleep instantly.

After the Installment banquet in Nahodka, they have a tradition to climb a mount called sister. We did this the very next day (after some eco action and picking up trash on the shore) we reached the top of sister and saw all of Nahodka, a view ill never forget. And the Brazilians also wouldn’t, as the next day they left to Yakutsk to see more Brazilians. We got everyone together as the two Brazilians left us forever, leaving us with 10 days of awesome memories. My host mother the next few days, took the remaining students to see bears and eat in the weeds with them. And to a dolphin aquarium. Where I saw dolphins for the first time, and touched them. We saw them do tricks and such also there. On that same day, I explained to Nahodka Club more about the field of Heroes idea which they are planning on doing. They mentioned that in Russia its harder because of the local minorities who would seize any opportunity to ruin Russian patriotism or steal free flags. In Russia is a patriotism problem. The soviet union always said “be patriotic” and now that the soviet union is gone, whos saying “be patriotic” so the nation doesn’t do it much. (imagine it being like a mother always telling you to eat cereal all the time, you eat so much that you cant stand it anymore, then the mother leaves, now what will you do? Still eat cereal?) I was also stolen by a Rotarian to teach English at a sea school, for sailors who need English to work at their jobs. And we celebrated the last day of our Taiwanese student, with a trip to the banya.

so I can also say that ive fallen in a Russian Wedding. On the 25^th of June, My host brother got married. Russian weddings are a lot more fun than American. We started by decorating all the cars with flowers or decorations. Then the groom had to buy his way to the bride by completing obstacles set up by the bride, like guess what certain numbers meant that had something to do with the bride. After the groom made it to the bride, we went to the marriage hall where the marriage was registered and then we took an excursion around the city. In Russia, all the cars watching you honk as they pass by, as a “good luck, congrats” way. Even the police turn on their sirens for the wedding, the Russian spirit of love is surprisingly everywhere. The entire Russian wedding traditionally is 2 or more days. So we went to a base and camped there and played some games that the wedding planner planned. The bride and groom aren’t considered bride and groom in Russia until they have spent one night together after the wedding. Everyone went to sleep around 1 or 2 in the morning. The next day we grilled shish ka bobs, talked, played volleyball, and went home around 6 or so. Many people wanted to talk to me, the Russian youth has considered me cool as the American who speaks Russian, has a sense of humor, knows enough Russian slang to make you laugh, and is full of surprises. I spend the last days in Russia, being with friends for the last time, and packing all my stuff for the plane on Wednesday the 29^th. At our last Rotary meeting, the club wanted me to cook Russian food for them. So my host mom and I cooked pelemeni, which they said turned out horrible because we made so little of it. The club then said their last words to the Taiwanese student and me, who were only ones, were remaining in the city at that time. I’ve never seen a person break into tears that quickly as the Taiwanese student did. In the end, I thanked the club for what they have done for me.  And donated my Russian flag to them, as they will go through with the Field of Heroes in Russia, I will be their first hero, they said. At the end, our district coordinator was crying over our departure. At the entire rotary club, after seeing me, wanted to know how those families on Sakhalin saw me badly. At our last day, we invited practically the entire host family for one last meeting to see me and speak with me. It took a while for them all to gather, but it was finally done and we talked late into the night

So it seems that I’ve still to explain some more deeper thoughts and notes about Russia, for my last report.

              

Changes

I didn’t know it was possible, but I’m more independent. In Yuzhno I’ve been practically living without a family for 3 months, I’ve had to get up by myself, feed myself, and I’ve been free to do what I want all the time almost. Like in the US, but not so openly free like in Russia, where I more willingly to go longer distances to do more things. Maybe because I have the opportunity here thanks to public transportation and the size of my city. I’m definitely more patriotic, I’m the loudest shouter of “USA!” anywhere now, after seeing these poor people and how they live, and seeing the good and the bad which our nation does while I’m abroad, and accepting it, I’m truly being a true patriot of my land, like my German grandfather told me. I can really bite my tongue better, when I’ve been fighting with families, there’s been so much I’ve wanted to say, but didn’t because it would have ruined my chances of leaving a good impression with my rotary. So I’ve kept a lot of my words back in frustrating situations, and it can show, especially when you pick your battles. I now really can say I almost eat everything and anything, besides mushrooms and wasabi. You’ve never been hungry in Russia before. I’ve been very thrifty with money, as I’ve been making sacrifices and calculating money in my head, looking for cheaper prices. So my scout training “a scout is thrifty” and the personal management merit badge really paid off. I’m less afraid, in the US I was a little timid to do things, now it’s like I lost a big sense of fear, as I think “I’ve been through worse with host families” and it calms my bones. I definitely have improvements in 3 languages, English, Russian, and Japanese while I’ve been abroad.

 

 

Accomplishments

I’ve been shown on TV twice thanks to my help to the library and museum and the Japanese exhibition.  I’ve been shown through national radio in Russia. I can snowboard a lot better than I thought.  I’ve taught English to 8 or so people, and have done many presentations about my country, me, and American events after every of which, I talk about rotary. I finally got real basketball experience, picked up 2 languages, the main one I’m told that I speak well for only learning 16 months even though I practically forgot Russian because my last family on Sakhalin refused to talk to me and my friends were all busy. I’ve been published twice, once with notification, in my library brochure and in Nahodka where I’m in a picture with some other exchange students in an article about Nahodka rotary club. With my older students, I have achieved “reliable friend forever” and they will take their personal paid vacation to where I live at the time, just so they can come and see me. And they know that a rotary exchange student from the US helped them land a job and changed their life. I’ve lived through Fukushima!!! We had snow in late may on Sakhalin; everyone says that it’s radioactive due to Fukushima. I’ve seen my host city on international TV because the entire world was watching it at that time, and I can say that I was there.. But I (like my mom) probably glow in the dark at night a little. I feel that I can say that I received a  full Russian experience, ive practically lived in 3 cities, had 6-7 host families, each different, lived with non Russians living in Russia, lived on a Russian Island. How many exchange students can say that they lived with 7 families in 3 cities on an island and on the mainland of their host nation? I’m thinking… not a lot. They practically took away my home for 3 months in Yuzhno.. but I survived. Put me in a different culture, hard language I speak fairly well sometimes still, no family, and I can live. I thank my eagle scout rank so much for this in so many ways. I might have brought the “Field of Heroes” to Russia. When I was presenting about my city, the club grew very interested on the idea of the Field of Heroes for a holiday in the Fall. Its too bad that if it gets used, I wont be around to see it.

Russia

               Some noticeable things I’d like to point out about Russia. First off, its that Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is a rather strange place. When Anton Chekhov, a famous Russian author visited the island, he called it the end of the world; I can see today that little has changed. The prices are expensive, people are flat out crazy and think differently. In Nahodka, they think more westernized, where half of the day means 12 o clock pm and a village is what you would expect. Where on Sakhalin.. half day is 3pm and The real Russian village isn’t the one out in the country side where cows roam free (I lived in a village with my first family) and the houses are old and there’s vegetables growing everywhere like farms, but the American village for the rich 4 story house civilians who have a guard who does nothing just for the sake of giving him a job (where the French student lives)

               In Russia there are 3 ancient heroes, known as the 3 bagatirs. When Russia is in trouble, they will come to safe her, their names are alyosha papovich, ilya muramets, and dobrinya nikita. In ancient Moscow, yellow flowers meant that you were breaking up with your girl friend. The Russian president’s house is located between the army and the congress, in order to keep power. After a haircut, you can flick the person’s forehead. The Russian sign for a pharmacy is a snake twisting around a cup with a cross over it. Because in ancient Moscow a patient was bitten by a snake, the doctor kept medicine in a cup and when it didn’t work, he prayed, and the patient was healed, and the doctor became a believer. In Russia they’re gold domed churches. As gold conducts energy well and will take energy from Jerusalem, the holy land for the sake of Christ. A lot of times, hot and cold water are reversed on the handles. The educational system is varied, if you’re in a “gymnasia” like my school, they just give you so much info that you don’t understand anything. The system fails to teach real skills or add diversity to the class. Its just “you see a paper, you can only write on it” there’s no creativity, no big projects, just info, info, info. American schools really teach more widely used and needed topics. If you wanted to know how long a flight between Moscow and St. Petersburg would be, you don’t need to run a train going at 50 MPH with a wind speed of 4MPH pushing against the train then multiply that by 3 to average the airspeed of a jet then take that number divided by the number of minutes in an hour (Russian school variant) but could simply call the company and ask them or wait until you get on the plane. That’s how Russian school differs from the US.. In Russia, just a lot of info so if you need something that will never help you in life, you’ll know it, where in the US, you learn what you need. The nation drinks aloe vera, which we use for medicine. Traditions include going to the swamp and picking berries or mushrooms. When you mean “alcohol drinking” they flick their neck.. This is dated back to the war times. The kids are absolutely awesome, except little immature kids. They have comedy clubs called KVN which shows Russian pathetic humor. They aren’t dedicated to their jobs like we are; they leave work all the time, means barley anything gets done here. I’ve talked with former soldiers, who hate the Russian army because of bad treatment, and would rather have joined the American army because there they would be treated better and learn to use weapons more. In the Russian army the soldiers barley train with weapons. Not like in the American army. They’re health freaks, “don’t step in mud with your 3 inch boots, it’ll seep up into your foot and then your foot will smell and it’s bad for health” “close your blinds when you sleep, it’s bad for your dreams”  yet they all still don’t throw trash away properly. The Russian nation makes great efforts to honor teachers, heroes, and writers. Calling them crazy gets you in trouble. People like Yuri Gagarin (first man in space), or admirals who won famous battles, are given the highest honors in the land. In school, janitors don’t exist really. The kids do work around school all the time. Russian government is more “something bad happens to you, (like your passport was stolen) you have to pay because you weren’t so careful” I’m not happy with this government, they’re still living in the pride of their soviet systems “you have the chance to study in a Russian school Aaron, we have the best systems in the world” well everyone is just learning the same thing everywhere in Russia, and nobody in my school knew that my capital was Washington D.C. nobody knew the word embargo also. All Russian systems suck, they take so long to do and they’re so unnecessary complicated because there’s a ton of bad people living here. The nation loves to help each other, when police stand at the bottom of a hill, the cars will signal with lights that the police are there so the cars will slow down and not get caught. The Russian nation, in general, doesn’t care at all what happened in Japan with the tsunami and earthquake. When the news struck I took action and tried to talk to rotary clubs even about what could be done to help, and I was ignored practically. The reaction in Russia was “oh my god, how horrible, hey friend, let’s go bowling and get drunk again” “wooohoo!” this nation has no sense of giving like you find almost everywhere in the US. The nation thinks “what can I, one person do about it?” if the nation could seem to overcome this “obstacle” then I’m sure that they could ensure their world leader role well into the future. I’ve also learned not to learn Japanese in Russian, Russians learn Japanese wrong. In both languages, the sounds “chi and shi” are used, but in Russian the sounds “ti and si” are used instead of the real variants. In English we learn the sounds right, in Russian they don’t and for every sound like “shi and chi” they have wrong which can throw off the listener. Russia also thinks that they beat Japan in WW2, and say America did little to nothing to help in the war.  After hearing stories and talking with people about it. The Russians say that thanks to their 2^nd eastern front against Germany, the allied forces won the war, as they lost 30 or so million men in doing so. But none of them think that without the US on the western front, which Hitler would of sacked Britain and concentrated on the USSR on the eastern front, which alone came 20 kilometers away from conquering Moscow. And after the USSR “won the war” they supposedly invaded Japanese occupied China and Korea on august 8th, and liberated these areas. That’s surprising because if I remember true history, the USSR was late and invaded Japanese areas in-between the bombs we dropped on Japan. And then the true history of the surrender treaty between Japan and the US, where Japan let go of its conquered land it obtained due to the war, reducing her back to the 4 main islands it is today, doesn’t exist in Russia. When in fact, I also must say, that our stories of Russia in WW2, don’t really exist also, to us Americans, its more “we saved the world” when in truth, it was us together.  In Russia its “the USSR saved the war, and beat Japan” which every European and the Japanese know is practically wrong, as the French student had this to say “I can’t thank Russia or the USSR for the war, because we were saved by the USA”. The Russians also wanted to conquer Western Europe, but because America freed those countries, the USSR couldn’t. I remember the stories of many Russians “yea, and if you weren’t there, then we would of taken all of Europe”. Then they go on how they USSR was a nice leader and wanted to help Eastern Europe, how the USSR was such a good force watching over them, and how the US is bad for always interfering. Well if you guys remember Martin rutle, from the Czech Republic he told many stories of how eastern hated the USSR and Russia for what they did, how the pilots from the Czech Republic who defended Britain from Hitler, were hanged by Stalin. How they never wanted the USSR, yet love the US dearly. These types of stories don’t exist in Russia, its just “Russia is great around the world”  just shows how poor this educational system is, only teaching one side of the story, nothing teaching kids to be different, or have personalities, or look outside the box. It’s really depressing to watch.  The Russian nation also loves native English speakers. As nobody comes in really to Siberia who speaks well English, those who want to know English really treat you like their son and help you a lot if you can just speak with them. There’s no animal shelters in Russia, when m host mom heard about an animal shelter in Ohio (random occasion on the radio here) she instantly loved the US, because “there are no such things like that anywhere in Russia” I explained how in the US they’re volunteers and I have a friend who helps in one sometimes. Just shows this nations treatment to animals. I asked if all the dogs that I saw on the street were walking themselves, I was answered, no, they’re stray. With that logic, I haven’t gone one day in Russia without seeing a stray dog. I don’t care about the heritage of the Russian films about war, or the occasional turnout of the Eurofilm.. but Hollywood, is the best. In Russia I never saw a real Russian film until I was in Nahodka. And I saw why. Eurofilms are occasionally good, they try, that’s obvious, but they lack the flair and depth of Hollywood, Russian films just straight aren’t that good. Poor budget, corruption, people who don’t act right, all old or set in communist times, the only Russian film I like is “my admiral” because I knew it existed when I was in the US. The Russians say that America, has the best films in the world. They’re always taken and shown on TV because the native films just can’t compare to the masterpieces of Hollywood. In Russia, unlink in the US, you can’t Purchase money with a defaced bill, you need to take it to the bank and have it restored, you can’t buy something with it. Its considered worthless when defaced. If you ride the Russian Bus, and the first 3 numbers of your ticket, added equal the last 3 numbers, then you have a lucky ticket. If you really want to be lucky, you have to eat the ticket. I’ve received 2 lucky tickets already. In Russia, you cant use defaced bills in stores, you must exchange them always at a bank. Nobody in Russia thinks you will speak Russian. Yes its true, for some reason nobody thinks that youll speak Russian if you arrive and live in Russia for 10 months. You can say 4 words in Russian and they will automatically answer “you speak awesomely”. They also don’t expect you to know Russia. I talked about how I knew Russian bands in the US, and theyre all surprised. They love it when foreigners know about famous Russian gags or jokes before they arrived to Russia. Theres a shop every 5 steps it seems. Not big ones, but tiny product stores. In Russia there are two passports. One for inside Russia, and one for outside Russia. (you can receive them at 13 or 14 years of age)  they always ask “wheres your grand passport” and I always answer, “im not Russian, I have one passport which I can get when I want (not everyone has a passport right?)” and they ask millions of questions about how its possible. In Russia, the light switch to the room, is located outside the room, always. Even in the Bathroom, but nobody seems to notice that obvious prank in this nation. The Russian nation loves to give awards, my Brazilian friend was telling me how he entered a competition of strength and out of 7 people, he practically placed 8^th, and he received “most smartest”. In Russia are horrible phone companies. They have high rates and charge for almost everything. I had 50 rubles on my phone (2 dollars), and my host mom showed me how to call my mom in the states. I called her for exactly 5 minutes, and had -300 rubles on my phone (12 dollars) (this was with a tariff to talk more and pay less). There’s barley any pay by month plans. Its always play by day. You place money on the phone by inserting your number and money in terminals which you can find anywhere and everywhere. Russian weekend, drink a ton of vodka over the 2 days, sleep at 3am Monday morning, at 8, go to work, almost always. It is also common in Russia to get married in your early twenties. Some Russians, also think that America will return to beat Russia again, and they’re afraid. Like us and our stories of Russia wanting revenge. Well here’s some advice about Russians, they live on the other side of the world, eat food, drink water, have good and bad people, walk on 2 legs, breathe air, laugh, smile, speak a different language, have a different culture, just like us when compared to them. We make each other out to be enemies out of plain fear. Like in the movie “The Sum of all Fears”

Конец/The End

Well that’s it, the end of everything, my Russian life, my Russian friends, and my new Russian host family. I can’t believe that 9.5 months ago I was arriving in Vladivostok to start my exchange, and now I’m leaving to end it. I can look back at my year, like it was all recently, the blocked shot I made to support the team, the look on my face when I got my first perfect snowboard stance and went soaring down the hill, the wanting to say words which would of made my 1^st host family rethink the “poor socializing skills of Aaron”, the things I would say in class that would make everyone laugh. Ill miss my Russian life, Russian food, culture, tradition, but I will love to see the US again, and its traditions and culture again. What will my life be like when I return to the US? Everyone there has been living without me. I suddenly see this world with completely different eyes. What will be new in my life after Russia? If you asked me a month ago, how I felt about Russia, you would of gotten a different answer. Nahodka made a huge risk taking me in to save my exchange. They’re not sad that they had to take me in but happy that they took a student away from such troubles on Sakhalin. (My host family said that they will work with Sakhalin better in the future maybe, to ensure that it won’t happen again). My last nights I have had trouble sleeping, and have listened to Russian music to try to find my mood in the half recognizable words they sing. My host family has only known me for 5 weeks, and is already close with me. My host mother has single handedly proved that all my supposedly “bad” families on Sakhalin, were really not that great after all. I have a reason to return to Russia, to see this family, this city, and this rotary again. (and my friends on Sakhalin also) It’s hard to believe that under so much Russia, I still love, Japan. My friend Vinicio, Brazilian Exchange student, has requested to be with me when I fly away. And when I say requested, I mean is fighting to do so. Maybe I didn’t do as good as Greg Miller before me, but in the end in never really mattered. I also have planted my seed in Russia, of course with Help to sunrise for supporting my new club with the Field of Heroes Idea. But I won’t be around to see it.

294 days in Russia, 2 languages, 3 host cities, 6 host families, 2 times shown on television, the Russian Field of Heroes, shown through national radio, English student of 8 people, thousands of presentations, a big impression of Russia, and a sense of a world bigger than it was last year. All without breaking a single D. thank you Mom, Nana, Ryan, and Westerville Sunrise Rotary Club.

Goodbye Russia! Я вернусь домой ollywood, Holl

 

 

8 down, one to go. As Russia and I still duke it out

So how are we all suppose to feel for the first time in 7 months after tasting civilization? Like were tired? Yea, after talking with some of the other students, we all agreed that were all different after our trip to Moscow and Peter. How life slowly started to readjust itself. I felt this also when I arrived from Moscow. It felt as if life wasn’t the same as before, probably because I was forced to live with my first family again when I returned. It wasn’t that bad really. As saying for a guest is a lot better then staying as a family member. Before Moscow I was told that I was going to live with a different family, one of the many variants that my club came up with for me. But they were silent so long, that I ended up living with the Koreans. well it turns out that because the Koreans aren’t Russian, I cant live with them. Which is a shame because I liked them most of all. They gave me food, a home, and friends, and along with they, all of my previous friends lived near them. And they were never home, so I had much more freedom and time to relax than in my other families. When I arrived with my first family again, I was actually happy, only after we got to talk for a bit. The family that at one point said that I was horrible in this language. Now says that I speak EXTREMELY well. (this was also after 2 weeks of English speaking with the other students). And i was given the offer to live with them again. Which confused me, because rotary told me that I would live with different people when I returned, but didn’t tell my first host family until I arrived that id need to be with them. And then didn’t tell them that id be soon leaving… so my club left a giant loop hole that I found again.. no worries though, as its all taken care of. Well I also had a uniform issue, as my school clothes were in my Korean family, who flew to Indonesia. So for 2 days I didn’t go to school, on the 3rd day, they said I could and it wouldn’t be a problem. But the teachers who told me that, didn’t tell the head master… so I had my 2nd duke out with the head master of the school. Who told me that "it’s a different country" and how dare I wear these things in Russia "Russian shirt with the Russian eagle" haha.. yet when I asked the teacher and they talked to the head master, she totally seemed to cave in and say that I could wear my clothes like this until the uniform arrived. I thought "crap, these 2 people really didn’t speak to each other about this issue" as they used the words "she doesn’t have the power to say that!". It just shows that maybe there’s still some prejudice in this school against me. Its ok, I don’t like the school anyway and have no good notes of Russian school besides the fact the walls don’t fall apart and there's a floor.

So after our rotary meeting, my clothes arrived, and I was told that I would go my my possible last family on Sakhalin. Well at rotary, we had out happy dollar. And as recent news, I decided to give 100rubles (actually about 3-4 dollars) for my brother, Ryan. When it became my turn, unlike the others, I stood up, and said. "This is to my brother ryan, who received free college in Ohio State University, the best school in our state. And for 6 weeks, he will be in MSU, Moscow State University (debatably the best school in Russia), to study Russian. The entire rotary club erupts in applause.. Ryan, You’re welcome ;)

I moved into my new (and 5th) family on Sakhalin. Some first notes about my family. The father, Oleg, very kind and nice, has already allowed me to address him in the Russian formal version and not polite like I had always done with my previous families. The daughter, 14 years old, named Dasha, and the wife, Nina. Within a few days, I saw that unlike most host families, my key to survival in this one, was friendship with the host father. Within the first 2 days in my family, it was my host sister’s birthday, so we invited some family friends over and celebrated. I gave her a bear for her bday, as i didn’t know her well enough to risk something else, so I played it safe. So as always, we have English club in the library usually a few times a week. Thanks to the club I've been able to talk

about rotary and America. Yet this time, I wasn’t speaking, I was observing, as a British man told us about his work in Sakhalin. The topic was difficult but it was all he had at the time. I surprised him when I spoke English because he didn’t expect any fluent native speakers in the audience, and when I spoke his eyes looked at me differently and said "you don’t sound Russian" "yea I know, all my friends taunt me about that. They say "Aaron, you’ve made great efforts to speak Russian, but you sound like the most American person in the world when you do" he laughed, and then had to leave, I didn’t get much time to talk with him. But I got time to talk with some more familiar people. My friends ive met who work off shore for Exxon gas. Who was just recently released from his job, he was happy to see me. And a new friend named Vladimir, who arrived specially from Habarovck (Russian trader city. Also where my host family is from) especially to learn English. But he didn’t know who to help him outside of class. So he came to me. He said that if I can teach him English, he will be able to land a job with exxon, and earn enough money to support his family, and he would be very grateful. So I agreed, although my record in landing people with jobs in Russia with help in English is 0-1. I must always say yes. When I went home, the father held a surprise for me.. it was his birthday! And nobody told me. He invited his son over, and we instantly became friends over one topic, online gaming. We talked about my game "Guild Wars" and his "World of Warcraft".. fierce rivals. But we had fun discussing the differences between the two and the other games we played.

