District 7430 Youth Exchange - Rotex

On September 23 i just celebrated 2 months here in Brasil! This month has been pretty busy just keeping up with my usually daily activities. Working out at the gym, studying portuguese with my private teacher, doing capoeira, and power walking with my host mom. On the 23 of September I also celebrated my batizado. This is when you change belts in capoeira. In order to do so you have to "joga" with another person and a master. Joga is when you fight in the middle of a circle, but it looks more like a dance. To change belts, the master has to make you fall to the floor. Fortunately, my master was nice to me and i didnt fall to hard. But i was very nervous because i ended up being the first female to go, but in the end it went really well and i felt really proud of myself. My host family and my second host family came to watch me and it was so encouraging to see my little brother and sister cheering me on. And my host mom got it on tape so when i come home i can share it all with you. This month we found out that my aunt here is pregnant and that i will be here to see her have the baby so that is pretty exciting. On Sunday we had elections here for President and several other positions. It was really interesting because here everyone is required to vote. They have incredibly advanced voting system, complete with digital photos of each candidate. Usually they know every position by that night, but this time the candidates for President were to close so they have to re-vote again on the 29 of October. I recentely changed my hair color to red so thats a new and i´ve lost some weight, which i like as well. And i recieved a box of food from my mom which i love because here we dont have some of my favorite foods like peanut butter! I also got to speak with my cousin tammy, ron, and ronnie and my aunt joyce and uncle vince, and my mom on the phone. In a few days I will travel to a three day music fest with my host family so I am very excited about that. At the end of this month I will be changing host families, and they are very excited to recieve me. All in all i am having a wonderful time here. College is fun because I have great friends and I am starting to understand more in school. Let me know if you have any questions, they can be random about anything, just let me know.I love you all and miss you! Beijos Tchau!

Much luv, Aishah

10/7/06 from Zach in France

I. Kissing Hello
In French II, we learn in a lesson about French culture that people in France kiss eachother on the cheeks to say hello and goodbye. To quell our pubescent uproar over kissing our friends, family, and strangers, the French teachers told us that French teenagers do not really participate in this social oddity. They lied.
Everywhere you look, there are French people kissing (in love and also in hello, but today I am talking about kissing in hello). They call it faire la bise, and depending on where you live in France, you kiss different amounts. In the center of France (where I am), we kiss twice, one on each cheek. Generally you shake hands the first time you meet someone, and then after that it is kiss left - kiss right. Women kiss men, men kiss women, and women kiss women. Men shake hands, unless they are family or really really close.
You kiss everyone in your reach. Whenever there are a lot of people in a room, it is a warzone trying to kiss everyone. Sometimes it manifests itself into a kissing circle, where you orderly move from one person to the next; but most of the time it is a free-for-all where people ask if they have already kissed you or not. Often it is awkward when you don't know whether you should kiss or not, and you end up doing a half-handshake which pulls into the kiss.
If the two people kissing both have glasses, generally one of the people will remove the glasses to avoid an embarassing clash of metal. Women generally make a kissing sound, while men prefer to just touch cheeks. I have tried to work out the formula about whether you start on the left or right side, but as far as I can deduce, it is a random 50-50.
Kissing stops everything. At school, it is dangerous to walk up stairs in the beginning of the day. People have yet to give their daily kisses to their friends, and so if a friend comes along, the world stops. Well not the whole world, but everyone on the steps has to stop and wait for the kiss to end. Unfortunately, when there is one kiss it turns into a chain reaction of kisses which can literally take minutes.

II. Plume Pens
My first day of school, I came into my class late with the principal. The door opened and I was amused to see that every single student had a pencil case/bag sitting on their desk. In the United States 5 or 6 students might have a pencil case, and 1 person might have it out on their desk, but in France 100% of the students proudly display their pencil cases.
When I say pencil case, I should really say pen case. French people hardly ever use pencils. For essays, for notes and for math homework, the French use pens. So when they write 5 instead of 6 early in the math problem, there is a lot of white-outing and crossing out when they go and fix their mistake.
After I was introduced, the teacher said that we were going to start notes, so everyone should take out there paper. The paper was taken out, and it was neither college ruled nor wide ruled. It resembles graph paper with margins, with darker lines for writing, and lighter guide-lines.
Chapter One: Line functions, was written on the tableau (chalk board). Everyone wrote the title, and the I hear a universal unzippering of pencil cases: out comes 32 rulers. Every single student used their ruler to underline the title. As the notes went on, whenever a line or underline or a boxing of a formula was written, a ruler was used. Then the teacher asked the class to draw a circle, and what do you know 32 compasses appeared, and 32 perfect circles were drawn! To sketch a figure in France means to create a to-scale, geometrically accurate, straight-lined artistic masterpiece.
Along with rulers and compasses in those French pencil cases sit plumes. A plume is a fountain pen, and they are all the rage in France, and by far the coolest school supply I have ever seen. So cool in fact, that I bought one a couple days ago. As I had no idea how to use one, my friends showed me. First, you open it, then you take the ink cartridge and push it in until you hear the sound, and then you write! As if that wasn't cool enough, when you make a mistake, you can erase it! There are fountain-pen-ink-erasing-markers which have a white tip, and when you write over the fountain pen ink, it magically disappears (on paper or skin!). Unfortunately, if you would like to write over the erased portion, you have to use non-fountain pen ink, but the whole process really is magic!

