November 10, 2009
Santos- Boqueirão, District 4420
Family:
Claudenir and Prescila Coute
Rua Tocantins 77/51Santos, SP, Brasil11055-341
I´ve done a lot in the past month. I´ve attended Rotary meetings regularly. I also have begun to hang out with students from my school. I went to a school dance. It was a lot of fun because students from five different schools went. I feel like I´m finally understanding the material in school. I no longer use my Portuguese-English dictionary on a regular basis.
Unfortunately things did not work out right with my first host family so the head of the Santos YEP asked to move me to a different family because he did not think that my host parents and I were a good match. It felt bad because they were a really nice family, but I´m also very happy and a lot more comfortable in my new family. In my new family I have a 16 year old sister and an 18 year old brother, but my brother lives in a city in the south of Brazil called Porto Alegre. He´s invited me to go visit him in January, and I am happy because it is another opportunity to travel, and I only have to pay for the plane tickets.
I´ve already done a lot with my new family. We went to Guarujá last weekend. It was a lot of fun because there are no roads that connect Guarujá to other cities in Brazil, so we had to take a boat to get there. Also, Guarujá is known as "the Atlantic Pearl" because of its nice beaches. With my new family I´ve also taken a tour of Santos, gone to the coffee museum, and gone to the aquarium.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Keegan Griffith -- Finland
November 12, 2009
This past month has been very exciting. It started off with a vacation to the sea where we went fishing. It was to cold so we were not able to catch any fish. It was still really beutiful. It has started to snow and all the trees are covered in a snow ice mixture that is just jaw jropping. The only down side to the Finnish winter is the lack of sun. I don't think it has come out in at least 3 weeks. So it is very dark out most of the day. This darkness is making everybody really tired and grumpy. I am sure we will all get over it. My health is in fine condition, I am a bit tired but other than that I am good. I also went moose hunting. That was lots of fun. They shot a baby moose witch I later ate part of, it was allot better that cow. I will be switching families soon so that is exciting. School is going good, I have many friends.Finland is an amazing country.
This past month has been very exciting. It started off with a vacation to the sea where we went fishing. It was to cold so we were not able to catch any fish. It was still really beutiful. It has started to snow and all the trees are covered in a snow ice mixture that is just jaw jropping. The only down side to the Finnish winter is the lack of sun. I don't think it has come out in at least 3 weeks. So it is very dark out most of the day. This darkness is making everybody really tired and grumpy. I am sure we will all get over it. My health is in fine condition, I am a bit tired but other than that I am good. I also went moose hunting. That was lots of fun. They shot a baby moose witch I later ate part of, it was allot better that cow. I will be switching families soon so that is exciting. School is going good, I have many friends.Finland is an amazing country.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Eliza Chappell -- Spain
November 7, 2009
HOST FAMILY:
Simon Marcos
7-4 C/ Andalucía
28007 Madrid
HOST CLUB: RC Madrid- Serano
I attended a Rotary sponsored trip to Pico de Peñalara, a mountain in the Sierras. There were about 30 other exchange students, mostly from the Madrid area, and we hiked to the top.
I have been attending IES Isabel La Católica daily and completing all assignments.
I can now say that I feel as though I fully fit in here. Everything is going wonderfully, and I'm loving life. I can just about understand everything, though speaking correctly is still a challenge. I can't believe that it's already november 7; time is going by far too quickly now that I've got a steady routine (weekdays- school, studying, family time; weekends- out with spanish friends, relaxing, more studying, etc...). All is well here and I absolutely love Madrid.
HOST FAMILY:
Simon Marcos
7-4 C/ Andalucía
28007 Madrid
HOST CLUB: RC Madrid- Serano
I attended a Rotary sponsored trip to Pico de Peñalara, a mountain in the Sierras. There were about 30 other exchange students, mostly from the Madrid area, and we hiked to the top.
I have been attending IES Isabel La Católica daily and completing all assignments.
I can now say that I feel as though I fully fit in here. Everything is going wonderfully, and I'm loving life. I can just about understand everything, though speaking correctly is still a challenge. I can't believe that it's already november 7; time is going by far too quickly now that I've got a steady routine (weekdays- school, studying, family time; weekends- out with spanish friends, relaxing, more studying, etc...). All is well here and I absolutely love Madrid.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Gil Strizich -- Argentina
November 4th, 2009
Family Atencio
Pasaje Fatima s/n,
Yala, Jujuy
4616
Argentina
Host Club: Rotary Club of San Salvador de Jujuy, 4800
Over the last month I have met with the Rotary club twice. The time was spent discussing and preparing for a Rotary trip to Patagonia from Novemeber 8th- 27th, We covered such topics as: how much money we would need, what to pack, how to pay, and necessary letters of permission. I have also been meeting with a local rotarian every Saturday to recieve her volunteered Spanish instruction.
