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Rotary District 6110 Youth Exchange |
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Kelly
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Travelogue |
Photos |
Students: To add a message to your travelogue, email the entry to vicki; she will put all entries online.
Note: Most Recent Entries Appear At the Top
| Date/ Entry Title | Entry |
| 3/7/2005 | Hey everyone how are you doing?? I am
doing pretty good. It feels like it has been forever since I have
last written so I will try to update the best that I can. Jan was a great month. It was summer in Brazil and I definitly took advantage of it! Having no school allowed me to travel to the beach, hang out with friends, and just relax. My host sister Flaviana and I hung out all the time and became really close. Then Feb. rolled around and it was time for CaRnAvAL!! Flaviana and I went to an old historic town called Diamantina to celebrate. Diamantina is right in the mountains and is known to be one of the best places to go for Carnaval for young people in my state. There we stayed in a house with about 16 other teenagers and I had the time of my life!! We would go out everynight at 9 pm and come home around 6:30 am. We would dance in the pouring rain, dress up, scream, jump, wow I cant even begin to explain all of the things we di d on paper. It was probably the most fun I have had in Brazil. I ended up running into about 10 other exchange students while I was there and none of us could believe what we were experiencing! A couple days after I got back from Diamantina, I had to deal with some heart-breaking news. My grandpa Linnemann had passed away. It wasn't the first death I have had to deal with while I was here but it was really hard. Earlier in November one of my best friend's dad passed away and it seemed like it took me forever to get over. You kind of think about these things happening before your exchange but you never actually believe they will. I dunno, it has made me a stronger person but it was been rough. To Ariel... my condolences go out to you for your losses! Hang in there...... :) I have started school back up again and I can definitly say that it is what I hate most about Brazil. I just sit there all day long and I feel like there are so many other things I could be doing. It stinks that it is a requirement to go but oh well, I'll get through it. I have started a Portuguese class in the mornings before my regular school that I really enjoy. I am learning how to read and write so much better! Everyday after school.. around 7 pm.. I go to our neighborhood club (similar to a Y) where I swim 1,000 meters a day and Im in the process of teaching my host mom how to swim. There have been so many laughs, I love it! I went to Rotary last week and got the news that I will be changing families. I know we all have to go through it and it will be good for me, but I am soooo nervous!! I have lived with this family for 7 months now and feel as though I'm attached at the hip! My host family and I have become s o close. Whether it be everyone curling up in the living room on Sunday nights to watch American Idol... teaching them how to make brownies and eating the whole batch just an hour after making them.... staying up until 2 am talking to my host mom and sister... going out on Saturday nights to the bakery to help my dad pick out the family's dinner... gosh I am going to miss them so incredibly much. I know there are going to be some tears shed when I leave. My new host family though is in the same neighborhood and my host mom now said I could keep my keys and come over anytime so I dont think it will be toooooo bad. Anyways though on to what I am soooooooo excited to write about!! haha... well just yesterday I had my best friend in Brazil, PIN, (an exchange student from Thailand), stay the night. Well we get to talking about friends, exchanges, and what not and I start telling her about how Katherine is in Thailand. She asked me what city and I couldnt remember for the life of me so we decided to get on the computer and check it out. Well come to find out, Katherine has just sent me an email. We start scrolling down and Pin says "Hey thats my city!!!" then she see's the name Malu.. and says "Hey!! Thats the exchange student in my house!!!" .. then shes like Kelly get up get up!! So she logs onto her email and brings up some pictures and THERE IS KATHERINE WITH PIN'S FAMILY!! I couldnt believe it! We just died in laughter and excitement. >> Katherine if you are reading this, Pin's family loves you and thinks your Thai is great!! << Talk about a SMALL WORLD! jeesh Well my fingers are getting pretty tired and I am sure your eyes are too!! haha.. It might be awhile till I next update because my new family doesnt have a computer but I will try my best! Love and miss you all!!!!!!! 3 more months.......... YIKES! -Kelly |
| 1/23/05 | From November 21 through December 20 I
traveled through the Northeast of Brazil with 93 other exchange
students. I can definitley say it was the highlight of my exchange.