III. Potty Humor
The bathrooms at school are co-ed. That sentence is funny because while the bathrooms at school are not separated male and female, I would not exactly call them co-"educational." It still suprises me when I walk into the bathroom and see girls in there, it is a little unnerving; call it my american immaturity, but it skeeves me out a bit.
In the stalls, the toilets have no lids. Most of the other toilets I have encountered in France have lids, but not the toilets at school.
Most toilets in France are quite clever, they have two flush buttons: a half flush and a full flush. I think that is a great idea to help conserve water.
Every single toilet in France has a toilet brush. At school each individual stall has its own toilet brush. My house has 4 toilet brushes, one for each toilet. I cannot imagine why every toilet would ever need its own brush, but that is how they work it in France!
There is a difference in France between the Toilettes et Salles des Bains. The first contains just the toilet (rarely with a sink), and the second contains the shower, bidet, and sink. Often, these two rooms are next to eachother, but sometimes they are on opposite sides of the house.
I have yet to find paper towels in France. Every bathroom I have seen has only cloth towels (public and private), and more often than not the soap is in bar form.
I frequently hope that I am doing everything right. Is there a secret use for the toilet brush? Am I supposed to scrub the toilet after each use? Am I supposed to carry around my own toilet lid/seat? Is there a secret guys bathroom hidden somewhere, and the girls are just as suprised as me to find me entering the bathroom? Am I supposed to use/know how to use a bidet? Every trip to the bathroom becomes an experience of insecurity and bewilderment.

French customs are good at bringing out insecurities. It is so easy to feel awkward when you go in for the kiss realizing afterwards the other party only wanted a handshake. It is so easy to feel inferior when while sketching a circle in math notes, your circle looks like a lopsided egg when your neighbor's circle is 360degrees of perfection. Your titles feel so unimportant when they are underlined free-handed with an unintentional downward slope.

As scary as it is to be in France sometimes, I feel so fortunate to be here. I am learning so much everyday. I cannot wait until I know fluently how to faire la bise, how to take note is French, and how to feel at ease in a French bathroom. It is these little things that make each day challenging, exciting and fun. 10/7/06 from Zach in France

10/2/06 from Alexandra in Italy

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry I haven't written in ages, I've been so busy lately. Even when I'm not busy I don't have much time on the computer... my host sister is a bit of an MSN addict. Anyway, I hope you're all doing well at work, school, or whatever you're up to. I'm going to try to give as thorough an update as I can of what I've been up to in Italy, but it I'll probably leave something out... the pictures speak volumes, though.

I've started school since my last mass email. School here is interesting. No teacher bats an eye if a student comes in 10 minutes late, and getting a coffee is a perfectly reasonable excuse to get up and walk out of class. Even three weeks into the school year, not everyone has her books. I'm not sure if some people plan on getting them. Notice I used the word "her"... yes, my class is all girls. Fate is playing a cruel trick on me. I guess I should have expected it, going to a Linguistic school (most boys go to Scientific or Classical schools), but I didn't expect the class to be ALL girls. They're very nice, though. It's a bit difficult to get them to speak to me in Italian besides to teach me curse words since they're all so good at English and want to practice, but I'm working on it. I believe they're taking me a disco next week for my first time-- exciting. I've still been spending time with my host sister's friends. Some of them are growing on me, and the friends of her friends are very fun and closer to my age. Back to school-- my classes are Math (trig), Physics, French, Latin, Spanish, English, Art History, Philosophy, Gym, Literature, History, and Biology. I'm not taking Latin and French but I still have to sit in class until they come up with the definite schedule and can have me go to other classes (for the first month of school in Italy they have a fake schedule... no, I don't know why either). They only classes where I actually have to do work are English and Spanish, although I try to follow along the best I can in all of my classes. I am completely lost in Literature... try reading medieval literature that's a cross between Latin and Italian when you don't know a word of Latin and hardly any Italian. Fuuun.

So that's school. We go from 8 (basically that means 8:15) to 1 with a 15 minute break after the first 3 hours. Oh yes, and there is school on Saturday. Lovely. The teachers come to us, and we stay in the same classroom with the same people all day. Thus, my class is very close since they've been together all the time for 4 years... but they're still very nice to me. I just have to do a little bit of "hey, when you go out, call me!" because I think they think that I wouldn't want to hang out with them because I don't know what is going on most of the time... which is true, but the only way I will know what's going on is if I go out with them.

Oh yes, forgot... a few days before school started, my host mother took me to the most famous monastery in Northern Italy... it was very old and pretty, and I wish I could remember its name. Pictures are here.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001018&id=1479600088&l=95655

If you haven't seen them, my pictures from Switzerland are here

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000872&id=1479600088&l=b52c9

Varese is here

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000956&id=1479600088&l=69001

I'm going to get around to putting them all in one big album eventually, but as I said before... limited time on the computer, and the internet is pretty slow here.

After school I've generally been going out to lunch and having three courses when I probably shouldn't, shopping (but not buying!), having Italian lessons, going to the park, and generally wondering around because its pretty. I'm also going to try to start doing theatre at school-- the basic course is at the same time as my Italian lessons, so I'm going to try to see if they'll let me sneak into the advanced course. Its not like I would know what's going on in either one anyway. Rotary bought me an unlimited transportation pass (even though they don't look at it so I one could basically ride the subway every day without anyone noticing), so its also fun to get off at a random stop and walk around. That's why its good to have exchange student friends as well as Italian friends-- the Italians help me learn the language and (hopefully) take me to the disco, and the exchange students walk around and take pictures and feel awkward with me. Which brings me to talking about the other exchange students. There are really far too many of us (close to 25 I think?) in the district-- we all met at a dinner a few weeks ago, but I really only got a chance to talk to the people I was sitting near. Some of them are awesome, and some of them I would rather stay away from.

