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Christopher Bates is from The Tri Cities Sunrise and is staying in Argentina

Qué pasa alla?

¿Todo paseando bien?  Para mí todo esta bien.  They do not have Thanksgiving here in Argentina.  My family is wonderful, but I am going to change families in a week or so.  My father that I have right now is the best father I have had, ever.  If only for this expirience, coming to Argentina was worth it.  I have a Godfather too.  He is also great.  Thank you for the birthday salutations.  For my birthday I had a roast.  We, me and about 35 of my friends including my family and my god-family, ate what is called Lechón.  Lechón is a roast which is prepared ahead of time and then eaten cold.  My family gave me a Mate and Bombilla (a cup in which they drink Mate and a special straw they use to drink it with) and my god-family gave me an Arbolito brand (the top brand) cuchillo (knife), today or tomarrow we are going to have my inicials CB put on the silver plates on the knife and sheeth.  My knife is about a foot long, bastante, and the handle is of bone and silver.  Yes, the knife is big enough for me and I am big enough for it.  I am 18 you know (just in case you forgot the number of years I have).  My godfather is named Oscar Fabion Mora and is called Pototo.  The guys in Rotary club here want him to be the president next year.  Tonight I am going to have another party for my birthday, this time with the Rotary.  There I am going to meet the familiy with which I will live next.  School gets out for the summer on Friday the 25 of November, 2001.  It starts up aging in April or so.  I am looking forward to the summer.  I am going to do a little traveling, to Buenes Aires and Mar Del Plata and such.  I ride horses and work with my friends on their farms sometimes.  Right now I ride more than I work, but that will change real soon because I want to work more and they have more than just cattle so they do not do it all on horseback.  In general I am doing fine.  I am officially an adult.  That is kind of cool, but now it does not mean very much, I mean you can buy cigarettes and alcohol at whatever age you want and yes, along side the soda pop, I served beer and white wine at my birthday party.  Three boxes of Quilmes (pronounced keelmes in English letters) it is said to be the best brand of beer here, but I do not know because I do not drink any alcohol or smoke.  I play pool and I go out to clubs on the weekends until 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning.  I drink a lot of mate and no it is not bad to drink or addictive, they drink mate to share something with each other and because of tradition.  Pastries are smaller here and cost $1 or $2 per dozen dependent on which bakery you buy them at.  It is common to buy them when ever you want and they are great, especially with mate.  My classmate just had her baby and I am going to see it for the first time today at 5:00 in the afternoon.  I do not have a girlfriend yet.  I do have best friends.  School always gets out at 12:40 in the afternoon or before and then I go home for lunch and sometimes sleep the siesta and then I go with my friends to hang out or study or whatever.  Life is going good for me here.  I like it.  One thing bad is that the lands surrounding my town are flooding more and more all the time because it rains a lot.  Thanks for writing me!

