Kirsten Beth Lomnitzer -- Brazil (Home club: North Creek)

November 11, 2012
Sponsoring Club: North Creek Rotary Club District 7190
Host Club: Sao Luis, Sao Fransisco Rotary Club District 4490

I am loving my exchange year! I just got back from Rotary Orientation where I met so many other students! We went to the beach and just hung out and got to know each other. It was very fun. I will be going on the a tour for most of December and most of the district will be going as well. I really am looking forward to it! I have been working hard in school and am able to understand the teachers when they don't speak really fast, then I get lost and only pick up every other word or so. I am so thankful that I am having this experience!

Sincerely,
Kirsten Beth Lomnitzer

Caleb Allison -- Venezuala (Home club: Salem)

November 10, 2012

 

 

I’m great.  I getting to know the layout of Coro a lot better.  Little by little I’ve been traveling around the local area in about an hour radius.  I’ve been to the tropical sierras to the South and several beaches in the peninsula (including the volcanically formed rock waterfront that is the farthest northern point in Venezuela).

The other day I went to the City of Punto Fijo.  It was one of the original oil towns in Venezuelans and was largely built by American capitalists.  After the government seized the industry in the 1970’s the Americans left the city and it was fascinating and almost and almost haunting to see the abandoned and fading American infrastructure.  Leaving on Sunday, all the inbound exchange students in the district are taking a weeklong trip to the Andes.  There will evidently be river rafting and donkey riding and I’m super pumped.

My Spanish has improved immensely and if I know a person well I can understand almost everything they say at a normal speed.  (In fact I’m having trouble remembering big words and structuring my grammar in English right now writing this).  My family continues to be awesome.

I’ve been going to rotary meetings it seems like every week, recently.  Its a lot more involved down here and we were recently visited by the district governor.  Also last weekend all seventy some of the outbound exchange applicants district 4380 were in town and we had rotary sponsored parties both Friday and Saturday night.  Only a few dozen will be accepted to go and the club president told me to tell you people in the US to take Venezuelan exchange students.

I do have two problems.  One’s more or less taken care of and the other hopefully will be too soon.

The first one lies with the school.   I’m in two classes that I learn something new: castellano (Latin American Spanish) and Venezuelan geography but besides that all the material is a repeat.  Also the school system is a little bit different here in that the students graduate at 16 or 17 and then have 5 years of college, so I’m the age of a 3rd year University student.  I’m accepted but it often feels forced, like I’m a square peg in a round whole.  Therefore, me and and rotary here have decided that I would do better splitting my time between the high school and the local university.  I will be taking tutored classes in spanish and phonetics, a class in spanish literature, and some calculus in the university as well as continue to take classes like Castellano, geography, and history in the high school.  This plan hopefully will go into effect as soon as we get back from the Andes.

My other problem comes courtesy of the US Army.  Before I left the medical team at West Point told me they were fairly confident that I wouldn’t have to jump through any more hoops for next year and I could travel to Latin America without worry.  However now they have re-reviewed my file and decided that I should be tested for asthma, heart dilation, and the healed fracture in my skull that’s already been checked two or three times.  So I’m going to be going to Caracas sometime soon to get those done and I’m praying I can pass them.  I was going to stay in a hotel but the governor of rotary has vowed to write a letter to the embassy demanding a room or free hotel.  I doubt they’ll give it to me but I think I’m in good hands and the situation is being dealt with slowly but surely.

But yeah, overall I’m feeling good.

 

Kania Alisjahbana -- from Indonesia (host: Ballston Spa)

 November 9, 2012                                                                                                                        

Host Club:  Ballston Spa                                                                                                                                 

Home Club: RC Bandung Kota Kembang, Indonesia

Reporting from Ballston Spa High School Library, you can see that I am just fine! It has been exactly 2 months and 7 days in United States of America. Time flies by so fast.

I’m feeling good and there’s nothing to worry about my health. I like to think that I have taken care of myself quite well; I just need to be prepared with layers of clothing for the upcoming winter, I guess. And my wonderful host family is taking care of me very well, we’re getting ready for Thanksgiving and we’re all just very excited, we’re planning to introduce an Indonesian dish to the bigger family.

I’m doing very well in school. In fact, I’m loving school. I can go through all my classes very well and I’m having so much fun with a lot of new people to hang out with. I have been quite active in BSHS’s after school activities. If you did not know, I was in the swimming team for the fall sports season (it has ended). For the winter, I have planned to focus my activities in the clubs throughout the winter. I am in Interact, Peer Mentoring, Swing Dance Club and also Troupe/Drama Club. There are a few other clubs that is catching my attention, but I still need to maintain my schedule very carefully.

Every Tuesday, my counselor—whom I call Derik—picks me up from school to attend the Rotary Lunch Meeting at The Factory. I have not failed in attending each and every meeting and I am happy to be with Rotary Club Ballston Spa. They are a wonderful group of people who has been very welcoming, nice and supporting to me over the days. I am introduced to a lot of topics of discussion, but I don’t partake in them very actively since I don’t quite understand what the adults talk about most of the time. But I am going to be doing a presentation on Indonesia on the meeting that will be held 27^th of November. I am definitely excited about that, if not also nervous. Derik said I will do well though, so let’s see what will happen.

