Olga "Olya" Zolotova

2005-06 Inbound from Russia

Date of Birth: December 14, 1988

Hometown: Omsk, Russia

Sponsor: Omsk Rotary Club, District 5010, Russia

Host: Daytona Beach West Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida USA

School: Mainland High School

Bio

Olya's Bio

Hi to everybody!!! :) I'm Olga Zolotova from Russia, from Siberia, where the weather is cold- Brrr.. :) I'm 16 years old. I love sport very much, especially snowboarding, riding horses and volleyball !!! My hobbies in Russia are dancing, singing and acting! I like to act in the theatre very much!! At weekends I love to go to the cinema with my friends, to sit with them in the cafés, or to spend a lot of time with my family, swimming in the swimming pool or lake and picking up mushrooms in the forest!!

My family in Russia isn't very big. There are four of us: me, my mother, my brother and my father! My mother is a scientist, father is an economist, brother is a pupil in school, in 9th grade. They are very sweet!!! Here I have another family. And it is bigger than my Russian family. Here I have a lot of brothers and sisters, I also have 3 nieces and nephews. I love all of them very much!!!

I came to Daytona Beach in the night of 22 of July. After 3 days me and my new family went to the vacation, to the Bahamas by plane, but we returned home by boat!!! I was spending a great time with my family!!! It was cool!!!

I'm sure it is exciting in the USA! I've been to a lot of different countries, but I like the USA most of all ! When I was in Russia, my aims were to learn English, to try myself in another culture and, of course, to learn more about traditions and customs of the USA! And I'm really looking forward to spending a lot of good time here!!!.... :) :) :)

September 5 Journal

I have never had a lot of the new feelings that I have now!

Every day as a fairy tale where you live... I don't expect what will be tomorrow because I can't know.

For example, I have never seen such big school as I have in Daytona Beach, 2,500 students big community), and many nice and funny people everywhere!

So, it's really awesome to live in the country that you are going to know!!!

Olga...

November 12 Journal

I'm so happy, that I'm here, in USA, in Florida, in Daytona Beach!!! :)

Everything is so awesome, cool, nice, wonderful and unbelievable here!!!!! :)

I'm having so many unforgetable moments here, that I could never dream! A lot of new people, places, nature, everything is so unusual and interesting for me!.. Couple days ago, in the middle of the lesson!, my American History teacher asked me to call Russia and ask my parents about weather there... So I called... And there's 36 degrees F now, and permanent cover of snow on the ground! And I was sitting in class in short skirt and t-shirt!..

So, it was so much fun when we were discussing differences between Russian weather and American!.. :) And once, I was thinking, how I can leave all of my friends (from USA) in July, because it will be very difficult, and the reason is... I like them A LOT!!!!! :)

Olya :)

February 4 Journal

Hey, Hey, Hey everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-)

How is everything going after our unforgettable and awesome Seacamp trip???!!!!!!!!!!!!! (pictures)

Personally, I remember this trip as one of our best trips with exchange students!!!!!!!!!!! Because we had so much fun together!!!!! ;-) As always (by the way!)!!!!! I really enjoyed this trip because it was also an educational trip! It was so cool when everyone was talking about different types of pollution and offering help for it!!!!!!!! And some groups were presenting themselves with the help of funny (but educational!) plays!

My group was one of them… We really wanted to make something else, more than only one play…something like song or dance, but unfortunately there was not so much time to do it, so we decided to make a good play for everyone to see it! My group’s name was “Marine pollution” , so we did this funny play by showing people how sailors, who are fishing in the sea 20, 10, 5 years ago catch different types of fish (but every next year it’s less, less, and less than the year before it!), and that now they are able to catch only dead fish and trash!!!!!!!!!!!! So I enjoyed this conference a lot!!!!!!!!

But for me the most memorable part of this Seacamp trip was the disco party!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-) It was so fun to dance with my friends (from different countries), especially because all of us live in different parts of Florida and it is so hard to gather once our big company and to go somewhere together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s why it was so meaningful for me!!!

And we also had some high school students from Garden City, Michigan and Marathon, Florida. So I liked all of them very much!!!!!!!!! It’s really cool and fun to see high school students (even if they are from different schools) in the atmosphere not related to high school, especially in a such beautiful place like Key West!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Honestly to say, snorkeling was good but not great! Because, unfortunately, weather wasn’t really good and it was windy!!! But I had a good buddy on our boat, so we spent an interesting time together sitting, talking, and having fun on the boat!!! So it wasn’t bad at all!!! Plus, I had a really amazing instructor on my boat, working with us!!!!!!!! So it was very nice to spend our free time talking and having funny time with her!!!!! ;-)

By the way, I have changed my family 3 weeks ago, so now I’m living in my 3rd host family and having A SISTER!!!!!!!!!! ;-) I’m really happy, because it is so great to have a host sister!!!!!!!!!! We are having so much fun together!!!!!!! And I haven’t had any kids in my previous families!!!!!! And also my host family is Jewish, so now I’m learning not only American but also a Jewish culture!!!!!!!! So it’s a very interesting part of the year for me!!!!!! ;-)

But I’ve also changed my school because now I’m living in another town, so I could have a hard time with transportation to my old school… That’s why, I decided to change it (and there was no choice with it!)… So at the beginning it was an upset time for me because I couldn’t see all of my school friends every day and I would have to build a lot of new relationships in new school (it’s not very easy at the beginning), but I was really excited to move to my 3rd host family, so it wasn’t that hard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now I’m so happy with my new high school friends, I also meet my old friends, and we are having a great time with my host family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-)

But there is only one thing that I’m afraid of………. to leave all of my American (and from different countries) friends at the end of my exchange year, which one will be so soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-) Because everyone
here has become a real family for me!!!!!!! I have met so many great and amazing people here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it’s gonna be SO HARD to tell BYE to all of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-) And I can’t even imagine how I’m gonna do that!!!!! If there was a possibility to be an exchange student and to travel all over the world with this program, I would definitely do that because it is so AWESOME to spend time living with different types of people, learning lots of new cultures, meeting billions of new friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-)

But now I think I should finish my journal… So see ya’ll later… Love you, and miss you all !!!!!!!