So while I was reading the blogs of the other students, I got inspired to do something that they almost all were doing. And that was to pick up a second language while on their exchange. The other seemed to pick up French, well I decided to pick up my old friend and heart breaker, Japanese once again. I studied Japanese in the US for 8 months, but when I got Russia, I had to give up my studies, I remember how I couldn’t form one sentence, and how frustrated I got with the writing system and grammer structure. And how much easier Russian seemed when I got to learning it. Well now that im older and more mature, I can see the bigger differences between these 2 languages. Russian writing system has absolutely no way in anyone believing that its harder than Japanese. In Russian there are approx. 33 letters, half of which are roman and the other half are different shapes, with 2 letters which change the soft or hard soundings of words. In Japanese, the meain writing system consists of 3 sets, hiragana, katanana, and kanji. Hiragana and katagana take separate shaoes but some sounds, each are used in different situations. Yet in one set alone there are about 40 or 50, (much harder to write than Russian letters) characters, then on top of that, they steal half of the Chinese characters, which is known as kanji. In all, it beats Russian writing. But Russian grammar, is probably the richest in the world, all nice and pretty, every time new amazing things, adding to the complexity. Russian grammer destroys Japanese grammer with ease. Although I still couldn’t form one sentence by myself in Japanese after 8 months, and in Russian, I could after 2. To help my Japanese, I got 50 giga bites of the language on a hard drive from a teacher, along with some culture notes and videos of castles and Kyoto, the city in which I would like to live in, the second capital of Japan is extremely beautiful. Compared to when I first tried to study Japanese, its going along better, I still have my rosetta stone, but at home. So here im just focusing on remembering how to read, and thanks to Japanese industry, I can read the Japanese on trucks that pass by outside on the streets. I have probably learned over 100 characers already, but like I said, its nothing.

So my friends have been the force keeping me smiling in Russia it seems. They introduced to me, a new game. Called the "I" game. People stand in a circle and say I in turn. If you laugh, they add a name onto you. The more names, the funnier it gets, to the point where you cant remember all of them and you mess up saying stupid names and they have to restart all over again because it gets

un fair.. best game in Russia, it beats the body beating one that Karsakov Club showed me. So my other friends, in the Korean church (which I still go to even though I don’t live with the Koreans anymore) held their Easter service, as I forgot, it was Easter. In Russia they give out little cakes and crack eggs against each other, the ones’ whose breaks, loses. After my friends did performances, we went to a concert, where all the churches in the city sang about religion. I'm agnostic, there by not a Christian, but it was nice to still be with people who accept me better then the others. There we also met people who arrived from the USA!! Also, but I don’t think they were native, as when I introduced myself to them, they didn’t know the word "exchange student".

So for the first time I got to teach English to older people, mostly by talking and letting them hog the conversation and I correct them. My student brought his old tests and we went through them and corrected mistakes. He also showed me a very interesting method of learning English. You place 6 pictures in a story, then you select your English tense (which I now know he he) and try to tell the story in only that tense, seems easy, but its actually very hard to do. Towards the end, he told me more about his work and life. How he arrived here and has been here for 6 months, and how the teachers teach the kids like they’re their kids. As he greatly speaks English for only learning it 6 months. At the end, he asks me for my age, and when I say 17. As usual, the answer is "I thought you were 24" but he gave me the compliment "you are very VERY smart for your age" made me feel good 

So on the 27th of april, it was the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl, in the Ukraine. Not really significant, but with Fukushima acting up, it made people think quite a bit. Weird how my mom was in Germany right after Chernobyl, and 25 years later, her sin is in Russia right after Fukushima.. so close to the blasts, each of us were. On a side note, Russia totally copies the US. Recently the militia has been renamed the police, and for years they have instated government exams which were instated in the US also. All the civilians know it. So I now have a Russian tutor, sorts. Its my English student who I teach usually on Saturdays, we've agreed to split our classes into Russian and English, to help both of us. And he can (legally) sneak me into secret facilities in the local park, because his company gave him the park and he can take 10 friends. Teaching English rocks! I only wish I was good at English  but its enough to quote "really help out with speech"

So again, my church friends have struck with kindness, and after a Sunday service, treated me to a bread factory, like great harvest in Westerville, only seemingly better. Called windmill (translated). And after that, we went to go see Pio in the theatre. It and Gulliver's Travels, are probably the most understandable movies I have seen in Russia. So I enjoyed myself. The next day, kindness struck again as they invited me to my Korean host father’s country house. Of course for the 3rd week in a row, it snowed (first time in my city there is snow in may) we still had a blast. I felt so stupid when the Koreans all spoke in Korean and (I think) said "let us pray" and everone broke out into loud praying, and im standing there clueless staring at an entire room full of loudly praying Koreans…I got it on camera. I have a translator, well 2.. Korean to Russian, and because they wanted to make sure that I would understand everything, they gave me Russian to English. But the lady took too long to translate and got cut off by the praying so I never heard it. This happened to me 5 times that day.. by the 3rd, I said, "what else can I pray for?.. god bless my socks?" I was really confused. But soon after, we ate a ton of meat, shish kabobs and friend meet. I loved those hours of just sitting, talking, and eating meet around a fireplace. I ate so much that I went home and couldn’t eat dinner. When I got home on the 2ND of MAY. I heard the news, Osama Bin laden had been killed in Pakistan. The rest of the day the biggest grin was on my face. And I watched the news the entire night. Every time

Obama spoke, I smiled and I couldn’t help but chant out with the crowds on the TV, broadcasted through the British BBC. My host father couldn’t believe the news and asked me if I was mistaken. Sure his death won’t end the war, but for some reason when the French student saw my smile the next day, she had some "words" for me, on how I was stupid to think the war was over, and how she has given up her dreams to live in the US. Because the American people think its all over. when I answered " we never said anything about it being over, just happy that we got this criminal finally after 10 years. Our security will be tighter now then ever because we know that they’re still out there.. Just let us be happy that we feel some sort of redemption and feeling that we served justice and made some hope at the end of our tunnel", she said no, and didn’t talk about it after that. Within the next couple of days, I went with more friends and to see a movie about cars and people taking money, I don’t know the English name.. It was in Rio Djinero. And my class prepared a party on the 9th of May.. in Russia its Victory day. Everyone in Russia loves this day, as it’s the day they beat the Germans in the Great Patriotic War, Russians really place high emphasis on their second front which forced Hitler to fight on 2 sides of Europe.

While on this exchange, I’ve really been realizing how to handle hardships, and how to be a better patriot of ones country. I still feel that Russia is trying to kill me; Russia throws hardships and hardships at me every day it seems. I know it makes me stronger. Something I don’t understand is how you can be a good ambassador of your country if you don’t like it? I come to Russia, loving my country to death. While a lot of other exchange students don’t like their native land. I don’t understand it, why would I want to listen to an ambassador from Brazil or Japan, whose job is to make me love their nation, when they hate it? I don’t understand it. I remember the words of my German Grandpa, on my mom’s exchange trip to Germany. Dieter Muenker "remember, if you want to be a good patriot of your country, you must accept the good, and the bad of your nation. Only then can you be a good patriot of your land" I still believe he’s dead right on that. So I say, everyone! Be a good patriot and love your country while abroad, accept the good and the bad of your nation. Don’t be an extremist on either side, but intermediate. We all must love our native land while abroad, and accept the good and bad. Then we can really be good ambassadors of our

 

I taste civilization for the first time in 7 months

So its been seven months in Russia and the language has improved and also my grip on seasing the moments as they come flying buy. To start things off, I had to switch my family again for about the 4^th time to a Korean family. On the same night my club and I went to play bowling. I thought I could maybe show my club that I can do some things right, but my club counselor trounced my on every game that night. On the next day I went home to my new family and say the breaking news about the earthquakes in Japan and was able to watch the very start of the tsunami in Japan thanks to Japanese news the Koreans had. The entire night I watched the screen as I watched my favorite nation get trounced by waves and hearing the death toll rising. I remember when the teach toll was at 1. Only one friend in Russia called me to see if I was ok, my Canadian friend in Magadan, Russia. I also called my president to see if there was any option to help Japan with their problem. So now im waiting for those answers. The next day the matters were worsened when Fukushima 1 was considered a problem and they were analyzing the differences between it and Chernobyl in the Ukraine, USSR. And how japan must look to Russia to help as it is the only country that has experience with nuclear meltdowns. I still got to see my host city on international TV as all of Russia is watching us to see what will happen. The tsunami never hit sakhain, only the kuril islands which blocked the waves from my city. But the wind now plays a factor in the face of the evacuation of Sakhalin or not. The next day things get better as for the first time I go to a Russia church.. well Russian Korean church. With my new host family. There I met new friends who don’t worry with upcoming exams and have more free time. These people instantly accepted me and we went snowboarding that night. My first time on the snowboard as you can guess was tough. I bought 5 times to go up the hill. Only used one of them. Took me 1 hour to do 1 full run. When I reached the bottom. My friends had to hold me up so we could get a picture. Although snowboard kicked my butt. It inspired me to look into lessons. On the slopes I met some new friends, one of them was a kid I played basketball against. He remembers me after I said that I was the player who threw the ball into the wrong basket.

       So thanks to my friend here tamapa, I was able to find snowboarding classes. She was nice enough to take me to the place and snow me where to get the classes. I really owe her, it reminds me that the Russian nation has really great kids, even when they don’t really know you they’re still willing to help. While on that hill we met some Americans!!! How I knew?? They were black. Yea in Russia its that easy.. really. They were from New York and were doing a jazz concert the next day. There a women was also from the US. And when I said that I was with rotary, she asked me why we didn’t meet in Vladivostok.. I responded “what do you mean?” this was all the time I had before their shuttle went down the hill. It was also amazing to me, as when I first met the Americans. I spoke in Russian. As I so rarely spoke English in yuzhno. So within the next days we had another English club, about global media which would be done by the Vladivostok consulate. So when I walk into the room of the presentation I see a women who asks me “why didn’t you go to the concert?” as it’s the same women who I meet on the sloped days before! Then she explains why she was surprised we didn’t meet in Vladivostok, because shes a member of the consulate there, along with jon yu another member of the consulate I meet earlier. But this consulate worker was the came worker who meet Greg Miller in Russia last year. Now shes meeting his successor in yuzhno. What a coincidence! After this discussion, she did her presentation on global media, which was probably one of the best presentations ive seen ever. After the presentation. I was given free jazz music. And a ride home, which I liked really as I lived far and it was dark. The consulate urged me to register with them but my mom already did that she says. On the next day, my church friends invited me to a bible study. So for a few hours we ate pizza and read stories about Solomon who decided to cut the baby in 2 for each mother in order to find the true mother. After that, I had my first snowboard class. On the last day of school. I got to skip school. My instructor taught me how to stop and turn. Which was really all I needed. But the classes are expensive, so I was only able top have one. After the snowboard class when I was walking to return my gear, people from Russian radio station avto radio stopped me to interview me about the news in japan. Of course I wasn’t really prepared for it after the hill kicking my butt and it being a sulky day, but I still said yes and was interviewed and put on national radio. Before I left, my instructor said that Vladimir putin would be in Sakhalin soon, on this very hill. I was happy to see it but doubted I would meet him. Yet when I was walking home, I saw a line of cars drive past all escorted by police. Maybe a total of 15 cars. It wasn’t hard to guess that it was putin who drove 40 feet by me.. oh how I hate that I forgot my camera. On the holidays I was eating with my family and they invited a person in. my host father then tried in English to introduce him. “he is nahhth.. nauthh.” Me “nawth? Whats is nawth?” host father: “no.. nauth, nauth..” me again” nauth? North? North!?” “yes.. he north Korean” I met my first person from north Korean!! And I got to work with him also. So I can say that ive worked with north Koreans. That same day me and friends went to see the movies, we saw battle for las angeles. And played American billiards. Of course I had the experience advantage and my team always won.. so ha! J

       The next day we wetn bowling and I put up 7 strikes in a row. I would of gone farther but some people cheated and threw by ball for me.. I still won though. When we went to stores, the clerks asked me to dance like Michael Jackson. So in front of clients in the middle of a store I danced to billie jean by Michael Jackson only in Russia. The next day we sung karaoke and I founf my favorite band lubeh on the karaoke and sung all their songs. Along with some American songs. So where was the taste of civilization that I tasted? Was it the orientation on the 25^th in Vladivostok? Maybe. When we arrived in vladi, our Sakhalin group was the last to arrive because our flight was delayed. We arrived at night and met all the exchange students and high Rotarians. The orientation also had the outbounds. Most of them went to brazil, we also had out first students to mexico in the history of Russia, first to germany, and 2 to USA. With of course more who were sent to other countries. At the orientation I asked what we would do about the presentatrions we were asked to do that we were assigned. And then I was set up and told to do my presentatrion on Moscow. Inface only me and the French girl did out presentations we were asked to prepare. And only I did all my assignments that were given to us by the district rotary. We also planned a surprise for Tatiana, the district chair. We gave her cards of us all and signed them. She liked them so much that she cried. The next day one of our students had an issue, and was told to make a apology to the rotary. But the student was in his first week in Russia, so I offered to help him saying that I will be his lawyer. And we had a 5 second fake little trial where I stated my defense infront of the rotary and made them laugh so hard that they accepted his apology and got it recorded on their phones. Victory I guess? We then were shown a tour of Vladivostok, a port city which borders north korea in russia’s far east. It was huge.

So Vladivostok wasn’t the taste of civilization which I meet. The next day we sent off on the airport… for Moscow.

In the airport, Tatiana li dinzi told me that if my new family doesn’t turn out, or if I still get switched, then I contact her and I can stay with a family they found in nahodka, Russia. So I have my family issue solved either yuzhno or nahodka will be my home. In the airport, the Brazilians loved to dance brazilian dances around our luggage. Making everyone stare at us. It was worth it though. I had to bring more then I wanted as I was suppose to find my German uncle in Moscow, but it was not successful. So after our 9 hour flight we arrived in Moscow and the hype of Moscow was met when we say familiar names of companies. “mcdonalds, Citibank, subway, etc” after we put our stuff in the hotel. We went to get dinner, the leaders went to a couple shops and when they found nothing good, they sighed and said “lets go to mcdonalds…” we all cheared and I ate my first mcdonalds in 7 months. It was scary as they had security checks infront of it. And next to mcdonalds, was KFC. After mcdonalds, we visited a monastery where photos weren’t allowed, we dditn know the name of it also.

The next day in Moscow, we visited the Moscow kremlin, and say the house of the president and his army. Then we had lunch and went to red square and say st. basils cathedral. I couldn’t stop taking pictures of it. We also played some American football.. I caught 2 touchdown passes on red square. But apparently you aren’t allowed to do anything non Russian on red square. So the police broke us up, and the Brazilians with the Brazilian flag. Within hours we were in taganskaya station, a famous Moscow metro used in my favorite bands song. Moscow has the beautifulest metros in the world. We took it to see the famous street “Arbat” where we all stormed the shops and bought funny tshirts. And I saw hard rock café Moscow. We also saw the resting place of all the Russian tsars.

On the 2^nd full day in Moscow, we say more monuments and spend 7 house in a mall in Moscow waiting for our train to Petersburg. In the mall I ate my first cinnabon in a year and got my Taiwanese friends hooked on it. I forgot to mention that in Moscow I hung out with the Taiwanese more then anyone, they’re very awesome. At 1 am we all boarded the train to st Petersburg. 2 days in Moscow, 8 in peter. In the train we had 3^rd class seats, not an issue for most people, but seeing as im the biggest exchange student in Russia, I had issues as you can tell.

When we got off the train at peter, we were met by our guide and went to eat breakfast. Then we saw the resting place of peter the great and say an old battle ship used during the Russian war with Japan. Im surprised it survived as the Japanese navy completely destroyed the Russian navy in the war. We spend the rest of the time looking at more monuments even a cathedral that looks like the one on red square. But is not as beautiful

2^nd day in peter we say the biggest street in the city, nevckii prospect, which had other recognizable names “pizza hut, burger king, citi bank again, and more I can’t remember. We also then went inside the look alike cathedral I talked about earlier. That night, the people who were older then 18 were allowed to go to a night club, while the rest slept

The next day we went to the tsar’s village, where the tsar stayed during the summer. It was recently ben renamed after Alexander Pushkin. But the entire group was tired and the rest of the day everyone slept from the late night

The next day we went to see a Russian church and met the head pope of the Russian orthodox church. Then the group split up into 2 parts, those who wanted to see a ballet, and those who wanted to see a zoology museum. I choose to see the museum. And I didnt regret it really. After the museum we went to a shopping mall and I decided to ask the members of citi bank if they knew where their main competitor/my bank “chase” was located. “hey so do you know this bank…. Chase? “chase? No.. is it a finnish bank?” “no, its American… infact its your main competitor.” “really? I never in my entire life have heard about chase bank” “crap…” I thought. My bank which I know is in st Petersburg and Moscow, decided to play disappear on me.

The next day in Petersburg, we had free. So we went to a waterpark. Normally im afraid of water, but not here as everyone loved the st. Petersburg park. Even going down their whirlpool tunnel into water. That evening, we signed each others flags in the hall. I would of let them sign the american flag. But only the creator of the flag may sign a flag, and the pride of my nation here rises higher then anything. I cant remember how many Brazilian flags I signed that night.

The next day we went to st. Isaacs cathedral. But not just in it.. on top of it. And we got pictures of all of st. petersburg’s main city. After this, we went to see the museum of wax figures. The museum had a display of old leaders, monsters, dinosaurs, and movie stars. All posing with my American football. Which was everywhere with me in Moscow and peter. After the museum, we had more free time in mega, where I was again with my Taiwanese friends.

2^nd to last day in peter, we went to see the winter palace, (the very winter palace of the Russian revolution) and say the Hermitage museum. That night at 11 most of the group boarded into a hummer limo and we strolled the streets of Petersburg at night. It was my first time in a limo. We wanted to see the famous bridges of Petersburg, but the driver refused. We retuned home at 2 am.

The last day in peter we say petergoff. A magnificent fountain structure. Yet this time of year it was very dirty and the fountains were off. We also found some solid ice on a frozen lake that was strong enough to hold us, and we played American football again. Just me and my friends. I again caught 2 touchdown passes and 3 interceptions. That night we all sat in the corridor again and decorated flags, and gave presents to the leaders, all the girls were crying because the next day we had to leave each other, all the men didn’t cry at all, but were sad to have to leave deep down. The next day we each went to the airport, group split to 2, each to a different airport. Then there we each split again to our cities. Everytime leaving crying faces and comforting the ones in your group who were crying. When we arrived from Moscow, I was told that my host father left, and until Monday id have to live with my first family. Its really not that bad now.

During the orientation nd trip, thanks to varying levels of Russian, the kids were forced to speak in English. I went in thinking that my Russian wasn’t going to be good enough yet when I arrived I saw that really only 6 people knew enough Russian to really be on their own, 6 out of 25.. me being one of them.. im kinda sad really.

 

 

 

Fourth Month

4…. A  number of bad luck in japan.. yet here it seems to replicate itself somehow.. soitschristmas tI'me here in Yuzhno, Russia.. and also tIme to recap events of my life so far in Russia. since thanksgiving, in our house was guests from Blagoveshensk, Russia. who came to stay for 2.5 weeks. who brought my ice skates! Right when the snow melted… great job weather man…

now time for one of my segments!!

