Anastasia "Asya" Dmitrieva

2004-05 Inbound from Russia

Date of Birth: May 3, 1988
Hometown: Yakutsk, Russia
Sponsor: Yakutsk Rotary Club, District 5010, Russia

Host: Gainesville Sunrise Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida USA
School: Gainesville High School

Asya's Bio

Hello everybody,

I am from a very cold place called Siberia, Russia. In the winter, the temperature outside can get as low as -50 degrees, so being in Florida is quite an experience. I live with my mom and dad, and have an older sister. I have a really cool dog named Nika. Nika is a German Shepherd.

September 19 Journal

I am living in Gainesville and like it very much. I go to GHS, it is a very big and nice school. There are a lot of international students, including some Russians (about 9). I live with Kathy Canon, she is a very nice lady, she has a beautiful home and friendly dog. I live very close to school, it takes me about 7 minutes to get to school. After school I do my homework and sometimes and I meet with Rafi and other friends that I have made. I have visited St. Augustine, Orlando, Steinhatchee, Cedar Key, and Jacksonville. I have also been to one of the Gator games.

I had a great time at the Orientation, I met a lot friends and hope to see you all very soon. Now I have friends from all over the world.

Sorry that it took me so long to write, and I will see you soon.

Poka.

December 24 Journal

Hello everybody. I want to share some interesting events that has happened in the recent past in my life as an exchange student.

I will start with Thanksgiving! The day of Thanksgiving my first family and I went to Vero Beach and Cocoa Beach! The food was delightful, I tried a lot of new and interesting food. After that day I thought that I wouldn't be able to eat for the rest of the week. Of course the next day I ate again, though it would be better if I didn't eat for 3 weeks.

The next big event was a trip to Disney World!!! Disney was just remarkable! I will never forget this trip. Those four days were one of the best days in my life. I want to say thanks to everybody. I was very glad to meet students from other districts. One of the days during my trip to Disney World, my parents and my sister visited me and met members of Rotary. The next day after Disney I moved to my new host family. My new family has a big and beautiful house. They do a lot of charity and they have climbing for cancer foundation. The only thing I don't like is that I have to be at the school bus stop at 6:45 am, so that I can be at school at 8:30 am. That is going to be a new American challenge.

Now I am on the winter break, that means 2 weeks without school. I am going to get some rest, party and celebrate Christmas! The first day of my winter break started funny. In the morning my host parents went to work. I woke up and decided to walk outside to check out the weather. As soon as I walked outside the door, it closed and my heart trembled. I remembered my family told me that the doors shut themselves. So I was left outside in pajamas during a cold morning. I ran around the house twice and checked if any other doors were open, none were open. So I had to go next door and call my host family from there. When I came next door, I realized that I don't have their phone number memorized, so then we had to look for their number for half an hour. But it all ended fine. So that is how my winter break started. Also, my host family invited me to go ballet "Nutcracker". Some of the actors were Russian.

I wish you all merry Christmas!

Poka (Bye),

Asya

At Disney World, with my parents, sister and brother-in-law, and Al and Lawrene

All my families together - my Russian family and both of my host families