Alyxe Perry -- Belgium

 This past January, Alyxe Perry posted the following in her own blog, alyxeperrybelgium.  It is a wonderful statement on how the Rotary Exchange experience can affect a student.  Thanks, Alyxe!

Living the dream. by alyxeperry

So I can't even begin to express in words how much exchange has changed my life, but I'm going to take the challenge and try. I came here as an 18 year old girl not knowing what to expect just hoping for the best ready to learn. I had ideas about life, what I was going to do and where I would live, the things everyone thinks about. I look back now and the words that go through my head as think about those moments were "wow how could my mind be so small" and I wasn't one with a "small mind" I thought. I realize it's not that I wasn't thinking big enough, it's that my imagination was controlled by what I knew and my previous life experiences. As the months went by I began changing, in the best way possible, I learned so much. Met friends from around the world and started to understand how the once so BIG world is actually very small and reachable. Anything is possible. I think my brain is different now. I dream so much more than I ever did before. Not the dreams you have at night, but life dreams, and goals. They are not just dreams, they can easily become reality. Through this whole process I have learned how to do that. Make connections with people, don't ever be afraid to talk to someone. Everyone has something to offer in this world and who knows you could be a part of that something, for the rest of your life. KEEP AN OPEN MIND, a closed mind gets you no where. I have found that a lot of people, and I think I was a bit like this before my exchange, don't take in all thoughts. When minds work together they are one thousand times stronger than minds that work separately. One person can't always be right. Respect everyone, you never know when you will see them again or what opportunities they could present you.

As I approach the halfway mark of my exchange I have so much to reflect on, and think about. I have never felt so many emotions in my entire life. I am so grateful to have this opportunity. I never would have thought that being so far away from your home can actually bring you so much closer. I was thinking the other day about the word "home". We always say it but what does it really mean. The place you were born? The place you are currently living? The place your family lives? Throughout our lives "homes" come and go. The phrase "home is where the heart is" has never meant so much to me before because it defined the word home for me. I AM at home here in Belgium. I have two homes here, two families that have taken me in, provided for me, loved me, and nourished me for the time that I stayed there. I will always love them and leave a piece of my heart with them, therefore calling it my home. I also have a home back in New York. What my real family likes to think of as my "real home" where i grew up, and spent so much of my life. Where so much of my heart is too. I have never loved that home more than I do now being away from it. It is really hard to wrap your head around and I apologize if you have to read this paragraph a few times. If you've ever questioned where home is, don't. Whatever comes to your head and you feel in your heart, is home, you can have more than one.

I want you guys to feel inspired. Think about life and all that you have done. It's honestly amazing. A truly beautiful thing. It's something everyone has, but nobody's is the same. We all chose different paths different ways of living. Through that we develop thoughts and ideas we learn from. Everything you do is important, every decision you make has an effect. Think about one day you were planing to go out, even if it was just to the grocery store, but instead you decided to stay home or do it tomorrow. That changes the people you see, the people you could potentially meet, the opportunities you could have. Don't let those opportunities wait until tomorrow, they may not be there.

I think a really good word to describe myself right now is open. Open to new things, open mind, open heart. This all leads me to who I have become, something school could never teach me only I could find by myself through exchange.

Live like there's no tomorrow. Enjoy the little things in life. Slow down, look around and take a deep breath. Put a smile on your face, even if you're sad, life looks better when you smile. :) Be thankful. Appreciate. LOVE. Make everything fun. Sing at the top of your lungs. Dance like you just got new legs.