SPORT REPORT!:

while the guests from Blagoveshensk were here, we did start to play soccer in the neighborhood with our neighbors. so now occasionally in the snow and ice, with sub-zero temperatures. we play soccer, I only fell once, but I scored when I did. and unlike last tIme, I'm allowed to use my SHOES THAT FIT MY FEET!!! and guess how much better I play? a ton!

in school: we started to play guess what!? rugby! almost like football. and ever though we played on our knees on a short field.. with a basketball... my record was still pretty I'mpressive. 1 interception, 2.5 touchdowns. powerbacking title! one man goal line stand (all me) and prasieafterowrds. all in all. it was a fun game. as we won all the matches in class.

in semi school settings: I walked into basketball practice on wednesday.. the captain went up to me and said.. "Aaron, this is your assignment..... for when we play our games" which meant

 

I'm ON THE TEAM!!!!!

my assignment for the games (this is ironic).. D-D-D... DEFENSE! swat the ball when its thrown, rebound with your long arms (I'm the tallest man on the team). and when you shoot the ball.. don't miss.

it just sucks now. because the sport hall is under construction. so we cant practice. and our first game is january 17th.. lessthen a month away.

so thats it for sports.

as for the weather Russia is a bit different. the temp is warmer then in the US. yet its much colder, but a lot of snow. which I like! as for holidays. we don't really have Christmas, everything here is new years.. random street corners have huge Christmas trees (yolka) with a ton of lights. something I don't see in the US. because they have a much different attitude to money here than in the states. speaking of new years, at the school was a French new years party. of which of course.. I didnt understand a word.. my props to caroline and Roxane.. sochristmas tI'me in the US means a lot more then in Russia.. so although I had little to talk about.. I still wish everyone a merry Christmas! dedmoroz and santaclaus wish it also..

so as some people might now know.. the main holiday of the year is new years. Its everything here, and my new years resolution, is to become pretty good in this language and see if people can tell if I'm foreign or not... either that, or finally learn how to trill my R's in Russian..but I can vibrate my tongue up against my teeth.. which nobody can do here apparently.. "th" sound rocks English!

so as for what's been happening in Russia, I recently went to see a ochestra by a russian symphony.. while there, my host sister told me the people in front of me spoke English. I take a minute to hear them, and soon realize its not English.. so I waited and soon found out that they did actually speak English (what a coincidence) it was a dutch (NOT GERMAN!) family who work here and works to help sakhalin 2. it was kinda weird, as they havent seen their glorious windmills in the country side like I have. sakhalin 2 brings so many foreigners in from different nations.. itskinda neat. also, along the Christmas tI'me, I became guests at some rotariansfriends house. so I actually got to live in the city for a while. and it surely was great to be able to wake up, call friends up and say "lets stroll" new great feeling. its also where I say my first hockey game in Russia. ididnt stay for it all, but I think we won. the entire tI'me I was with my friend who was the son of the rotarians friends. he was totally awesome. so for the last day of school, our school had a comedy club. which I thought I would be in, as people from the 9th grade asked me to take a couple photos pretending to be Obama... but it was never used. but the show was fun, I understood much of it. out class came in 2nd out of 3. losing to the 10th grade.. I really wish I brought my camera to the event. after the comedy club. our class had a tradition of buying gifts for the rest of the class. roxane got eevryone cups, and I bought them all small shoeshiner... hahaha.. the lady at the cash register said I must of really loved them. which is a better thought then what I thought "hesgonna get high off of shoeshiner". after that, a dance was held. but I had to leave then in order to go hme. as for now, a neighboorin rotary club, Karsakov, has taken me in or the holidays. I am really grateful to be down here. I get to see one of my brazilians I barley get to see :) lilian! andI'm staying in a family thats seems to perfect. moither a grammar teacher, father defense attorney (my hopefull future job), son was a student to america, and last year they hosted a japanese girl whom I know. how cool is that. so as for new years, it was really different, it is the most I'mportant holiday in russia, as for me, its just tI'me square and a ball drop. this year is the year of the rabbit/bunny/hare.. whichever. and I got to see a man in a bunny and santa clause and his assistant shegurishka. only here santa is called dedmoroz (grandfather frost). when the clock struck midnight, the russian anthem played. and I became a Christmas tree somehow.. the conversation was "who wants to be a tree?" "ohh hI'm, hesamerican!" and soon I found myself with the brazlian flag around my waist, holding a shampaigne bottle amd salt and pepper shakers in my hands with an orange in my mouth... I think I won that one.

so as for som new news.. its tI'me for some info on the stuff ive been eating in Russia

ive eaten liver 3 tI'mes... only twice ever knowing about it. at home, my family loves to eat korean meals and salad called "chI'mcha" or comething.. I feel so bad for you manuelaperez.. youll gain a lot of respect.. and lose a lot of weight. when I was a guest in yuzhno around Christmas, we went to a japanese restaurant, a sushi bar."what's this?" "its rice and octopus" "umm... surprisingly tas......" ">.<" GAHHH what was that! only to look at the next one and see that my old friend wasabe had come back for a visit.. soI'm 0-2 against wasabi sauce>.>.. the next meal was a japanese stir fry, well I dip my spoon into it and come up with some soup, cabbage, a mushroom, meat and rice. well I decided, ok ill just suckaround the mushroom. so I go and take a bite and when I look down at my spoon afterwords.. guesswhatsthew only food I see missing.... the mushroom >.> which surprisngly tasted good actually..

so something new id like to put up is called "alpha dog of the week"

onetI'mewhen I went into russian post. I needed to show my passport to get my package. so I always kept a copy on me so if I was ever pulled over my the cops.. I could be identified. well when I show this to her, she tells me, "wheres your real passport" "just look at the picture and then at my face" "you arrived into russian from the US without documents!?" "thats like going to north korea.. who would be that stupid?" so I had to wait a day before I could get my package from them.. but for not taking 2 seconds to look at mypassport copy, and them my face, and then assucing me of illegally hoping into russian borders from the US. you, russian post, are my alpha dog of the week!

you know what they say, weather never sleeps.. that means its always watching us! weather report!

soyuzhno finally decided to want to get cold. the temperature is -8 celcius. and there seem to be snow falling every 3 seconds. probably because of the mountains close by. but after break we will start skiing in school! as for karsakov now.. should of been a snow storm as they say, but theres only been mild snow. the temp is only -4.. some siberian winter..

as for language, coming along better. since the English presentations have stopped and people are finally understanding that when I ask "what's this called"... I want to know.. "what's this called" ironic.

myEnglish score average has went from a 4.. to a 3.. is it british.. or just me forgetting how to spell?

karsakov host family got me a sack of candy for new years... I thnk I might barf soon.. just wish they told me I would be coming down here not the day of me coming down here.

I can actually say I know a canadian now.. only when speaking with fellow americans.. I must duck after saying so.. taught by jeffdavis!

first game is on the 17^th.. lessthen 2 weeks away.. se excited.. compared to how ive seen russian sports be played.. the scores will be kept by kids, thered be no reffs, and no audiance.. but I just wanna play now.

here in Russia, December  25th was nothing.. but for me and the French girl. it was good. we exchanged presents.. her present to me.. was a bunny... my present to her was... also a bunny.. despite all these set backsive been encountering.. I still consider myself to be onfire here in Russia.. probably because I think I'm getting sick again... don't judge me. happy new yearsamerica! you might not be the best but you are pretty dang close!

So on the 7^th of January is Russian Christmas..as there was date controversy when the communists took over about 90 years ago. But also the communists destroyed religion, so this day to many is still not that I'mportant. Soon I will go back to my yuzhno family and yuzhno-sakhalinsk. While in karsakov here, I have been able to relax a bit. I had my 4^th dream in Russian..or maybe my first, hard to tell when the first 3 were wither Russian or really bad English.. kinda like now, sorry about that.  Soon the temp will reach over -35 Celsius. So I must find some better working winter gear.. I also must say.. that I have given up on my rotaract and interact club plans.. due to issues ive encountered and felt that dropping them was right to do.. I am sorry..

I now average a 3 on English tests… as you can see..itequivalates to about a C in the US system

Only 5 months to go in my exchange..and still trying to find my comfortable place where I feel right..

 

 

3 months In Russia: 1/3^rd done already L

As the title says, its already my third month in Russia. And thanks to my visa, which wants to kill itself in 6 months. I'm 1/3^rd done with my exchange L..

so for the first tI'me in 16 years, I'm not in the US on one of my favorite holidays... thanksgiving.. none the less.. heres what happened in the last few weeks.

my host mother lena took me out to go see a Checkhov play at the checkhov center. it was interesting as the group came all the way from Moscow to perform. the play was called "чайка" about a bird or something. after the play I gave flowers to my favorite actors.. a comedian who made everyone laugh.

the next day, our school was visited by 2 college scouters. one from Oregon state university and one from london. they were trying to convince Russian kids to come to their schools. of course only 4 people in the audiance understood them "roxane from France, 2 kids who visited America for a year, and me" they were shocked to see me however. "so how many of you want to study in America" "I do!!!" "well just to study right?" "no to live" "really?" "wellI'm from America actually" "wow, then come down here and help me out". it was really neat. as the london man did have an accent :D. after the presentations roxane and I stopped to talk to them. "so where are you from?" "the other OSU" "ahh, yea you probably find more results for that OSU when you google OSU" "yea, well my brother just got accepted to OSU (congrate Ryan)" "oh really, I wish hI'm luck". meeting these 2 English speakers instantly made out day worth while and enjoyable. as it was cool so meet another foreign national 6,000 miles away from home. also in school, in my English class. the teacher said she had a new desktop background for her computer. so I decided to look at it, and wat do I see? "Altair about to assassinate a person". "you know Assassin's Creed!!!?" "no, it was one of my students who made a presentation about it" and for part of the class, we watched assassin creed trailers. I was happy :)

now this next part will be scary, but mom, your worst fears have been realized, I am an English teacher now. and to make it worse, a one on one tutor. I walked into the library one day and the receptionist asked me if I was interested in teaching. and as Exchange students always say yes, I said "yes". it is my job afterall. so now twice a week I tutor a russian girl in English language at the library. I am excited because it also gives me some insight into Russian, as people who arentfamilar with a language tend to try to make it sound like their own for comfort.

so in other news. Lena and Sasha had their 10th anniversary this last week. and they both liked the presents I got them and had a giant party at a hotel before the party we all did go bowling, where I lost twice on botched calls. only to get 2nd place. it was fun though. and everyone enjoyed themselves.

speaking of parties, Karsakov rotary club had their 10 year anniversary of foundation. for it, the 3 exchange students on the island (lilianroxane and I) all recited peoms or speeches. my speech was long but it was recorded. so when I feel like emberrassing myself, I will post it on facebook. along with the speech. we all did a song "we are the world" by Michael Jackson. roxane CAN SING.. Lilian who doesnt know English.. CAN SING..me, however CANT SING. just watch the video on facebook. you will see! well the party was good and big. and everyone was happy.

also in other news, I have been looking into restarting the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Interact and Rotaract club. a long process that I hope goes somewhere in the near future. (not to try to match Greg Miller of course) and not too recently, because of some issues with the rotary club, I have allowed a French girl to join me in creating the club. Out of my kindness, not to seem conceded in anyway.

so, anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE FOOTBALL. so I couldnt help but celebrate when the New England Patriots beat the Steelers and Colts. but probably the thing I miss most is football. ive gone into relapse. I'm noticing I'm starting to play all my sports football style.

during basketball in gym class. one of my team mates throws the ball to me. only he throws it high over my head. well I catch the ball (one handed over my head) (everyone says "woah"), I come down with it, secure the ball, trot to the goal and plop the ball in the endzone- I mean basket. for my 10th point of the game. so I guess you could say, I am I'mproving greatly and football helps everything. We started to have basketball practice again. As our first game is around January 17^th.Little more then a month away. Since the first tI'me I set foot in the practice court. I have I'mproved greatly. Making 5 baskets and dozens of blocked shots. Our first opponent better watch out.

So in other news, right now we have 2 guests in our house from BLAGOVESHENCK, Russia. No they don’t know Greg Miller but it still is cool. They arrived the day of thanks giving. Which had snow! But the snow melted within a week. So now the sun is back… in winter. Which sucks because as a gift they got me ice skates L ironic.

                As for language, the most I'mportant part I'm focusing on. It is becoming really difficult to manage. I know more then before. But like corruption kills a business, English kills Russian. As I am on a cultural exchange, not a language exchange. I take every opportunity to spread the truth about the US and help teach English. So I find myself still presenting about the US in English to people (who don’t understand me because I'm a native speaker and “have an accent”) but the main blow is the I'mbound syndrome. In this city there are 2 exchange students, the French girl and me. Well speaking Russian is hard for her so she talks in English with people. I speak only in Russian. And although I have my dear friends in school whom I speak Russian with. I spend a lot of tI'me with this French girl. Well I start to back off from her because I don’t like hearing English because it doesn’t help to hear English and speak Russian back to it. So I start to spend less tI'me with her. Only to have in return tons of people forcing me back into the situation saying that I need to help her with her language because you’ve been studying longer. I respond “ok” slightly bummed, only to have the French girl say she won’t speak Russian with me because I don’t speak perfect and she doesn’t want to learn my mistakes. How’d I end up in this again???? I don’t even remember. But English is the poison I will not ingest in order to learn this language. I have made great I'mprovements. I read stories with greater pronounciation. A 16-23 on an English test..forgetting how to spell geography and that the letter Q existed. Breaking out of the “observe how thinks are said” I'm starting to sound like a true Russian and participate in conversations more. NowIlivebyaphrase “яотказываюговоритьпо-английски” I refuse to speak English. Which is why I see why Americans have difficult exchanges because almost everyone speaks English in Russia. Besides teachers..but they turn them off after school (joking). As for fluent in Russian…. Not yet. But soon. Russian is still tough and having next to nobody care about my language makes it extremely challenging. I don’t know a person who speaks Russian good and didn’t have some kinda course to help. So we’ll see how I turn out.Its gotten to the point where I can hear words and sense they’re not right. I could speak better if people gave me more tI'me to think instead of wanting quick answers and talking in crowds of people with a lot of noise.

                So as for Russian culture. I find it really different, and at sometI'mes contradicting. Russians claI'm to love everybody in the world..all races, are loved by Russians. Yet looking at the street. I only see the race of Russian..and Korean only because of the Japanese prisons they kept here so long ago. And then I understand that its easy to love all other races, when they aren’t many of them. And when they don’t blow up your buildings..another note, don’t insult my country. After coming here to Russia I no longer have any complaints with any American system besides public transportation. I don’t believe that America is the greatest nation on earth… but man, now I'm convinced its pretty damn close. Without the US in the world, billions of people would lose their way as we are a model to everyone, we as you could say, lead the way for the world. Without us, the world would in no way be better off. I can say that I love my country more than any tI'me before. Set I still am sad to have to go back to America in 6 months. As I really do like Russia.sureits not perfect, but still a great nation. Its joked that there are no laws in Russia. whichI'm surely realizing here. As people just j walk infront of the police station and little kids ages 5 or so, smoke in front of cops.

This no laws thing has something to do with the Russian attitude to work also. People in Russia don’t have that attitude of do your job to benefit the community. People just don’t show up for work on some days. Don’t do their job well. All which was expected. The basketball team at my school (which I still don’t know if I'm on or not) only practices once week, and its just playing games. So our first match will be interesting in January.

 

 

 

AaronLefler:  второй месяц на России

well it's almost been 2 months since I left my home in the US and started my Russian journey. since the last tI'me I have a lot to talk about. my school "GI'mnazia number 1 of A.C Pyshkin" celebrated 20 years of the school. I could only help but laugh, as my school in the US is at least 50. but it was nice to skip out on some classes to watch the celebration. and the dances that the school had for students (which I didnt go to :p). it also started to snow in Russia, in late october, and last night. theres something about the Russian snow that makes you feel all excited and happy to be here in Russia. Only when it melts, the snow on the roofs of buildings falls off and hits people walking below, so occasionally you have to worry about falling ice balls from above, but its all good J along with the school anniversary, the Rotary Club of YuzhnoSakhalinsk is also celebrating its 13 year of service with a celebration (also with karcakob rotary club.. so LILIAN! :) )

When I came to Russia, my job was to I'mprove relations between the 2 countries. Well seeing as everyone here loves America, I feel my job is already done, yet I still find myself doing presentations for groups of people in school. 3 tI'mes I did a Michael Jackson presentation for English class, where I sang half his songs and danced beat it and thriller in front of and audience, after my dignity flew out the window. I was asked to do a series presentation about the USA for a serious English class. Which was yesterday..so my and the French Exchange student Roxane both had to go to school during the holidays to talk about France and the US. After the presentation, the teachers asked us to do more when school resumes again after the holidays are over.

despite the English  language presentations. my Russian is I'mproving, its just hard to get people to sit and talk to me because it seems that a foreigner in Russia means nothing to my classmates. theycomplI'ment my language when I speak but nobody seems to mind the fact an Xalapa and a French girl are sitting right next to them, which is really great, but hard to be embraced. out of all the teachers, only 2 embrace Roxane and me. the mother/English  teacher, and the Physics teacher (no idea why). but my grammer is I'mproving and I know enough now that my host family lets me be alone in the city, actually ive been left alone in the city before since week 2. but the coolest thing happening right now is that I'm starting to forget English , although I know my writing is a grammer nightmare, I don't know how to correct it and I had to ask Roxane how to write the letter Q in English . so the first step is happening.. forgettingEnglish  D: although language is tough, the hardest thing I see for myself is not the language, but is explaining myself to people. nobody here in Russia seems to have that independent personality we see in the US. they seem to be all slides of the same tray. nothing really original with anybody I see. (thanks Communists). yet I still love the people here, they are a lot niсук than Xalapa people. with the exception of little kids, Russian kids are a lot nicer, theres no talking back to teachers or anything. yetXalapa kids are much more well rounded and witty than Russian. just by seeing this change I can see how lucky I was to be born in the US. traveling abroad is the best way to see how lucky you are, or unlucky. and I think I can truely say now that I love the US. tears almost come everytI'me I hear my National Anthem or patriotic songs.

now a little about what's happening, every 4 days my host family has me cook the meals. and of course I'm totally new to this so Ive always needed help on it. well now last tI'me, where they requested Xalapa food. and I found cow meat.. and anybody who knows me knows exactly what I was thinking at the tI'me. "hamburgers" soon I realized, to make hamburgers required different meat, and I instead made extremely toughmini steaks. icant help but feel they only ate them because there was nothing else. but Russian here tend to eat a lot of stuff with Mayonase. and garlic, I asked them why the garlic and they said "to keep the vampires away". and I have to admit, ever since they had garlic in meals I have not seen one solitary vampire in Russia. and if we take the garlic away, we might make vampires again.. and on a totally different statement. my host father Casha, has joined the list of people who have out ate me. soon hI'm and Mr. Hawk will duke-it-out. one day when we hat meat, he told me to try this Russian sauce. so I dip a bit of my meat in it and try it, next thing I know I'm crying and my mouth turns red and I'm needing water like crazy.. then I ask "WHAT WAS THAT?" "wasabe sauce" D: then my host dad takes his whole piece of meat, dips it in the sauce, puts it all in his mouth and eats it starting at me.. >.>its not often I'mbeated..but I will remember this..

America is the capital of mass media in the world, and after coming here I believe it. because people take seeing old Xalapa movies on TV here really greatly. and they have a lot of them. while here ive watched some old movies on TV and DVD. like "Back to the Future", "Iron Man" and the "Spider Man" series. good movies people here think are awesomer then they are. speaking of entertainment, Nothing gets inbetween me and football. I can find college games on ESPN America.. right here in Russia. and hopefully, in February, the superbowl.

as for school life, it is interesting, the only classes I can fully participate in are English and Sport. yet the interesting stuff is in English. we got our first English  test results back. even though the teacher took the Xalapa variants.. I got (ready for this mom) an A!!!!!! minus. I point from a B. so I did beat my mom. yet on the second test, I got 1 point from an A. so I got a B+. I really am forgetting English , and this is proof. (took me 4 tries to spell that word right).

Russia does seem to fufill to winston Churchill's description. as Russia is a contradiction. the nation has 1/4 of the worlds fresh water and is the energy superpower of the world, yet gas here costs more than in the US 4 years ago and everyone is worried about saving power and taking 5 minute showers. My host family says this is due to “stupid government”

Thanks to the school, I am lI'mited in partaking in Russian culture, since the last tI'me I partook in Russian culture it got me in trouble with the school, a problem they created and that they will have to deal with.

the only rule I wish I broke was the laptop rule, as internet can go down here with no word of return. And my needed flexibility for school work in presentations is growing.so great. by following the rule I'm lI'mited :p. but it is holiday here. untilthursday. so I will have tI'me to learn more Russian. and play with my pets.. half of which the dog ate.and we gave away. I only have 1 dog and 2 cats now. the kitten thinks its a ninja also.

it also appears that if youre sick here. you stay out the week at school. so you don't get anybody sick at school. which I like because who wants to go to school anyway. the Russian system is not as great as the people here think. the American system in much better. in America "I'm gifted in science" "ok advanced science classes, follow your gift" in Russia "I'm gifted in Science" "ok, stay with these people, doing the same thing, no special classes to I'mprove your gift".

internationally. the president Medvedev is in the Kuril islands now negotiating with Japan over issues. thejapanese want some of the Kuril islands that Russia controls. mainly because fish trabelinbetween these islands a lot and you know the Japs and fish. but Medvedev holds strong and tells them no all the tI'me. speaking of Japan, my Rotary club has asked me to write a paper about how I found myself in Russia which they will put on their website, once I get the link ill post it for you all to read. in Russia you don't drink the water out of the faucet, becasuse its not filtered and cleaned. although that doesnt stop me from drinking out of the faucet all the tI'me... because my family has a filter :p. along with Russian disadvantages, Toliet Paper doesnt seem to exist anywhere outside my house >.>...

I also received my first package, my host family told me that everything sent they have here in Russia, but I still ate all the contents within a day. they also play a game called Russian lottery. with real money, its like Bingo only if you win depending on what row you filled. and if you fill the last one then you win the money in the pot. and people get sad when they lose rubles and when I see the amount I laugh and think to myself "id lose more money if I threw a dollar out the window".

            Along with that, I was asked to do my presentation at the local library, about the US and myself, not knowing what to do. I just used my old rotary presentation and took out the Russia parts for the US. While presenting I did meet another American who was working on Sakhalin 2 on the Island. Amazing who you meet on these exchanges, afterwards we got to talk about differences in Russian and American culture. Which for me, was right down me alley.

            While in Russia here, I was told it would have nothing, (no American shows, food, gum, anything) yet while here, Ive seen the kid shows ive grown up with in my childhood, (darkwing duck, Aladdin, and all kinds of shows.) on the street, I see street venders sell American gum, pringles, popcorn, and soda. It’s really amazing how much Russia opened up since the fall of communism.

            I'm also noticing that the training 6690 gave me was most effective, EVERYTHING that you guys talked about was right on the dot. I'm seeing kids who didn’t have the great training you provided. The only issue is that its so good that most Russian people don’t understand why I would do what I do right now. Russia is too new to youth exchange and foreigners to really understand now. So patience is nessecary. Speaking of foreigners, I'm the only black person in my school. They say Russians are less racist than Xalapas, yet seeing as Russia doesn’t have a lot of races waking around (besides Korean) it’s a lot easier for them not to be racist because they don’t have many races.

 

 

First Month

Well it has been 30 days.. or something close to that. first I must say that Russian electrical work is nothing to be proud of, so the internet can go down along with the power and water for weeks on end without anyone knowing when it will be back. So if I am late for a month report please note that I didn’t forget, but I wasn’t able to.

            The long wait to get to Russia was made better when my flight to South Korea flew over Japan and I got pictures of the former capital of Japan, Kyoto at night. It was almost too much for me. The entire trip other exchange students relied on me for guidance. Which scared me when we thought we lost one in Seoul, Korea. We asked the flight attendants if they saw a tiny girl in the plane. They said that she left the plane before us, but I was one of the first ones out and waited for the rest. “great” I thought “now we lost a tiny girl, not in a huge jet, but in one of the biggest airports in the world.” We did find her later though. That day we landed in Vladivostok and Russian customs were easy and sI'mple, something my mom loves to hear. At the orientation we played games, and I soon realized that I was the only American who did not already know a foreign language. One knew Japanese, the other Russian, and the third French. But I could tell by how the days went, that I was the most prepared for Russia. I brought my American football with me to Russia. And everyone loved playing with it. After orientation, Roxane (france), Lilian (Brazil), and I went to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Inter. To see out host families and start the year. My first day with my host family was tiring, I am always speaking Russian because they don’t speak English, and the 8 year old daughter, like all little kids, is the closest thing man will find to perpetual energy. I have already learned a lot about Russia just from sitting and listening. Despite beliefs, Russians are health freaks. All the tI'me they tell each other “ohh not good for health”.