I have done a lot of things over the past 2 months. I have taken part in the children’s tradition of trick-or-treating with my host sister and her friend and I have to say; it was a lot of fun! I never knew that going from house to house and getting free candies would be such a pleasure. I kind of want to bring that back home. I have also succeeded stage managing for the school’s fall play production; Noises Off. It was a very interesting experience to be backstage and learning about how a play exactly works behind the scenes and to see our audience’s reactions. It was also a lot fun to be able to hang out with the cast and crew. I guess it’s okay that I didn’t get any parts in the production. Wish me luck for another audition though; I’m going to try out for a musical in preparation for the spring musical.

So far, I’m still having a blast here in Ballston Spa. I still have a lot of activities planned in the future. I have no issues/concerns whatsoever. But I am hoping to get more involved with more of the school’s performing arts-related activities.

Aubrey Racz -- Ecuador (Home club: So.Rensselaer)

November 8, 2012

Ecuador-Portoviejo 4400

1790

Medina

Pepe Lara

 

My health is still great. My home situation as well. It keeps getting better and better. (I don't want to change families). My relationshp is excellent. I still go to school everyday and do the classwork. The principal gave all the exchange students a project to do with a ten page paper and powerpoint that we have to present to her and other teachers about pretty much whatever topic we want. I will be talking about the September 11 terrorist attacks. I'm still going to the basketball course but the coach is in another city now so there isn't practice.

 

I just attended a Rotary meeting last night and my counselor brought me back to my house. Everything is great with the club. My relationship with my host club and counselar are both excellent.

 

All the exchange students in Ecuador had a trip to the province where I live. We went to come cities and participated in the parade in my city. Also, I went to the circus with my family but it was really hard to understand what was going on but I still had a good time.

 

I do have one issue. It has already been taken care of but you should know that I got robbed. It was the first night of the trip to my province and my room got robbed. We all thought the door was locked but it wasn't. We fell asleep around 2 am and at 3 am I woke up and rolled over to find our door open. I sat up to see what happened because I thought it was wierd and both my backpack and suitcase were gone. I got up and found my suitcase opened and rumaged through outside the door, the three zippers on the outside opened as well. One of my roommates bags was farther away outside, and my backpack was gone. I woke the other girls up and 2 of them were missing things too. We woke up some rotarians and they came to look around and they called the police. The police came and we told them what we were missing. The next night we searched through all the rooms with the police, but found nothing. It was only exchange students staying at the hotel but it was and outside hotel so it could have been anyone. The wierd thing is that the gaurd said he made a round at 2:30 and said he saw no one. The police are still investigating, but this happened the 10th of October so I don't really have much hope to get anything back. My counselor and host club know so they are trying to help but I feel like it's hopeless. Oh..in my backpack was my camera, i pod, 85 dollars, a pair of shorts, and under armor jacket, my diary that I had been writing in, and other little things of no real importance, but they also took my i pod charger from my suitcase and phone charger. A friend was nice enough to give me his camera that he didn't want (because it was pink), but I'm still missing everything else. 

 

The rest of the trip kind of stunk but when I got back to my house I was so happy to be home and everything got better after that! And now i rarely think about it/notice it so everything is just fine!

David O'Connor -- France (Home Club: Albany)

November 6, 2012

Things are going great! October was a very busy month - I changed host families, travelled a bunch, and went to a couple concerts. The new host family is awesome and pretty much constantly doing cool things, so I'm having a lot of fun. I went with them to Bourgogne (Burgundy?) and Normandy for a few days, where I went to the D-Day beaches, a couple parties, and a music festival in Caen. I also got to go to Strasbourg with my district, which was amazing, and did a little tour of northern Alsace. I haven't been going to as many of my club's functions because my new host parents aren't Rotarians. Another reason I really like my new host family: they eat extremely healthily and are always active, so while I wasn't in poor health before, I'm surprised at how much better I feel physically. I'm having a really great time and I've got a bunch of plans for the next few weeks. Again, thank you so much for this opportunity!

Achat Adrien -- France (Host Club -- North Creek)

November 3, 2012
Home Club:  Rotary Club de Saint Laurent du Var District 1730

I skype a lot, i'm bored, and i have a good health.

My relationship with my families is normal.

School :
I go on regular basis.
I'm in a Ski team (downhill) , and i'll go maybe to the band ( Still not sure ).
We can not dream better.

Rotary :
Yes, just 3 meetings with the presentation right now.
My last meeting was for my presentation.
Yes, the club is very good with me.
My host club ? Excellent
My Counselor ? Excellent

Soccer team is finish, so i'm in the ski team right now.
Issues or Concerns:  Not really Thank you.

Alyxe Perry -- Belgium (Home Club: So. Rensselaer)

30 October 2012
Host Rotary Club: Le Roeulx
Sponsor Rotary Club: Southern Rensselaer County
Current Host Family: Luc VerHellen
Counselor Name: Philippe D.

I am doing great and my health is okay as well, I have been sick for a couple weeks now, but it's just a really long cold. That hasn't stopped me from doing anything. I love my host family, they are awesome and very supportive of me. Our relationship is very good and I can talk to them about anything.

School:
I am attending school and class on a regular basis, there are no activities school provides outside of class. That's something I really miss from the U.S. I do feel accepted by the students and I have a lot of awesome friends.

Rotary:
I have attended one club rotary meeting, one district meeting, and 2 meetings of all the exchange students in Belgium. I haven't had a specific meeting with my rotary counselor and have not been a guest of any other rotary members. My relationships with my host club and counselor are excellent! I am really enjoying everything that is going on.

I just came back from a rotary trip to Paris and On Nov. first I am heading to London!!!
Thanks, hope all is well!