Alli Major - Update on Charlton!

I've been here for a little over a month and it's all going great! School is all well and i can take all my necessary courses to graduate! all the people here are nice and friendly and my friends are awesome! my rotary counselor and i are headed down to a town called Horsham next Sunday to meet alll the other Rotary exchange student. there's another student here in my town from Germany but he's not here through Rotary. Every Saturday they have football ((australian rules) and no its not like soccer)) and also netball and field hockey games to go and watch so there's always something on the weekends! anyways this picture is of me (right) my friend kirsty (middle) and Leif the german exchange student. i do my official rotary presentation the 16th of September and my powerpoint is coming together. Anyways im off to the footy games!
Catch ya later mate!
Alli

Zane Elston - Just Got To Chiang Mai

I just arrived in Chiang Mai, and I am loving the city. It is VERY hot haha. I'm about to go register for classes! I couldn't have asked for a better, kinder host family. They are some of the nicest, most loving people I have ever met. I will be attending school at The Prince Royal's College, a Private Christian school with 6,000 kids. I'm very excited to start school and meet some kids. I arrived here at 9:15 and my host family was at Chiang Mai International Airport to pick me up along with my YEO and Club President. It was a short drive home. My house is in the outskirts of the city, but it is still very urban. All of the housed here are only a few feet apart. I will updated this again as soon as I have more to tell you!

Aline da Rocha Soares (2008-2009) - I'm thankful for my year!

Dear rotarians, how are you?
I hope everything is good, especially with Carlo and the upcoming exchange students.
Just now, about a year I came back from Steamboat Springs to my hometown Limeira, São Paulo, Brazil; I got the chance to represent America on the annual "nations fair". A big event that has outbounds, inbouds and rebounds. It's very fun, and it's quite a responsability to be a rebound, because it turns out that is our job to convince the outbounds to choose the country we chose.

I was looking all the souveniers I brought from America, especially from Steamboat, to bring to the fair, when I found the amazing "Season of Light" book, with all the notes you guys left. It made me miss you and Steamboat so much!! It reminds me how lucky I was for having such a unique experience, in a unique town, with a unique rotary club. You guys are the best!!!

By the way, my brother Lucas, 16, is applying for a exchange program, and I already made his mind. America is his first choice! I hope he gets as lucky as I did, maybe he can stay in Steamboat, who knows. Anyways, I just wanna let you know that I represented America very proudly and I felt even more honored to represent Steamboat Springs, a nothing but an amazing town in Colorado.

I would like to thank you once more for the best year of my life, full of joy and new experiences. I can assure you that I enjoyed the most of it, and I still pray to God, to keep blessing America, as we used to sing every Tuesday afternoon.

With lots of love,
Aline Soares (2008-2009)

Kelly Ernst - All Is Well

Hello! I am writing from Fribourg Switzerland and all is well!

I arrived yesterday morning at 8:15 but it was really 1 pm for the united states. I was very tired but it was all so new and exciting it was good.

My flight went by super well. From DIA to Dulles I met a girl from evergreen and we flew to DULLES together. It was fun because we could talk about tall trees and skiing and understand each other perfectly. We spoke the same language. When we got to Dulles we met up with a girl and a boy who were going to Switzerland. It even turns out that the boy, Andrew is the other exchange student who will be living in fribourg and attending the same school. He is very nice. We had a few hours to kill in the airport and so we went to a small resturant and talked and it was a very good time!

The flight went well and it was nice because there were about 10 or 12 other exchange students on it as well! I sat in the very very back of the plane in the middle. but it was nice because I had the whole entire row to myself on an otherwise full flight. Later in the evening, I started talking to the flight attendent and we got to know each other and it was very fun. She even let me sit in the flight attendents seat for the landing so that I could see the Swiss Alps when we fly into Zurich for our landing.

My host father picked me up from the airport and we drove back to Fribourg. That day, we went to the familys vacation house in Gruyere (a canton ((Like a state)) neighboring Fribourg) it was a ten minute drive and a very very cool place! I got to meet all of cedric and ines ( my host brother and sister's) friends. It was a little bit hard because my french is not quite sufficient enough to keep up with the young peoples conversation, and when ever I was asked a question it would take a long embarrassing time to answer it correctly. (For example they asked me when I was born, and I said "I don't know" several times… :/) But that is okay because I am understanding more and more.

Today, The exchange students of fribourg ( Andrew, a girl named shelby and moi) and the outbound students all went downtown fribourg and did a little walk of the town. It was very pretty and and medevaial. I saw my school which was very modern but it looked very nice. It felt like we were in a jungle!

All is going well here, and I am getting settle!

Ciao!

Alli Major - Arrived!!

Charlton is great! it's their winter here, yet its some of the best summer days for steamboat! im scared to see what summer for me is gunna look like. lol :) the flights went very well althougha nine hour layover in LAX isnt the funnest time spent alone.... it was well worth it tho :) my host family is very nice and inviting. a bit homesick but once it gets more busy over here all should be well. :) I start school on monday and basically get to choose what i want to take :)
I'll write agian soon,
Alli

Alli Major - Leaving Soon!

Hey Guys,
So I leave tomorrow. My flight is at 10:41 in the morning. I think this will be the most stressful part of the whole trip for me. :/ i don't like airports and security and flights and customs. no fun. :/ but i'm glad its getting me where i gotta be :) im so excited to arrive in Austalia and meet my host home. :)
I'll blog again when I arrive,
Alli

Carlo Gavatorta - almost over!

Hey everybody! I can't believe it's almost over! Everything went by so fast. I feel like I got here a few weeks ago. I just got back from the bus trip with all the other exchange students from the 2 districts and I had a blast. It's so amazing how you can get attached to people so easily and so fast. California was awesome and so was the Grand Canyon and all the other places we went to.

I only have one more month and then I'll go back to Italy. It's a really weird feeling because I'm really sad I'm gonna leave Steamboat and I'll have to say goodbye to all my friends and families but I'm happy at the same time because I'll see my family and my friends back in Italy.

The district conference was fun. It's amazing how many rotarians and rotary clubs there are in jsut one district. I feel so lucky to be in this district because it's so active and it involves exchange students in so many events and activities. They care a lot about us.

This was just a quick post about my last experiences. Steamboat is such a great place and every exchange student that ends up here should feel really lucky!