From Russia with LOVE,

Olya ;-)

Olya's Seacamp Photos

March 26 Journal

Hey guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-)

What’s up????????? :-)

How is your life going in this wonderful and warm place - Florida??????????????????

Personally, I’m very happy to be here, because it’s really warm and fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-) Ok, now what I’m actually doing here………..

Let’s begin… The whole January I was studying really hard because I changed schools recently (I moved to 3rd host family…)……. So it was busy time for me!!!!!!!!

But suddenly something funny happened to me….. I burned the bagel in microwave. I still cannot believe that it was only a bagel but not something else like the entire house, because when I saw all of the misty air around me, this terrible smell and this awful sound around the whole house, about that everything is burning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fortunately, the firemen were really fast and they SAVED THE HOUSE and me (from going home to Russia, of course) !!!!!!!!!!!!! But later my host family said that it wasn’t a problem because the house was O.K. and the microwave was working, so everyone immediately forgot about this terrible accident that could change everyone’s lives!!!!! ;-) But it didn’t happen…………. :-)

Then, the whole February I was studying hard again. Plus, I signed up for track and field, so now I’m in a track team!!!!!!!!! We had a lot of track competitions in February, so I was really busy!!!!!! I was trying to study every weekend!!!!!! But at the end of the month I finally relaxed because it was less work in school, plus the warm weather came and furthermore, I found a lot of good friends in new school !!! So I spend couple weekends in my friends’ houses, then I went to one of the Rotarians’ houses and I went to Daytona 500 with my first host family!

I was VERY EXCITED to go to Daytona 500 with my first host family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First, I haven’t seen them for some time (and I began to miss them!!!!!!!), and second of all, I really love cars and the competitions they do against each other!!! When I came to Daytona 500 (it was Sunday) the weather was really bad and cold, so it spoiled everyone’s mood a little bit… But when we found our places and were busy talking to each other….. Suddenly….. I’ve heard the voice of one of my favorite American singers! It was Bon Jovi !!!!! And I turned my head to the stage where the action was and ……. Yes, it was him, alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was awesome, I was so happy to see some real American stars (like him) that can sing so good!!!!! I was thinking to go and take picture with him, but, unfortunately, it was too late….. He has finished singing right when I got up from my seat……. But it’s ok, because after him was “Fudgi” (I don’t know if I spell it right…) from another American group: Black Eyed Peas… She was singing the hymn of the United States and it was very nice! I liked it a lot! Then the race started and it was 6 hours race (close to that…), so after it finished I was pretty tired… But it was the most interesting and amazing race I’ve seen in my life!!!

Then during March had lots of different kinds of fun things to do, plus studying in school (it’s not so fun ;-) but still…) My favorite thing this month was Mr. and Mrs. Seabreeze HS competition that was held in my school !!! I didn’t even expect that it would be so cool !!! But I went there with my host family to look at my host sister’s hip hop dance!!!!!!!!!! She did it great, but the judges decided that another person deserved to win… So I was mad at them because I was sure that Dina (my host sister) would win!!!!! Anyway, the girl who won was very good too, she had an amazing voice, plus she did a nice interview. So everything was fine. ;-)

Then the spring break began, so I was trying to spend it the best I could… going to the beach….. but… the weather was really cold so I was going shopping and doing other fun stuff with my other host sister who just came for vacation from New York. Then when she left I was doing some work at home for some time….. Last Friday I went to watch my first host family’s son playing island music in River Grill restaurant and showing their pictures from Bahamas where I went together with them!!!!!!!!!! So it was a wonderful and relaxing time for me… Couple days later I invited one of exchange students – Geraldine from Switzerland to go to movies together. We had fun together: we were watching movie: “V for Vendetta” in Regal theater. I advise everyone to watch it, it’s really entertaining!!!

Then I went shopping to Volusia Mall in Daytona Beach and Altamonte Mall in Orlando. I love shopping, but I spent too much money in Volusia Mall, so I went to Altamonte Mall without any cent and later I decided to return back half of the things that I bought in Daytona, so it was pretty interesting time for me!!! ;-))

And this weekend I spent with two exchange students also: Julie (France) and Kuba (Poland) and people from our Rotary club: Jackie and Hal. It was a very very good weekend!!!!!!!! It was fun and nice to see each other again with both of my friends!!!

And people from our Rotary club are really awesome!!! They are fun, sweet and nice people!!!!!!!!! Thanks to them for taking all of us on their wonderful boat for a ride, plus doing marshmellows on the fire and going to Deleon Springs Park with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m very happy that my spring break was so nice without thinking about school homework!!!!!!!!!! ;-)) But I’m also very sad that time is going by so fast, that it’s gonna be time for us to go home soon… And I don’t want to leave Florida at all!!!!!!!

I want to thank everyone in Rotary who always does so many exciting things for us here! Thank you everyone very much!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for all of those wonderful opportunities that you give to all of the exchange students here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-))

I think I’m gonna finish now…

Love you guys, Olya ;-)