 |
Rotary District 6110 Youth Exchange |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  |
Zach
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||
| YE Journal at Rotary Youth Website | |||
Students: To add a message to your travel blog, email the entry to vicki; she will put all entries online.
|
Why I Chose to Study Overseas for a Year |
Note: Most Recent Entries Appear At the Top
| Date/ Entry Title | Entry |
| 4/4/08 ~ 2:33 PM | Hello all again. This is Zach here reporting from
Chile. I am having a great time here. I am heading into the final
stretch of my Rotary exchange and I have loved every minute of it. I
would definetly recommend this, going on exchange to experience a
different countries culture and costumeīs, any day of the week to
anybody who seems qualified for it. I think that everyone 16-18 or
19(me) who is ready to take that next step and experience something
knew should go on exchange. I do not remember where I left off last
time so I will start from Christmas time and the beginning of the
new year of 2008.
So Christmas time came, and once again for me it was in the
summer. I am starting to get used to this Christmas in the summer
kinda thing. Christmas isnīt very big here. They put up the tree
and decorated it, but that was about it. They did not put of
decorations around the house, which I will admit even though I
donīt want to because my mom will make me always put up the
Christmas decorations at our house every year now. Yes mom I miss
all the fancy, nonfancy, extravagent, and not so Christmacy things
that we always put up every year.
So anyways, Christmas Eve, we all exchanged gives. I bought a present for each of my family members. There were very few gifts and that was different for me as well, so now I can add another checkmark for different experiences in my life. After we exchanged gifts, we went to my host dadīs, dadīs house. There was all the family from my host dadīs side of the family and we all had dinner together, played games, and exchanged more gifts as well with the big family. I felt very much apart of the family as we were all talking and enjoying each others company, when the grandparents gave me a present. I felt very bad seeings how I didnīt have a gift for them, but they insisted that I did not need one. It was a nice blue collared shirt, that I have actually worn quite abit here. I am very blessed here, because I am apart of one of the best Rotary families here. They are all nice and we are all doing things together. I have heard many stories of how the rotary exchangerīs donīt talk to their host family, because they are having problems or other things that are going wrong, and I am just glad I have been able to be with my family for as long as I have. So after Christmas my parents and I went up to their families house in Illoca. Illoca is spelt illoca just with the i capitalized if you all were confused. I had a great time there for the first 2 weeks I was there. Some exchange students and I went on summer vacation to cities like Constitucion, Pichilemu, Santiago, Lago Vichuquen, and a very close friend of mine that is from New Hampshire. whom is here on exchange as well, we went together on trips to the mountains 2 different times as well. Also in between me doing all those things, I went back up to Illoca a few more times as well during the weekend with my family. I also went and did things in my host city of Curicó with my friends from Chile as well. After having a great summer vacation all of Rotary went on our trip to the North of Chile. It was beutiful in its own way. I say that because it is mostly all desert but you can not say anything bad about it until you are there. It was a very nice trip I thought despite many people complaining it was to hot or many people getting sick due to heat exaghustion, and dehydration. I was just fine because I was smart and brought a waterbottle with me, so I had water every step of the way. I donīt have the schedule of things that we did, but my friend does and once she gets back from her family trip to the North with her family from Germany, she will send me the schedule and I will put it up for people to see where I went. We went for 11 days and spent quite a bit of it on the bus, but I am not complaining because I like being around everyone, and the bus was just and awsome time except for when everyone was sleeping lol. Now I am back in school. I am back in what is the equivalent of junior year here. I donīt mind it because I am very good friends with the new class as well so I have very good friends in the senior course and junior course. I am not in the senior course because they are mostly just studying for a big test called the P.S.U which I am pretty sure is the equivalent of our act or sat. I have not had any problems with the school, and I have gone to school almost everyday as well. Now all of rotary from our district are going to Santiago to run in another marathon race. This time it is 10 kilometers. Also, on the 19th of April we have the trip to Isla de Pascua. Rotary gave us a surprise and have started to make a trip up to the people that are still here and want to go, for us to be able to go to Buenes Aires, Argentina. In the beginning part of June. I am so happy for that trip. I hope I am able to go to Argentina. That is it for now. I am just having fun, studying spanish, and enjoying every minute I am here for every minute that goes by is every minute closer that I have to return back home to the world of work and university. Well that is it for now. I will attach a few pictures with this email and I will write again in a month. Love you all.