This weekend was probably the greatest weekend I've had since I got here. I didn't go to school on Saturday and went to Venice instead. Remember when I said that I didn't understand why people told me that Milan is ugly? Well, now I do. Compared to Venice, heaven must be ugly unless heaven is Venice. It's absolutely magical. I could have wandered around that city for ages. In addition to being beautiful, every little thing there is fascinating. Like... the city bus is a boat! The ambulance is a boat! There are boat taxis! But, when people say that Venice is sinking, they aren't kidding. There are parts of the city that are slightly flooded from the water coming up through cracks in the ground, and the bottom levels of many house that we looked into were basically covered in water. It's so sad to think that some day the whole city will probably be gone. The only thing I didn't like about Venice (no, not the smell... I didn't think it smelled that bad) were the crowds. It's understandable why so many people would want to go there, but some parts are sooo busy. However, if you go a few blocks away from the main square, its completely deserted. You just have to look a little bit for the "real" Venice. Basically the moral of this story is that you should go to Venice. Pictures are here

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001062&id=1479600088&l=2912a and here

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001063&id=1479600088&l=a87ec. Enjoy! When we got to Venice, we went to the island of Murano, the area that is famous for its glass blowing. There is really nothing there except for glass factories and glass shops... its so interesting. We saw a demonstration and they told us it was free, but then on the way out they said we each had to pay... oh, Italy. I bought the most sturdy looking glass products I could find, but I'm still worried that things will break on the way home. After Murano we took the water bus (I want my city bus to be a boat!) back to Venice and did the obligatory San Marco's square thing... we watched people being attacked by pigeons and stuff, but then we spend the rest of the day wandering around the back streets. Gorgeous. Wow. I'm going to stop now, because I could ramble about Venice for days... I can't wait to go back and stay for longer.

After Venice, a few of us slept over one of the other exchange student's houses, and we stayed up far too late making fun of each other's accents and eating Chinese food. Therefore I was absolutely exhausted the next day... when my host cousins took me and my host sister to my first soccer game! My host cousin Nicolò is 19 and Greggorio is 14... Nico is a HUGE soccer fan. Milano has two teams, Milan and Inter. No, I don't know why the name of one of their teams is the English form of the city's name. I should ask someone. Anyway, Nico's favorite team is Milan (I think every person in Milan is forced to choose one of the teams at birth), so by default they're my favorite team now. Also because they were the first team I saw. The game we saw was Milan vs Sienna. Nico thought that Milan was going to win the game easily, but the score was 0-0. He apologized the whole way home for taking us to what he refered to as a boring game, but I was actually fascinated. I know, me, fascinated at a sporting event. But the game was actually interesting, and the fans are insane. European soccer is intense. Italians still talk about how they're the champions of the world ALL the time, which I expected, but they might even be more excited about the national soccer games. There is one section where the crazy fans all sit, and as the team ran out, the crazy section all dropped rolls of toilet paper towards the field... it looked really cool with it unrolling in the air, I wish I had had my camera. Actually I did have my camera, but my memory card was full and I couldn't bring myself to delete any picturesfrom Venice. As the players ran out onto the field one by one, the entire stadium yelled each of their names. I felt out of place because I didn't know any of their names, but I'm going my research so I'll be prepared next time. They also sang all these songs I didn't know... I need to work on that, too. Nico said I need to go back because this was a bad game... I can't wait to see what a good game will be like.

Then I came home and slept... which is what I'm going to do again very soon. I have another busy weekend this weekend. I'm going to the racetrack (the other sport Italians are crazy about) on Saturday after school with Rotary kids, then to the disco with people from my school... then sleeping/ watching the soccer game on Sunday because now I'm a sports fan, apparently. Awkward. Anyway, write back when you have a chance, I love hearing from you all!

Love,

Alexandra

10/2/06 from Claudia in Spain

Hola!

Do some of you remember that lip piercing that I have wanted for a while but will never have the courage to get? I've seen three (female) classmates here who have one. Not like the goth kids either, normal people. And I just remembered my parents are reading this! Forget those last few sentences! Seriously mom and dad. No body piercings... yet.

As you can see, school has been a fun time so far. Though, a warning: this is the obligatory letter where you get to read about how much of a nerd I am i.e., it's all about school. If you don't want to hear the tedious details, I suggest you skip to paragraph eight. After that it starts to get good.

school: The schedule is funny, since we don't have the same classes every day. Most days I have history first period. I suspect my history teacher is a b---, but since I can't understand her very well, it doesn't bother me! I asked her the first day what things I would need for the class and she was all like "what do you want from me?" and I said "to know what materials I should have for this class" and she said "well I just explained it to you!" I almost started laughing, since that was my first day in school, and of course I barely understood what she had said! I managed to get the information and a course syllabus that I had missed being in Madrid the day before. Madrid, by the way, was awesome. I met all the other students from the US who came to Spain for the year, and some from other countries (though most that weren't from the US hadn't arrived yet). We also took a bit of a tour around the city, and tried to get all our paperwork done. Good stuff.

Latin and Greek are turning out to be my favorite classes. I was expecting them to be killer, learning another two languages when I'm still learning Spanish, but Latin and Greek are more like giant puzzles, where instead of numbers or letters or puzzle pieces, you use grammar to solve them. I learned the Greek alphabet, with both the castellano and English pronunciations, so when I take Latin in college I'll be able to use what I learned here. The teacher is fantastic. Her name is Eva (for some reason, everyone calls the teachers by their first names here) and she doesn't speak any English, but she tries really hard to explain everything to me. She also arranged it so I can take extra classes in Latin to help me catch up to the other kids (and I get to skip french! yay!)

