Anna Szwaj

2003-04 Inbound from Poland

Date of Birth: March 6, 1986
Hometown: Parczew, Poland
Sponsor: Lublin Centrum Rotary Club, District 2230, Poland

Host: Ponte Vedra Beach Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida USA
School: Nease High School

Ania's Bio

I am very excited that I am an exchange student. I think it's a good way to study a new people, new culture, and new place. I would like to play tennis here. I think it will be a great year in my life.

Arrival in Jacksonville

September 18 Journal (and pictures)

You've taught me morals and goals I have to achieve 
You've been there for me when I've lost belief. 
But nevertheless how many times I thank you guys for all you've done, 
I will never be grateful enough.

Your daughter, Ania :-)

Hi!!! My name is Anna Karolina Szwaj, but everybody call me Ania. This is my first time in the United States. I live in Ponte Vedra Beach. Where I have been living for about one and one half months. I am very happy! 

My first few days here were crazy. My plane landed here, at JAX airport after 11 p.m. on July 31. First people I saw were Claudia and Fred Page (my host parents), Rob Overly and Al Kalter. Every day I met new, very interesting and nice people. In other words I had a lot of fun. 

However, on August 8th I started school. I've never seen such a big school (there are 12 buildings and approximately 1600 students). Allen D. Nease High School is situated 16 miles from the oldest city in the United States, St. Augustine, and is one of the best schools in this country as well. Every morning I ride on bus number 55. My alarm clock is set at 6:30 every school day, but I don't get up till 7:15. I have only 21 minutes to make my lunch and get ready to go to school, because my bus leaves at 7:36 and is a block away. In Nease High School I am grade 11 (Junior) and I am in IB and AP programs. However, the exam which I will taken in 2005 will be IB. 

On fourth day at school I had to buy a new ID card, because I left my other one at home. It cost me $5. I now have two. I like my school and I feel comfortable there. 

Every day I work out at the gym at Marriott Hotel and maybe I will start playing tennis this month. I was on the beach a few times and I found shark's teeth. I eat dinner on the beach with people from other country. I saw the red planet Mars at night, it is something beautiful to see. 

On first weekend in September I went to Emma's birthday party where I met some other girls from the Rotary Exchange Program. We watched movies, swam in the pool. I had great time. My host family is lovely. I like to spend time with Claudia and Fred and also their dog Klein. 

As I end this first part of my journal I would like to offer my best regards to all my friends. However, due to short term memory loss, I cannot remember their names, but you know who you are anyway. 

So best regards 

Ania. 

But wait? I remember now? Best regards for: Gabrysia Zielinska, Emilia Pawlowska, Iza Sidor, Asia Laszkiewicz, Asia Iwaniak, Ula Markiewicz, Marcin Skurzak, Marek Bernach, Dawid Karapuda, Jarek Adamiak, Boris Chiriboga, Krzysiek Kwiatkowski, Ania Kwirant, Kacper Szymanek, Dorotka Zaniuk, Monika Drozd, Paulina Wojnowska, Kamila Perlinska, Wojtek Golik, Magdalena Szwaj, Agata Szwaj. Also best regards to my High School teachers back in Poland.

Ania :-)

December 3 Journal (and pictures)

It has been three months since my last journal? I've been too busy. Ooops! And here is what I've been doing. 

Every Friday I work in Baptist Beaches Hospital from 5 to 8 p.m. I am a volunteer in Emergency Room. I like this job. I sit at the desk and help people find their family or I give information. Also I am in the treatment rooms and assisting the staff. 

On Tuesday and Thursday I played tennis at Headquarters of The Association Tennis Professionals but after the short time my coach told me that I did very well and I am now in the clinic every Monday from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. 

I do not like football but I saw two games between our Jaguars and other teams. However, I do not remember the names of the teams. We won one and we lost one. I would like to forget about the second game. Poor Jaguars. 

At the end of September in my school we IB juniors had Pinning Ceremony. Every IB student was on Tuesday night at school waiting on his own pin. After when every junior had pins people took for us big juniors picture. The Ceremony finished with very nice atmosphere. 

