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!

Gabe Gerhardt -- Brazil (Home Club: Cobleskill)

Here in Brazil everything is going great.  My language skills are getting a lot better, and I've gotten to experience a lot of new things.  

I changes host families, which was  a nice change of pace.  My new host family is very different from my last one, and I'm seeing a whole new side of Brazilian culture due to this difference.  

Summer vacation ends next week here, so I'll be going back to school soon.  I'm not looking forward to the classes but it will be cool to meet a new class of kids.  Because I'm doing the third year of high school twice here, which is their senior year, I get to be with a new group of kids when I go back.     

I'm thinking about trying to work something out with the english teacher where I could help her with her other classes whenever she wanted me to.

I hope that everything is great in the US!

Lucy Holecek -- Belgium (Home Club: Albany)

 January 28, 2014

I'm in love with Belgium. I am finally at the point where I can understand beaucoup (a lot) and also speak a ton. I'm definitely not fluent in French, but I'm in a waterfall period and just trying to take in as much French as possible. It's crazy how one can come to a point of taking in and learning much faster. I am so happy I am learning another language and love using it.  I can't wait till the day I am close to fluent. Recently exchange students have left and new ones have come in. There is a girl who came from Australia and was just like me when I first came. I feel like I am looking into a mirror and I can see how much I have progressed.  I know in most countries you don't see other exchange students very often, but here in Belgium the country is very small and we normally get together and do things. It's amazing getting to know people from all over the world and learn about their cultures and even learn a little bit of their native language. In the beginning of the year I found myself with them pretty often because I was struggling with French and the students at my school study very often, but the opportunities I have had with the other students are unforgettable. Right now it has been a little over five months and I have less than five months to go.  I have also been living with my second family for a little less than a month and they are wonderful.  With them I haven't been with the exchange students as often, but I don't mind.  Their oldest daughter is in college so she is only home for the weekends and they always have activities planned.  For example, this week we are going to go bowling and go out to dinner.

So far my first two host families have been amazing and I am so grateful to have had them apart of my life. I even already know my third host family which I often go over to, to workout because I have already gainer five kilos (oops), but it gives me a reason to get to know my third host family which I love. All three host families are great and I luckily I get to stay in touch with them and get to participate in activities with each family throughout my whole exchange. Everyone I have met here just feels like my family because they are so helpful and I am so grateful for it. I can't believe I only have less than five months and I know it's going to go by in a blink of an eye, but that won't stop me from enjoying it to the fullest. 

Lucy Holecek USA -> Belgium

Shilo Christiansen -- Japan (Home Club: Cobleskilll)

January 12, 2014

01/12/2014Host Rotary Club: 7190

Sponsor Rotary Club: 2560

Current Host Family: Sumimoto

Counselor Name: Nishiyama-san

         It’s the five month marker! Ack! I can’t even believe it. This month was quite busy, since we celebrated New Year’s, which is like Japan’s Christmas. For Christmas, couples celebrate, but families don’t. I celebrated it with one of my Japanese friends, where we ate so much food and cake. It was a little sad because I wanted to be home with my family for the holidays, but I know everyone feels like that. For New Year’s, I spent it with another foreign exchange student and her host family. Her host dad is a monk, so we did a lot of traditional things like clean the house and make food. It was a lot of fun, we even went to a temple and ate for three days straight (which is tradition).

         I’m back at school and entered my new class. They’re nice, but not as welcoming as my first one. No one believed me when I said I could speak English, and when I did, they were all thoroughly shocked. Then they were shocked that I could speak Japanese, but I think my being Asian really confuses people in Japan haha. Anyway, they are pretty interesting and I think I’ll adjust to them.

         My host family is quite strict and traditional. Sometimes it’s a little bit suffocating, but I only have a month and a half left with them, so it will be okay. They are really nice though, so we get along pretty well. I really want siblings, but my host families are chosen through the Rotarians, and not the school like the others―but that’s okay. My host family has really cute grandkids!