I also have a very nice literature teacher. We're reading The Sorrows of Young Wherther, by Goethe, so you can imagine the melodrama in Spanish! After she told us we'd be reading it, I looked up an English translation on the web and read that as well, so that I could follow the plot better. She has us all read out loud during class. I like that, because I'm sure my pronunciation is getting much better, as is my mouth-eye coordination (you like that term? you can keep it). I can't wait until we read something I'm familiar with in English though. That will be great. We had a written quiz today, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I guess Mr. Z's Spanish class really pays off!

I'm in a Spanish language and literature class that is killing me slowly. That is all I am going to say on the subject.

I'm also in Philosophy. The teacher is so crazy, it's fantastic. She totally gets into every single thing she says or describes, and waves her hands around in huge gestures, and speaks very dramatically, and rolls her "rr"s so much it almost sounds like she's purring. Really enthusiastically....

I also have to take English and french. French is torture. Pure and simple, torture. The teacher also happens to be the principal of the school ("dire" as they say here, though it's pronounced "dee-ray", not "dire") and every other student has studied french for 9 years. There is one other kid in that class who also knows no french, and it's kind of becoming a running joke between us: "so, do you know french yet?" "nope, you?" I tried to explain to him while walking to the bus station that the people crossing the road were like sheep, who would only go if someone else went first, but he didn't understand me and after I was done said "are you practicing french again?" I'll think twice before attempting the subjunctive tense again.

I also want to tell you what we did for dinner a few days ago. In the afternoon, when I got home from school (school is from 8:30 to 2:30!!) the oldest brother brought a pig and a lamb into the yard and the father helped him cut it up. I'm talking a whole pig here, snout and feet and everything. He cut through the the spine with a serrated knife (I was tempted to make remarks about the dangers of consuming cerebrospinal fluid, but I resisted) and it made this crunching sound. The other brothers, who are 26, 24 and 20, all put their hands over their ears and were like "MIGUEL!!! STOP!" which I thought was hysterical, because you wouldn't expect them to be squeamish at all. I laughed at them and took some pictures of the decapitated lamb. Miguel, the 'chef' thought that was funny so I have a picture of him laughing at me too. :) in the nicest way, of course.

Later that night, at dinner, there were 15 people and we had to bring chairs up to Miguel's apartment. He and his wife had cooked the two animals, and I thought up a pun in Spanish, but didn't say it in case they didn't realize I was making a pun on purpose and not just confusing words. After like 4 courses of various meats and veggies, they had coffee, and then brought out this huge tray of every kind of alcoholic beverage you can think of. Javier and Inigo taught me how to say things like "he's drunk!" and "give me a shot!" and "down the hatch!" but they didn't drink anything, since they had to drive into the city (for an all night party....). Javier just finished some exams, and they party just as hard as they study.

The wedding was a lot of fun. Well, the actual wedding was boring, but it only lasted about 20 min before we left the church. Then, they had a five course meal, and started dancing. And smoking cigars, but mostly dancing. After a few hours of that (about at 10:30), the older people went home, and everyone else went out to various bars and night clubs. I followed them around and danced a lot, and they got a bit drunk and tried to talk to me in English. I didn't go home until 1:30, but I know my older host brothers didn't get back until like 5 or 6 a.m.

I haven't been homesick yet, but I wish I could eat kyle's cupcakes! The food here is wonderful, but chewing on something that doesn't look like it should is a charm to only come from kyle's kitchen. I heard about the mass spinach recall. Any other interesting news? Please email me! I love hearing from all of you! Even Andrew!

-Claudia

PS: Can you think of some English words that come directly from Latin? I know we have a lot, but all the ones that come to mind might be from various other Romance languages.

PPS: no pictures this time

10/2/06 from Julia in Siberia

Dear Rotary Club,

I would first of all, like to apologize for the belated nature of this report. The post offices and the internet connections are a little fritzy this side of the world, and I'm afraid I spent so much time planning what to tell you I forgot to actually send you my update. So, without further delay, here's all the news from Siberia:

Siberia is very cold. It started out rainy and cool in mid August, and then turned hot again late August and early September (around the 80's.) We had a few cold nights, and it's often below freezing in the mornings when I'm on my way to school. The weather will shortly turn colder, and we've had weather broadcasts predicting snow tomorrow. YES! I am so excited. The river also freezes over early in winter, providing a gigantic ice skating ring, which I intend to take full advantage of.

There's so much to tell you I don't know where to start. Right now it's quite a chilly day, overcast, and all the leaves on the trees (birches, mostly) have long since turned yellow. It basically feels like late November, and everyone here loves to tease me about the winter. Very soon I'll be heading to the local market to barter over a cozy fur hat.

The food here is spectacular. It's all very natural, almost always pulled out of someone's personal garden, and very tasty. There IS lots of borsh, but it's delicious, and very hot, and very good on cold nights. The breakfasts are great too, and the coffee here is much better (and the tea, too.) People are extremely hospitable, especially since I'm foreign. Siberian hospitality is naturally very generous, but especially so for foreigners. There are very few people who speak English in Barnaul (the city I'm living in.) Lots of people can string together an intelligible sentence, but I think there are maybe three native English speakers in the whole city. Talking English on the street will literally turn heads.