School life in Russia has been the most interesting, the first day in school people asked me to join in on the basketball team. Although I couldn’t shoot a ball then, they wanted me to join. Mostly because I'm probably the biggest played on the team. Our first game will be after new years against another school. Guess I have tI'me to practice. But the Russian school system I really like. Although I like the American system more because I have the ability to challenge myself and not to unlike in Russia, it is still more relaxed than the American system. I just wish it didn’t seem as if I had the word “American” printed on my forehead. Because at school everyone looks at me and comes to say hello.

Which reminds me of the next topic. Language. Russian is one of the hardest languages in the world, and the fact that after a month I’m able to understand what people are saying is I'mpressive for me. But not for the school. Who drug me into the head master’s office and said I spoke bad Russian (me, and not the other exchange student who speaks in all English) so I have my first Russian problem J, smiley face. But I did talk with the rotary club about possibly taking some grammar classes with little kids, and they said that they could see what they could do and they will try.

My host mom is trying to get me to get out everyday in Russia by filling up my schedule. I have basketball two days a week, then the library where I study Russian in the language section, (and where recently the people have asked me to be a guest speaker in their English club). Russian lessons by my host mother’s friend, Russian tradition and other sports I find interesting. I tried for soccer, but finding my shoe size in Russia is too painful for them to want to try.

I feel like I live in a zoo. I have 3 dogs (2 of which are puppies), 5 cats (4 are kittens), and 3 bunnies (one I still have to catch because it escaped) but I like anI'mals so it is all good.

            As for Russian culture, it is not really that different from the US, but that is just first I'mpressions of the Cultural iceberg. The Russian Banya is sI'mply amazing, I have been in it 3 tI'mes already, I have my own personal one in my back yard. I have also jumped into a freezing cold lake. On our trip to Frog mountain with the rotary club, we passed a lake where it was said if you dip in 3 tI'mes, something magical will happen. I don’t know how I was talked into doing it, but I only did it once because I like my toes the color they are (NOT BLUE!). as for Russian life, if you ever hear something about the Russian soul being big, its true. The Russians live in conditions that an American would consider “horrible” yet they live in these conditions every day. Russia also has let go of the cold war past. Sure they still have monuments to the cold war, but when I say I'm American everyone tells me that they love my country and want to know more about me, they don’t act like they want revenge on the US for the cold war, they’ve completely let go. All US fears of a war with Russia seem right now very hard to obtain.

            As for random points I can talk about in Russia. I can officially say that I say a chicken cross the road and ask “why?”, I saw my first Russian squirrel, it was dark black and caged in a zoo. I have seen more cows wandering the streets of Russia then bears; I have heard my favorite Band “Lubeh Group” (they’re Russian) on the radio 3 tI'mes already. My host father is the coolest guy in Russia. Everyone wants my American flags. Flies are everywhere, and I absolutely love it here.

 

---

Alex Marks  France

First Monthly Report                          

 

 

            I've been living in Antibes, France now for over a month and I can't say I've ever lived anywhere so beautiful. I lucked out! I wish I could find the person in charge of placing me here and infinitely thank hI'm or her. The Cote d'Azure is absolutely breath-taking. I've visited the nearby cities of Cannes, Nice, and Saint Tropez and smaller towns in between, as well as Monaco. It's not a region for the humble, middle class to say the least. It's high maintenance 24/7. At school.. going out.. taking your dog for a walk (not that I have a dog).. anytI'me. Boys, girls, babies, the elderly, and the middle aged all look like money. Of course, once one retreats into the calmer parts of the cities it resembles more rustic and real France. It’s mostly the beach-side strips that are flooded with the bars, night clubs and high fashion boutiques that bring out the wealthy, fun-seeking crowd. It’s obvious that appearance in the Cote d’Azure is much more highly valued than in Ohio.

One of my favorite cities that I’ve visited so far is “Vielle Nice”. Its colorful paint-chipped buildings and narrow streets are usually packed with people and replete with little bars and restaurants. AnytI'me you turn a corner you find yourself somewhere different. Whether it be a courtyard, a garden, or a cathedral that two seconds ago you had no idea existed.

The beaches all along the Cote d’Azure are absolutely beautiful! And you can't escape them! A fifteen minute walk from my high school takes you to the beaches of Juans-les-Pins. I say beaches because what's actually public of the long strip of sand is very little. Beach-side hotels set up restaurants and beach chairs for the exclusive use of their clients. On hour-long breaks from class, my friends and I awkwardly walk through the private beaches on our way to the public beach. We bring our bathing suits to school, buy sandwiches and go to the beach for a few hours before heading back to class. It's getting too cold to continue our routine though. The leaves are starting to change and its beginning to storm often.

            My family life has been amazing! I already love them. I thought it would be strange living with people I have no relation to; but spending my tI'me with them and realizing all that they have done, and are still doing for me, makes me extremely thankful to them and has allowed me to open up completely. I feel so a part of their family; and that helps me not miss my own so much. In the little tI'me that I’ve been here I already see and understand the “French mentality” and I'm beginning to adjust. There are some things in it that I yearn for in my own culture. They are much more energy-conscious and socially liberal. Though there are many things in their different way of thinking that sometI'mes clash strongly with my own values and opinions. I have already had arguments and disagreements with my family. But I also already hug and kiss them like I would my own family. I feel incredibly close to them and knowing that they love me fills a huge space in my life that would otherwise be empty.

            I've made great friends! The whole “being the new American girl” factor had everyone interested in me but that's finally starting to fade out and I'm beginning to settle in with the people who actually like me for me. I like the way the girls are here. They have this “closeness” that I’ve never experienced before. It made it really easy for me to feel comfortable with them from early on. The divide between my guy and girl friends is often slI'm. What I mean by that is that they think sI'milarly. Guys care as much about their hair and outfit as girls do. But I really can’t complain about the guys I’ve met here. They dress like civilized human beings in comparison to the male population of my college town. They have a deeper sense of humor, meaning that they find things funny that involve some wit and thought. I’ll miss that when I “enjoy” the company of the male population of OU. I’m only kidding. . . What I adore about the friends I’ve made here so far is how very close they all are, and how quickly they accepted me into their lives.

            From what you’ve read I think the following is probably obvious: The language barrier hasn’t been much of a problem. An intensive summer course, as well as four painful years of French class are finally paying off. And I can’t resist but to thank my parents once again in my life for having raised me bilingual. The extent to which my Spanish aids me in understanding and speaking French is boundless. I think if it weren’t for my capability to express myself and understand others I wouldn’t be having all of the amazing emotions and experiences that I’ve had this early on. It really has been a life-changing month. . . J

 

---

Amy Myklebust, Brasil

Rotary Report October 2010

So, I have been in Brasil for two months and let me tell you, its been quite the journey. My exchange has been filled with amazing moments and a few that had me feeling down too but the positives far outweigh the challenges you may encounter. This has already been a life changing experience and I am enjoying every minute I spend in this incredible country! 

Culture: The culture of Brasil is extremely friendly and warm. They generally find happiness in the sI'mple things in life. What is I'mportant here is family, not money or the size of your house. Because family is of the highest I'mportance here, Brasilian teenagers generally live with their parents until they get married! The biggest difference within the culture is that Brasilians are more touchy than Americans. Brazilians generally greet with one kiss on the cheek followed by a hug whereas Americans never kiss and only hug friends. This difference caused me quite a bit of culture shock when I first arrived. People I had never met or seen before were kissing me on the cheek and introducing themselves. I was quite surprised but quickly adjusted to this custom. Another custom that is much different is how peolple interact. When walking with friends its common to link arms or hold hands. When I first saw this, I thought my friends were dating each other. However, they explained this is normal and is done not just by teenagers but by adults as well.

The people of Brasil are extremely fond of exchange students. They are fascinated by them and so when I arrived I was received with open arms and treated like a celebrity. Even after being here for 2 months, people I have never met are still calling my name because they want to talk to “the really cool exchange student from the United States”. Brasilians go out of their way to make foreigners feel welcome. They have invited me to parties, dinners, even on vacation!

One thing that many people wouldn't expect about Brasil is that it is very influenced by Japanese culture. In fact, Brasil has the second largest Japanese population in the world! Here, they have a place exactly like New York's China Town except its called Liberdade Street (In English this means Freedom  Street) and its all Japanese food and stores. I visit it often as it is very cool. Because there is so much Japanese influence, I often eat Japanese food. In fact, I eat it enough that I now enjoy curry; a spice that I learned Japanese people love! 

Food: The food of Brasil is unbelievably good and healthy. Many people told me I would gain weight when I arrived here. However, I've done just the opposite! Eating habits are much different here. Brasilians eat leisurely and tend to consume less than Americans. I consume around half of what I used to. 

Breakfast: Breakfast is generally quite small and this was something I had a hard tI'me adjusting to. In fact, for the first 3 weeks I was in Brasil, my host mother would make me eggs every morning just so I wouldn't leave the house hungry. My breakfast is the same every morning and consists of the following; fresh bread from the bakery with Nutella and one cup of hot chocolate. Nutella is like peanut butter but its chocolate and tastes amazing. It tastes so amazing that I think I have an addiction to it now. However I am not alone because almost all Brasilians eat Nutella and fresh bread every morning here along with either coffee or hot chocolate. 

Lunch: Lunch is by far the most I'mportant and the largest meal of the day. I consume almost the same thing everyday and eat with maid who prepares the lunch.  Rice and beans is a part of the culture here. Braslians eat the the two together everyday and love them. Generally I eat the following on a daily basis; Rice  and beans, beef or chicken and lettuce with tomatoes and vinegar. Occasionally, I will have pasta as well. However, I only eat in my house on the weekdays. On Saturdays and Sundays, my family  goes out to eat Feijoada or at churrascos or what I like to call “meat buffet”. Both Feijoada and  churrascos are a BIG part of Brasilan culture. Feijoada is a heavy meal (it will fill you up extremely fast) and consists of pig meat, more pig meat, rice, foralfa (I still haven't figured out what foralfa is), and a myriad of spices. A churrascos is a restaurant that serves endless amount of meat. Boar, chicken hearts, pork, beef, etc. If its a type of meat, they serve it there. One thing you should note about Brasilian food is that it usually contains loads of salt. Brasilians LOVE salt here so generally its put in/on anything and everything.  

Dinner: Dinner is also very small. My family usually eats soup, pizza (which is way better and healthier than American pizza) or hamburgers. Generally, I'll eat one slice of pizza or one cup of soup and be finished.  

Desserts and Bakeries: Desserts are incredible here! Bakeries are are like Walmart or McDonalds in the USA; they are everywhere. I love this because I am close to amazing desserts everywhere I go! Cakes, chocolates, jellies are all offered at the bakeries and are amazingly good and really cheap. Bakeries sell a myriad of breads that are made fresh everyday. Most Brasilians travel to the bakery on a daily basis. One of my favorite things to buy at bakeries Pao de Quiejo. Its a small roll filled with cheese and it is incredibly good.  

Cost: While clothes and electronics are expensive here, food is not. It is incredibly cheap. In Bakeries you can get 8 large and really good rolls for $3.oo Real. In grocery stores food is cheap as well especially fruits and vegetables.  

Juice/Fruits and Vegetables: Because fruit and veggies are cheap here, people consume a lot of them. Generally, between meals, I consume apples, pears or pineapple as a snack. People love to eat olives or Brasilian fruits such as Morango as a snack. Juice is also extremely popular here. It tastes much healthier and much fresher than any American juice I have ever had.  There is a big variety of juices including; watermelon, apple, pear, pineapple, mango, starfruit, strawberry, banana and coconut are all types of juices here and are extremely good. My favorite juice is Pineapple juice with mint....so delicious. 

Clothes: The fashion style of Brasil is pretty open ended. Brasilians walk and dress with confidence so you see a myriad of styles here. However, smaller amounts of clothing are more accepted here than in the states. Showing your stomach, chest, shoulders, or wearing short shorts is acceptable here and is normal. Also, wearing heels with casual clothing or tennis shoes (specifically Nike's) with jeans is extremely popular. One “no-no” of Brasil is wearing sweatpants, basketball shorts or regular t-shirts out in public. It is considered not only un-fashionable but extremely odd as well. I have done all of this and every tI'me I have not only been the only one dressed in this way but also stared at like I'm crazy.  

PDA (Public displays of affection) & Relationships: While the divorce rate is around 60% here, you would never know it. The average relationship length of teenagers here is around 1 ½ years! Brasilian teens take relationships much more seriously which is one of many reasons they are longer than American relationships. One custom here that is not found in the United States is commitment rings. When in relationships, both adult and teen couples will wear silver rings on their right hands.  In regards to PDA, it is socially acceptable here. I figured that out when I first landed in Rio de Janiero. I stepped into the crowded elevator and a couple started kissing right next to me! Needless to say I had some major culture shock from that initial experience! 

Piercings and Tattoos: One of the reasons I am writing about this is because tattoos and piercings are a part of the culture here. They are extremely popular here, especially with teenagers. There are tattoo and piercing shops everywhere you go! Nose piercings are extremely popular here with both guys and girls (but more so the girls). However, while teenagers with nose piercings generally have studs, almost all Brasilians with nose piercings wear rings as studs aren't considered attractive. This is the most common piercings, but you see many others! Getting tattoos is also quite popular and many people have them here as well. 

School: School is much different than in the states. I attend a private Catholic school that is much smaller than my school in the states. We have several hundred students rather than my school which has over 1,000. One big difference is that  I say a prayer with my class every morning in school rather than saying the Pledge of Allegiance and I also have a religion class. In Brasil, there are three years of high school instead of four and I have different classes everyday. I start school at 7:15 and finish at 1:35 which is long for a school in Brasil. Most of my friends get out at early tI'mes but because my school is not only private but one of the best, it runs longer. One class that I have here and not in the states is Philosophy. It is an awesome course and I have learned a lot from it! I have an English class here and when we have assignments all the students want my help. I do have uniforms here. I wear a short sleeve shirt with a nice sweatpants; both have the schools logo on them. My school colors are Red, Blue and White. In Brasil, school sports do not exist so the way people have fun in school is by having spirit days or field trips because school football and soccer games do not exist here. My class recently went to a farm and spent the day swI'mming, playing soccer and dancing to music. Also, the spirit days we have occur every month. Students will dress up for Halloween or what we had here recently was opposite gender day. Girls dressed like guys and guys dressed like girls. It was extremely funny and the teachers got a lot of humor out of it too. Classes here do function a little bit than American courses. During class, many students move desks to sit together and will often talk while the teacher teaches. Students here seem to have less respect for teachers than they do in The States. 

Patriotism: The only thing Braslians are really patriotic about here is soccer. If you ask them they will tell you they are the best. However, when it comes to the country in general many people tell me they do not like Brasil. Sure, the people and food are good but many Brasilians have a hard tI'me understanding why I paid thousands of dollars to study HERE for a year. Many people actually tell me their dream is to go and live in America! They say that the government is too corrupt, there is too much violence and that the taxes are too high and that America offers a better life than Brasil. Understand, the reason, I've been told, Brasilians say this is because the standard of living is worse here than in the USA. Here, a small percentage of people are rich or middle class and the rest (the majority of people) are poor. People view America as a place where everyone has money and lives extravagant lives so that’s why they want to move there! Another major difference of Americans and Brasilians is that Brasilians do not have their flag posted everywhere. In the United States, our flag can be seen in classrooms, outside schools, in and outside homes, on shirts, everywhere! Here, the flag cannot often be seen. This was very weird for me at first because I thought Brasilians would also have their flag posted everywhere! 

Soccer & Volleyball: Soccer and Volleyball are the two main sports of Brasil. Soccer however, is by far the more popular sport. I only watch these two sports here and many Braslians live and breathe soccer. In fact, many men will cry if their team loses. Five of my friends attended a game and cried after their team lost because they were so sad that their team actually lost a game. People here also fight with others over teams, so you have to be careful when talking about soccer. In some bars or stores, if you are wearing a jersey of a team the owner doesn't like, you will not be permitted to enter. One thing that is really interesting to do here is listen for people around you while watching soccer games. When a team scores in a game people in the apartments next to you will start shouting and jumping and you will here people yelling and cheering in the streets. I thought someone was getting robbed the first tI'me this happened. My family had to explain that this was normal.  

Language: Portuguese is not an easy language but I am quickly catching on. The faculty and students of my school say I am one of the smartest and fastest learning exchange students they have ever had and are extremely I'mpressed with how well I am speaking. On a 1-10 scale people who know me say I am speaking and understanding at around an 8. I was quite proud when I found this out! Understanding the verbs is one of the most difficult things for me here but everyday I learn something new. Right now I am doing a lot to try and learn the language. I try and learn 10 new words everyday, watch Brasilian soap operas and my closest friends are Brasilians who speak only Portuguese with me. After a month, I really began understanding people and what they were saying. Responding can still sometI'mes be difficult but I am good enough at writing and reading that I take tests and write essays in school! One major Benefit to learning Portuguese is that is allows you to understand the other Latin based languages. Now, I can understand a lot more Spanish as well as some Italian and French! 

Cool Experiences: I have had a myriad of awesome experiences here but one of my favorite was when  I got to be a part of a famous Brasilian TV game show! The show involved three different schools competing for the chance to go on an awesome vacation. My school lost, but it was a lot of fun to film. I was a part of the cheering section but I did end up getting on TV multiple tI'mes which was really cool to see!

Another cool experience was when I had chicken hearts for the first tI'me. Here, people eat them like chicken nuggets and I will admit, they are quite tasty. The first tI'me I had them I was at a friends birthday and all 40 people there started chanting “Vai, Vai Vai!” or “Go! Go! Go!” In Portuguese until I took one and ate it. After wards, not only did I eat more, but everyone applauded! 

Volunteering: I am currently volunteering with both Rotary and on my own. I just started volunteering for a local orphanage in Brasil and am really enjoying it! In the orphanage, me and other exchange students help teach English and also get a chance to just interact with the kids. Also, I attend all the Rotary meetings and am volunteering for them as well! So far, they haven't had any projects I could participate in but they have a few coming up that I will get to be a part of!

Overall, I am enjoying my stay in Brasil. Its been a wonderful experience and I cannot what to see what more is in store. I've made great friends here and have also learned so much about myself and I treasure every minute I spend here. Thank you so much Rotary for helping me get here, I am so blessed. This is definitely the experience of a lifetI'me!

---

 

Manuela Perez, South Korea

 

Fifth Month

Sometimes it's hard to believeeeee~ I can't believe I've been here so long, I can't believe that I've gotten so many good, close friends, and I can't believe that I have such an amazing host family <333

My host family, they've just always been there, even if they don't know it. Their sounds have become familiar, and I've become so comfortable. I'm really lucky to not have to have changed host family's, and not going to have to have to change, so I have my own safe space at home. My host mom is cute and takes care of the house, sends cute little 'ok' messages if I'm out and tell her I'll be a bit late, says to be careful and such. Saying things like 'Oh, you're at noraebang?? (karaoke) have fun! if you're late, just make sure you call~' and it's all become familiar and comfortable :)

I'm still on break (surprisingly), until March, where I have switched schools!! I'll be going to 성결대학교 (Seonggyeol College) instead of the high school I was at before, and majoring in Japanese!! I'm looking forward to it, and what I'll get to learn, instead of just coasting by in the high school~

I've gone out a lot with the other exchange students, and am learning random bits and pieces of French! Learning it is making me want to continue to learn it when I get back to the states, just so I can keep in contact with them, even if they know English perfectly well~ It's always nice hearing your native tongue, and they always smile when I speak in French :) (even when i botch it terribly~)

The funny thing, though, is that since I mostly speak English with the Frenchies, sometimes I speak with a little bit of a French accent, or pronounce things a bit weird, and I can hear myself saying it weird, and I just laugh, shake my head, 'Those frenchies..."

Sometimes it's interesting just thinking about when I first here, and how I acted regarding public transportation, and how I am now. I know my way around, know how to check how to get to a place I need, know how to ask people which buses I should take, or even just reading the buses and some of the main stops it'll go on. I know how to read a bus map, and I'm getting better at using the map on my phone, too!

During this time, we celebrated 설날, or the Chinese (Lunar) New Year! January 1st, is the Solar New Year, and not really celebrated a bunch here. We didn't really do anything, actually. I watched the TV and saw them ring a bell, but otherwise, there's not much going on. However, when 설날 came around, there was a lot of preparation. Koreans normally go back and visit their relatives, and it's pretty huge. For our 설날, my host family had my dad's family over, and we had a small service, and worship, and then we ate a huge meal, including 떡국 (ddeok guk), which is a rice ... um. I have no idea how to explain, but ddeok is this glutinous rice, and they cut it into oval shapes, and cook it in a soup, and it was really really really good, and tasty, and it explains the reason that Korean years are different.

This was how I changed age in between America and Korea.

August 3rd - 17 years

August 4th - 18 years

August 26th (arrival in Korea) - 19 years

January 1st/February 3rd (설날) - 20 years

Okay, so this is how it works. On January 1st, everybody unofficially addds one year, but it's not until February 3rd that the tradition actually agrees with it. When you eat ddeokguk, you age one year. When you are born, you are one years old, because they count the time you spend in the womb. To be easier on officials, they just use January 1st to add the year.

Anyways, it's confusing, and I probably didn't explain it right, but oh well.

The Korean Rotary, because of our break and worrying that we would have nothing to do because of it, gave us a class to take! Korean traditional instruments. So this past 4 weeks, we have been learning the 장구, jang gu, which is this double sided drum that you use two types of sticks to hit it with

장구 jang gu

It's interesting to play, and pretty cool. Yesterday, we even got to see some traditional Korean dances, and if I knew how to upload videos from my iPod, i would load them on here as well xP

 

Another interesting little thing~ In Korea, they have loads of eye glass shops, where you can buy contacts or glasses. So Linda, one of the Taiwanese girls, wanted to buy some circle lens (colour lens that have a circle aorund the iris to make your eye look perfectly circular), so Flo, Nora, and I went with her, and oh my goodness gracious. I bought some too, just to have a pair, and the process is really interesting.

They have all the colours and lens sitting in contact solution on a table, and a small eye looking thing that you use small plastic tweezers and put the contact on to see how it looks. When you find one that you like, you tell the clerk which one you want, and they take you back to see what your eyesight is. You look in on something you'd find in a regular optomterists office, and they check your eyesight. For free. They then go back, get the contacts you want, you pay however much it is (typically they're around 10,000-50,000 won (10$-50$) but some of the really nice ones can be up to 120,000w for a pair. Anyways, you can wear them out, or just carry them with you, and you're done! It was really cool~

These are what mine look like

 

 

And, here's Eleonore with ones that she had gotten before, too:

 

 

So anyways, while this break is really awesome, I can't wait to actually start learning again, and I'm /really/ excited to be looking at Japanese again. I've missed learning that language <3 It'll certainly be interesting, though, learning Japanese in Korean *.*

 

And btw! If there's anything you want to hear about, feel free to ask :) If you see a picture you want a backstory of, or something like that, it's why I take pictures to begin with  <33

 

 

Fourth Month

 

Angela's a grandma, and i disapprove.