.......and just enjoy life, it's not a chore, it's a gift. Pretend it's Christmas and reopen the best gift you've ever gotten...today :)

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

March 12, 2013
Sponsoring Club: North Creek Rotary Club District 7190
Host Club: Sao Luis, Sao Fransisco Rotary Club District 4490


Hello again! Sorry about being late for this months report, I can down with a bug the day it was due and am only now catching up to where I'm supposed to be with both my school work and other parts of my life. I'm fine now, I made sure to drink lots of juice (which is something I will really miss when I return to the states, there is nothing quite like fresh squeezed juice that isn't Tropicana...) and get lots of rest. I wasn't the only one to come down with it, my host sister caught it as well. But enough about me getting sick, February was rather boring... Who am I kidding? February had Carnival, loud music, Carnival, dancing, Carnival, spraying (and getting sprayed) your host sister with cans of foam (apparently it's a tradition...) and did I mention Carnival? Needless to say I had a very fun February.

Sincerely,
Kirsten Beth Lomnitzer (a.k.a. Kiki)

Aubrey Racz -- Ecuador

March 11, 2013

 

Everything is going really well here. I had to adjust to my new family becasue they are very different from my first family but everything is going well. Life has been a little boring during the vacation. It's not always easy to just get up and say "Oh lets go there today." My parents work and can't always bring me and taxis arent the safest option either. I definitely miss having my car. Neverthelesss , I really love it down here. My health is great. Everything with Rotary as well is great. Im really excited because tomorrow i have my trip to the galapagos islands!!! Should be a blast!!!

Keith Roscoe -- France (home club: Cobleskill)

Hello Everyone,

     I have realized that not a lot of people really understand or just simply know what I am doing all the way over here. So, I will try and enlighten you all.

     I am on exchange with the Rotary International Youth Exchange Program. It is a high school based exchange I am doing, if you will.  I am enrolled in a lycée (French High school) for the duration of my stay. I participate in a class of seniors as if I was a student.  You may be asking yourself: "So your grades count for college or something?" In fact, they do not. They are more or less a tool I can use to measure my progress.

     Now, where do I live? I live with a host family. No, not a family fluent in English who cook me American food and live like Americans but a real French family.  Actually, I have 3 host families in total. Right now I am in my second host family where I have 3 siblings: Manon, 19, Benjamin, 16, and Nathan, 10.  I also have my host parents: Stephane, who works as an engineer for the SNCF (a large railway organization, translates literally to National Society of Railways.) and Nathalie, who is a teacher in a Vocational/BOCES style school.  And what exactly do I do with the family? Well, I live with them! It is just as if I was a member of the family. We do little activities together when they do them. Speaking of activities together, the next school break I may be doing Disneyland Paris with them!! And, I live with 2 cute little 5 month old kittens now too!

     Now, a little bit of an update on what I have been up to. I am not very sure where I left off on my last report, so I am just going to rewind all the way before Christmas break.  So, right before Christmas break my class in school took a trip to Strasbourg, a large city in the North-East of France. It is in a region of France called Alsace. Alsace is a region of a particularly mixed German/French culture due to the fact that it is on the French-German border and that it changed hands numerous times. Thus, in the region there is a special culture.  Strasbourg is a city widely renowned for its christmas decorations and christmas markets. It calls itself the "Capitol of Christmas." In any Christmas market in France there is a special atmosphere. Just a nice homey place with all the little merchants and of course lots of snacks. Speaking of snacks, typical Christmas market chow is Hot spiced wine, waffles, crepes, and, if you are in Alsace, pretzels. I tasted all of the above, and I love Hot Spiced Wine( Vin Chaud, in french).  It is something that isn't very popular in the states but should be. It is just delicious. Typically a red wine spiced with your traditional "spiced drink spices" such as cinnamon, etc, with oranges, and its served hot! Perfect for a cold day! Which is why I was tempted when I was given the idea to open a Vin Chaud stand upon returning to the states. Who knows? Maybe I'll take my christmas break and go to NYC and serve up some Vin Chaud? Looking for investors!