ZACH
|
| 1/31/2008 9:47 AM | Hello all. I have been having a great time so far in Chile. This was a great place to choose to come to. So far this Summer I have visited my families beach house in Iloca. It is a vacation town for alot of Chilianoīs in the Central Valley. I spent Christmas though, with my family here and I felt very grateful that I was treated as another family member and not just as an exchange student. The grandparents even bought me a gift when all the family was in town and we all ate at the grandparents place. I was very happy to be thought of like that. Then my family went up to Iloca on the 28th and we spent New Yearīs at our beach house with other family members that went up there. It was very nice, and they even had fireworks as well. I came back for a few days a couple of weeks ago and my friends and I planned a trip to Talca to stay with other exchange students there for a day. We then left the next day to a town about a hour and ahalf away from Talca by bus.Talca is about 45 min. by bus from Curicō my host city. We then spent 2 days in the town which was called Constitution. It apparently was a tourist town, but I guess even though its summer that February is the peak month because there were not very many tourist there. But none the less, we all had fun and once I returned I went back out to my beach house to spend a few more weeks there. Now, it is the beginning of Feb. and a friend of mine and me are planning a hiking trip to Altos del Lircay. The area we are hiking through is about 7000 feet high at the tallest I think. We are planning on going 2 nights and three days for the hike. Once I return this comming up Wednesday, my same friend and I are going on another campping trip with his friends from Chile that weekend. Then I will be heading back up to Iloca to probably spend the rest of the summer in my beach house. I will be coming back for various reasons I donīt know yet though. But that is it for now and also we are changing families at the end of February. That is it for now tilī I return from my trips. I finally got my cable so I will be posting a few pictures with this email as well. So check them out. I have set up an account with Walgreenīs and I put all my pictures on my account on Walgreenīs, so if you would like you can send me your email and I will put it with the other emailīs that I will be able to share my photo album with. |
| 12/22/2007 4:44 PM | Hello Rotary and everyone else reading this message. I am doing great. The past month of November was very good. Since our last trip with Rotary, I have not gone really anywhere. My family thougu, is going up to thier beach house in the begining of January. So I am going up with them and I will be spending just about 2 months with them. Christmas is different here at least in my family. We normally in America celebrate Christmas big time. Here in my town they have decorated the plaza, that is near my house, up with many Christmas things. In my house we got a small Christmas tree and we all set it up with the normal Christmas ordiments, but it is the 22nd or 23rd of Dec. and we do not have any presents under the tree at all. Here in my family we give one present to each person or each person gets one present from my parents, I am not entirely for sure on that. They are very nice though, and when I change families I will be very sad. The other Rotary kids went on a trip to the south of Chile just this past week. They said it was very amazing and they all had so much fun. I was not able to go, but the trip, in March, I will be going on so I will be able to comment on that trip. Not much else has been going on here. I finished school at the end of November, because my junior class went on a trip to Europe. Although most public schools do not finish tilī the middle of December. The weather here is getting hotter and hotter and now since it is the summer, my host brother and I are going over to friends houseīs and swimming alot. I have been told by many that my Spanish as improved very much since I first came here. I never thought I would be able to speak Spanish as well as I do now. It is not great, but it is not bad either. hahaha! Well this is it for now and I will try and write while I am at the beach. I am going to post pictures in a couple weeks due to the fact that I left my cable to connect my camera to the computer at home. I know, I was not thinking but it will be here soon so I will be able to post pictures when I recieve it. |
| 10/25/2007 3:56 PM |
This past month has been alot of fun. I met alot of exchange
students and we all went 2 weekends ago to Santiago. We traveled
around santiago for a bit and walked the streets and visited where
the president of chile works and the other buildings surrunding
it. we then went to a few churches in Santiago and had lunch out
side in the plaza and apperently they were shooting a with a
camera shots for a news program and since of course the 6 of the 9
of us in my district here are blonde we stood out the most. so we
got on tv and they siad we were going to be put on the newspaper
but i doubt that. Anyway so after that we had dinner and dance at
this restraunt and had a great time. On sunday we went to 2
places. one was called Valpraiso and that was very nice. It was
very beutiful. Next we headed to another place called Viņa del mar
and that was an amazing place as well. its a resort place i think.
it has a great beach and a great place to swim and there were alot
of those beach houses where you can rent them for a week or
something like that. i really enjoyed that. My cameraīs batteries
died on saturday so I wasnīt able to take pictures of those 2
other places or of most of santiago where i went but I had a
really great time and i am going to santiago again to visit my
host sister in college in like 2 weeks. also just this past
weekend rotary took us to a copper mine and to a really old beat
up town that was a huge part of chile back in the olden days
called sewell. It was alot of fun and I enjoyed it very much. That
was on saturday and this past sunday as well rotary( well the kids
and our counselor) ran a 5 k run through city of curicó. That was
alot of fun. We got numbers and a braclet as well. I put the
number on my jacket. Well all is well here hope rotary is going
well. We have to do a 5 minute project all in spanish and we are
all given different parts of chile to cover. I have tourism, the
region and something else. It is due on nov. 6. Well I hope all
goes well with that. One thing I will say is that Rotary here and
chile is never good with plans or time lol. Alright well I have
wrote enough for now. I will check in later. Chao!
ZACH
|
| 10/8/2007 9:12 PM |
Hello all my fellow Rotary members.
I am doing great here in Chile. I have made alot of new friends and I think I have progressed in the language very well for how little I knew it. I can actually say I can walk down the street and see like 5 or more people I know almost everyday. Although Santiago is big and would be great to be there for many things to do, because here in Curico there is not much to do, I donīt think I would change where I was station. I love my family and they are a very big family which I love. I am doing well in school, and yes I actually do go to school everyday. You can ask my teachers or parents. It really is nessasary to go to school here in Curico or else you would not be able to meet alot of friends here. I have many pictures I want to put on the blog but I donīt know yet if I can upload them on to the computer. I have been to the beach and my family has a big house on the beach as well. I live in the downtown city area and my school is about a 20 minute walk and a 10 minute drive. I have 8 other exchange students here in Curico and they are great people. I am good friends with like 5 or 6 of them. Well for the month and half that I been here I think I have learned alot and have experience quite abit already. I hope to keep it up.
ZACH
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