I made friends for life, got to see the beautiful beaches and
mountains of Brazil, saw a completely different style of life then
what I have been accustomed to here in Ipatinga... It was a truly
amazing experience, one that I will never ever be able to forget!! Once I got back though I realized how incredibly much I missed my host family. I have been with them this whole time and I am really getting attached. I'm not sure if thats really a good or bad thing yet but oh well. A few months ago I couldn't wait to book my plane ticket home and tell everyone about Brazil but now... I can't even imagine going home. I think I've been putting it off for too long. Eeeks Im nervous!! The Brazilian life is so different.... but I love it! Hmmm on Christmas Eve I went to church with my family and then at about 11 pm went to my host aunts house. Everyone sat around and when midnight hit everyone gathered around the table outside and went crazy!! People lit off fireworks, shouted Merry Christmas at the top of their lungs, prayed, danced... pretty much everything you see at New Years but just on Christmas. It was quite a site to see. We ended up eating and talking until 4:30 am. A HUGE difference compared to Christmas's at my grandma's house back home that usually ended at about 10. haha On New Years I went to a party with some of my friends and had a pretty good time. Then on the 6th of Jan. my host sister from the United States came home after spending a year of rotary exchange there and we had a big welcome home party for her. I was kind of nervous before she came that things would be a lot different around the house but they have only gotten better. She is 18 years old and is constantly helping me with my Portuguese and making sure that I am always having a good time . The phone is always ringing and people are always coming over now, I love it. This past week the family and I travled to Guarpari, a beach about 7 hours away from my house. We stayed in their apartment a block away from the beach and had a great time. I love having the freedom that I have here. I could get up in the morning and walk to the beach.. order a drink.. talk to the locals... everything is so much better now that I know Portuguese. I know I am still not completely fluent but I can really see my progess from the first few months here. When we go out I can actually "be" in the conversation that we are having... I can buy anything I want with no problems.... I can take a bus/taxi and be okay... I love it. I swear before this exchange I never imagined I would like it this much. I was pretty nervous and thought it was going to be really hard but really its pretty much the easy life. Brazil is so laid back and easy going. I am always having a good time no matter what d ay it is. I love meeting new people and trying new things. I guess the one thing I am really looking forward to when I come back is trying to get more people to go on exchange, they have no idea what it can do to their life! Well I think thats pretty much it. I will try to update more as much as I can!! Attached are a few photos from my trip. I also have 2 websites where I have pictures posted: http://photos.yahoo.com/kellymac06@swbell.net (all the albums are public so you should be able to access them) http://www.fotolog.net/americanakelly < feel free to comment!! Oh and does anyone have aim or msn? I would love to actually talk to one of you guys instead of just email. Beijos e uma braço (kisses and a hug) Kelly |
| 11/30/04 |
Hey everyone how are you doing? I am doing pretty good. Right now
I am in the city of Fortaleza and I am having a blast. I left for
my trip a week and 2 days ago and so far I have had so much fun.
There are 93 exchange students from 24 different countries
traveling with me and 6 Brazilian men that cordinate our whole
program.
This past week I have hiked through 3 different caves, saw
the Rio River, hiked up the biggest mountain I have ever seen (I
felt like I was in the clouds!!!), swam on the beautiful blue
water sunny beaches, went dune bugging in a jeep, ate a ton of
food, rode the WORLDS TALLEST WATERSLIDE ( you go from 0-60 mph in
4 seconds!! ), went to a pirate´s party that New York Times rated
one of the best clubs in the world, saw those cute little monkeys
I was telling you about, and more!!
Yesterday was probably the best day because I went dune bugging. I have never done that before and it was SO much fun. We sat 4 people in a jeep and went down these huge sand dunes. I was screaming like no other. The only problem was after the dune buggies when our bus was trying to leave we got stuck!!!!!!! We ended up having to stay there for 6 hours in the HOT HOT HOT sun until we could get out. It was awful!!!!!!!
I am cut short on time though so Im going to have to end this.
I miss you all so much. I feel like I have been gone forever!! I
will try to email you again whenever I can.
Love you!!!!!!! Um abraço e beijo Kelly |
| Tuesday,
October 26, 2004 6:19 PM
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Hey everyone! How are you guys doing? I am doing pretty well. I just realized that I haven’t written about a beautiful story that happened to me so I am going to post it now. Hope you enjoy! J On my first day of school in Brazil I was greeted by an English teacher named Cassinha to help me get to know the school and the people. She was very kind and right away I could tell that we would become friends. For the next couple of weeks we talked, I hung out with her kids, and on my 17th birthday she and her family attended my party. A couple of days after my party I went over to Cassinha’s house and we got into a deep conversation about her religion. She told me that there is a certain saint that you pray to when you want to help someone else. After you pray, the next day if you receive flowers from someone, your prayer will come true. She told me that she had prayed for one of her friends who was really struggling with her family and had been sick for a long time. Then her sweet little eyes started to tear up and I asked her what was wrong. She grabbed my hand looked right in my eyes and replied, “Because of you my prayer came true.” My mouth dropped and I couldn’t think of anything else to say but how? I never gave you any flowers… Then Cassinha said to me “ Oh yes you did… it happened on your birthday”. I thought back and remembered my birthday. I remembered going into my room and getting a little notepad with tea for her to thank her for coming to my party and being so great to me. Cassinha told me when she got home that night, she started bawling because of what was on that notepad was exactly what she had prayed for….flowers. I couldn’t believe it. Beautiful isn’t it? I am loving this experience. So many new things happen to me everyday and I am so grateful for this exchange. I hope you all are enjoying this as much as I am. This is an experience of a lifetime, one I will never forget! Anyways until next time…Beijos! Tchau Kelly
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| Update 10-12-2004 |
My Portuguese is improving. I can understand almost everything now, but speaking still comes difficult to me. I was however, rewarded with congratulations about a week ago at my school for how well my Portuguese has improved since the first day that I got here. It made me really happy and I just can't wait to become fluent!