         My relationship with my host club is really good, I think. I talk with my counselor a lot, and he often invites me to do things with him and his family. I met his grandchildren months ago and sometimes Nishiyama-san will invite me to play with them. I don’t know a lot of Rotarians, just the few that sit near us at the lunches.

         I went to something called illuminations in Mie last night, I will include some photos because the lights are gorgeous! I also have some photos of going to Kyoto to see the autumn trees. Now it’s getting cold, and winter has finally begun!

         This month was hard because of the holidays and missing home, but my friends made missing home bearable. It’s odd to think that my exchange is half-way over!

Michaela Schnore -- Finland (Home Club: Glenville)

Happy New Year! Sorry I haven't sent a report for the fourth month. I've been busy with the holidays and all. So I have been here now for over five months, including over Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and my birthday. December was fun, it started off with the Rotary trip to Lapland with 150 other exchange students. The trip was certainly unforgettable, and because my closest friend from orientation camp couldn't go, I had to branch off more and I made many more exchange student friends. On the Lapland tour we stayed in Harriniva in Muonio, and on the first two days we went skiing and snowboarding at Olos. I had never skiied or snowboarded before so my first skiing experience happened in the Arctic Circle in Finland. The next day we went on sled dog and reindeer sled "safaris" which were awesome. Later that day we went to the Pallas preserve nature center and museum. The next day on the way home we stopped in Santa's Village in Rovaniemi.

     

December passed pretty quickly, although I was quite homesick up until like 2 days before Christmas, when I realized that even if I were to try to get home I wouldn't be able to make it back in time for Christmas. Christmas Eve with my host family was fun, we had the traditional ham and smoked and raw salmon, and also moose. The food was really nice and after the dinner Joulupukki (Santa Claus) came to drop off Christmas presents. The next day we had Christmas leftovers for dinner and didn't do anything really on Christmas day. I spent a lot of time with my friends during break and New Years. I think New Years is celebrated in basically the same way that it is celebrated in New York and all over the world. The rest of break I spent a lot of time with my friends and then on my birthday my host family threw me a party. All my host families were there which means my best friend Sarah was there and then she slept over that night. It was really nice, everybody sang to me in Finnish and English and the cake we made was delicious.

Gabriel Gerhardt -- Brazil (Home club: Cobleskill)

January 6, 2014

                This month was pretty big, I did a lot of interesting things, and it was a month of huge change also. The first thing that was pretty big was I got to do some pretty interesting community service. A member of rotary by the name of Correa do Mel invited me to help him rescues some stray dogs, so for a weekend we went out to the country side looking for dogs to help. To some we gave them food and water, others we gave them flea medicine and bandaged up their cuts. It was pretty cool and it felt good to do some work on the community, you could see that the people in the community appreciated, because they did not like seeing the animals hurting but they didn’t have the money to help them.

                That weekend I also got to do a lot of other things with Correa. He took me out for runs, we went and saw the police helicopters and an Elvis impersonator, and I got to drink corn juice which had an interesting after taste. After all this though I had to go home and prepare to change homes. It was a pretty sad moment because I had grown so close to my first family I it felt weird leaving them, my mom noticed this and asked me what was wrong. I explained myself to her and she huge me and reminded me that we still get to see each other at school and sometimes at Rotary. She also reminded me that if I needed anything just to call her. I felt a lot better after that so for my last dinner hoe I showed my mom and sister how to make pancakes. That night my mom and Dad drove me over to my new family’s house and dropped me off. They sat and ate a while with me and my new family then left.

                 My new family is pretty awesome, there is my dad Seul who works for an American company in Brazil, my mom who loves to cook, my two host sister who love to talk, and my three host brothers who love to play video games and read comics. They are really great and love to cook. So hopefully I can learn some dishes to cook. The first couple of weeks were basically going and meeting the family and going to the mall to hang out with friends of theirs and to get to know each other. When Christmas came along we went to my aunt’s house in Sorocaba a city an hour away from Sao Paulo. It was pretty nice there was a lot of food and a pool which was nice since it was so hot, I think it was about ninety three degrees. We left their house the day after Christmas and came home. 

                 This month was a pretty interesting and fun month hopefully the next month will be the same.