      Also during the trip to Strasbourg, we tried some specialties of the region: Bretzel(pretzel, not a huge fan), pain d'épices (gingerbread, yummy from the right places), Flammenkeuch aka Tarte flambée( a pizza like dish, but not with tomato sauce. Typically a super thin crispy crust with a mild cheese and little smoked bits of lardon, a large fan! Tried numerous kinds because it was an all you can eat and I was freezing!), and also spatzle( a pasta, not super but its a pasta so yeah).  Also traditional to the region is Choucroute ( a large dish of sauerkraut, sausage, and ham), and the typical idea of Strasbourg food is really hearty like with all sorts of sausage, beans, etc. During the trip we also visited a Concentration Camp.  I can't really find a word to describe how I feel about this visit. I try interesting, depressing, fascinating, horrifying, and touching.

       The camp is located in high in the Vosges mountains. Since it had snowed not long before we arrived and there was a thick fog and we could down in the valley, it was beautiful. But the fact that it was a concentration camp made it hard to appreciate the landscape. Actually, the location was a ski station before it was a concentration camp. It was bizarre to be in a concentration camp. I mean it is just something we studied in history, I still don't feel like I really understand or even can. I made the comment to a friend that to me its just a history topic but it happened in his backyard. But we did do other light hearted activities.

     We visited what I could see as a future place of work, the Council of Europe. At first when I found out we were going to the Council of Europe instead of the European Parliament I was a little disappointed, but did you know that there are more countries that belong to the Council of Europe than to the European Union? In the European Union there are 27, in the Council of Europe there are 47. I say it may be a future employer because the 2 official languages of the Council of Europe are French and English. Voila, qualified in that category. I am just not sure if you actually need to be a European Citizen. In the neighborhood of the Council of Europe there are quite a few international organizations like the European Parliament and the International Human Rights Tribunal. Throughout the trip I repeatedly had little moments where I was reminded that I had to speak French. You may be like, okay what is he getting at? Its the fact that its the first time I have ever really went out and done anything besides school with french kids my age. I have done trips and events in France, but I did them with Rotary exchange students. So, it was a sort of new/old experience. Now after the 10-11 hour bus ride home (during which I barely slept at all) I went home to my house for probably 2 hours max to eat breakfast and shower. Then I was back in the car for 12 hours, direction the Alps.

     The ride wasn't that bad. Although I cant say that I saw most of it; I slept, and snored apparently, the majority of the way.  Regardless, I was in the Alps!! I spent christmas in the Alps with my host family and host grandparents on my host mom's side. We had our own cute little apartment in this chalet not far from the ski trails. The first afternoon I tried Alpine Skiing, which I thought was a little tricky. The second morning I tried cross country, then I decided Alpine wasn't that bad haha. It turns out, I really enjoy skiing. Which is good, because I can ski back in the states! By the end of the week I was skiing around all alone! Among one of the many beautiful views from the ski trails was Mont Blanc, the ceiling of Europe. Great view! Also while in the Alps, a family friend made us frog legs! Which I ate, much to my host mother's disgust, and I liked it! If you want some, I know how to make them! Christmas was a little weird since we were in a small apartment, but we made it work. What we did was we had some family over for little munchy snacky things and champagne, then stayed up to midnight and exchanged gifts. I went to christmas mass for the first time with my host grandparents and host mom. Yeah, that was christmas. There were very few decorations, music, lights, or even christmas movies on the television. By US standards we would say they lacked all christmas cheer. But it was nice anyway. I can now say that I passed Christmas in the Alps! After that we returned home for christmas with the either side of the family and I switched families.

       In other news, I had to say goodbye to some of my best friends here. Since the seasons are opposite in the southern hemisphere, the Australians, New Zealanders, and an Argentinian returned home. I miss them all so much already, but we keep in contact.

       Right now in France is a period simply referred to as "Les Soldes" (The sales). It is a 5 week period of numerous mark downs on just about everything but primarily clothes. Which is a blessing and a curse when you need new clothes. Because you buy what you need, then what you, what you think you want but maybe just because its a good price, and then you go back in a few days and repeat. But now finally I have a good number of clothes that fit me!(and are stylish but all french people seem to dress the same)

      Hmmm what else? Let's see. I am gearing up to make my next 5 months even better. On the list of upcoming events: two days in a French Bakery, Paris!, party where I'll have to cook with all the host families, District Conference, and Bustrip!