Apparently, I'm worse at blogging and keeping this updated than I thought. But with these two months, I've found friendship not just with my friends at school, but with the other exchange students. Unfortunately, when we first met, we were all awkward and nervous with being in a foreign country and immediately separated into groups, the frenchies, the taiwanese, and then me and Angela, us weird americans hahaha :)

Now, there were these Rotary trips that the Korean rotary put together, but unfortunately it was too expensive, so I wasn't able to go, leaving them able to talk and lose those boundaries that they had set the first time, but for me, I was out of the loop. So, when I went to Seoul Land, 

 

Classmates

and happened to run into Eleonore (one of the frenchies), I honestly couldn't even remember her name! I felt so silly afterwards, and when I think of it now, I laugh because we're such good friends now!

Anyways, we actually met up for a Rotary district conference that we had to do together, and we were doing a dance together, and I got to see the 'after', where one of the french girls sat in between two of the taiwanese and talked to them both, and it was just so nice to see how it changed.

I've come to really appreciate them, and I've also learned how to successfully navigate the subway because of them too! Yayyyy :D

So! A few experiences I've gotten since last time I've updated:

I got to go with the 학생회 to 강원도 (Kangwondo). The 학생회 (haksaenghoi) are like Student government, and because of all their hard work they were rewarded with a tour bus to Kangwondo where we had like a nice little vacation and did a whole bunch of things. I'm actually friends with the student president of the school, so I got to come with :) Now, we got to rent a bus, and rode it for ... 6 hours? to Kangwondo, and I had so much fun chatting with everyone and making fun, having random snacks handed to me (anything from suckers to chocolates to chestnuts, really) that although it was a long trip, we still had fun.

We got to ride a rail bike around the beach, and even though it was mid-November, it was really really warm, so we all took off our coats and just enjoyed the sights. After which, we stopped by a temple, and took lots of pictures and ran around a bit to stretch our legs. Then back to the bus and out again at this huge mountain sight. We got to go in caves and walk all around - unfortunately we were on a time schedule, so although we saw everything, we went really fast, and we were all exhausted afterwards (we had to climb up the mountain before we climbed all in it hahahah) Me and Seonghee (my friend, the student president) were in the front, so we got to linger a little bit more than the rest, and I took lots of pictures.

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted, but we stayed at a ski resort, and we had to perform in front of everyone and listen to a few speeches (so that they could pass it off as school work~ you know how it is hahaha) I ended up getting wrangled to sing in front of everyone (oh my god, embarassing. i totally mangled Tonight, by John Lennon, I was so nervous), and I ended up forgetting like half the lyrics until the school principal saved me and started singing it with me hahaha

 

Me and Seonghee

We ended up going to our rooms around one in the morning, and my friends (i roomed with like ... 6 other girls in the hotel?) ended up staying up till like 230, or 3 in the morning, but i was exhausted and totally fell asleep before them all hahahah so i was the least tired when we had to wake up at SEVEN in the morning.

the way home was long, but we stopped by a few more places first, including an old king's tomb (which was HUGE), and a small island that we had to ride a ferry over to get to.

The pier :)

Most of us exchange students got out of having to go to school for finals, so I met up with some of them and we hung out for birthday celebrations (Tingwei and Eleonore), and then the next day, we went all the way to Seoul to meet up with (gasp) another American rotary student in Seoul!

 

Chris hahahah his 'hm... this is .... strange' face hahah trying some weird green tea concoction that Eleonore liked ;)

 Also, school break was coming up! We only had a couple more weeks left of school - we had school until December 23rd, where we started break until February-something - and that was spent doing absolutely nothing. We all chatted during class, because the teachers didn't bother coming in, or if they did, they just sat there and played on their computers. I got to talk more to my classmates and become better friends with the 'group' I got, who are really great :)

By the final day, it was just wonderful, I was sitting with Eunjin, Dajeong, Daseul, and Eunkyeoung, and Dajeong had her arms around me and her head on my shoulder as I was sitting on a desk with my legs against Eunjin who was sitting on the chair in front of me, and we were all laughing and having fun, and I was just so proud  that I really got that far, you know? I was able to understand most of what they said, and they just included me so easily, and it was really one of the parts of the exchange that I just couldn't believe I was really there, that I had such great friends, both Korean, and other exchange students. And that I was going to be coming back to a great host family, I was just so happy.

Even when it got to the holidays, I went out on Christmas Eve to Suwon and hung out with Flo, and came back that night to my host family where we sang happy birthday to baby Jesus, and you know, I got a package from my family back at home, with some familiar Spanish food, and still, although I missed them, I'm just happy.

I've finally gotten comfortable with where I"m at, with the area around me, with how things work. Sometimes, I still fall into those modes where, I'm listening to the Korean, but I'm not processing it because I automatically assume I won't understand, and then I"ll hear bits and pieces and realise, 'wow, actually i understand quite a bit', but that doesn't mean I can answer hahahahah

I totally missed the Dick Clark's (that's his name, right?) New Year's show, though. In Korea, they just ring a bell, but I didn't know, and so I was excited to see what they'd do, but it was kinda a let-down hahahah, you know, after getting used to seeing Time's Square every year? Still, it was nice, and they rang the bell nice and clear, and everyone cheered :) I totally wouldn't have minded fireworks, though hahaha

So now, I'm about two weeks into break, and dude, it's lovely. At school, you know we have uniforms, and girls wear skirts. In winter. Freeeeeeezingggggg. So, I was quite happy getting our long break. I was going to school with like, my skirt, but wearing tights underneath leggings, and furry boots hahahha the awesome thing, though, is that it made you look quite slim ;) and then the classroom would be so warm, and we wouldn't be doinga nything, so the call to sleep was huge hahahah

But yeah, I mean. I'm like comfortable in my skin, now. I've gotten used to the staring, especially when I'm being myself. I've become a lot more outgoing here. Like, I was before, but now I can laugh louder, and smile bigger, and sing in the middle of a crowd and not mind. I've even totally picked up my dad's habit of singing a phrase that someone says, like, well: 

Angela: "It's hard to breathe."

Me: *singing* "I can't breathe! I can't breathe 아침이 발가와 또 난 깨고십지않아"

Angela: "you always do that."

 

or even:

Eunjin: 안녕 (hi)

Me: *singing* 안녕 내 사랑 사랑 사랑  (hello my love, love, love)

Eunjin: *glares*

:D

 They love me. Really. <3

 

September 28, 2010

 

Eleanor Warner   Slovakia

Sytske Miedema  Argentina

Last rotary report

When I wrote my last report, I had recently changed families and was missing my first family a lot. One becomes very accustomed to the lifestyle of a family and it is hard to get used to another one. However, I quickly became adapted to life with my second family and started to love them a lot too. I was extremely lucky with both of my families in how much they cared for me and made me feel comfortable.

One weekend in April, the family took me to a lake where I learned to windsurf along with my host dad and brother. It was an amazing experience and, even though my back hurt a bit afterwards, I had a great time. This was not only because I was learning windsurfing but also because I got to spend a lot of fun, quality time with my family. Also, in Easter weekend, I was invited, along with my family, to go to a girl’s fifteenth birthday party, which is a huge event there. In my area, many economically-able families give their daughter  the choice to throw a party or go to Disney World in Miami for their fifteenth birthday!

 That Sunday(Easter), my host brother and I got to share a huge delicious chocolate Kinder egg  with a nifty little toy in it that I got to keep as a memory. Those two months flew by, with school, after school activities, and a full schedule every weekend. Then, in May I packed up my things to go on a two week trip with fifty other exchange students from all around the world to see the northern part of Argentina. We started in the big city of Mendoza which is famous for its delicious wine and finished up this amazing tour in the 7^th wonder of the world, the big and beautiful waterfalls of Iguazu.  I had a great time and was shown a whole different part of Argentina. The north of Argentina is so different from the south that it is hard to imagine them to be part of the same country. While the south is cold, bare, and has a very small but well-off population, the north has mostly desert-like conditions with lots of cactuses and a generally poor population. I bought many of my presents for people back home there because everything was much cheaper than any other place in Argentina. After coming back from the trip, I only had 20 days left, a thought that was hard to wrap my mind around at the time. I enjoyed these last three weeks to the fullest and took advantage of them to see everyone and eat everything one last time.  I visited a huge chocolate factory located in the next town over and Rotary kept us busy giving presentations about our countries in several schools. Also, the daughter of my host sister’s first host family in Germany, who was doing an exchange in another Argentinean province, came to visit us in my last days. It was great to be able to meet her, show her around, and enjoy spending some time with her before leaving.

 I hardly slept the last couple of days just trying to finish packing, getting together with friends, painting my last going-away presents, and copying the thousands of photos I had taken in the last months onto my memory sticks.

Then, on June 11^th, I headed back to the good ol’ U.S.A.  On my last night a lot of my friends and classmates came over and my host dad prepared sausages on the barbecue to make choripan with chimmichurri sauce, and typical sandwich with sausage, lettuce and tomato as my last dinner in Argentina. It was a night with many emotional goodbyes, although it hadn’t hit me yet that I actually was not going to be seeing everyone in school, around town, or in the local disco during the next week.  After everyone left, I drank a strong coffee to get through the exhausted state I was in and started to finish packing up my suitcases. This is something I should have done much earlier but it seems that up until that moment I had been in a state of denial.. After a quick breakfast, during which I could not eat anything because of all the nerves, we headed off to the same airport in which my great adventure in Argentina had begun.   But this time to say my last goodbyes. I left at the same time as one of my best exchange friends and she accompanied me while waiting in the airport of Buenos Aires from where we each took our separate ways. Due to my exhausted state, I slept almost the whole way on the plane. This was utterly remarkable considering I have never been able to sleep on a plane before. Arriving in Atlanta was quite an experience, noticing millions of little differences and funny little things about Americans. First, it was extremely strange listening to English being spoken all around me. However, many little things caught my eye wandering through the crowds such as the summer clothes with American brand names, people using all kinds of nifty electronic gadgets that I hadn’t seen all year like the ipad, the smell of bacon coming from the American fast food restaurants, cowboy boots, boy scouts, toilet paper and soap in the bathrooms, etc. Another thing I noticed is that people here have a huge concept of personal space. An apology is deserved when getting even halfway close to someone. At one point I walked out of the bathroom and a lady said sorry when she passed by me by about a yard!

March

What a summer this has been. From my host siblings´graduation, Christmas, New Year’s, the Festival of Doma and Folklore in my town, my host brother and sister leaving for their exchange year, vacation with the family, camping, gatherings with friends to helping out in the Casa de Matias, my summer was one the most hectic, fun, and greatest summers ever.

On March 1st, I changed host families, right before school started again. The second week of school we had a long weekend, and so that Thursday night I went to the SHAKIRA CONCERT! (Amazing of course), and, to top it all off, that same weekend my host family took me all the way to the north of Argentina to celebrate carnival there! It was great fun, although I ended up with kilos of carnival foam and chalk in my hair and face, and was without running water one night. Now a recap of my summer:

Christmas:

Christmas was a whole new experience for me. I didn´t have the Christmas spirit and honestly it is like I just skipped a Christmas. Why? Because it was hot, Christmas songs do not exist here, and most of all, I was not with my family.  Besides that, my host brother and sister were on a school trip, so I didn´t have them around either. We got together with some family Christmas Eve and ate a huge delicious dinner. Then at twelve o´clock they popped out the champagne bottles and we watched the firework display. We stayed and danced with the family for a bit and around three o´clock in the morning all the younger people left to go out with their friends. This was a very strange concept for me, going out on Christmas. Since we were in the big city and we hardly knew anyone or any place, Madeleine and I ended up meeting another exchange student and going out to dance. (That’s certainly a great advantage of being an exchange student; having friends everywhere)  That morning we slept in the house where we had eaten dinner the night before and spent the day eating leftovers and chatting alongside the pool. When Christmas day arrived, I got a little homesick when I had nothing to do. An exchange student’s biggest enemy: boredom. However, I have been lucky enough to have been bored on rare occasion. A tip for future exchange students: always plan ahead activities for when you might get bored, like getting together with friends, doing sports, or whatever else you enjoy doing!

New Year’s Eve was a lot better. We had aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandma over and made a bunch of delicious food. Like Christmas, there was a big display of fireworks at midnight. Afterward we met up with friends and went out again. This time it was in my town, so I knew everyone there and had a lot of fun. New Year’s day was very nice, spent with my family and with a great barbeque prepared by my host dad.  Of course we Skyped with my host brother as well, who had left for North Carolina on exchange a couple of days beforehand. A week later the big spectacle of my town that everyone had been telling me about since I arrived began. That spectacle is the National Festival of Doma and Folklore. It is very famous here in Argentina. In fact, when we went on the South Trip with Rotary, people in Calafate knew about Jesús María (my town) because of it! The other exchange girls and I found a way to volunteer with tourism, handing out fliers and doing interviews every day. I learned a lot from it and got to meet several foreigners, all with interesting travel stories. I even met a former exchange student who stayed in Jesus Maria through Rotary several years ago!

                The main event is “Doma,” which is like a rodeo, only with horses. Folklore singers performed during the breaks. Next to the stadium literally hundreds of booths, restaurants, and two local discos set up temporarily. It was a great ten days. A few days later, we held a big good-bye party for my host sister and the other girls going on exchange from my town, who had, of course, all decided to leave for their exchange after the Doma. That Saturday she departed for Stuttgart, Germany!! L It was very strange to get used to life without my host siblings, but luckily I still had Madeleine. 

                The next week we left for vacation! It was a great 2 weeks and I got to see so many beautiful places. My family was so great that, even though they love Brazil, they planned a trip to three beautiful Argentinean cities, Rosario, Buenos Aires, and Mar del Plata, in order for Madeleine and me to get to know more of this great country.  It was truly fantastic and I decided that if I were to live in the city, Rosario would suffice.

In the meantime there were only two weeks left of summer break, which I took advantage of to go camping, visit friends in Córdoba, and enjoy the last two weeks with my host family before changing families for two months.

Throughout the summer and now after school, I have also been helping out with a great place in my town, the Casa de Matias. It is a family who takes in children during the summer in the daytime and during the school year before and after school. It is located next to the poorest neighborhood so the kids just have to cross the creek to get there. The lady who owns the house lost her little 3-year old boy ten years ago when the babysitter lost sight of him for a moment and someone kidnapped him. A few hours later, he was found in a dumpster. His mom became depressed and decided to give up her teaching job to recover from this tragic experience. Then, one day, while she was eating breakfast, she saw three small, poor boys outside of her window and invited them in for a glass of milk. They appreciated it so much and started to come every day. The group grew and grew and eventually she and her family decided to move to their current home to have more room and place for the kids. The kids come there and do their chores, do their homework, play, and eat lunch and merienda, which is the 6 o´clock snack. Two years ago, they built two rooms for the boys and girls to sleep their afternoon nap in and for when they need to stay the night. A local bakery and several other stores donate food and people from the community often bring clothes, food, and toys for the kids.  It is really amazing how much is done for these kids and how much it helps them. They all are in different difficult situations but there in the Casa de Matias they have a different place with another family, a stable one.

As one can see I had a hectic but wonderful summer. Now I´m getting accustomed to the new family and, once again, the school routine. Both of my host parents are doctors and work all day until 10 or 11 o´clock at night so during the week I only see them for lunch and dinner. (We often eat dinner as late as 11 or 11:30.) I also have a younger brother of 15 and we have a maid here eight hours a day. It is a very nice family though they are SO different than my first host family. I think it was really great to change families even though I LOVE my first host family so much because it has really allowed me to see the differences and learn to live this different lifestyle.  I have started several after-school activities, such as going to the gym, taking guitar lessons, playing handball, and taking Tango classes, so I keep myself busy. Although I have felt more homesickness this past month, I am still having a great time here and learning something every day. I have become so accustomed to life here that it will definitely take some getting used to my old life there when I go back. It is funny to think of all of the things I have done and seen and how I have changed in the past seven months. And so strange to think that I can almost count the weeks left on my hands..

First Report about Argentina

Today marks my two-month anniversary for my stay in Argentina! I can hardly believe it, seeing as tI'me has passed so fast since this incredible adventure began in August. So much has happened over the span of two months. I have come to find that I have the best host family and friends that anyone could ask for here.

All the people here are very open and welcoming, and Jesús María is a beautiful town. I’m very glad to be living in such a quaint town where I can walk around alone during the daytI'me without worrying about any significant dangers.  I realized that I am truly a country girl at heart and well-suited for a small town like Jesus Maria after staying in Cordoba for two days, a city with a population of around three million people. It turns out I much prefer the quiet rhythm of a small town over the constant hustle and bustle of a big city.

My host family has kept me very busy since I got here, and fortunately with so many things to do there has been little tI'me to get homesick! I finally started sports this week, which is great because by now I have definitely gained several pounds already. Now I am going to the gym three tI'mes per week for a class and I started handball. I wanted to try a sport that I couldn’t play in the U.S. (also because soccer for girls basically does not exist here), and I´m really enjoying it!

My host family is great. At first I wondered how my host parents ever got together though because they are a prI'me example of opposites who attract. My host mom could be described as scatter-brained, while my host dad is super organized and neat. They both share very loving personalities, though, and are willing to help with anything. I am very grateful to have them.

In addition to great host parents, I am also lucky enough to be surrounded with siblings. I have two 17-year-old twin siblings, Vicky and Cesar, who in January will be leaving for an exchange to Germany and North Carolina. Besides the twins, I also have an older host sister name Elisa, who is 23 and studying a university in Córdoba, a big city that is about an hour drive from here. I also have a Rotary Exchange sister, Madeleine, who is a completing the exchange whose home country is Belgium.  It feels like we have a big happy family right now. The only downside to having such a big family is the transportation issues associated with trying to fit everyone in a five-passenger car. They are really strict on the lI'mit of passengers in cars here, and the police frequently stop cars on the road to check compliance with the lI'mits designed for each vehicle. Let’s just say that our five-passenger car has become quite a bit of entertainment, because quite often my sister Vicky and Madeleine have had to lay on the floor of the car underneath the rest of the family’s stinky feet so that we can all ride in the car together. My host family won’t let me lay on the car floor because they think that I am too tall and my blonde hair is too obvious; I got very lucky in that respect.

Fortunately we only have to squeeze in the car during our weekend trips when we leave Jesus Maria. So far we have been taking trips to various places almost every weekend, and this has been a wonderful opportunity to experience different parts of Argentina. We hardly ever use the car within Jesus Maria itself because public transportation here is so great. We bike or walk to school every day, and use cheap taxis called remis to take us to place a bit farther away. To get to the highly popular disco a ways outside of town, for example, it costs less than 4 dollars to take the remi.

School is much different here than in Circleville High School. First of all, I have to wear a lovely uniform like that of an English schoolgirl her. Though initially I thought this would help me save lots of tI'me in the morning, amazingly it takes me longer here to prepare for school here than it did at home. This is sI'mply due to the fact that I have to wear a pair of panty hoses that are too short and take at least five minutes of careful tugging and pulling to get on. Another difference between Circleville and the school I attend here is the fact that here I attend a private Catholic school. Public schools here are, in general, very bad so many people who can afford it want to go to the private schools here. We start school every morning with an assembly to watch the raising of the flag and recite many prayers like Ave Maria. Also, classes here are on block schedule. I found this really hard to adjust to in the beginning because I am used to having the same classes every day for 45 minutes.  Here I have classes once a week and for two hours in a row. This made it especially hard to catch up the first couple of weeks of school because I came in the middle of the Argentinean school year, and we have had a lot of assemblies causing me to have only had some classes 3 or 4 tI'mes total until now. I am with the same classmates all day in the same classroom. They are all really nice and willing to help us with any questions. The attitude in general towards school is very relaxed. Because of this many people have to get good grades this last trI'mester to pass the class and actually have to study a bit more. Not to say that this stops them from going out until five or six in the morning to dance every weekend.  All my classmates have had English since Kindergarten but there is not a single person in my class who can carry on a conversation in English!  Therefore it is quite strange to think that they have had English for so long. Of course this has been very beneficial for my Spanish since I don’t have the opportunity to speak English in school.

Random strangers on the street or at parties and haven’t heard me talk sometI'mes start speaking English to me just because they realize that I am a foreigner! I figured since we do have blonde, blue-eyed people here it wouldn’t be very obvious, but the Argentinean natives apparently find it quite clear.

I have also taken notice of some other cultural differences between Argentina and the USA:

-     First and foremost, the meat is absolutely delicious here, especially the barbequed kind called asado. Men here are truly masters at the grill and my host dad and brother prepare asado every weekend.  We eat SO much meat here. I have eaten a vast variety of meat, some of which I prefer not to think about. My host family likes to show me from where in the cow the cut of meat we are about to consume came from, though. One of the things I discovered I was eating once was intestines. When I was told I was consuming intestines, I tried hard not to think about all the goo inside the intestines that I was consuming. Though of course I was reluctant to eat it all, I make sure that I try eating everything here the same way a true Argentinean would. Luckily my host family told me then that the content of the intestines on my plate was only stuffing, and not in fact the partially digested remainders of the cow’s last meal. Next tI'me Madeleine and I are going to help prepare the asado so we can learn the secret of great meat too. J

 -    One of the first differences I noticed and notice every day; the number of stray

dogs. They are everywhere! I sometI'mes take our dog here for walks and get a little nervous every tI'me when a stray dog starts following us. Walking the dog is a pretty uncommon thing to do here, especially with big dogs like ours. Not only are there a lot of stray dogs, but there are also wild horses walking by the rivers, creeks, and highway. Yesterday we were calmly driving along when one crossed the street in front of us!

-          Nobody wears makeup to school! In the U.S. I am among a minority who doesn’t wear any to school, but here absolutely no one does. I asked about this once, got responses like “Why would we wear makeup? It’s school!”

-          There is also not typically American PDA in the hallways. At first I thought that no one had a boyfriend or girlfriend in the school or something because there is no one walking around during the breaks holding hands and kissing like in Circleville.

-          We don’t use books in school. Instead everyone has a ¨book¨ consisting of a big folder of photocopies. The rest of the tI'me the teacher always recites what we have to write. And for tests? Well we have to pay for those photocopies too! It was so weird to me that basically we have to pay to take the test.

-          Garages are not filled with junk. Most people have only a one-car garage and it

is actually used to park the car.