I have been attending school regularly and doing the assingment asked of me. However, there have been many days off due to testing and holidays. I have continued to do Jiu-Jitsu twice a week and have been going to gym on the other days. I have also been taking Spanish classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays with all the other students here in San Salvador.
I am in fine health.
Family Atencio
Pasaje Fatima s/n,
Yala, Jujuy
4616
Argentina
Host Club: Rotary Club of San Salvador de Jujuy, 4800
Over the last month I have met with the Rotary club twice. The time was spent discussing and preparing for a Rotary trip to Patagonia from Novemeber 8th- 27th, We covered such topics as: how much money we would need, what to pack, how to pay, and necessary letters of permission. I have also been meeting with a local rotarian every Saturday to recieve her volunteered Spanish instruction.
I have been attending school regularly and doing the assingment asked of me. However, there have been many days off due to testing and holidays. I have continued to do Jiu-Jitsu twice a week and have been going to gym on the other days. I have also been taking Spanish classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays with all the other students here in San Salvador.
I am in fine health.
Ariel Dunster -- Brazil
October 14, 2009
Adolfo and Solange Perez
Avenida Pinheiro Machado 678/95
bairro Marape, Santos, São Paulo
Brazil 11075- 002
My second month here was excellent. I´m already understanding Portuguese pretty well. School is probably the most difficult part. I still am attempting all of the tests, no matter how difficult. If the teacher is giving a lecture I usually lose focus quickly, therefore I usually use that time to study Portuguese independently.
I´m excited for this upcoming weekend because it will be the first time that I will be hanging out with my school friends outside of school. Friday I´m going to a school dance, Saturday, playing American football, and Sunday I´ll go to a barbeque with them.
Oddly enough, I feel like I have been welcomed in by a few families here, not only my host family. I have a friend living in the same apartment building as me and sometimes I go to his apartment and just spend some time with his family watching a movie or eating dinner. It´s also very nice because he has 3 other siblings close to my age so there´s always a lot of conversation.
Also, one of my good friends here is another exchange student from Arizona. Last weekend was a holiday weekend (children´s day) so I went with his family to a town nearby to do volunteer work. It was a lot of fun. We made candy bags as well as cake and gave them to more than 200 poor children. I also enjoyed this trip because we stayed at a camp on a farm. It was amazing there. We ended up getting stuck there for an extra day because the traffic was backed up for 8 hours.
I´ve been growing closer with my family as well. I have found some things that my family and I have in common. Both my host mom and I enjoy cooking, so I usually like to sit in the kitchen and help her cook dinner. With my father, we both enjoy soccer, and he´s actually taken me to a couple of soccer games, which is really nice. We also went to São Paulo for dinner one evening which was nice.
Other than this, mostly everything has been going well. I attend Rotary meetings every week. They´re a lot of fun and I´m beginning to understand some of the things that they are saying.
Adolfo and Solange Perez
Avenida Pinheiro Machado 678/95
bairro Marape, Santos, São Paulo
Brazil 11075- 002
My second month here was excellent. I´m already understanding Portuguese pretty well. School is probably the most difficult part. I still am attempting all of the tests, no matter how difficult. If the teacher is giving a lecture I usually lose focus quickly, therefore I usually use that time to study Portuguese independently.
I´m excited for this upcoming weekend because it will be the first time that I will be hanging out with my school friends outside of school. Friday I´m going to a school dance, Saturday, playing American football, and Sunday I´ll go to a barbeque with them.
Oddly enough, I feel like I have been welcomed in by a few families here, not only my host family. I have a friend living in the same apartment building as me and sometimes I go to his apartment and just spend some time with his family watching a movie or eating dinner. It´s also very nice because he has 3 other siblings close to my age so there´s always a lot of conversation.
Also, one of my good friends here is another exchange student from Arizona. Last weekend was a holiday weekend (children´s day) so I went with his family to a town nearby to do volunteer work. It was a lot of fun. We made candy bags as well as cake and gave them to more than 200 poor children. I also enjoyed this trip because we stayed at a camp on a farm. It was amazing there. We ended up getting stuck there for an extra day because the traffic was backed up for 8 hours.
I´ve been growing closer with my family as well. I have found some things that my family and I have in common. Both my host mom and I enjoy cooking, so I usually like to sit in the kitchen and help her cook dinner. With my father, we both enjoy soccer, and he´s actually taken me to a couple of soccer games, which is really nice. We also went to São Paulo for dinner one evening which was nice.
Other than this, mostly everything has been going well. I attend Rotary meetings every week. They´re a lot of fun and I´m beginning to understand some of the things that they are saying.
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