Rotary Youth Exchange Student Update

Christmas was very different than what I am used to. It was nice but we didn’t exchange gifts. We had a nice family lunch and relaxed. Because of the baby we didn’t go out to visit family and things like that. Christmas Eve our neighbors came over and my aunt and we had dinner. Christmas Day kind of felt like any other day. I think that other families have big parties, but we did not.

On Dec. 30th I moved to my new family. My new house is very close to my old one which is nice, because it will be easy for me to go and see my first host family. In my new house, I have my own room and an older brother instead of younger siblings. I have another brother but he doesn’t live here anymore. My new family seems very nice. And they have a dog, which I am very excited about. I have missed having dogs and cats. But they don’t have horses, and I will miss the horses!

For New Year’s we went to my new family’s farm. A lot of Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins went also, which made it a lot of fun! Flavia, who is 18 and friends with my family, came with to keep me company since I don’t know anyone. We had a big dinner around 10pm on New Year’s Eve. It is pretty normal here to eat dinner really late. Then at midnight we shot off fireworks. After that I went with my brother and two of my cousins to this little town near the farm. They showed me a traditional festival where people with musical instruments go from house to house playing them. If you open the door everyone goes inside your house and you usually serve some food and drinks for everyone then they move on to the next house. I think it happens every night until the 6th. It was really fun to experience that tradition!

We ended up spending the whole weekend at the farm. We spent the rest of the weekend swimming in the little lake at the farm, fishing, laying in hammocks and relaxing. I loved relaxing in the hammocks! They have lots of fresh fruit growing on the farm so we would go and pick the fruit to eat whenever we wanted some. It is very good, but very different from fruit we have in the U.S. At one point Flavia, my brother, my cousins and I were talking in a bedroom and a rat ran across the floor. Flavia and I started freaking out and the guys were trying to catch it. Everything got knocked over as the guys dove across the room trying to catch it and Flavia and I tried to get up on the bed. There were so many people at the farm for the weekend that people were sleeping on mattresses everywhere and there was always a line for the bathroom! It was so much fun!!

On Thursday, Jan. 6, I leave for a month long trip to Brasilia, Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, and North East Brazil. We spend most of our time exploring different beaches in Brazil. One of the places we visit is famous for selling hammocks—I may buy one for myself! It is hard to imagine that I will be spending the month of January on beaches and playing in the ocean when I am used to it being so cold at this time of year. I am going with about 40 other Rotary Exchange students who are staying all over Brazil. I won’t be back from my Beach tour until Feb. 5, so I won’t be able to post another blog until after that time.

--from Jessica Weindling our RYE outbound in Brazi