I can
really say I haven't felt too much homesickness. Occasionally I
really miss my family and friends and want so much to go home, but
most of the time I am fine. I keep myself busy and it helps a lot.
Plus I have become really attached to the people here, I think if I
went home I'd be feeling the exact same way there.
Kelly MacDevitt
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| Tue, August 10, 2004 11:59 To the Rotary Club of Parsons, Kansas |
Hello Everyone! How are you doing? I am doing
fantastic! I arrived here in Brazil about two weeks ago and I have loved every minute of it. I seriously could not have asked for a better country. Thank you so much for sponsoring me and giving me this opportunity. Now about my exchange... The first week that I was here I stayed in my state's capital (Minas Gerais) Belo Horizonte, a city of about 3 million people. I attended a language course provided by the Rotary, stayed with a very nice host family, and explored the city in the week that I was there. The main thing I noticed that was a lot different then the United States was the traffic! It was crazy! People pass whenever they like, motorcyclists speed in-between cars no matter what the distance is, rarely people stop at stop signs, and there are so many hills the cars just go zooming up and down! It's something that is very hard to describe on paper, but let me tell you, every time I got in a car I buckled up and knew I was in for an adventure! After spending a week in Belo, I moved to a new host family, the Gaggiato's, and came to my new city, and home Ipatinga. Ipatinga is about 3 ½ hours from Belo Horizonte and has about 250,000 people. I live in a house with my host parents Maria Rosa and Flaviano, one host brother Vitor, and each morning two maids come over, Magahlee and Beelu. The family also has a daughter my age, Flaviana, but she is currently on a long term exchange in Bloomington, Indiana! When I first arrived at the Gaggiato's home I was greeted by aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, and tons of friends. I realized then what people said about Brazil was very true! They are very family oriented. The family will always eat meals together, talk to each other constantly, and everyone really seems to get along. I noticed this also in Belo Horizonte when I had two younger host siblings. One was a boy who was eleven, the other was a girl who was nine. You would expect them to fight and argue because in the United States that is bound to happen at least once a day or every couple days, but for the week that I stayed in Belo with them, they didn't fight once. Not once. Other then being very close to family members and friends though, Brazilians love to eat...... especially my family! I usually eat a typical American breakfast, but when lunch comes it is completely different. I usually have lots of rice and beans (which I have to admit are DELICIOUS!), some potatoes, meat, a vegetable, bread with cheese basked in the middle, fresh fruit, soda or juice, and to top it all off dessert! I eat lunch around 12:00 noon and dinner around 9:00 p.m. , a big difference from eating at 5:00 back home, but with a lunch like that.. it will definitely last you all day long. In other news, I have started to attend school at San Francisco Xavier. It is only about a block away from my house so I walk to school everyday. The school has about 3,000 kids but it is very split up. The campus is quite large and half of the students study from 7:00 am to 12:00 p.m. , while the other half of students study from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. I am in the 2nd half of students and I love it! I get to sleep in everyday! I am not taking the tests at my school yet because I cannot understand anything the teacher is saying, but hopefully by the end of this semester I will be able to. My Portuguese isn't bad but it definitely needs work. Since my host family doesn't speak any English I am learning fast. Thank God for pocket dictionaries though, I don't know where I would be without them! Haha I have made some really nice friends and this last weekend I went to a concert with some of them. It was a blast! Brazilians definitely know how to have a good time! Well I bet you are wondering what is the Rotary like here in Brazil? Well let me tell you, it is a lot different then it is in the United States. So far I have attended two Rotary meetings and in my Rotary Club we have about 25 men and 2 women. The standard procedure at Rotary meetings in Brazil is when they start and end you stand up and clap to the Brazilian and Rotary Flags. After the meeting is finished you eat your meal that the Rotary has provided. A lot of men drink beer and just relax at the meetings. This month the Rotary gave me 160 Reals for allowance, which is about $50 dollars American. I have met my YEO and Club Counselor and they are both very nice. This last Saturday my YEO took me to a Rotary Function for disabled people and I had a great time. We had a meal and then watched a Brazilian Belly Dance! I think this pretty much wraps up how I have been doing the past couple weeks. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity, really... I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I am having such a great time and I know this is something that I will be able to cherish for the rest of my life. Hope things are well in Parsons. Take Care Kelly |
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