I hope everyone back home is going well!!

-Keith

Aubrey Racz -- Ecuador (home club: SoRensselaer)

February 13, 2013

Host District 4400

Sponser District 7190

Host family: Vazquez

Counselor: Pepe Lara

Everything is going great. We changed families the 3rd of February, which was probably the hardest thing I have had to do down here so far. But my new family is really nice. We just celebrated carnaval for three days at the beach. The sun was out and shinning. It was great :).  

I also got to participate in the graduation here. It was actually very similiar to my graduation at home. This was on a friday night and then that Saturday there was like a formal dance with all the families of the graduates. It was really nice. Everyone danced. It was a lot of fun.

I am also really excited because the 12th of march we will be going to The Galapagos Islands!!!!! It should be a lot of fun. I am also still going to the rotary meetings every wednesday. Everything is great with my club.

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

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

Hello again! I'm now about halfway thru my exchange year and while I might not be fluent, I can say that I can communicate very efficiently in Portuguese. I am currently staying  in the district governor's house while I wait to go to my next host family. From what I understand they are currently on vacation. I will miss my old host family but I am told that my new family has a pool! Eu adoro nadar! I love to swim.

Yesterday, I went to a Rotary meeting and I meet with the other kids in the area. There were seven of us, two exchange students (including me), two hopefuls, one Rebound and two kids that got dragged there by their parents. We all talked in Portuguese about where we are from and what we like to do, things like that. I ended up with the unofficial biggest laugh award because of a story that I told about a spider that was bigger than my hand that I found in my bathroom and proceeded to freak out. All in all, I am having a wonderful time and I can't wait to meet my new host parents.

Sincerely,
Kirsten Beth Lomnitzer

Keith Roscoe -- France (Home club: Cobleskill)

January 1, 2013

   

    Happy New Year! I would have wished you all a Merry Christmas, but I am a little late.  Anyway, as usual I have been pretty busy. The version in a nutshell is as follows: class trip to Strasbourg, week in the alps, switch families in 2 days.  Okay, now for details.

   The trip to Strasbourg was great.  I would have liked a little less time in the bus, 10 hours one way, but other than that it was great. We rolled by night so the first thing we did in the region was eat a tradition breakfast of the region, which is known for including cheese and sausage products (really called charcuterie in french, but I have a hard time translating. Literally, like prepared sausage products). Then we went to a modern art museum. Where I saw an original study of one of my favorite works! I saw "Le Penseur" aka "The Thinker", but like a real one! How crazy is that?! Not to mention the Monet that was there too!  After the art museum we did this like educational scavenger hunts in the city, boring but we got to explore the city.  That night we tasted a local food called Flammekeuch, their take on pizza. Very very good, returned there when with friends when we were on our own for lunch.  Also visited a concentration camp, the very old cathedral (celebrated a million years in a couple of years), a traditional town, and the Council of Europe.

   Week in the Alps:

       Well, the same day I got back from Strasbourg I spent 12 hours in a car to get to the alps. Needless to say,  I slept most of the way.  But the alps are beautiful!! The roads are literally like the car commercials though, nothing but hairpin and 90 degree turns.  Putting all of that aside, I learned how to Alpine ski!! I plan on continuing that when I get home.  I tried cross country but it wasn't for me.  We also did Christmas in the Alps, which was cool. Oh, and you will never guess what I tasted while I was there! Frog Legs! It isn't actually that bad, after you get over the fact that you have to eat them off the bones, it isn't bad at all.

       I will be switching families very soon, but I am not sad. Yes I will miss this family, but I am definitely ready for change! Change keeps things exciting!

Bisous,

Keith