On the subject of hospitality--thank you very much for the hospitality you offered Olga Basilyko when she was in the States! Dale Rubinkam got me in touch with her while she was in Barnaul, and Olga took me to Tomsk with her for a week, where I was shown all the historical sites, universities and art centers in the city (there are quite a few!) I met a famous sculptor from the city (he gave me a plaster ear) and, of course, I met the Rotary Club (they gave me a flag.) It was great fun, extremely interesting, gained me lots of new friends and contacts, and I've been invited back for the holidays in winter. So thank you! They like to tease me in Tomsk, too, where they talk about how warm it is in Barnaul (Tomsk is about eight hours north of Barnaul, and had a little snow.)

My host parents are great--it can be a little tough not having any siblings here, but they've really worked hard to make me feel part of the family. They're very kind people, and help me all they can to find things to do around town, meet people, and (of course) learn Russian.

The Russian learning is going well. I can now understand most of what people mean, and I can have a simple conversation with someone, if they're patient enough to explain words I don't know. (They can explain in Russian, just using smaller words!) I'm reading Chekhob now (very simple Russian, but real Russian!) and can go shopping by myself, and barter. I try to learn a few new words everyday, and read, and I only speak Russian in school.

School is very hard! Most of my classes are incomprehensible--math or science based classes being bad, and literature the worst. The literature teacher uses gigantic words, talks very fast, and never writes on the board! History and Society are both fairly easy to understand, though, and my history teacher is great--every day after class she has a talk with me about what I understood (or didn't) of the class. She doesn't speak any English at all, so it keeps me on my toes!

My health is still very good, and I have yet to catch a cold (much to the wonder of my rotary club.) I've started swimming and kick-boxing, and I go running some mornings with my host father.

Right now I'm looking into starting music lessons at a local music school, and have high hopes for studying the accordion!

I'm not sure what else to tell you, but I would be delighted to correspond with you! If there's anything you'd like to know, or anything I've forgotten, please just say so and I'll write you right back (not as late as this has been!)

yours,

Julia

PS: you can also get some rather goofy news-snippets off my blog, www.ayearinsiberia@blogger.com. It's rather silly, and really just gives you random stories from my life here, but you're welcome to take a look!

10/1/06 from Eric in Argentina

sorry this is still september, but i should have gotten this in sooner. haha

So life here is pretty good, minus the 3 extra kilos, but hey no worries
they will be gone in half the time it took to put them on, haha, I wish.  It
has been a little over a month and I have to say my Spanish has progressed
quite well, maybe as well as my appetite.  The food here is great, if I
haven’t mentioned that already.  I am finally starting to do things in
school, now that I understand well enough.  I am reading the Spanish version
of Hamlet, which it takes me about 6 minutes a page, because I have to
translate every fifth word.  I am a wiss in math, English, chem., and
physics, but I am lacking in all other classes.  e.x.: lit, argentine
history, geography, and so on.  For one of my classes with a group of people
we are going to make galletas americanas, in other words: chocolate chip
cookies.  I am not exactly why we have to make food, but I know it is for a
grade.  I let everyone know how they turn out.
I am planning on starting to go to the gym and “working out” starting
Monday. I hope… just yesterday for gym we ran for 6 minutes around the
school, and I have to say I am a little out of shape.  I have played soccer
with the guys here, but I end up on my butt on the floor laughing, because
it is a joke.  I might as well pick up the ball with my hands and turn it
into rugby.
It turns out as far as parties, which I have been to a few, I am allowed to
go, but for some reason I am not allowed to go to the Baliches, the dance
clubs, until I have completed 3 months here, only 2 more to go.  That’s ok
though I think the parties are better.
…Last week was the first district gathering for the exchange students, it
was really great.  In total there are 33 students…10 US…9 Germany and
Denmark… 4 or 5 frenchies from Canada, France, Belg.  And others of course.
It is both funny and sad that in total we speak better English than Spanish,
hmmm.  Well just in my city alone there are 8 students-  3 in my club.   On
Thursday past, I went to my first rotary meeting… the governor of the
district was there.  I gave a short 2 minute speech about me, cough cough.
Not bad, but I forgot a few things.  I also got a picture of the whole
rotary, but unfortunately I still don’t have any of my pictures downloaded,
some day I will go out and find a cable for my camera.  I have just
procrastinated… a lot.  So I guess that is all, now I have written my novel,
chau to all, besos.

9/25/06 from Julia in Siberia

The All-Embracing Arms of Rotary

So. Once again, it is proved true that Rotary is EVERYWHERE. Things are just strange right now. Allow me a flashback to the not so distant past...
Okay. So, maybe Friday morning I'm woken up by my cellphone ringing. "'Allyo?" I grumble in my finest Russian accent. "Prevyet."
"Julie?" Is this the voice of Father, I wonder, or am I merely sleeping? It is, after all, six in the morning.
"Yes?" I blink.
"Your voice is all rough--are you sick?" I blink again and sit up in bed.
"No," I growl. "I was sleeping. How are you?"
Well, it turns out that Father has called with a purpose. He has called to prove that the long-reaching Arms of Rotary can reach you anywhere--even at six o'clock in the morning in a sleepy village suburb in Russia. Rotary had called with a mission, should I choose to accept it. I chose. To accept it, that is. Namely, Rotary gave me a name and a phone number--the number of Olga, who was hosted in a business program in America by my Rotary club. Olga lives with her fam in Tomsk, about eight hours north and several degrees colder than Barnaul.
So, I make the call, and eventually give up trying to talk Russian and the phone over to my host father. Plans are made without my knowledge, and then explained to me later in very fast Russian. To make a long story short, I am now living in comfort and happiness for a week in Tomsk, sans school.
Thank you Rotary. That's about all I'm going to say for this post, as all I really want to impress upon you is that Rotary really is everywhere. I leave the tales of my adventures in Tomsk for a later day--let is suffice to tell you that I know have in my possession a plaster ear, a large plastic banner and further missions in my future. But if I told you more, I'd have to kill you. Dasvidanya.