-          Almost every single house here has bars in front of the window, along with fence for additional safety.

-          We always have to wear shoes in the house! This was so weird for me as someone who has always taken my shoes off upon entering my house in Circleville. Almost no houses have carpet here for this reason, and that makes it a lot easier to clean the floors. The first days I would come downstairs without shoes or come inside and take my shoes off. However, I soon learned that this was not okay and will make me sick. By that tI'me it was too late already though, because I was stuck with a cold for the next month! Then Madeleine got it from me, and now it’s come back to me. Basically we have been exchanging viruses;p One big difference I found out during all of this though was the attitude towards medicine and doctors. My family I'mmediately was worried about my cold and bought all kinds of medicines for me. They also wanted to take me to the doctor! My host brother ended up going to the doctor for his cold as he sings in a band and they had a concert that week, and they gave hI'm a shot in the behind! This of course made me less eager to visit the doctor. After the third week of constant coughing and having the family worried about bronchitis I was finally convinced to go to the doctor as well. As expected, the doctor declared that it was just a cold and I would get better. From that visit discovered that the cost of healthcare is very low here.  It only cost me 14 Pesos for the doctor’s appointment. That is less than $4! That’s a major benefit of socialized health care I suppose.

-          On the streets there are many ¨pajeros,¨ or teenage boys, men, and even little boys who hoot and holler at girls when they walk by. It took me a while to get used to this, but now I find it extremely funny. The construction workers are definitely the worst in that respect. My blonde hair seems to be a hot topic for comments too.

-          Kissing on the cheek is the norm for greeting here. We kiss so much. Every tI'me we go anywhere we kiss all of our friends that we meet. Even the teachers greeted me with a kiss on the cheek my first day! In the morning when we get up we always greet the family members with a kiss as well. I like it because it is a very warm and nice gesture.

-          My host siblings know a lot of songs and bands from the U.S. that I have never

even heard of.

-     The food is DELICIOUS but I miss the variety of the food in the U.S. and my

mom’s cooking :P My host parents are really good cooks and always make delicious food, but it is just not the same. Though the food is delicious here, it lacks the variety we have in the U.S.

-          We eat dinner here very late at night, typically between 9:30 PM -11 PM. This

was very hard for me to adjust to and is still a bit challenging for me.  I always eat a lot during Merienda, a tI'me to eat some snacks and drink some tea around 6 PM.

-          People are very different about sharing food and drinks here. They often drink after each other, for when they are thirsty they buy a two-liter bottle for everyone to share. Mate is another great example of this. I love the tradition of mate. It is very widely consumed and anytI'me we get together somewhere with friends or family by the river or at any place really someone almost always brings a thermos of hot water and yerba to pass around for all of us to drink and enjoy.

I’m learning so much here and I’m already very thankful to Walter, Judy, and Sandy for talking my parents and me into starting such an amazing journey. I can’t wait to see what happens next on this wonderful Argentinean adventure!

Richelle Hecker  Mexico

 

Third Month in Xalapa

by Richelle Hecker on Sunday, November 7, 2010 at 4:37pm

“Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than a magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.”--Charles Dickens

I've been here 97 days now and I still feel as if my exchange is going as strong as ever. if anything, I feel as if each day culminates itself into something better than the last. it's a weird thing, to be away from home for so long. but then again, I truly believe I have found a special place here in Xalapa. as defined, a home is: 1) a dwelling place together with family 2) an environment offering security and happiness 3) a valued place regarded as a refuge... and 4) a place where feeling an easy competence and familiarity. Xalapa, and more I'mportantly.. my home with the Lince family.. has become that and so so much more. There's magic in that one little word.. ((home)). it's something we should all have come to value, yet some still wish to escape it, flee from it, or experience something outside of it. and to tell you the truth, that's exactly what I did. for this exchange year I escaped Athens. I fled from my city to experience something outside of it.. something I had always dreamed about. but the thing I find most I'mportant, is that I found a home within a place that I had never known. so strong must be the human spirit to find comfortability and refuge in unknown terrain. to seek something so prI'mitive ((a home)) must be second-nature. however, to be accepted, to be included, to be assI'milated so damn quickly... is entirely up to the individual. I can honestly say that the most endearing thing I have encountered throughout this exchange is the fact that I've been recognized as a part of this wonderful family. not only does this bring about strong affections, it sprouts a new kind of splendor. without a doubt, I have found fervent sentI'ments reserved for only the most special word;; that word is "home." as you can guess, I find an ease and comfortability in saying that Xalapa has become my new home. nonetheless, I find myself uneasy and quite responsive when I ponder in that fact that one day, I will have to leave this home to rejoin another. both are absolutely wonderful. there are natural sentI'ments that need not be explained when speaking of one's home. for the tI'me being, the close proxI'mity I have with my family here in Xalapa is causing me to adore them... and the distance from my home in Athens, is causing me to grow more fond of them. in essence, I have three people to thank from the bottom of my heart ((again and again))--- Mama Leo, Papa Ulysses, and Uly. already in three months, I'm indebted to your family. I love you guys. you deserve the world <3

although I've experienced a great load of sensational experiences, October wasn't the easiest month. there were a lot of hurdles I had to tackle.

one being, communication:: ((when my host dad couldn't talk because of his operation on his voice chords, my ever so fluctuating "gringo" accent, distancing myself from my American friends and family so I can rid myself of English , attempting to remember every new word, and more or less... expressing my general thought-flow instead of common-courtesy chats)).

two being, sickness:: ((I was so incredibly sick for about two weeks. and out of precaution for my Xalapa family, I didn't let them know. no one wants loved ones to worry. especially, being as sick as I was. and although I have a great comfortability here, it's only natural to long for your mother in a tI'me of need (a desire for the comfortability of the womb). I couldn't help but crave the habitual process I used to go through when I was sick---the presence of my mom, sprite, mac n' cheese, our dog Maddox or the kitten on my lap, and fourteen episodes of "how I met your mother." I didn't look the greatest for a while. I was even more pale than usual, if you can believe it. ha-ha. and lost some more weight. but to tell you the truth, I completely expected getting sick here. let's just hope it doesn't happen again.))

three being, school:: surprisingly, I'm getting really good grades here. I've surprised myself. but with the exam schedule it was pretty difficult when I was sick. I ended up going to school to present midterms and then calling my dad to take me home. the schooling system and the attitude of the teachers here are...different. thank goodness I've been in a good habit of completing homework and assignments because it seems as if an.. indifferent attitude can be contagious here. it's comparable to senior-itis.. however, I believe it's more than that. possibly an unawareness of the I'mportance of education. I'm not completely sure when this aspect changed inside of me, but I've found a desire for bettering my own intellectual capabilities. I sincerely crave more knowledge... past that of the day-to-day learning experiences. there's a new flame inside of me. truthfully, I'm excited for my return to ohio university. as corny as it may sound, I want to learn. life should be all about learning... and when you stop that process of learning, you might as well die. hopefully this passion for the gaining of knowledge isn't just lust; I hope it's a distinguished attraction.

besides the hurdles, there have been many note-worthy ordeals as well.

traditions:: I will be the first to admit that I think I took many of our normal traditions for granted. here, I've grasped the I'mportance of sharing traditions and culture. i'd like to think that I'm mixing traditions. there is no uncertainty about the fact that I'm taking in and soaking up the traditions and culture. however, it is one of my main goals to be ambassador of my town, state, and country. it's one of the most rewarding things to have someone take an interest in a tradition so sI'mple, and so incredibly small. some of these things my friends and family were aware of (because of movies and television), but others they have never even heard about. this past month i'd like to think I spread a little piece of my traditions.. and maybe they'll continue those. this month---

1) my brother Uly and I made jack 'o lanterns. it was his first tI'me carving a pumpkin and I took enjoyment in his curiosity and our joint satisfaction as we have proudly displayed them on our balcony for the past week. we also gutted the pumpkins and cooked the seeds (which was a big hit at my mom's birthday party. all the seeds disappeared within a matter of a few hours.) 

2) I shared the sI'mple child-hood memory that most every Xalapa kid can remember ((a peanut butter and jelly sandwich)). such a sI'mple thing turned into a grand adventure. i'll never forget the look of my friend Pedro's face when he tried it for the first tI'me. 

3) I've spread the knowledge of our famous "block party" in Athens. one of the biggest Halloween parties can't go on without a little bit of recognition. everyone's seen pictures and heard a lot of the stories, even the crazy ones.

4) we made paper snow flakes. in a place where it doesn't snow, I should have realized that it's not customary to decorate with paper snowflakes. it snowed in our kitchen that night, even if just for a few seconds... it snowed white notebook paper.

5) my host dad is picking up English  (through no help from me, I add). he finds quite the enjoyment out of quoting American movies. let's just say he's picked up a few choice words that would make you laugh uncontrollably or cringe. I choose the laughing uncontrollably route. he's hilarious. and I repeat, I did not teach hI'm those.. no matter what he tries to tell anyone. ha-ha.

6) my brother Uly and I have shared quite a few card games:: go-fish, war, tongues/spoons, kemps, and rummy are our games of choice. none of which he or the other people (mainly a 5 year old at a birthday party we went to) had played before. it's quite an achievement to be able to explain games such as these in Spanish. you never become conscious of great details you must explain in some of these games, that is.. until you attempt it in a different language.

what's more is that I've acquired so much more knowledge and appreciation for the traditions here than I think anybody expected, even myself. the day of the dead celebration was one that I will never forget. I completely fell in love with this celebration and it's ever-so-I'mportant meaning. next year, I'm going to have an alter in my house.. I promise from the bottom of my soul. the act of an alter is such a beautiful and commemorative thing. this past "dia de muertos" I reflected quite a bit on my aunt Linda who passed away a couple of years ago. I took great pride in knowing she would be so enthusiastic in my current adventures here in Xalapa. that day was for her.

my appreciation for my friends here, and over there in Ohio, still holds true. friendship needs no explanation because it's the medicine of life. everything can be exponentially bettered by friends. those who double your joy, deserve the world <3 

and speaking of friends in ohio, I love and miss you all. 

and speaking of one friend in particular, I can't wait to see you in December , Molly Mollica. you will love Xalapa. you'll see. 

and one of my most I'mportant lessons I've learned this month is that, in this world, we are all so deeply connected, I just wish we all knew it. everyone craves:: love, happiness, family, friends, new adventures, to see the world. everyone has:: their own traditions, their own customs, their own way of being. everyone lacks:: something, someone, somewhere. everyone:: cares, loves, feels, is, wants, dreams, and hopes. we're all united by these things. but why are we so commonly and stereotypically separated by lesser things? (race, religion, politics, wealth, and other circumstances...)  without a single doubt in my mind I want to continue shaping my outlook on life. this exchange is doing exactly that.

but actually I think my main goal here is to make people smile. if you're smiling, I'm doing my job. love life, continue learning, and sport a smile. if you do those three things," la vida es buena" (life is good). <3

 

Second Month Abroad--Mexico

by Richelle Hecker on Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 12:07am

 

it's been sixty-three days... and each and every one has been a dream come true. more and more I realize how sI'mply amazing it is to be here, to be living my dream. the tremendous work load to get here was... well, damn worth it. I'm so very fortunate. Mexico continues to teach me life lessons each and every day. however, these lessons seems to be appearing in dramatic fashions. needless to say, they are making an extreme I'mpact on my outlook of life. life is one big book, and thus far, Mexico has been the best chapter.

where no one notices the contrast of white on white... - Adam Duritz

Beauty:: I have come to realize that beauty, most definitely, is in the eye of the beholder. it's cliche, but absolutely true. any foreign exchange student can tell you that the stares and second glances you receive in a foreign country are frequent and uncountable. it's become quite apparent that we ((we, as in every different society)) value "differences." in my opinion, we have become desensitized to our own unique features. this is to say that, someone with blue eyes in the United States isn't given a second glance.. it's normal. on the other hand, here in Mexico, blue eyes are a rarity and considered awe-worthy. it's the same with every feature that we have taken for granted within our normal, day-to day lives... blonde hair for example? be prepared to get many stares, second glances, whistles even. compared to the Mexican norm, I stand out quite a bit. in contrast to black hair, dark eyes, and dark skin-- I have lighter hair, blue eyes, and let's face it.. here, I'm pale;; this alone is grounds for me to stand out. in the united states, it's regular. here, it's irregular. irregularities are eye-catching. all of this being said, I find it a little sad that we have become so desensitized to our own society's beauty and unique characteristics. in America, it's a place "where no one notices the contrast of white on white." I'll say it again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. but if the beholder has to pick between the day-to-day norm and an interesting oddity.. which does he choose? 

Family:: family has always been a huge aspect within my life. I would like to say that I have always tried to put my family first, although we all know there are tI'mes when it didn't happen according to plan. nonetheless, family has always ((I repeat)) ALWAYS been I'mportant to me. it goes without saying that my family here has exponentially increased my felicity during my exchange. and, already... they've aided me in understanding my ((sometI'mes)) turbulent relationships with family in the united states. I have learned even more so the I'mportance of family.. the I'mportance of a mom.. the I'mportance of a dad.. the I'mportance of someone to make you smile and to feel unconditionally loved. that's what family is all about...

it's crucial to emphasize--it's not I'mportant who begets us, but where life puts us, that really matters. 

I have already been in the situation where my family grew to double the size, quickly and drastically. it's hard to believe that now, it's even bigger and better.

A wonderful, intelligent dude has always told me "distance makes the heart grow fonder"--- and it definitely has. even though I can't admit to ever being homesick, my appreciation for my family in the United States has flourished. and my family here, Los Lince... well, they're amazing. 

School:: Thank you Athens High School for giving me the education that many wish they had. more than ever, I realize the I'mpact of my fortunate opportunity to attend such a great school. those still within the walls of AHS, you really don't know what you've got. live it up.

Health:: dear United States of America, we need to take a hint from other countries;; our food, our diet, our vision of health.. need to be changed. without trying, I have lost eighteen pounds here. needless to say, I really want to buy new jeans and a new belt. let's change, America. guess which preventable causes of death outnumber smoking in the United States? that's right-- ((obesity and high blood pressure)). we can fix it, but you've got to want it. determination can prevail.

Friends:: I've been blessed with some friends that it's going to be so soooo extremely hard to say goodbye too. I continue to make friends and hopefully, lasting bonds. I have come to terms with my need for certain qualities in friends. these qualities are really what makes a friendship ((for me)) such a tremendous gift;; when they find humor in life, when they can talk openly, and when they can listen with not only their eyes, but their heart.

Saying "Hi" and "Bye":: when I get back to the states I'm going to want to kiss every person I see on the cheek and give them a big hug. it's more personal.. there is a certain warmth to a salutation here in Mexico. 

Attitude:: almost every day here I have found myself with an irresistible feeling of happiness. maybe it's because I'm living my dream.. or maybe because this is where I really belong.. however, ((with the exception of breaking my camera, being sick, and losing my debit card yesterday)) each and every day has been a good one. even more so now this quote rings true in my mind:: "the longer I live, the more I realize the I'mpact of attitude on life. attitude, to me, is more I'mportant than facts. it is more I'mportant than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do... I am convinced that life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it. and so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes." I'm happy here because I choose to be happy. life is all about your attitude, and yeah, WE are in charge of our attitudes. I think that's why I'm choosing to surround myself with good people and good tI'mes. the main reason;; I love their contentment towards life.

---all in all, the sixty three days I've been in Mexico have been wonderful.. and have continued to change my life. here's to day sixty-four, sixty-five, sixty-six, and every day that follows...

 

September 5, 2010 at 6:35pm

 

Nora Tien Spain

  Rotary Report Month #2

So far, things have started to establish themselves into a routine. School, a few extracurricular activities (theatre outside of school, the school musical, volunteering with the Red Cross and soon rugby, or whatever form of exercise I can manage), family, and friends. 

I´ve been doing pretty decently in school too, if I average things out. I aced the first few tests I took, but I failed the most recent one. It´s a question of keeping my poor work ethic alive, and remembering that I still have to work harder than others to understand the material (which, weirdly, I sometI'mes forget. And then the teacher starts talking, or we read a piece of text, and I´m like, oh… this again.).  My study habits are going to have to get better too, because my Spanish retention rate is a bit of a handicap. But sometI'mes I´m also surprised at how much I do manage to learn. Which includes Valencian! Once I get over the fact that I need to learn another language (and I´m taking French in school. Curse you whI'ms. But I´m also really enjoying myself).  It is probably the coolest thing ever. When I take a minute´s breath from trying to understand it, and I just look at it or listen, it´s a bit mind turning. Here´s a bit to show you what I mean; I can´t promise you that it´s grammatically correct, but it´s a very nifty thing to look at;  

Jo soc Nora/Em dic Nora. Soc nord-americà I tinc setze anys. Soc estudiant d´intercanvi, ara mateix estic a Espanya, I m´agrada molt. 

I am / my name is Nora, I´m North American and I´m 16 years old. I´m an exchange student, right now I´m in Spain, and I love it.

(And I could put a few more things here, but they all have to do with what I like to eat and my favorite colors and other square one language learning topics).

I also went to apply for my student visa, and success! Everything´s going along as it should (and that´s it for business news…).

I´m reading The Catcher in the Rye in Spanish!!! At first, I was like hmmm… El Guardian Entre el Centeno? By J.D. Salinger? What the heck does centeno mean (rye. It was actually pretty useful, because I understand my host mother perfectly afterwards when we went to buy bread)? But now, I´ve started it, and it´s enjoyable, if slow-going. We´ll see about the exam in December ….

Thursday, the 25^th there will be a Rotary Thanksgiving dinner with all of the Rotarians, exchange students and their families (even though they don´t celebrate Thanksgiving here, obviously, it´s something that a previous exchange student to the U.S. has installed as a yearly event). I´m looking forward to it! Even though it will be a definite oddity when I avoid the Turkey completely and go for the mashed potatoes like a crazy person (still sticking it out as a vegetarian). They all know about my feelings towards meat, and they are doing a stellar job of putting up with me. Although I have been told on a few occasions that I haven´t been in Spain if I haven´t tried the ham… and the fresh fish….and, basically, everything else. Ahhh!..

And the weather´s changing a little. It´s getting chilly at night and in the morning, but throughout the day it remains warm. And so I am clI'mactically confused at tI'mes, but it´s nice to not have any really cold weather (I hear it does get colder later on, but if it means what I think it means…).

And the other day I went to a musical performed in the town´s center for arts. I went with my host mother, dressed up relatively nicely but arrived somewhat late, was lucky enough to grab a seat despite the almost-full house,  remembered to bring my glasses and everything….had settled into my seat to await the night´s show, when the announcer came on. He opened his mouth, and out came…. A flow of German! And there was probably not a Spaniard to be seen in the entire theatre (and my host mother doesn´t count, as she´s Ecuadorian, but technicalities, technicalities). However, I think I caught the drift of the play, and there were definitely enough musical numbers (some even in English!) to keep me entertained. It was put on by what I came to understand is the German adult theatre group in Denia. It involved quite a bit of lip-syncing, but I guess the audience should be grateful for that fact.

And at the Red Cross we´re working with kids (whose parents are busy, who need somewhere to be, and to have that somewhere be an educative/nurturing environment), and I´m definitely learning right there along with them (the six to nine year-olds). The last tI'me, they drove us out to a site a ways up the mountain in a forest clearing, and we did various experI'ments with water, candles, food die, baking soda (volcano!), and lots and lots of eggs. It was fun, even though I wasn´t very good at following directions (be it the language barrier or my lack of dexterity with science experI'ments…). 

I´m also extremely excited for Christmas. Because my host dad is German, I received an Advent Calendar! Hopefully I have enough self discipline to leave all the chocolates to their assigned days… I must also start thinking about gift shopping, and figuring out my (actual) mom´s egg nog recipe. And of course, I have to keep up with the Spanish traditions. Here´s a hint; it´s not Santa Claus that does the gift giving, though he does exist in the form of Papa Noel. But more on that when the holiday season actually gets here.

This weekend, I´m attending a Quinceañera -the celebration for a girl´s fifteenth birthday, as a transition from a girl into a woman, and not normally celebrated in Spain. However, the birthday girl, a classmate of mine, is from Ecuador and happens to be a year younger than most in my class, so I guess I got pretty (really) lucky. Very excited to see this, something I remember learning about in middle school Spanish classes, and not something I anticipated being able to experience here.

And last but not least, today, there were two hedgehogs roaming around the yard! Apparently they´re common here, and there´s usually one or two garden hopping the neighborhood. My host dad tried to feed them, but alas they didn´t go for it. We did get within pretty close range though. A nice Thursday night surprise.

And I know they´re late in coming, but here are some pictures from Halloween.

W

While visiting a street market in a nearby city to Denia, we were accosted (or maybe we ambushed her?) by a witch, and also a gravedigger (with his shovel and cart too, but he was camera shy/we couldn´t catch hI'm).

 Me with a friend, mildly dressed up for Halloween later the same day.

 The street view outside my house. And from a different angle. And yes, it says ´Stop´. But it´s something my P.E. teacher says too, when he wants us to, well, stop. So it´s not just this particular sign, but the word that´s been adopted into the language (at least here).

Month # 1- Denia, Alicante, España 

As I sit here, in the midst of everything, a month and three days into my exchange, I take a step back to think about where it started, and it´s already going by so fast. I arrived in mid September, flying straight to the orientation meeting in Madrid to become acquainted with all of the other exchange students and meet the Rotarians in charge of Youth Exchange in Spain. On the plane, I was half a nervous wreck, and well, I spent the tI'me trying to memorize my Spanish dictionary (just one last attempt…). From Chicago to Philadelphia, and Philadelphia to Madrid I flew, and I definitely had a ´it´s a small world´ moment. Bearing the Rotary crest, I ran into a member of the Columbus Rotary Club (coincidental considering it was on the plane that left from Chicago)! After the six hour connecting flight from Philadelphia, I arrived in Madrid along with one other exchange student (from Illinois!), and we were met in the airport by three Spanish Rotarians who spoke English! I was momentarily bewildered because I ´d also spent much of the flight trying to forget English. However, I recovered, but there ensued quite a bit of Spanglish (on everyone´s part). 

            Of course, then Lauren (the Illinois native) and I went to the orientation meeting (after staying with Rotarians for a day due to arriving early). To sum things up, there were about 100 students, 96 of which were from North America. A very English speaking weekend (except for the two girls from Germany, one boy from Austria, if I´m not mistaken, and the girl from Taiwan). Rules were reviewed, questions asked, the regular drill. The best part was meeting the rebounds, Spanish students that had just spent a year abroad (mostly in the U.S. and Canada, to be exact) and that live throughout Spain. On Sunday, goodbyes were said, bags were packed, and everyone returned to his or her home for the next year (and for me and a few others, this was the beginning of our exchange, the first tI'me to see our cities and meet our host families).