October was not busy but I can not say that was not hard. School!!! At the beginning I was invited to a surprise birthday party for Jane. I met some other exchange students. But I think Jane was not surprised. Somebody told her about this party. Why?? Some people I think can not be so quiet. Ach :-) After "surprise" birthday party we had a Beach Party. The weather was not very good. Raining outside, cold. But the atmosphere was very nice. The time was so fast and we thought that we met a few minutes ago and we had to say goodbye. 

Last Thursday of October I gave my speech to my Rotary Club. The night before I thought that I will never tell people what I would like to say. Can you imagine one hundred people and you only one person at the middle of the room talking to them? I spoke to the bigger group of people in my country. I was so - O my God I can not describe this. But when I started speaking everything was so easy. I can do this every time. Rotarians were very surprised. They loved my speech and they love me. :-) 

My host parents organized for me and other exchange students a Halloween Party. Wow. I was so stubborn about my costume. I did not want any costume. But my host mum was stubborn more than me and I was princess. He he he. Teresa was a penguin, Emma a Hawaiian girl, Agathe was scary, and Jane she was great. She made her own costume. At this time I do not know what her costume represented. Her costume was very - was very green but also very nice. 

Thanksgiving was something new for me. I had dinner with my host parents, my host sister and her husband and some family's friends. I spent good time besides the fact I do not like turkey. However I was a very good girl and tried a small piece of this kind of meat. 

Friday after Thanksgiving I went shopping. Never again. I love shopping. But was too much people that day. I started my shopping about nine thirty but still was so early. If is the time when I have to wake up I am so bad about this. Everybody who lives with me knows about this fact. Anyway I had good shopping, I spent my money. In some shop we could not enter that many people were. 

Also I worked in Hospital that night but only two hours. Because Mr. Ken Weiss invited me, Rebecca and Teresa to the concert. The star was Jason Mraz. I've never heard of him. But the concert was great. Thank you Mr. Weiss. 

Now we have almost Christmas :-) I love so much Christmas is the best holiday in whole year. I wish everybody very merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

See Ya, Kisses :-)

More pictures (and captions) from Ania - click to enlarge

February 2 Journal (and pictures)

Hi, 

This time is going too fast. I have only six more months here in America. And I am not very happy in that case. Anyway? 

At the beginning of December every exchange student went to Walt Disney World in Orlando. We had there very good time. It doesn't matter if you are young or if you are old in Disney you will feel great. We spent in Disney three days. I met there my friends which I saw only in television when I was a little child. I now have pictures with them. The hardest time in Disney was when I had to wake up. I didn't sleep there long, because I spent night with my friends, and nobody wanted to go to bed. 

Also December is a Christmas time. I like this holiday very much but I think it is too short. In my country we have two days of Christmas. Big dinner on 24th and December 25th and 26th we spent with whole family. And the most important thing which Christmas can't be real is snow!!! I like snow. But I enjoy Christmas here, a lot of presents. Even my parents from Poland sent me a present for Christmas. This was and still is the biggest present which I ever had. I don't talk here about the size, because size was only 2KB but inside this number was BIG surprise. I will never forget about that present, that is part of my life. 

After Christmas I went to Disney again with my host sister and her husband and I took with me Teresa (exchange student from Austria). It was only one day, because next day I had my New Year's party. I spent that time with another exchange students and two boys from New Zealand. We girls went to bed at four o'clock in the morning. Also, our friend Emma (now called "Frenchie") couldn't sleep. Was hard to listen to her because everybody was tired. But she couldn't stop. After long conversation which "Frenchie" had with herself she went to sleep. :-) We woke up at 10 o'clock and had big breakfast. Some exchange students went to their houses and me, "Frenchie" and Rebecca spent a little bit of time on the beach. We met there Chris and Andy from New Zealand. 

Long weekend on January I went to see my friends in Atlanta. I was in CNN television, Headquarters for Coca Cola. After tour in Coca Cola I needed lady's room. Too much to drink. Also, I saw Martin Luther King museum and now I know everything about him. Atlanta, big buildings, big city. This is what I like it. 