Me and Olga

they be little, but they be fierce...

Soo...a long week later. I still have no pictures. Why don't you just give up? I mean, really. People. You. And your demands.
So, today, I went to my first kick-boxing lesson. It was brutal. Push ups. Running. Punching. Running. Push ups. Pain. I went with Eddie, who always does kick-boxing. (Why kick-boxing, you ask?) The answer is quite simple. IT'S FREE. Thank you, rotary. Our club president owns the gym. Actually, most of the things in Barnaul seem to be owned by one Rotarian or another, but you usually can't snitch favors off of someone else's host parents. For example: my mother has an absolutely amazing restaurant, where I eat whenever I'm in the city (which is every day.) Eddie is grim with jealousy. Eddie's parents have an office building with a super-fast internet connection which he uses for a few hours every day. Grrr...
But yes, kick boxing. So, I go trotting across the city to the fountain in Sovietob Square (yes, you heard correctly. It sports the largest Lenin statue in the city, and that's saying something.) Only I'm early, so I go walking around and around the square to stay warm while I wait for Eddie (who's late). And I'm on my fourth round of the square when I hear, booming across the square "DDDZZZZ-OOOOO-LEEEEEE-YAAAAA!" I turn. Eddie is jumping and waving his arms happily, having arrived late (and warm) in a coat and on a bus. Dang you, Eddie. You and your coat.
And we merrily traverse the square to the kick-boxing club. And what do I see going into the club in front of me, but a ribyonak. (Small child.) And when I say small, I'm not talking twelve years old, I'm talking eight or nine. DO NOT MESS WITH SMALL CHILDREN IN RUSSIA. They kick box.
This had several repercussions: first of all, I will be more careful not to offend small children in the streets of Russia. And second of all, while we were all enduring the grueling work out, and Eddie and I were dragging ourselves grimly along through push ups and jumps and running, there are these little munchkins nipping at our heels. BACK OFF, RIBYONKA! Talk about motivation. Does anyone seriously want to get shown up at kick boxing by a child smaller than my dog? Words to ponder. Words to ponder.

9/25/06 from Jen J. in Ecuador(See pictures in Gallery)

Pictures!!!

Okay, so I'm just now getting to sending pictures because I have slow
internet and..well..when I go to do it I think to myself, "Eh I'll do it
tomorrow." Jaja. Sowwy everyone!

I know s ome of you haven't been updated on my adventures, I promise there's
an email with your name on it. I just haven't gotten to pasting it from
Wordpad.

Life has pretty much settled into routine. So there isn't much to update on
this month. I've been back and forth from my home in San Borja to Callao
where my aunt and grandparents live.

I met the other exchange student. Yup, that's right, there are TWO of us.
Jaja. Both from the United States, both from the North East. We rock.
But, I didn't have my camera on me..so I lack picture-age.

I went to La Punta and saw, for the first time, the Pacific ocean. I gotta
say, it looks exactly like the Atlantic. : P But, I didn't have my camera
once again, and I regret it. I want to literally kick myself. It's not the
ocean itself that had me so mesmerized, but about a mile out to sea were
these two HUGE landmasses that rose out of the ocean and were surrounded in
mist. It was....s hall I say...Gorgeous? And then, there was this little
red canoe like boat that these two men were rowing against the waves. It
was just, oh, I wanted to die for lack of camera-age. Like, really.

While on my way through Callao to get to La Punta we went through a REALLY
poor area. The buildings looked as though they were going to fall down
around us and there were stray dogs, EVERYWHERE. We saw a guy taking a poo
on the side of the road and I wanted to say "When you gotta go, you gotta
go." But I didn't know how in Spanish. The taxi driver was laughing so hard
at the guy. He had toilet paper and everything!!

Anyway, that's what happened this month for the most part. : )

OH. Don't eat Peruvian style Lasagna. It's not good.

Anyway! Picture explanations!! Wait..I haven't uploaded any yet. Oops. :
X
Okay...ehm...there are..ALOT. But I made them small so that they uploaded
faster for me, and downloaded faster for yo u. : ) I'm awesome that way.
SO! Here we go on Jen's journey! *puts on super cape*

I'm sorry for the lack of order, I was uploading them in Alphabetical order
at the same time as I was adding them...so in essence, there is NO order. :
) Eventually some of them have time stamps, because I forgot that existed.
SO that's a nice feature.

Victor.jpg - My host brother, Victor. Victorrrrr as I say. It's a joke
about my lack of ability to roll my r's.

Airport.jpg - THE AIRPORT. : ) The 3 people are all from Rotary. Charro
is the one in the front and Teo is in the back. I don't remember who the
middle person was.

Iglesia.JPG - La Iglesia de San Francisco, or for the Spanish challenged,
San Francisco's cathedral. It's so pretty. I just wanted to die! I am a
sucker for old and beautiful things, that and the simple.

Lima.JPG - This is taken from the window of El Museo de la Nacion.
It's...Lima via Javier Prado. The Museum is a 5 minute walk from my house
and makes me drool. Yes, I am a museum freak. So sue me.