Chau-

Christopher Bates

Leah Brandt is from the Orofino Club  and is staying in Argentina

Brad,
I think I´m supposed to send this e-mail(the one for all of my friends/family, etc.) to your address so here it goes...To all of my loved ones across the miles: It´s been an incredible four months so far. There´s so much to tell that I couldn´t possibly fit it all into one e-mail.... It definitely hasn´t been the easiest experience of my life, but I have learned so many important things from this experience that I would have never discovered without being here. 
For one, I´ve learned how difficult, frustrating, challenging, and--most of all--rewarding it is to learn another language. Of course, I still have a lot left to learn, but I can honestly say that I´m proud of my accomplishments so far. I can understand almost every conversation (or at least get the idea of it) and I do pretty well with the speaking and pronunciation parts. It´s the best feeling in the world when someone gives me a compliment on my castellano. 
School was a struggle for me. The first two months I didn´t understand very much at all in my classes (minus Mathematics- the universal language of numbers). By the third month I was starting to understand and I began participating more. But by that time everyone was getting ready for finals, which were over the entire year so obviously I couldn´t take them because I came during their second semester. So I got very, very, VERY bored. Let´s just say I read a lot and I worked on some of my college applications but not much more than that. It was getting harder and harder to drag myself out of bed every morning to go to school and do nothing. But that´s over now. In March when everyone goes back to school I have the option of choosing another high school or going to one of the local universities. I still haven´t decided what I want to do yet.
Next subject: friends- This has also been another frustrating part for me. The school I went to was a small, expensive private school (chosen by my Rotary Club) with a limited selection of groups of friends to choose from. Actually, there was one. My grade (which was equivalent to Junior year in the states) had a group of about 8 or 9 girls total. They are a very close group; they´ve grown up together and have an extensive history together. Needless to say, it was hard for me to integrate myself into their group. I don´t relate with them very well either, which adds another dilemma to my situation. So I hung out with them a little and still do occasionally, but I´ve mostly been wingin´ it sola. I haven´t had many opportunities to find a good group of guys to hang with but I´m still trying. I do know some of my host-brothers´ friends that I really like and I´m going to start hanging out with them more. Also, my good friend Paula´s coming in a few weeks and I´m going to live with her so that will be really great for me. 
I´ve gotten to travel quite a bit here already and I´m planning more trips as we speak. I took a trip with my high school to Puerto Madryn, Punta Tombo, and Puerto Pyramidé for about 5 or 6 days in November and that was pretty fun. We went to a lot of museums and had a lot of educational tours because it was a school trip so that part was a little boring. But we also got to see whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals, and penguins! And they were all in the wild- that was very cool! The next trip I took was to La Plata, Buenos Aires, and Lujan. I spent a week with my host-brother who´s studying tourism in Buenos Aires and he took me all over the place. We went to cathedrals, el Teatro Colón, La Plaza de San Martín, Puerto Madero, La Boca, La Basilica, y mucho más. It was a great opportunity for me because he knows so much about all of the places we visited. I just got back from my south trip with all of the other exchange students in my district- this one was definitely the coolest! I had so much fun and connected really well with all of the other exchange students. And we got to see some very beautiful country- Perito Moreno (the world-famous glacier) which was absolutely the most beautiful work of nature I have ever seen, the Andes Mtns., Lago Argentino, Puerto Pyramidé (again). We covered over half of Argentina and spent more than 3 days total on the bus. I would say that was the highlight of my exchange so far.
Well, I´m going to end this with telling you a little about my family. I live with a 16-year-old host-brother and a 14-year-old host-sister. I get along with both of them great, haven´t had a fight yet. I´m going to miss them when I move next month, but I feel like it´s time for me to go on to the next family. My host-parents are wonderful. They have accepted me into their home with open arms and good humor (I couldn´t live without a little humor :). But seriously, I love them all. 
And, finally, I´m coming to a close. I just want to say that I miss everyone, I love you all very much, and I hope you have a happy holiday season! Take care. 
chau chau
Leah

Jeannie Brown is from Invermere and is staying in Peru

Hey Everyone!

I am having a wonderful time here in Arequipa, Peru! The people are really friendly. I love my family and my friends at school; however, I am not too fond of my school which starts at 7:30am and finishes at 4:30pm (it is much longer than I am used to). I love going out dancing on the weekends and I joined a peruvian dance class with a bunch of other exchange students which is really fun. I saw a bull fight with my family soon after I arrived which was really neat. I spent two days in Puno with my family and I am going back in a few days with Rotary. I am very excited about my upcoming trip to Cuszo and Manchupichu with Rotary as the last trip was a blast. My spanish has greatly improved from not knowing any when I arrived but is still has a ways to go! I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am!

Janine Brown

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Adrienne Coombs is from the Nelson Daybreak Cluband is staying in Brazil

Hello, my name is Adrienne Coombs, I live in Nelson, B.C. (district 5080) and right now I'm in Brazil on exchange. I almost forgot to write to you about my exchange, but here it is.

I'm having lots so much fun here in Brasil, it's so beautiful. I can't believe that I've been here for 4 months already, the time has gone by really fast. Right now I'm living with my second host family, I switched families 3 weeks ago. I have 2 sisters, one is 8 and one is 13, they ae both awsome, and my parents own a Parmacy in my city.

I've made so many new friends and already experienced many different things, every day is a new adventure. Just yesterday my mom found a family of scorpians in our bathroom, and a week ago it rained so much that there was more then 30 cm of water on the road. Anyways, let me tell you about my city. My city, Olímpia, has a population of about 80,000 people, and this is very small for Brasil. It is in the state of São Paulo, and is about a 6 hour drive from the ocean. Here, they have a beautiful club where I go about 4 times a week. At the club there is 9 swimming pools, including a big wave pool with an artificial beach, waterslides, soccer fields, volleyball courts, tennis courts, a huge ballroom for parties, and many little ice cream and food bars. As for sports, I'm playing on the city volleyball team, but my unfortunally there isn't any girls soccer teams, but I occasionally play soccer for fun with my dad and his friends.