            I arrived at the airport in Valencia with an hour delay and then came that last moment of… well, like the calm before the storm: but the calm is you trying to locate your baggage,  eavesdropping on Spanish conversations, and searching every face for someone (well, two someones) you would recognize from a photograph sent in an email, and the storm is your life for the next 10 or so months. By then I was too dehydrated to be horribly nervous, and it was great to finally meet my host parents, to start something I had been anticipating for almost a year. After the hour drive to Denia (where I am presently!) from Valencia (the capital of the autonomous Comunidad Valenciana –one of the 17 autonomous regions and two cities that make up Spain), we were there, I was there. En España.

After a few days spent running around with my host mother, Mónica, getting papers in order for enrollment, seeing  a bit of Denia, randomly running into people Mónica knew (a definite perk of living in a small town –population, 44 thousand or so), I finally got to start school!!!! What has ensued since is mostly Spanish homework, step by step making Spanish friends, becoming familiar with Denia and the surrounding cities, and, of course, learning the language. That… and everything in between. I´ve gotten lost on the way to school (I knew my lack of navigational skills would catch up to me one day). I´ve met people who look at me and say ´California´!!! As a Columbus native… well, I still don´t mind. New York is pretty popular too, but I´ll see if I can´t spread Ohio around a little. And… I´ve taken, to date, three tests. The grading scale is different here, with 10 points as the maxI'mum. The tests are short, but not a whole lot of room for error. And fortunately, I’ve been allowed to keep my always faithful Spanish Dictionary at my side during said examinations, just in case. Definitely necessary when tackling word problems. 

The first weekend was spent in a city one hour away, called Alicante. Like Denia, it has a castle, or as some might say, fort- like-structure. It´s one of those things you don´t find a lot of in America. Overlooking the beach, well-preserved, with fruit trees, tourist attractions and well-informed guards (one of which explained the strategic history of the fort), it was a great way to spend a Saturday. There were five of us in total; myself, my host mother, her two sisters (aunts!!), and a close family friend. There´s nothing like a group of women that know each other very well for language enrichment, although I definitely did not catch every detail of their conversations.  

To debrief a little, my host mother is from Ecuador, has three other sisters and one brother, and two of those sisters  were in Spain, one living and the other visiting, and the close friend grew up with them in Ecuador but had been living in Switzerland. All confusing points, but it was just something that I took notice of; how diverse the experiences of everyone here are and how widely spread apart many of them live. You could say, that´s Europe, but they´re all from Ecuador!! Except for my host father, of course.  He´s actually German, believe it or not. So basically I´ve managed to end up in the most culturally eclectic household possible.  A little German TV (and, goodness, the best part, German chocolate) a bit of South American vocabulary… it makes for an interesting mix.

The next weekend we, my aunts here and I (as my host mother had gone to visit her father in Ecuador), drove to the nearby city of Gandía for a local festival they were having in honor of the Saint Francisco de Borja, born in Gandía, son of the duke and royal family of Gandía and grandnephew to the Pope. The festival consisted of several exhibits of restored art (within which pictures were not allowed! But here are pictures of the program), an open, spacious courtyard within with the classic faceless cardboard cutouts stood, interactive displays of how the castle and grounds of the Borja family once were, miscellaneous vocations of the era, and! A brief display of tumbling in the town square, a group of people, all dressed in red, said to be from Basque Country or something of the sort, stacked themselves on each other´s shoulders, in three layers, with a (well helmeted!) small child on top. A band paraded through the street, food vendors lined both sides, and later in the day, in the town square, a demonstration of pretty I'mpressive synchronized flag juggling (I´m sure there exists a more succinct term, but at the moment it escapes me) took place, to the sound of drums. Afterwards, had a an omelet-pancake from one of the street vendors and, to top it off, a coca cola (a bit American, you might say, but it was the only other chilled option besides cerveza).

That week in school, between the classes and the tests (three!!) taken, was a field trip in Valencia to see how the produce raisins here, a local staple of exportation. One thing about the grapes in España; they have seeds, all of them. Why? Because they´re not genetically modified. Something I didn´t know about the grapes back home. Anyway, after taking the train a little ways up the mountain, where the grapes are harvested and prepared to become raisins, the traditional methods were explained (all in Valencian! The regional language that is a dialect of Catalan, which is sI'milar to Spanish and French but still with all of its own flavor. Luckily, the accompanying teacher translated for me), we were able to see the equipment they used way back in the day, and some of which they still use. The process itself is somewhat complicated, but we witnessed a small part of it that involved smoking the raisins! And lastly, we got to try the grapes fresh (amazing) and the raisins (good, but with an interesting edge that makes it an acquired taste).

Lastly, in this first month, I visited an fantastic cave site called La Cova del Rull in the city La Vall D´Ebo, also accompanied by the aunts. Unfortnately, pictures were not allowed inside, due to the need to preserve the temperature within (no flashes!). It stays constant no matter the season and is one of the factors in the enormous and extraordinary stalactites and stalagmites within the cave. To put it sI'mply, it was the stuff of fairy tales, or of the outer abstractions of one´s I'magination. Eerily atmospheric with that pleasant wet earth smell, perfectly preserved and, basically, beautiful. One of the best things I´ve ever spent a euro on.

School goes well, particularly Geography and History, Castellano (Spanish); language and literature. The most interesting part is learning, historically, from a different angle. And in Castellano, I now know more literary terms than in English. Also, in that class, we were given two poems to choose from and memorize. The recitation went well enough, and here it is, my first and my favorite, by Gustavo Adolfo Becquer:

Volverán las oscuras golondrinas

en tu balcón sus nidos a colgar,

y, otra vez, con el ala a sus cristales

      jugando llamarán;

pero aquéllas que el vuelo refrenaban           

tu hermosura y mi dicha al contemplar,

aquéllas que aprendieron nuestros nombres...

      ésas... ¡no volverán!

  Volverán las tupidas madreselvas

de tu jardín las tapias a escalar,              

y otra vez a la tarde, aun más hermosas,

      sus flores se abrirán;

pero aquéllas, cuajadas de rocío,

cuyas gotas mirábamos temblar

y caer, como lágrI'mas del día…

      ésas... ¡no volverán!

  Volverán del amor en tus oídos

las palabras ardientes a sonar;

tu corazón, de su profundo sueño

      tal vez despertará;                       

pero mudo y absorto y de rodillas,

como se adora a Dios ante su altar,

como yo te he querido..., desengáñate:

      ¡así no te querrán!

 Roughly translated, and without Google´s input whatsoever thank you very much, it is:

The dark swallows will return to your balcony

To hang their nests

And again with their wings at your window pane

Playing, they will call

But those whose flight denies

The contemplation of your beauty or mine

Those who have learned our names

Those, will not return

The thickly grown honeysuckle

Will again clI'mb your garden walls

And again in the evening with even more splendor

Will open its flowers

But those dewdrops

That we watched tremble

And fall like teardrops at daybreak

Those, will not return

Love will again seem sweet to your ears

Ardent words will once more sound

Your heart from its deep slumber

May one day stir

But mute surrender on bended knee

Like worship before the altar

As I have loved you,

Disillusion yourself,

As I have loved you, they will not love you

Now, I may have taken a few liberties with the translation, but they are all in the name of a better adjusted poem. That´s all for now, though there is definitely more. Until next tI'me (which I promise will be more punctual than this!).  

-Nora

P.S. Wish me luck! I´m applying to the Red Cross here (La Cruz Roja) to see if I´m eligible to volunteer, and I have a casting audition for a musical they´re having in my school! That, and my upcoming Biology test…I´m also leaving a few pictures in my wake…

Program of one of the exhibits from the Festival in honor of Santo Francisco de Borja en Gandía, Alicante, España.

By the BeachOn an outlook, called ¨the balcony of the Mediterranean¨ in the city of Benidorm, Alicante, España.

La bandera!! 

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

Short Term

Alanna Paynter, Summer 2010, Ecuador

 

 

            My trip to Ecuador this summer was one of the most eye-opening and spectacular experiences I've ever had.  There are so many differences between our cultures, but that was part of what made my exchange so incredible.  This trip presented me with so many opportunities and so much independence that I've never had before, and the memories I now have will stay with me forever; some of the least significant of these are my fondest recollections.

            Even though it is true that no matter where you go, you will have an amazing exchange, I can't I'magine any other city being as beautiful as Cuenca.  Nestled between mountain peaks, Cuenca is a small historical city overflowing with red tile roofs and cobbled streets.  Architecture has always struck a chord with me, and Cuenca has some of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen.  Although I traveled to other fantastic locations in Ecuador, I still can't help but think how lucky I was to be able spend a month in Cuenca.

            My host family was another lucky break :) My host sister Maria Jose is hilarious and incredibly nice and easy-going.  She and my host father both spoke very good English.  My host mom didn't speak any English, but we loved to try to communicate in my halting Spanish.  Maria Jose's brother returned home from a long-term rotary exchange in Canada two weeks after I arrived in Ecuador, and he was very nice and always willing to explain something to me. My host family was very kind and gracious.  They helped me feel at home and went out of their way to help me experience all the things that were new to me.  I owe a lot of my awesome tI'me in Ecuador to them.

            Some of the highlights of my trip were spending a few days at my host family's cute summer house with an amazing view of the mountains, relaxing on the hot sand and eating lunch with an ocean-front view at the beach in Salinas, exploring Montanita (a small bohemian-looking town on the beach with tons of great food, great shopping, and hospitable laid-back locals), going whale watching and seeing humpbacks breach many tI'mes, and walking around downtown Cuenca with my family.  These are the standout moments, but I think the small things are just as I'mportant to having a great exchange.  When I look back at my trip, I think about these amazing experiences, but also about the small pleasures of eating yogurt in the sun with my sister and mom, laughing at jokes in movie theathers, and gossiping in a friend's bedroom the same way I would in Ohio.

            There are a lot of differences between living in Ecuador and living in Ohio.  Some are small and easy to get used to, and others, not so much.  A small but I'mportant difference is that in Ecuador, the prI'mary meal of the day is lunch, whereas for us, it's dinner.  That wasn't too hard to adjust.  Another small difference is that after meals, you have a lot of downtI'me to relax, rest, or even take a nap.  Even though Ecuador is on the American dollar, everything there is much less expensive (probably because they actually charge what the product is worth, instead of extorting money from the costumer!).  In fact, the only things that are cheaper in America are I'mported American products.  The biggest cultural difference (and the most difficult to get used to!) is that everyone is much friendlier and more affectionate.  This is especially apparent in greetings.  Every tI'me you greet someone, you hug them and give them a peck on the cheek.  SometI'mes you have to walk in a round to make sure you kiss everyone hello before you start mingling.  Even if you don't know anyone at a party (like me!), if you're with people who know them, you still greet the strangers as affectionately as you would your own friends and family.  This was so difficult to get used to, and at first I felt extremely awkward, but now that I'm home I find that I'm restraining myself from doing it!  I also noticed a huge difference in the Rotary clubs.  I can really appreciate Westerville Sunrise after experiencing a club that was, quite frankly, not as fun :)  The exchange students don't get together for monthly meetings or training or write essays or participate in community activities.  I was actually the first short term exchange student in Cuenca to attend a Rotary meeting; usually only the long-term students come to introduce themselves.  I am so glad to have a Rotary club that participates in community fundraisers, enabled me to make friends with other awesome exchange students whom I care for deeply, and prepared me for my exchange, and I mean that sincerely :)  Another big difference was the driving.  Ecuadorians drive like crazy people!  There are very few people using turn signals, stopping at stop signs, staying within the lines on the road, or wearing seatbelts.  There is more honking than there is during rush hour in New York City, and on the highway, people drive as fast as 120 miles per hour!  That was pretty scary the first tI'me it happened to me. . . and the second tI'me. . . and the third. . .

Another difference I noticed was that everything is much more laid-back in Ecuador.  There is not always a plan, not everything is organized, and there is almost never a rush.  If something is going to happen, it'll happen eventually.  No need to stress out about it.  If it doesn't happen, that's okay; there's nothing to worry about.  I feel like that attitude changed my perspective on a lot of things, and made me less prone to go berserk over the little stuff.  Strangely, I also feel more resourceful and organized,  but that can be attributed to the month abroad of growing and learning.

            One piece of advice I would share with anyone going on a student exchange is to be open to anything!  Even if you think it's something you don't want to do, you'll probably regret not trying it later.  In my case, I regret never trying the Ecuadorian delicacy of guinea pig! :D  Also, if you're a shutterbug like me, take your camera EVERYWHERE you go, or you will kick yourself repeatedly when you see something amazing you want to photograph and you left your camera at home.

            At the end of my trip, I couldn't believe how quickly tI'me went.  I could've sworn a month lasted so much longer!  My tI'me in Ecuador was splendid and surreal.  It was the best experience of my life, and I am so happy that I was able to take part in such a marvelous event.  I would do it all, again and again and again.

 

 

Christopher Mingli Jones, A Short Term, Summer 2010  Taiwan

 

 

Going to a different country to live with a family you never met, speaking a language you don’t know, and in a big city is pretty ominous sounding. Before my exchange I was the last person to know exactly where I was going, yet I was the first person to leave. I didn’t have much tI'me to study my language, so I was really nervous as to what would happen. Of course I had an idea of what would happen from speaking to rebounds about their experiences, but everyone has a different experience.

 

Of course, my fears were unfounded, and I was met at the airport by Patrick’s Dad, Mom, younger sister Rita, older sister (actually his cousin, but they are all referred to as brother and sister), Junny, who was Patrick’s aunt and my councilor, and Kitty, a soon to be inbound to Cleveland, Ohio. I was pretty tired from the 15 hour flight and the jet lag.

 

My first I'mpression stepping outside the airport was, “Whoa! It’s hot!” It was only about 6:30 a.m., and it was already making me sweat! Patrick still had school to go to, so we parted ways, and I went with Patrick’s mom, Rita, his older cousin, and Kitty to Taipei. We visited an underground mall, Chang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, and a park, where I first caught a glI'mpse of Chinese chess. I was so tired I fell asleep in the car twice. We went to Linkou, which is a suburb about an hour’s drive away from Taipei City, and where Patrick lives.

 

For me to sum up all of my memorable moments into a few sentences would be I'mpossible. I have so many good memories of Taiwan. One of my favorites though was riding the MRT metro in Taipei. I hadn’t ridden a subway train before so I was really excited. Riding public buses was also a novelty for me too, because I’d only ridden school buses before. I also went to Patrick’s graduation at his school (those Taiwanese people sure know how to send off their students!). Apparently people had made movies throughout the year and they were played during the ceremony. It was great; the movies were so funny! Afterwards I met all of Patrick’s friends when we went to a lunch farewell party to their English teacher at a nearby restaurant. They all had nicknames, and they were really funny guys. There was Dog, Ticky, Yeah, AV King, President, and Sour. All of them love basketball. I played basketball a lot in Taiwan.

 

I met a lot of Patrick’s family during my stay; most of them live nearby. In fact, his aunt lives in the same building complex as he does! We went over to her house a couple tI'mes for dinner, and I spoke a lot with her husband. He was a really cool guy and it was nice to meet hI'm. He had some interesting views and good advice. I also met his grandparents, who didn’t speak any English at all, but they were so eager to meet me! They were so nice, they gave us a lot of food to eat and we got fruit after the meal. I met his brother (cousin brother) Jason and his family. They lived in Linkou too, and we visited there a lot. Patrick and I went with Jason down to the Taipei area a lot.

 

In the Taipei area we mostly went to a few places, XI'men, Jiangcuizi, and Banciao. XI'men had a lot of movie theatres and stores, while Banciao was big on internet Cafés. Patrick and I spent an ample amount of tI'me at internet cafés. Internet café’s are places with many computers and pretty much every single game installed on them, and you can play for a certain amount of tI'me depending on how much you pay. One day we went there with all of Patrick’s friends and we had a huge battle online.

 

With Patrick’s I'mmediate family, we went to a beautiful place called Sun Moon Lake. It is in the middle of Taiwan in the mountains. The water is a clear blue color, and it is unpolluted. There are trees on all sides. It was gorgeous!  It’s in a valley in the mountains, so we had to take gondolas to get there, and we got a breathtaking view of the lake as we came towards it. We went on a boat ride on top of it, and the captain of the boat told us about the history of the aboriginal tribes that had lived there. Of course, I couldn’t catch much because it was all in Chinese, but I liked the boat ride anyways.

 

 The things I liked about Taiwan the most are how everything seems so much more relaxed then here in America. Here there are social constraints of how people don’t want to study because they have a social life, but in Taiwan, school IS their social life. Also, the use of public transportation is used so much, and even though there are so many people on the MRT, you don’t feel crowded. Quoting from Lonely Planet’s book on Taiwan, “If Taiwan was a person, they would say, ‘He’s fat, but he carries his weight gracefully.’” I really loved Taiwan, and I’m definitely going back someday.

 

 

Dustin Chan, Finland Summer 2010

 

So it’s halfway through my exchange, and so far everything’s going really well.  I don’t really know what to say, I wrote an outline and I’ll put all of that stuff down but it’s really hard to give my I'mpressions of Finland.  It’s a country that is pretty much I'mpossible to sum up in a few pages of writing, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try.

When I first landed in Finland I didn’t really know what to expect.  Everything was different.  But it wasn’t shockingly different.  Thinking about it now, everything is exactly what you would expect it to be had you known to expect it.  I just think I didn’t think too incredibly hard about what it would really be like to be in a different country.  Of course they’re not going to have the same street signs or the same type of houses or the same highways.  Yet that’s kind of what surprises you when you first arrive because you were never told to expect everything to be different.  It’s really cool though, like how all the trees are just tall, skinny and straight.  Or how mostly everyone has summer cottages.  I only know one person here who doesn’t.  Everything being different isn’t really distracting, it’s really interesting and it really makes you wonder. 

One thing that’s extremely different is security and customs.  There basically is none.  My family took me to Sweden for a day and we went and came back on a cruise ship.  There was no security whatsoever.  We didn’t need any form of ID or our passports.  No one checked our bags and we never went through any metal detectors.  Then, when we got there, there was basically no customs.  There was a line for people who had goods to declare and there was the exit.  Everyone went straight to the exit, even if they obviously had cases of alcohol on them.  There actually wasn’t even that kind of customs when we returned to Finland.  I wasn’t afraid that someone would bomb the ship though, probably because Europeans aren’t quite as crazy as Americans.  And I think I know why, but I have to explain the cruise and the Stockholm visit first.

The cruise was a lot different than American cruises.  None of it was for your entertainment, it was all based around getting the cruise line more money.  On the cruise was a bar, one floor of gambling machines, a roulette table, a blackjack table, another half a floor of gambling machines, a section for games (which you had to pay for), and a tax free shop.  The legal age for gambling in Finland is 18, but no one was enforcing that rule because it got them more money.  The tax free shop was really funny.  It was always packed with people because the taxes are so high in Europe.  There were probably over 5,000 litres (the computer made me spell it the British way ) of alcohol in the shop, 1000 lbs of chocolate, 2,000 perfume and cologne bottles, and then there was a small section for shoes and clothes.  It was funny to watch everyone rush to buy whatever they could get your hands on, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.  My host brother’s brother bought 4x24 packs of strong beer that was discounted by 66%.  The price was reduced by over 100 euros to 54 euros.  Another thing I found funny on the cruise was that they really didn’t care about your comfort.  My host mom bought tickets on the 7^th floor for our trip back because she wanted to get a room with a window since it was the night cruise and she didn’t like sleeping without a window.  Fair enough.  So we got to our room and when we looked at the wall, there was a painting.  My host brothers and me found that really funny but my host mom did not.

Our Stockholm visit was interesting but I’m sure we got the tourist view of everything.  That’s all you can really do if you stay somewhere for a day.  We saw the changing of the guard, walked around some tourist-filled alleys and went to a mall.  I really wish we had gotten to stay there longer so I would have gotten a better picture of what it’s like in Sweden, but I guess I’ll just have to put Sweden on my long-term list.  

Something that I realized while I was in Sweden is that European people are amazing.  They’re incredibly intelligent and mostly all bilingual.  I realized this when we were checking into our hotel in Sweden and my host mom and the hotel employee had a full conversation about the hotel rooms in English.  I listened to try and detect any I'mperfection in their grammar but there was none.  It was incredible, English wasn’t either of their first language yet they spoke fluently.  Almost everyone in Europe speaks English.  A random guy came up to me when I was at a rock festival and he said something to me in Finnish and I didn’t understand hI'm so I told hI'm I speak English (Minä puhun englantia) and he repeated what he had said, but this tI'me in English! That was my first encounter with someone bilingual in Europe and I’ve come to realize that it’s just a given that people in Europe speak their native language and English.  My host mom speaks Swedish too.  

Finland and Sweden also both have incredible histories that Americans can only dream of.  Stockholm was established in 1252 and Naantali (my host city) was established around the same tI'me.  That’s three tI'mes as long as America has been a country, and there are still traditions here that hold true.  There’s a church near me, and every night a trumpet player goes up into the clock tower and plays a song.  That kind of incredible tradition that bridges the old and the new is something that I couldn’t even I'magine before, and now it’s right next to my host family’s house.  

Another Finnish tradition is the sauna.  It’s actually really fun, even though I don’t quite understand why.  If you think about it, it’s really kind of a dumb concept.  You sit in a room that gets incredibly hot (sometI'mes reaching 100C or over, 212F for you Americans) and sweat a lot.  Then, if you’re at a summer cottage, you run outside and jump in the water that’s probably around 20C or 60F, and you do it all again.  It’s not that smart, but it’s really fun.  The first tI'me I got a little woozy from dehydration, but it was still fun.  Wood saunas are the best because they’re more humid so your skin doesn’t feel like it’s burning off and you get the fresh smell of wood burning in the air.  My host brother thinks I’m crazy for this, and I may be, but I think that wood sauna air is the sweetest most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted.  Yes, tasted.  Not smelled, tasted.  Maybe the sauna heat causes me to hallucinate, but every tI'me I’m in a wood sauna I can taste the air.  I probably am crazy though.