Lima2.JPG - Yeah...Javier Prado...Museo de la Nacion. : )

Katty and Pamels.JPG - That should've been an a..pamela. Jaja. My host
sisters. They rock. Katty is the one on the left, and she's in Vermont
now.

Flag.JPG - Here you go!! PROOF! Proof I'm in Perú and not in rehab or
the insane asylum! I figured you all needed that. I know you had your
doubts!

Church.JPG - A church in La Plaza de Armas. That too, makes me want to
drool. I wish I could live in a giant church! They're
so....so....architechturally orgasmic!

Catacombs.JPG - Warning adult themes: If you do not enjoy the site of dead
people, turn your head now. Jaja Figured I should warn people. I'm
awesome that way. This is a pit in the Catacombs of San Francisco's
Cathedral. Isn't it lovely?

Maneul.JPG - Should be MANUEL. Jaja. Host daddy!!
< BR>Aunt and daughter.JPG - My aunt Vicky and her daughter Daniella. They're so
awesome!! She gave me a pot from Cuzco that is magical. : ) I dread
bringing it home in fear that it breaks. I would so cry.

Plaza de Armas.JPG - Isn't it pretty?! It's weird seeing something in
Pictures, and then taking a picture of it yourself. Anyway, it's a plaza in
the center of Lima that has the Governor's palace which has a guard much
like the British..except you can't go up to them.

Casa.JPG - A picture out the my brother's window. My neighbourhood is
actually very pretty. They have little gardens with statues of religious
figures. And everyone has a whistle and if you blow it, a security guard
comes. It's like a little maze too. I LOVE IT.

Plaza!.JPG - This is the little plaza outside of San Francisco's
Cathedral. They sell little things to scare the pigeons so they fly. It's
pretty gorgeous. : )

Rosa and I.JPG - Self explan atory. : P Me and my host mummy! I don't
ever escape a kiss or hug from her. She'll randomly walk in, hug me, and
walk out. jaja I loves her.

Casa2.JPG - Another picture of the view from my host brother's window

Casa3.JPG - Yup..another. WHEEE

Room.JPG - This is my room, my humble abode. It's moved around now, and
not by my doing. It randomly gets done when Rosa cleans under my bed.
Jaja. And YES that is the coat to my uniform in the closet and my best
friend on my desk: My spanish to english dictionary.

La Perla.JPG - This is the road next to my Aunt's house. She lives in La
Perla Callao. Which, is right next to the beach. It's really pretty there.
The one time we went, there was a drunk guy laying in the street like he
was dead..and another one laying on a bench. Can I express how funny it
was?

It's funny how fast you learn how to take pictures from bus windows. The
following all were done so. : ) So some have a hint of a glare.

Water Truck.JPG - Ehm..I don't know why I added this. Well, it doesn't
rain in Lima enough to sustain trees and grass like that, so they have huge
water trucks drive around all the time to water the little street dividers.
It's awesome to watch. I'm a sucker for things like that.

Flags.JPG - This is on the way to Callao. I could only catch the second
half of it, because I had to turn my camera on. It's two rows of what seems
to be every flag in the world. I got America's flag only by chance. Jaja.
It's there, just gotta search for it.

Huachipa.JPG - Every other Monday my grade goes to Huachipa for a day to
the university of San Ignacio de Loyola..and this is a street on the way.
Huachipa is a really poor area.

Huachipa2.JPG and Huachipa3.JPG - Mountains!! Woo!! There are slogans
carved into the side of it, you just can't see them. The higher up you live
here, the poorer you are. So. .it's the opposite of Korea. Haha. Random.

Anyway! That's all!! I've got one minute before I have to get off because
someone wants the phone at 7:30..so I get to rush to add email addresses!
Good thing I have a list. Jaja.

Until next time!
CHAU!!
Jen

Hope you enjoy the pics. : )

9/21/06 from Jenn L. in Costa Rica

so tday was a little better..i got to leave school early cause there was no english class... and the professor is sittiing right next to me in the cafe...lol.odd huh ....so we left earlyu ad went to the park aroud 9ish...yea i really got out early from school... we bought sundays and hung around till it was time to go home for lunch... most ppl go home for lunch but the ones that live far away stay in school and eat there ... theres not much to buy but chips and empanadas and ice cream but i guess its better than nothing if you live a half an hour away.. i went home and ate..rice and beans and salad as always.. then went back to school.. the in my last class of the day they were saying somthing about going and giving speeches in other classrooms and were deviding up the work.. i had no idea what was going on and just waited till they got its all sorted out.. it was somthing about when we had the th of july no one reall sang the hymns of the country and now we have to go to the classes to give speeches on how to behave in an assemlby... yea and we have to memorize it too...including me...

jenn

9/20/06 from Elizabeth in Ecuador

Hello to many many people!

I´m in Ecuador and I´ve started a blog (online journal) to keep everyone updated with my goings-on, here. The address is

egringa.blogspot.com

Please forward this to anyone not on the list that you think would be interested. Teachers--please give this out to GA students! If you want to announce it at morning meeting, that´s cool.

Also--anybody at GA have an idea why I can´t access my school email? I was told that I kept it even though we graduated.

Thanks and hope you´ll email me with news about your lives! Check out the blog regularly.

Abrazos y besos, (hugs and kisses)

9/18/06 from Christine in Germany. Photos in Gallery

Hello everyone..
Well, I've been very busy this past week. I went to Halle, the town from which my ancestors apparently came from.. and that was very beautiful.. and I went to a party on Saturday night with a girl named Ina in my English class. The following pictures were taken for your viewing pleasure. please enjoy responsibly.

