My Wonderful Year Before My Exchange - Part 2

January 2013, I had a Winter Service Event. The Inbounds, Outbounds, and a few Rotarians went on the trip. We all got together at Warren's home. We swam and had pizza. I got to meet all the Inbounds again along with the other Outbounds. We visited a Center for refugees and Immigrants. Our speaker was a Rotary Youth Exchange student too. It was amazing to hear some of the stories that the women and men told us and all that they went through. After the center, We ate at a Thai restaurant called Basil Spice. It had really great food. We all attempted to eat with chopsticks. Cayla from Indonesia and Mayu from Japan were already professionals. After lunch, we visited an international market. We all brought things from different countries. I can tell you everything that I bought was great. I brought food from France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Jamaica and Croatia. Later this month, I would receive word that my host country was Italy!

Chicago Trip!!! March 2013 - I had a great experience to go to Chicago with all of the Inbounds and Outbounds. This was one of the best weekends I've had with Rotary. I took a train up in Effingham to meet the train from Carbondale. We met up with everyone at the hotel and we were off! First we visited the famous Chicago "Bean." Next we visited the Chicago Art Museum. For dinner we went to get none other than some Chicago deep dish pizza.  The next day we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, Chinatown, and a Greek restaurant. The last day we all went shopping! Before I knew it this amazing weekend was over.  This is the place were I got really close to all of the Inbounds. The Inbounds and Outbounds are my family. No offense, Mom and Dad.

April 2013 I had my Outbound Orientation. This was getting us ready for everything. We learned more about home sickness, visas, and cultural difference we may experience. There were a few Inbounds there : Cayla (Indonesia), Gerardo (Mexico) , Andres (Ecuador), and Lilla (Hungary). There were the other Outbounds : Mary Ward (Japan), Mary Phillips (Japan), Brian Suarez (France), Ashlee Foster (Philippines) and myself to Italia.

July 2013 - Central States Conference- This had to be one of the best weekends of my life. I learned a lot from so many exchange students, not only the ones connected to my host country but around the world! I had many meeting that would get me ready for everything I would experience. I will always remember Brazilian music like Ai se eu Pego at 2 in the morning. I still really miss it. The soccer game Brazil vs. The World was great. Brazil won!!! * Shocker* We had dances every night with music from everywhere. I also got to swim with a few of my RYE friends. I was also lucky enough to have my birthday there. It's a very odd thing to have 1,200 people singing "Happy Birthday" to you. May I say, Best Birthday EVER! I won't ever forget it! I also got to met the president elect for Rotary International, Gary Huang from Taiwan. The last night a lot of us stayed up really late playing ping pong and talking. My Hungarian friend, Lilla and I stayed up all night! P.S. I got about 5 hours of sleep total for the entire weekend! The hardest part was last. I had to say goodbye, more like A Presto (Italian for "see you soon".) This was the last time I would see my family in a while. That morning absolutely broke my heart and yep, You guessed it I was bawling like a baby just like everyone else. There is not a a day that goes by that I wish that I would do that weekend over and over. Love you, guys.