Already, I've taken many trips to different cities. My family took me on vacation to south Brasil to an island called Florianópolis. It was so beautiful, by far the most beautiful place I've ever seen. The water was crystal blue with white sand beaches. In January, i'm going on a 27 day trip with more than 200 other exchange students in Brasil, to the northeast. There, is said to have some of the mose beautiful beaches in the world, so I'm super excited.

As for school, well, right now i'm on summer vacation (school ended last week) and I start school again in Febuary. I dont like school very much becasue I don't need to do the work, so I end up just sleeping, reading, or writing letters. School here goes from 7:00am - 12:00 in the afternoon and the classes are only academics. Even if I did understand the teachers, the schooling here in Brasil is way to advanced for me.

Right now, my Portuguese is comming along pretty well. I'm at the point where I can understand almost everything (if people talk slowly) and I can speak quite a bit too. But its still a challenge for me to watch T.V. and to read in Portuguese. Portuguese is a very difficult language.

So far, I've enjoyed every minute of my exchange, there has been some times where I've gotten incredibly homesick, but if I keep myself busy, then I dont think about home. The only thing I haven't acostumized to yet is the heat (it's 37 degrees right now). It's just the beginning of summer, and I can hardly handle it. I find its really hard to sleep and sometimes I have no energy, I miss being cold!!                    

Adrienne Coombs

Diana Dearden is from  Cranbrook and is staying in France

Hello!

Well, here is the long awaited e-mail that was due on November 15th and here it is, already December 6th so I apologize for the delay.

It will be hard to summarize these past few incredible months (actually just over three months or 105 days if you want to be really technical), but I'll try my best. I'm situated in the North of France, which still retains the famous French atmosphere (this can be summed up by the plaque in my host family's kitchen that reads "Good food, Good wine, Paradise on Earth"), but with the damp and rainy weather of England. My first several weeks passed very quickly, with trying to adjust, work out routines etc. I have a great host family and don't change until the first of February actually. The funny part is that their daughter -Claire- is on exchange in Nelson (in district 5080) so we have literally changed places. School, friends, and the language are all coming along. For school, it was a bit of shock as the days are much longer than I'm used to, and on first impression there was no school spirit to be seen at all. I've made several good friends, but the old words of wisdom ring true -that it's easy to make aquaintences but hard to make friends. As for language, my French is coming along well. (Je peux parle Francais!) But, it's a lie that you'll be fluent after the first month, and like anything worth achieving it takes a lot of time and effort. France, I find, is a very charming country although there are several things that surprised me when I first arrived, and take a while to get used to such as the long life milk, square pillows, the constant puzzel of how to flush a French toilet, dogs everywhere (shopping malls, restaurants etc), and the different attitude towards smoking. I'm also beginning to miss several things that are impossible to find here such as cinnamon falvoured candies/gum, Kraft dinner, and oreo cookies. Christmas in France is an event I'm curious to experience. After Christmas I have quite a lot of travel lined up so it should be interesting to see a bit more of the country. One of the best things I've experienced so far is the incredible bonding you instantly experience with all other exchange students. They make up your family over here, and can always be counted on for a shoulder to cry on or a great, crazy time to take your mind off your troubles. Well, I'd better end now. I hope you've enjoyed my e-mail to "let the world know what a great time I'm having". It is an unforgettable experience if nothing else. Feel free to email me at dianadearden@hotmail.com A bientot!  Cheers,