This is Ina from my English class..She's really funny and helped me out catching a cab to go home after the party. She's very cool. I also had a video from this party but it didn't work when I tried to upload it, and I don't feel like messing with it now. It wasn't really that interesting anyway.. it was just a bunch of loud music and dancing people.

These are both pictures from Halle, where I heard a man named Cardinal Lehmann talk. Supposedly, he is the most important religious figure next to the pope.. In fact, I think he might have gone clubbin with the pope himself later that evening.. (That last was not actually true.) but the pope was in Germany this past week, so... yeah.
On Friday I'm going to my first inbound orientation, and I promise some pictures of that.. that is, if i ever get there. one downside to living in the country: you don't get a chance to get used to public transportation. So wish me luck!
Bis bald!
Christine

9/18/06 from Jenn in Costa Rica

hey everyone.. doing good here.. i am trying to get photos up but i dont know if its gonna work..i think i will have to try when i get home on my computer( the house here) to post.. so i had a super busy weekend soon to be even better... on friday was the 4th of july for here.. so friday night there were these lanterns that people had made and everyone was in a paraid ( i cant spell it) in the streets when it was dark out. then on saturday morning all the schools had their bands play in a HUGE procession in the streets..it was cool and i saw all my friends with their drums and other stuff.. no one really had a big party, my family just bought corona for lunch..lol. today i was suppost to climb el cerro. with friends..the mountain near the town..and i went to the school at 8 like i was suppost to, to meet everyone.. but it was raining by the time i got there so no one else showed up.... i guess we will do it another weekend. and tommorow i am going horseback riding with my sister and brother at a family friendshouse... the one that made my skirt for school...

i am dying for chocolate...i walk to the supermercado just to buy a chocolate bar.... my family makes all super healthy stuff..and i know u guys do at home but at least we had some lays once in a while..

ok talk to you soon

9/14/06 from Jenn in Costa Rica

hey guys... so i have a question... can someone look up TLC Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) con EEUU. with the usa... i looked it up here on google but it was in spanish with big words that i didnt understand.. its some gov deal for january here, and in the citys there are signs all over the place for it.. i was just wondering what it is..

so today was good.. i went to my morning classes and went to lunch.. my english teacher had me teach part of the class and read aloud cause he didnt feel like it.. and in the afternoon there were no classes after spanish..i dont know why..some days there are just no classes after a certain point... its reallly hot here...and i just go to school and hang out at home after... week days are kind of boring... will write about the week end ..this weekend...

jenn

9/13/06 from Jen in Costa Rica

hey everyone! i am doing great and having fun in school. the costa rican (4th of july) independienca is friday so there are suppost to be a bunch of cool stuff going on. school is good..i have about 15 different classes with 2 sciences and 2 history classes... last weekend i went to san jose for my sister s fiances mothers bday party.. it was cool and we went out dancing afterward. my familiy is doing good and i dont miss home much at all any more.. i dont know what i will do when i return home and they dont have tortias for breakfast everyday!!! and luch.. i L OVE the food here...m y family says i eat like a tica(costa rican).. my school uniform pants are totally horrible and i think i am gonna go to the sewing lady today to have her make a skirt..cause first of all i think the opposit of lowrise caught on here..and its REALLY hot in the afternoons so a skirt would be nice. i am totally rambleing today ..sorry...but i wanted to get out an email cause i dont know when the last one was... i usually stop by the internet cafe on m y way home from school and check m y email so if u wanna write u can. i dont like writing in englsih home cause when i leave the cafe it takes me about min to get back into spanish mode.. that sounds crazy but its true.. ok i gtg..its gonna rain and i have to get home..

ttyl, im missing you but having a blast here too... i think i have 2 homes now..

9/7/06 from Claudia Shrivastava in Spain

Dear Everyone,

Hi! This is Claudia, emailing you from Spain! YAY! I´m doing well, and unlike most of you, I have not started school yet. I am staying right now with a family with three "older brothers" and a very large dog, who is apparently named after a Simpsons character. Everyone speaks to me very slowly, and I mostly understand what is going on.

They have tons of relatives who live close by. Yesterday we hung out by a pool with about 15 other people from the mother´s side of the family (of whose names I remember only 4 or 5). The water in the pool was freezing, but everyone else seemed to be pretty used to it (I only put a foot in). It is very hot outside now, but they say that it is usually much cooler this time of year, and that the weather will probably change soon.

I am starting school in a week, and I was able to get some of the textbooks ahead of time. Hopefully I´ll have a good grasp of the first few lessons before school starts! I´m taking classes in Spanish History, Art History, Universal Liturature, Philosophy, Geography, Greek, and English. Normally, I would also take Latin and French, but all the other students have been studying those for years, so I would just be very lost. The liturature class looks very interesting. It has some things I´ve studied before (Byron, Arthur Miller, Ibsen), some things I´m familiar with (Keats, Hegal, Grimm Brothers), and some spanish people I´ve never heard of. So that should be an interesting mix. Unfortunatly, I doubt I´ll understand a word of it, but I´ll do my best.

The food here is amazing, and we drink coffee with everything. They also have a huge yard, with lots of different types of fruit trees, so there is a lot of fresh fruit. We ate dinner yesterday while watching Spain lose to Northern Ireland at soccer. The whole family was very suprised, because they didn´t think northern ireland had a good team. All three of the brothers play soccer, and one of them just had a game a few days ago.

I hope some of you email me back, I´d love to hear how things are going at Parkland (/russia/new york/italy/wherever). Can´t wait to hear from you!

-Claudia