Gabriel Gerhardt -- Brazil (Home club: Cobleskill)

January 31, 2014

                This month has been kind of an interesting month because of the way the tone of my trip changed. The month started off really really boring, I was really doing nothing but going to ju jitsu and staying home doing nothing. I was kind of getting a little anxious and cagy staying in the house all the time, but then things started to change. My siblings are mostly in college so it was coming to the end of their vacation so they wanted to go out and hangout with friend and see the sites. So for about two weeks we would just wake up eat something quick and then just go out. One day we went to Sao Paulo and went to see the tallest building in Sao Paulo, and other day we went to this huge book store where I spent nearly 4 hours in just reading books, one Thursday we spent the day just watching movies that we never saw before. It was an awesome couple of weeks.

                Another big change was at the end of the month I had to start school again which was good and bad. The good thing was I got to see all my friends and teachers again which was nice. The bad thing was I was in school. It can get boring sometimes because I normally just sit there listening to the teacher or trying to practice Portuguese, but I am going to talk with my director and see if one day out of the week or one period a day I can go and help in one of the English classes to change the pace a little bit. Hopefully everything will work out.

                 In other news I was able to talk to my ju  jitsu and he says I can start competing in tournaments in March so we will see how well all I actually am against other white belts in Sao Paulo.

                So January is down, still got February, March, April, May, June , and  a little of July to go before this adventure is over. I am going to make sure that the next couple of months are just as good as the other were.  

Michaela Schnore -- Finland (Home club: Glenville)

February 7, 2014

 Since I have last written I have said fare well to my best exchange student friend here when she went back to Florida, and switched host families. Sarah's host family had been the family that is hosting me, so we already had a really good connection when I moved in. We are so close and have so much fun together, I really love living here. With them I went rock climbing for the first time, I loved it! The Ice-Cross Downhill Skating World Championships were held in Serena, a skiing resort and waterpark only 5 km from our house, so we went and cheered on the Americans and Canadians and of course the Finns! It was a really fun and interesting experience, there were so many people there from all over the world, and I even ran into many of my exchange student friends from Helsinki. I am very excited also because I will be going to London with my host mom in May and hopefully I will get to visit my grandparents in Latvia, but it seems unlikely at the time.

        School is pretty boring for me at the moment because I have already graduated and the only classes I can really participate in are music, art, or English, and this jakso music isn't even offered. I have already experienced the lukio side of the school system for 3 jaksos and I have decided to pursue attending a vocational school here in order to see the other side of the education system in Finland. The only issue is that the rotary might not let me switch to a vocational school because in Finnish society students at these schools are seen as kind of stupid. But if I am told that I am not allowed I will try to fight this because exchange is about breaking down barriers, and seeing all sides of the culture, not the opposite. Plus I think a vocational school would be a fun change of pace for me, more hands on, and more intensive for me because I will have to use my language skills more. Plus I will get to be in a different mix of kids and meet more people. I am interested in either hairdressing or cooking at a vocational school. 

        I can't believe that it has been six months since I moved to Finland, time sure flies when you are having fun. I have been so many different people mentally since I first came here, and I will probably be a hundred more before exchange is over. I have learned so much and grown so much too, its been a truly great experience so far!