I have to talk about Finnish water because it was the whole reason I put Finland down as my 4^th country.  I heard a very long tI'me ago about a study that showed that Finnish tapwater is literally the cleanest, most pure water in the world.  Something like 99.9% pure.  Eventually I ended up putting “taste finnish tapwater” down on a list of things I want to do before 30.  So when I got the rotary application and I saw that Finland was an option, I put it down as my 4^th country knowing full well that I was going to get a country in my top 3 choices, but thinking that if I didn’t at least I’d get to taste Finnish tapwater.  So now I’m here, in Finland, having tasted Finnish tapwater.  It tastes like water.  Pure water, and that’s the only way I can describe it.  If you encapsulated purity and ran it from a tap in the form of water, it would be Finnish water.  It also feels different, heavier almost.

Driving in Finland is a lot different.  I don’t mean me driving of course, I mean other people.  Drivers seem on average a lot worse than American drivers.  They’re always on the far far far far faaaaaar right side of the lane and they seem to have tunnel vision.  Whenever something that could potentially be hazardous is going to happen, the driver doesn’t see it at first but when they do, they slam on the breaks and freak out.  I really don’t know how the drivers in Finland got to be so bad, but miraculously I haven’t seen any accidents.  I think that’s because the punishments for bad driving are so severe though.  It’s a lot easier to lose your license in Europe and the driving ban tI'mes are a lot longer.  Something that also freaks me out are the traffic lights.  The traffic lights aren’t suspended and hanging on wires but they’re on poles on the side of the street.  Honestly, they’re really easy to miss. In America you can’t really miss them because they’re right in front of you, but here the lights are on the side, so if you’re purely looking at the road you could drive right into the intersection and not know it.  That doesn’t really concern me so much, seeing as my town doesn’t have any stop lights or stop signs whatsoever.  There are just tons of roundabouts, yield signs, and intersections where stopping is assumed.  Something that I’ve also noticed is that cars are really square here.  They look like someone stretched them vertically in photoshop and decided it was a good look.  I kind of like them, but it doesn’t really matter that much, it’s just something I took note of when I arrived.  

The Finnish language is really interesting.  It’s complex, but I don’t think it’s as crazy as English, but I only have a really narrow knowledge of the language at this point.  I only say that it’s not that complex because they generally only have one word for everything.  I know this because Finnish TV has American movies (really good ones that I would have never seen otherwise) with Finnish subtitles.  I’ve noticed that a lot of different English words with generally the same meaning end up being subtitled as the same Finnish word.  For example, father when speaking to preists or parents, dad, paps, papi, and every other word for father seems to translate sI'mply to isä.  I’ve noticed this phenomenon with other words too but I can’t think of them off the top of my head.  Finnish is a really interesting language and it sounds beautiful, but it gets tiring listening to it for long periods of tI'me because it’s a monotone language.  That means that you don’t fluctuate the tone in your voice when speaking, so it constantly sounds like people are bored or just having polite small talk about the weather.  It still sounds beautiful though. 

I’ve mentioned summer cottages but I haven’t really talked about them.  Summer cottages are really awesome, and a lot different than summer houses in America.  I’ve been to 2 so far, my host family’s and my host mom’s parents’.  They’re a lot different than American summer house because they’re a lot more connected with nature.  There’s enough space between the cottages so that each cottage seems by itself, and they’re always surrounded by trees with the ocean or a big lake on one side.  They’re really peaceful, except for all the mosquitoes.  Summer cottages aren’t really any more peaceful than regular homes in Finland though.  Sure, normal houses have a few less trees around them and are closer together, but if you sit in the back of your house you can still be completely unaware of your neighbours and completely in tune with nature.  It’s amazing.  The Fins don’t seem to realize this either because I go into the woods behind my host family’s house all the tI'me and there’s never anyone there.  So anyway, back to summer cottages.  I’ve never been one to fish, I used to consider it boring but now I think it’s really fun.  I’ve caught 6 fish so far, 5 perch pike or something and 1 pike.  It’s relaxing to sit in the boat waiting for a bite.

The nature here is amazing.  Something I honestly didn’t expect was the amount of cliffs boulders.  They’re everywhere, there are what I consider 4 major cliffs within probably 4 kilometres of my host family’s house (2.5 miles).  A really funny thing that I’ve noticed is that everything’s quiet on the weekends at night.  On weekdays you can hear bugs, birds, cars, mopeds, motorcycles, and sometI'mes people outside.  However, on weekends everything goes to sleep and all you can hear is the wind.  I really want to sit on a cliff and watch the sun set but there are way too many mosquitoes, and it takes the sun like 3 hours to set because I’m so far north.  I could probably watch the sun set and rise if I stayed out from 12-2.  But as I said, there are way too many mosquitoes for me to be comfortable outside at that tI'me of night.  

I expected it to be cold in Finland.  Everyone told me it would be cold since I’m so far north, but actually it’s been the warmest summer since 1930.  That’s not much of a problem for me though since I’m used to warm weather, but it seems almost like the clI'mate came to Finland with me.  Eventually I really want to visit Lapland (the part of Finland in the arctic circle).  It’s been snowing there.  Snow in July, that’s my kind of place.  Also, the aurora borealis comes almost 20 tI'mes a year.  I’ll do that when I get older.

I still haven’t talked about the food yet.  The food is delicious.  Almost all of the meals are home-cooked, we’ve only been out to a restaurant once and it wasn’t as good.  It’s a lot like American food, there’s not really one staple dish, they just eat what they like and what’s available.  Most of the vegetables and berries are grown locally, all non-berry fruit has to be I'mported.  There’s a lot of fish and these weird seasoned raw-fish appetizer things that are incredibly inefficiently packaged.  We eat them at every meal yet they’re in these tiny little cans that last maybe one or two days.  That doesn’t seem to be a problem though seeing as my host mom goes out to buy new food every day.  Nothing’s bought in advance which is really unusual to me.  I’m used to buying food for at least a week in advance if not two or more.  The locally grown fruits and vegetables are succulent and juicy.  The fresh peas are delicious and I love popping the pod open and eating them one by one.  A couple weeks ago I had the best strawberries I’ve ever had and probably ever will have in my life.  They were the sweetest strawberries I’ve ever had, they were organic, and they just melted in your mouth.  I’m sad that they’re gone.  Something that I’ve also noticed is that when our family sits down for dinner, we almost always use two plates.  There’s an appetizer plate and a main course plate.  They freaked me out when they only put one plate down for dinner.

I haven’t talked about the people yet.  The people are amazing.  That’s good, because there’s really no diversity.  Everyone in the older generation is white, works hard, has a family and summer cottage and enjoys things like fishing, golf, and music.  Everyone younger than 18 has a moped, smokes, drinks, gambles, doesn’t really care about school, and enjoy things like fishing, golf, and music.  It’s weird to see a country with no diversity when I’m used to maxI'mum diversity in America.  I’ve seen maybe 2 mopeds in my life and all of a sudden everyone under 18 has a moped in Finland.  It’s also weird to see everyone smoking and drinking even though the legal age is 18 for both.  And it’s weird to see people not care about school.  The people that get good grades only do so because of their parents.  5 people I’ve met didn’t even qualify for high school.  Maybe that’s just my host brother’s friend group though.  

What I’ve come to realize from this exchange is how drastically different the tourist view of the culture of a country is from the actual culture of a country.  I’ve realized this mostly because of a Finnish culture book I brought along with me.  It’s completely and totally incorrect.  Everything single thing the writer says is false, and that’s because she’s just a tourist.  She’s never actually lived with a Finnish family so she has no idea what the culture is like no matter how many tI'mes she’s been to Finland.  For instance, she said that waiters don’t come over to your table because they don’t to bother you while you’re eating, that Finnish people always follow rules no matter what, even if they don’t agree with them, and that Finnish people are absolutely obsessed with their cell phones.  Actually, waiters in Finland are just bad because no one eats out.  Everyone who’s actually Finnish eats good, home-cooked Finnish meals.  The waiters don’t have to be good because they don’t get tipped and they know that everyone who’s eating at their restaurant must be a tourist meaning that they’ll probably only eat there once anyway.  That’s why most Finnish restaurants are open only in the summer, because that’s when all the tourists are in town.  On her second point, I really don’t know where she got that from.  Finnish people don’t care for following rules.  If they don’t agree with them they just won’t follow them.  My host brother drinks and his parents know and don’t care.  Everyone under 18 drinks and smokes and gambles and no one cares about that.  The police kind of care about the smoking but they don’t do anything about the drinking.  And on her idea about cell phones, there’s only one city in Finland where everyone’s obsessed with cell phones and that city’s way up north near Lapland.  Everyone in the southern part of Finland uses cell phones just like anyone else in the world.  It’s really good to be able to view a country from the inside and it’s interesting that I can see exactly how different it would have been if I had been a tourist.

20 days.  That’s how many days have passed since I arrived in Finland.  There are 19 more.  I’m exactly at the halfway point of my exchange.  The last half was a blast, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of my exchange will bring.

 

Final Report

There are a lot of things that I want to say about my student exchange as it comes to an end.  There are too many to organize, so I think it's best if I just write them in the order that I have them written down.  Before I get to my report, however, I have to say that I'm very frustrated with gmail for not letting me indent the first line of my paragraph.  I've been trying for about an hour to no avail.

 

Lactose:

A little over half way through my exchange, I started noticing that everything here is lactose free, or laktoositon.  Being an American, I'm only really used to seeing lactose free milk and occasionally lactose free ice cream, but in Finland you see the most random products with "laktoositon" written on their label.  I've even seen lactose free cheeseburgers and bread.  I guess they think that since everyone can tolerate lactose free products and only some people can tolerate products with lactose, the ratiocinative thing to do is to make all products lactose free so that everyone can tolerate them.  I don't know why, but for some reason I just find that weird.  It doesn't seem like a good business plan because removing the lactose from dairy products must cost something and surely the percentage of lactose intolerant people can't be that high.  Oh well, at least it's helpful to me since I recently found out that I'm lactose intolerant.

 

Safety:

The Finnish are way too cautious.  My host parents have a lot of crazy rules that I know are for safety, but after a certain point it's just too much.  For instance, they don't want anyone lighting candles unless they're an adult.  Really?  I'm not that irresponsible, and if I was my parents wouldn't have let me go on exchange.  They also don't like it when someone walks outside during a thunderstorm which doesn't really make sense since there are so many trees acting as lightningrods.  The probability of a tree falling on you here is much higher than the probability of being struck by lightning.  I think what they're really afraid of is the unknowing though, seeing as they don't care about my host brother modding his moped to go over the regulated moped speed lI'mit.  To me, that seems like the most dangerous thing of all.  Not only is it risking his life but he's risking being fined over 1000 euros if he gets caught.  And seeing as the maxI'mum speed lI'mit of mopeds is the maxI'mum speed lI'mit of every road in Naantali, he's probably going to be caught and fined for speeding and having an illegal moped.

 

Helsinki:

About two weeks ago my host mom and my host brother and me visited Helsinki.  It was interesting because it was just like any normal city in the US.  There were big buildings, not huge skyscrapers, but the buildings were pretty big.  We visited the biggest mall in Finland and it was probably one fourth the size of Polaris or Easton.  The two coolest places we went to in Helsinki were the Design and Science museums.  They're pretty small museums, but what they have to offer is interesting.  The Design Museum showcased some typical Finnish design pieces along with some abstract glasswork.  The Science Museum is a lot like COSi but smaller and geared towards an older population.

 

Finnish Mustard:

Finnish mustard's really awesome.  I think I'm going to buy 4 bottles to take back with me.

 

Hunikeko Day:

"Hunikeko" best translates to sleepyhead and is apparently used when referring to the person who sleeps the longest in a household.  There's a day in Finland dedicated to a hunikeko.  I don't really get how that works but apparently they choose someone who's done something for Finland and celebrate hI'm.  I think that doesn't make any sense at all since that person probably didn't accomplish things by being a hunikeko, but I guess that's just me. 

 

Name Days:

In Finland name days are like birthdays, except less I'mportant.  My host brother, Lauri, had his name day a week ago and he got money and cake for it.  We should definitely start celebrating name days in America.

 

Cursing:

Finnish youth curse like there's no tomorrow.  I have never heard anyone curse so much in my life.  SometI'mes literally every other word out of there mouths is a curse word and I can't believe my ears because what's the point in just cursing all day?  Their affinity for curse words is definitively rooted in the lack of censorship in radio and television.  Because they hear curse words every day in media, they don't seem as bad.  It makes me wonder why America is so concerned about protecting its population and shielding them from the truth.  Censoring curse words actually makes cursing more powerful because you're not used to hearing them.

 

World Politics:

After watching a lot of news articles and talking with people about politics, I've realized that the Finnish people really don't know anything about foreign politics, only tragedies that occur and who's president.  I feel like that needs to change.  Not just in Finland either, the whole world should be educated about world politics so they can speak their mind if people start going crazy in a certain faction of the world (Tea Party).  If the whole world actually knew how bigoted, narrow-minded and outrageous American conservative politics have become, I'm sure they would intervene and hings.  Of course, they'd all hate America once they realized that half of the population thinks that Obama's a MuslI'm terrorist who wasn't born in the US and is attempting to remove all white men from office, but that's the real America.  Sad, yes, but exactly how low American politicians have sunk has to be shown before any change can happen.  The American conservatives don't realize how low they've sunk because they're stuck in their own bubble of bigotry so the only way for them to actually face the fact that they're a disgrace to the entire human race would be for the whole world to speak up against them.  But that's probably never going to happen and when FOX news finally brainwashes the other half of America they'll start the fourth World War and try to take over the world.

 

.fi:

This is something that just kind of frustrates me.  When Finnish people say website URLs they always pronounce the "fi" at the end even though it should technically be pronounced F-I because fi stands for the country.  You don't pronounce .ca or .jp or .ch so .fi shouldn't be pronounced either.  .com is acceptable to pronounce because it is an abbreviation for commercial or something like that.

 

Finnish TV:

Finnish TV, or rather, American TV with Finnish subtitles, or suomennos, has some good movies like I stated before, but now I know why I haven't seen any of them before.  They don't end.  The plot's going strong, right about to reach the clI'max, and then the credits start rolling.  It's really unusual.  I've also had my first experience with Friends on Finnish TV, and I actually like it.  From all the hype, I thought Friends would just be another Brady Bunch or That 70's Show, but Friends is actually good.

 

Seasons:

The seasons are changing really fast, already it's noticable how much darker things get at night.  I don't really mind though.  I actually find it kind of fun walking around in the complete dark because you feel li.  Arms outstretched, walking very slowly and totally ready to take over the world.

 

Money:

I don't know where it all comes from.  My host family spends money like it's nothing and they just don't care.  I don't know how they aren't in serious debt.  My host brother in this past month has bought a golf club, two new pairs of shoes, 5 new pairs of jeans, new shorts, 7 new moped parts, random golf accessories, had his moped painted, and a lot more that I can't remember.  He's indubitably spent more than 1000 euros and this is just a normal month for hI'm.  I've only spent 500 max and I'm the tourist!  I have no idea how his parents are sustaining hI'm since they don't seem like they're making incredible amounts of money at their jobs.

 

Culture Screw-up:

I had my first big culture mess-up me to the swI'mming pool.  It's not something I could have prevented, but my host mom was really condescending about the whole matter and she acted like I intentionally messed up so as to insult her intelligence or something.  So she really didn't help much.  The night before we went to the swI'mming pool, my host mom made sure that I had swI'mming trunks, not shorts, swI'mming trunks.  I found it peculiar that she kept asking me since she knew I had swI'mming-short-trunks and normal shorts, so I thought she meant normal American swI'mming trunks which look very much like shorts.  I was wrong.  European swI'mming trunks are actually speedoes.  Not only is it unusual to go to the swI'mming pool with American swI'mming trunks, it's actually banned.  You're not allowed to swI'm in the swI'mming pool because it's "unhygenic" to be wearing anything but a speedo.  I find that completely ridiculous because speedoes can carry bacteria too.  Something that I also found supremely unusual at the swI'mming pool was the sauna.  A public sauna.  This isn't so scary at first until you realize that you're not allowed to go in unless you're naked.  I'm used to going into saunas naked, but this thing is public.  Being American, I've been trained by scare tactics to think that STDs are running rampant everywhere trying to infect your soul, but STDs are really only that pervasive in America.  In Europe STDs are pretty rare, so I went into the sauna anyway and hopefully I haven't contracted scabies, crabs, clamydia, syphilis, genital warts, genital herpes, HIV, gonorrhea, hepatitis, or anything else.

 

Walking:

People walk with ski poles.  That's just weird.

 

Turku Castle:

The Turku Castle is a castle that has been through a whole lot of history.  It's incredibly expansive and awe-inspiring to think about how much history the castle has been through.  One thing that I realized while looking at all the displays was kind of depressing though.  Male fashion hasn't changed.  In all of the 500-year-old paintings of prominent male figures, the outfit was exactly the same: a shirt, vest, poofy tie and suit coat.  While the poofy tie has been slI'mmed down over the generations, the basics are the same.  I really want to see what kind of revolutionary idea would change male fashion.  Female fashion, however, is diametrically different.  Instead of the huge, poofy dresses of the olden days, modern female fashion is based around a slI'm, condensed figure and curves.

 

How I've Changed:

Being in Europe just makes me realize that conservative Americans are being incredibly unrealistic with their demands from the government.  They want to somehow sI'multaneously lower taxes, decrease the budget deficit, and somehow still have something left to I'mprove the infrastructure of the country.  Well that's not how the world works.  America already has the lowest taxes out of probably all developed countries, and there's barely any tax on gas.  Because of that, the country as a whole is worse off.  American public education is practically the worst in the world, and our health care actually is the worst.  The government needs money to run, so depriving it of money is essentially killing the government and taking the country down with it. So basically this student exchange has changed how I view America and the world.  It's opened my eyes to things that I never would have realized otherwise.  Oddly, though, my view of Finland really hasn't changed.  I've pretty much had the same opinion of Finland since when I arrived.  My view of my parents has changed too.  My mom because she actually stands up for herself when we take her for granted, something I've yet to see in a Finnish family.  While she doesn't go to the grocery store every day she's still a good mom and it takes courage to stand up to your family.  My dad because he works in the American health care system.  My host mom works in the Finnish health care system and she puts in like 7-8 hours a day only on weekdays and she gets 38 days of paid vacation a year.  My dad works like all the tI'me and that probably sucks.  He tries way too hard to be a good father sometI'mes though.  I think that's a very American thing to do because it's a common conversation topic at lunch tables.  All American fathers always ask mundane questions that they know their kids know the answer to just to try and get them to talk.  The least they could do is come up with something interesting to say because telling them our daily schedule gets old after a while.  My dad's a good father though, but like I said, he tries too hard.

 

Advice:

So I guess I should give advice to new exchange students now should they have the attention span to get this far in my report.  One thing I would definitely recommend for short termers is to go to your host country first.  While I'm not back yet, I can see that I'll be drained when I get back and I'll only have a week to recover before I go to school.  It'd be a lot more relaxing if I had gone to Finland first.  But if you're really serious about student exchange and you know you want to go long term eventually, you probably shouldn't do short term.  I'm kind of regretting my decision to do short term and then long term instead of just do long term first because this exchange has shown me how awesome long term will be.

 

Final Thoughts:

Finland's a great country and this has been a great exchange.  My photography skills I'mproved a lot because there were a lot of beautiful things to take pictures of.  I'm really glad that I went on this exchange because it opened my eyes to the global perspective of the world, and that's helped a lot in terms of my understanding of America.  I know I'll be really glad to get back though.  Short term is really just a long vacation in another country and vacations get really tiring after a while.

Outbound Culture Papers -

A Great Example of an Excellent Cultural Paper

Manuela Perez on Korea

Traveling from any one country to another will always have some sort of difference that could be absolutely shocking. You may have heard from the man who had visited China, and had eaten all his food that they gave hI'm. This is polite in the US, but in Chinese culture, it was downright rude, telling the hosts that they hadn't provided hI'm with enough food, and a warm atmosphere might sour fast. The same might, and probably will happen when I leave for South Korea. Now, reading about the differences in cultures can help for preparation, but until the reality is actually experienced, practical knowledge will only go so far.

Social graces in South Korea differ heavily than here in the US. Something as sI'mple as, “Hello, how are you?”, is completely different. In fact, in Korean, there is no equivalent to that phrase. The closest I'mitation is a phrase only used when meeting a friend that hasn't been seen in a long tI'me. Some questions that might seem like the last thing an American might ask, or at least, until the second or third meeting, are at the forefront of a Korean's mind. “How old are you?” There are six levels of speech in the Korean language, and as soon as the age of the opposite party is identified, the speech level will change. Seniority is I'mmediately decided, and even the way they might call or refer to each other will change.

“What's your blood type?” is sI'milar to asking a person their horoscope. As Americans know their horoscope sign, Korean's know their blood type. But, where as soon as the horoscope magazine is put away, the horoscopes are forgotten, a Korean might define your personality based upon your blood type.  And, with some blood types, Koreans might go so far as to not date certain blood types because of their predicted personality. For example, a man with blood type B will be seen by girls as someone that should not be dated. Men with the B blood type are seen as men with bad personalities, selfish and irresponsible. Scientists have never cited any correlations between blood types and personalities, but that hasn't stopped the matchmaking.

Rivalry is common in any state, any province, and any country. SI'milar to Ohio versus Michigan, or, even more close to home, US versus England, South Korea and Japan are enemies. Not like in the early 1900's when Japan took over South Korea and attempted to annihilate the language and culture, but in a friendlier event: sporting. It's taken so seriously that when one team loses to the other, the sport's head director will resign – sometI'mes making it a very short-lived job. In the music world, the Oricon chart is like the USA's top 100. Johnny's Entertainment, a Japanese music record company normally sponsors the bands that top the chart, and SM Entertainment, the top Korean record company began sending their bands out in an attempt to take over the market. The most famous band of which was Dong Bang Shin Ki, or, by its English name, Rising Gods of the East, was able to expand into the Chinese and Japanese market. Eventually topping the Oricon chart with a hit single, Johnny's was in disarray, and the Koreans rejoiced.

The school system is set up much differently than the American style. Koreans are heavily focused on schooling, even going so far as to enroll their child in a private elementary school or middle school so that they can excel. The teaching of the English language has become something that is taught sooner and sooner during school, until now, even in Kindergarten, there are schools that will have entire classes in English. In elementary and middle school, the classes are taught all together with no thought to the differences in ability, just that all of the students learning together the same material, but high school is based upon an entrance exam. The student's results on their entrance exam dictate whether or not the student can go to the high school of their choice, or, if they do make the high school, what level of class he or she will be entered in. After making it into high school, they study and study until they get to the college entrance exam date.

There are cultural differences from state to state, and when there's a gap of thousands of miles... well, there'll be all sorts of things that can be stumbled upon.