Diana

Nicolas dePeyer is from the Spokane Auora NW and is staying in Belgium

Dear everyone in the incredibly patriotic country of the United States, Because of recent internet problems, with my host families internet connexion, I was not able to e-mail this on time. I orrigionally wrote this on the 12th, and have been trying to send it ever since then. Greetings From Belgium. I am having such a great time here in this country, but writing this E-mail is actually kind of difficult, because I think in French now, so evderything I am typing is actually like half translated from french. I have forgotten alot of words in the english language, and my grammer knowlege, and structure knowlege are close to non existant. I speak and think in French all the time, and have really integrated with this great society here. On the 22nd of August, I left the Spokane airport, and flew to Denver, and then Wa.D.C. and after 6 hours on the plane to Brussels, I finally arrived. My host family got me came to the Airport with a freind from Shape international base who spoke english, so the first day I was able to integrate with my family really well. I am actually in near the town of Mons, which is about 65 kM South west from Brussels. The town is really cool, and I have found that everyone so far here is really nice. The first two weeks were kind of hard on the language front, having to constantly look in my dictionary, and explain things with my very rough French. My host family, though, has a lot of patience, and my host mom loves to talk. They love my American accent. I was shocked when my host family said I didn't have to do the dishes, and when my host mom said that she does all of the laundry, all I have to do is put it in the little red bucket. I was further shocked when she ironed all of my clothes. Some of the clothes she ironed, had never even touched and iron in their whole life. I only iron my clothes in the states when I have something nice that I have to go to. Here she does everything. I feel spoiled, very spoiled, but I have told them that if they ever need any help, I am always willing. I tell myself everyday, that when I get back to the States, it is not going to be like this. School started on the fourth of September, the same day that I orderd an electric bass gitaur here. School is incredibly different than the staes, and for the first two weeks at College de Saint Stanislas, I was in a state of shock because it is so strict, and so hard. Luckily the students became real freinds, real fast, and everyone was and is still willing to give me a helping hand whenever I need it. Beleive it or not, I am still making new freinds, and this week I was told that almost everyone in the school know about me, and alot of girls have a huge crush on me. I think it is kind of funny, " huh, me, why me? " I have only done one small kayaking trip in the south with Rotary, because London, cancelled the voyage to London, because of all of the dumb war stuff going on here. It is driving me crazy, because there is a lot of trips, that are in question because of this war. Please tel Bush AND Cheyney, to nock it off, and leave the country alone, or just send some troops in, and finish the stupid mission. I dont want all of the Voyages here to be canceled. This weekend, is the second little trip with Rotary , I am pretty excited, as everytime I get together with the exchange students, it is really fun. I love the reunions, but I hate them at the same time. I love them because they are so fun, and I meet so many interesting people, but I hate it because when I have to leave, and say goodbye to all of the incredible people, it jsut simply hurts. I am occupying myself even though the trips are canceled, because I bought an electric bass gituar here, and I found a really good, really cool band to play with, so almost every weekend, I go to practice, and have a really fun time. My group plays all kinds of music, and we are really versitile. I am kind of like the composer of the group. I love it. Tomarrow I am going to Brussels with school to go to the comic book museum, and and IMAX to see to films. I am looking forward to that. Well that is not even half of what is going on here, but if I told you all, I would practically end up writting a book. Besides, isn't this going to go into a like newsletter or something ? I guess I better keep it short, so you can put it in. Just want all of you folks to know that I am halving an incredible time, and it is beyond words to describe how incredible it is. I thank everyone who was involved in making this experience possible, and send all of you bessous. Time flies when you are having fun, See you soon if it is like that 

Sincerely NYK depeyer

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Brandon Harper is from  Lewiston and is staying in Finland

Hey all, just thought id check in with you since im comin home so soon. I fly into Spokane Wednesday, If you want to see some pics check out http://communities.msn.com/RotExFinland/ and Mr Beans Anyways I'll tell you all more about everything when

I'm home!! Cant wait to see everyone! Im changing my primary email to: brandonharper84@hotmail.com so use that one from now on please. Thanks! -Brandon

Eunice Hickerson's Lutherhaven Pictures 

Hi Brad,

I am sending you the pictures I took at Camp Lutherhaven. If you do not want them then just toss, otherwise they are yours.  

Click here to view the pictures.

Eunice Hickerson

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Madeline Winkeler  is from the Netherlands  and is staying in Invermere

Hey exchange buddies!  This week I'm three months and one week in beautiful Canada! It's a weird idea; time goes fast, but I did a lot of great things the last few months! At first of all, last weekend in Golden (Rocky retreat) was awesome! It was great to see everybody for the second time (the introduction camp was so cool as well!) and I enjoyed my weekend a lot! Going to the hockey game was for me the first time and it was a lot of fun to do that with the whole group! (And a hockey game is so 'Canadian'!!) It didn't matter which team or what they were doing, we yelled for all of them and we even did the 'wave!' It was awesome! And visiting the Sikh temple was really nice as well. I think that everybody learned a lot and the lunch was really spicy, but delicious! Anyway, I also want to say that I found the presentations from everybody about their country, really interesting. I learned a lot and we had so much fun!