The weekend after Atlanta I had big party. My Rotary Club in Ponte Vedra Beach organized every year "Rotary Gala" for a few hundred people. I invited "Frenchie" girl there. I didn't want spend time with old people alone. We were the youngest there. We looked very lovely. Wonder why?? I spent sometime on Saturday in hairdresser. I and "Frenchie" had pretty dresses. We came home about 12 a.m., but we didn't go to bed. After Rotary Gala I thought that this was the last party at the month. I had a surprise. On Monday evening I had phone call and that on last Saturday I went to the Prom to the Episcopal School with my friend Vance Berry. I had good time there. I met some new people. I came home after 1 a.m. and nobody heard me. Of course nobody slept. I wonder why they didn't hear me. I was so noisy. I said "Hallo, I'm at home and I'm still alive" and I heard only people laughing. Hmm?, I thought maybe they didn't want to wake up. Next twenty minutes I heard somebody knocked to my door and asked me how long I was at home! In that case I went to bed about 3 a.m. 

Prom was the last party. Next big party will be my birthday party on the beach. :-) However, before I have to do a few things. 

See ya guys, 

Ania

March 26 Journal (and pictures)

Hey,

Ania at Key West

With Emma in Miami

With Dad and limo

Birthday party fun

Teresa, Emma, & Jens help Ania celebrate

Cake with fireworks

Presents!

More presents!!

It has been a long time since I wrote my last journal. But, at the beginning of February every exchange student went to Key West. We stayed in Big Pine Key. Was awesome! I enjoyed that trip very much. After Key West me and Emma went with my future host family to Miami. Guess what's happened there? We were shopping for 11 hours on Friday. The first 6 hours where good. You know buy new things and stuff like that. But the last 5 hours were terrible. No money, we were tired, and everybody look at us. Next day we watched performance of my future host sister and her friends from drama department. Was good. We came back home on Saturday night.

At the beginning of March I had my 18th birthday. My dad from Poland came one day before that and he was staying with me for one week. On Saturday, March 6th I was getting older. I had really nice big birthday party for almost 35 people. However, before my party at 4 o'clock p.m. me and my dad had a big, black limousine. I took my dad down to Jacksonville downtown to show him how the city looks like. We enjoyed that ride a lot.

After 6 o'clock I was at the Cabana Club down at the beach. I invited almost every exchange student, but not everybody could come. Also, I had other friends there. I would like to thank everybody who helped organized this 18th birthday party and could come there. Was very nice. The best part of that party was of course... presents time. I have got a lot of stuff. Gift cards, and every time when I opened the present with gift card was "More Shopping!!!" :-) One of my friends gave me a monster truck, because one week before my birthday I was with that person In Alltel Stadium to see the Monster Truck Show. That was funny. But anyway, my cake: Was huge with fireworks on my cake and 18 candles. My party finished after 10 p.m. But me and my friend went to another party the same night, and I came home after 1 a.m.

Still when my dad was here I needed go to school. However, I was stubborn (nothing new) and I took off from school on Thursday and me and my first host family went to Kennedy Space Center. My and my dad loved that. Every picture which people took me had my goofy faces. Oh - I forgot on Wednesday afternoon I went shopping with my dad to the Avenues Mall. We spent there more than 3 hours. I am crazy about shopping and I have no idea how I will take everything home, but I have time to think about that. And also, my dad likes shopping. On Friday we went to Orlando to the airport, because my dad flew home that day. I was so happy that he come to see me. I really was.
One week after my dad flew home I changed my host family. I am now in big house with two hosts sisters at home. This is so much fun. Almost like in my house in Poland. (I have two sisters twins, they are 12). Ali and Madi are very sweet girls and the parents are such a good and funny people. Here everything is going so fast. I don't have even time to think that I have only three more months. Which is very good to do - not think about it.

I think that's it for this journal. Besides these few thing nothing interesting happened in my life. I still going to school, meet my friends almost every weekend. I am going to go to be in Orange Park this weekend for Agathe's birthday party.

Next weekend I will be at Camp Montgomery . After that I will have my spring break and I will fly to Boston. I am so excited. However, about these I will write in my next journal.

Adios!!!

Ania

Kennedy Space Center

Ready for launch