April 4, 2010
Miao-li Mountain Club
In March, I attended one Rotary meeting. With the other exchange students in my district, I had a weekly tai-chi class to learn a routine that we will perform in mid-April in front of about 2,000 Rotarians. I’ve seen our costumes, and supposedly we get to keep them, which is really exciting. In the middle of March, I went on a bus trip with about 50 other exchange students to the east of Taiwan. Although the whole of Taiwan is smaller than NY, I’ve never been to the east coast before, so it was really interesting to see lots of famous places for the first time. My favorite place was Taroko National Park, which is a huge area filled with gorges, forests and waterfalls. I just wish we had more time there, since we only had an afternoon in the whole park!
In March, I was mildly sick for about a week, which gave me an insight into the Taiwanese medical system-totally different than the United States’! I think the most shocking part to me was how eager the Taiwanese are to take medicine to clear up your sickness-even a cold!
I’ve now been in my new family for about a month, and I’m really happy here. I have three siblings here and it’s really easy to connect with them so that’s helped me feel a lot more at home. I’m already worried about leaving them in June!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Ariel Dunster -- Brazil
April 11, 2010
Rotary District 4420, Santos- Boqueirão
This past month has been a lot of fun. I started surfing lessons. They´re every Saturday and Sunday from 8-10 in the morning. Surfing has become one of my favorite hobbies here. I´m part of a class of about 60 surfing students, and then we´re broken down into smaller groups based on our skill level. This week the waves have been pretty big actually. Some of the waves yesterday were 3 meters!
Last week I presented a powerpoint to my Rotary club about my life in the United States. I was happy because I actually didn´t have any trouble presenting in Portuguese. I wasn´t at all nervous either. I discussed numerous topics including Ballston Spa, Sacandaga Lake, Niagara Falls, and Dry Brook Sugar House (maple syrup).
About 3 weeks ago I was robbed while out with my friends one night. 2 Brazilians and I were robbed by an armed man. He seemed both drunk and high, so we gave him our stuff without much negotiation because we didn´t want to cause trouble. Amongst the things I lost, I lost my cell phone, camera, and R$50. Strangely enough we had more trouble 3 days later. A young girl called our house screaming that she had been kidnapped and that she was our maids daughter. The man who had "kidnapped" her stayed on the phone and demanded a lot of money from our family. He also had called my host fathers cell phone number and persuaded him that his oldest daughter had been kidnapped as well. We thought this was connected to my cell phone being stolen, but it wasn´t. The man had gotten all of our information about our family through previous conversations on the telephone. Fortunately everything turned out alright and no one had been kidnapped. Our family was shaken up quite a bit, so we created new household rules to ensure our safety.
Easter was last weekend. It´s actually a pretty casual holiday here. I woke up and went to surfing classes. Later, my host family and I went to my host grandmothers house for lunch. We had fish. But afterwards my family went to the mall to go Fall clothes shopping. Here the tradition is to give big chocolate eggs to everyone.
My day to day life has been pretty normal. The weather has gotten a lot colder. It dropped from 91° to 55° in the past few days. I learned that I have a 4th host family and I´ll be moving into their home in June. All I know about them is that they have 4 children.
Beijos!
Rotary District 4420, Santos- Boqueirão
This past month has been a lot of fun. I started surfing lessons. They´re every Saturday and Sunday from 8-10 in the morning. Surfing has become one of my favorite hobbies here. I´m part of a class of about 60 surfing students, and then we´re broken down into smaller groups based on our skill level. This week the waves have been pretty big actually. Some of the waves yesterday were 3 meters!
Last week I presented a powerpoint to my Rotary club about my life in the United States. I was happy because I actually didn´t have any trouble presenting in Portuguese. I wasn´t at all nervous either. I discussed numerous topics including Ballston Spa, Sacandaga Lake, Niagara Falls, and Dry Brook Sugar House (maple syrup).
About 3 weeks ago I was robbed while out with my friends one night. 2 Brazilians and I were robbed by an armed man. He seemed both drunk and high, so we gave him our stuff without much negotiation because we didn´t want to cause trouble. Amongst the things I lost, I lost my cell phone, camera, and R$50. Strangely enough we had more trouble 3 days later. A young girl called our house screaming that she had been kidnapped and that she was our maids daughter. The man who had "kidnapped" her stayed on the phone and demanded a lot of money from our family. He also had called my host fathers cell phone number and persuaded him that his oldest daughter had been kidnapped as well. We thought this was connected to my cell phone being stolen, but it wasn´t. The man had gotten all of our information about our family through previous conversations on the telephone. Fortunately everything turned out alright and no one had been kidnapped. Our family was shaken up quite a bit, so we created new household rules to ensure our safety.
Easter was last weekend. It´s actually a pretty casual holiday here. I woke up and went to surfing classes. Later, my host family and I went to my host grandmothers house for lunch. We had fish. But afterwards my family went to the mall to go Fall clothes shopping. Here the tradition is to give big chocolate eggs to everyone.
My day to day life has been pretty normal. The weather has gotten a lot colder. It dropped from 91° to 55° in the past few days. I learned that I have a 4th host family and I´ll be moving into their home in June. All I know about them is that they have 4 children.
Beijos!
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