Except for the two really nice Rotary camps, I did a lot of other stuff as well. I went to Banff, a really cute and nice town in Alberta, and I visited Calgary as well. I went up on the Calgary tower and had a great view of the whole city. If you go to Calgary, you have to do that for sure! I also did some outside things, for example a sort of horse pack ride which showed me the beautiful nature here. Invermere and the whole Valley is so gorgeous! Every day when I see the mountains I'm again really impressed. Holland (where I come from) is as flat as a pancake, so seeing mountains every day, is for me a huge difference with what I used to see. In the winter I hope to learn to ski or snowboard and do it as much as I can! I really can't wait for the snow and the 'real' winter... (Although everybody says that when it is really cold, I'll talk differently about it..) Anyway, except for a lot of nice trips to different towns, I also try to keep involved in stuff at school. Next week starts the badminton season and I'm in for sure! I also want to get in the basketball team, which start pretty soon as well. I try to take part in a lot of activities (for example student council etc.), because keeping busy really helps against being homesick etc.

Well, I'm going to quit this email, but not without saying a couple of things. First of all I wish everybody good luck with everything they do or are going to do. Keeping busy is the best way to not think too much about home, although I know how it feels to be homesick and I know that it sometimes just shows up. But anyway, I'm enjoying my stay a lot and I want to thank the Rotary again for this opportunity and all the other things they do! So guys, have fun and I hope I'll see you soon!

Madeline

Kathy Short is from Coeur d'Alene  and is staying in Denmark

Hello to my home from Denmark -

Well I´m a few days late with this update report, but here it is. (How to sum this up without making it a 6 page report? It´s been 4 1/2 months!) I got here on July 9th, so I´m going on my 5th month already. Things are good. All in all they´re good. But I´m not going to lie and say it hasn´t been rough. This has definitely been the most difficult thing I´ve ever done, and at times I have felt as though I could give up and head home. September,especially, was a hard month because of the terrorism incidents. The beginning was just the typical excitment mixed in with homesickness, lonliness and fear. And now that I have myself a life and a routine, I´m busy but still miss home very much.

Denmark is neat. It has it´s charm for sure. Not a huge culture difference, but I can appreciate the small differences both here and at home. The weather is always soooo grey and rainy and it´s very flat here (unlike northern Idaho). The people are friendly, but keep to themselves very much and are not very outgoing and open. It takes effort.

My host family has been great, and I have enjoyed my time with them a lot. I move on the 5th of December to my 2nd family that is very active and has a lot planned (like a ski trip to Austria or Italy from the 25th to the 30th - wahooo - ) so I´m anxious for that. School is okay, pretty boring as the subjects are difficult and of course in Danish. My class is sweet, a lot of nice people. But most of the kids there at the Gymnasium are very focused on their education and when they aren´t studying they are drinking (no joke). This has been an added difficulty because I am a Christian and don´t really enjoy drinking and partying. I have made some amazing friends outside of school though through a Bible Study group I found and some others that the Lord just totally brought into my life. Real friends make all the difference. They are awesome and have been a total blessing to me. There are also many exchange students from all over the world in this area and we hang out together quite a bit. I was playing soccer for the local ladies team for my first couple months and now that the season is over, I have signed up for a fitness club. My host Rotary club is paying for my membership which I am extremely thankful for. The Danish is a slow process, a tough language for sure. But it is beginning to take root. I attend a language school 2 times a week (in August it was 4 x´s a week, September 3 x´s, and then in October 2 x´s and will remain like that for the rest of the year) with all the other exchange students that live around here which is helping us along. We enjoy getting together so much, it´s nice to relax, be ourselves and relate to what´s going on in our new lives. I had a fabulous 18th Birthday party in October. I had 45 attendants, and it was such a great celebration. Yeah.... um..... let´s see. There are a lot of traveling opportunities that are coming up and I´m so very excited about that. My host club is also helping me pay for a week long study tour to Florence, Italy with my class in March.

I realize there is SOOOOO much to be thankful for and I have a lot to look forward to and... that by the time June rolls around I won´t want to go home. But, man, does being an exchange student require so much more energy, strength and effort than I imagined. It has already taught me so much about myself and revealed many aspects of my life that I probably would not have otherwise realized. Especially my walk with God. Yes, there has been times when I think "my gosh, I was nuts to do this ....... I WANNA GO HOME!" But usually the next day I feel better and have things in perspective. I believe that each exchange student is different. In all ways. And you have to find out for yourself how you can best deal and benefit from the exchange. As for now, I´m trying to take one day at a time and make the most of it because I´m the one that wanted to get out and experience.

I hope this has been a sufficient enough report. Hope all is well in amazing USA.

Much love, Katy Short