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André Alves
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2006-07 Inbound from Brazil
Hometown: Monte Aprazivel, São
Paulo, Brazil
Sponsor: Monte Aprazivel Rotary Club,
District 4480, Brazil
Host: Ponte Vedra
Beach Rotary Club, District 6970, USA
School: Nease High
School
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Bio
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October 30 Journal and Pictures - They
introduced me to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, nutella, doughnuts
and a lot of other American food and some other countries' food like
tacos. |
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March 28 Journal - "It’s been the best time I’ve ever had. I really
enjoy being here; I made
friends that I won’t forget, things that I saw and learned, places that I went;
I will never forget that." |
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Andre's Bio
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 My
name is Andre. I'm seventeen years old and I'm from Brazil. I live in a
small town in the country, called Monte Aprazivel. I live with my parents
and two dogs in a house in front of a lake. I don' have brothers or sisters.
I decided to become an exchange student because I wanted
to discover another culture in another country. I hope that I grow as a
person in this year, under different aspects. I think that it's going to be
a very good experience for me, because I'll discover another way of life,
another world, another view of the life; in this exchange program I'll study
in a different school and learn in another way, make friends, etc...
Now I'm going to tell a few things about my person... I am
very quiet and shy, I like to talk but I'm too shy to start a conversation
with people who I don't have too much friendship with... I'm very calm and
relaxed. My home town was small so I didn't have so many things to do, so I
got used to being at home most of the time. |
October 30 Journal and Pictures
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I was really excited to finally get to Florida and start my
exchange program, and after more than 14 hours of travel, I finally got in
Jacksonville, and I was pretty tired. Then when I was going to take my luggage I
see a group of people that when they see me they start to commemorate. It was my
Rotary group including my first and second host families. I introduce myself and
they started to talk with me, I'm glad that they spoke slow ^^, fortunately
Elizabeth was there, and she was a exchange student in Brazil by the year of
2004 to 2005, and she was very helpful and nice to me. She knows how to speak
Portuguese so she helped me a lot, especially when Claudia started asking me
questions about documents and stuff. After taking my luggage and talking with
everybody I went to my new house. On the way home they tell me that I was going
to two parties that same day, the first party as a welcome party to Ida, an
exchange student from Denmark, and the other party was a birthday party. I think
that I got home by 10 o'clock that day and woke up 13:00 of the next day.
On Thursday I went to my first Rotary meeting, and I had
to talk but just a little, then after the meeting I went to watch the son of
Ed Waller, the president of my Rotary, playing in a golf tournament, I
enjoyed watching it because It was something that I never watched before. In
the first day of school, I was very excited to know my new school. I was
very confused and lost, but I got to get to the right place. They had
problems with the schedules of a lot of students and I was included. I
waited for 4 hours for my schedule and then I went to the film class, and I
liked it; as a matter of fact it is my favorite class.
Since I'm here I've been to a lot of unforgettable places,
like: a Jaguar's game, Ripley's Believe It or Not, I've been to the game of
Nease panthers against St. Augustine high school and Nease won after 13
years and Fox channel showed the game on TV; to the Alligator Farm, at a art
museum, I've been to Universal Studios with Edgar and I really enjoyed that
park and the hotel that we stayed, the Portofino Hotel. Too bad that I
unfortunately lost all the pictures that I took there, that's bad, but I
will always remember that day.
In August I went to an Inbound Orientation where I first
meet all the exchange students that are at this district, and I had a lot of
fun there. My English wasn't so good so I had some difficulty to talk with
the other exchange students but I really enjoyed being there; on October 20
I met all the exchange students again, with the exception of Emeline that
unfortunately didn't go, but this time on Daytona beach; my English was
better so I could understand them much better and I really enjoyed it a lot,
it was so much fun. We went to Kennedy Space Center and Daytona USA and
Biketoberfest. I took 248 photos and 9 videos. Some people were surprised
that I took so many pictures, but my actual host mom took 300 pictures in
only one day. My first host family was Randy McNeal, Karen McNeal and my two
sisters Chrissy and Monique; they hosted Pierre, a exchange student from
France, before hosting me. They helped me a lot and I'm very grateful to
them for this. They were a really very nice family. They introduced me to
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, nutella, doughnuts and a lot of other
American food and some other countries' food as tacos.
My second host family is Ken and Irene Salerno, and they
are very nice too. They hosted Pierre too and Anabelle from Germany and
their daughter, Elizabeth, went to Brazil. They are trying to make me say
"Rotary" right ... one day I'm going to get it.
I'm enjoying to be here so much, the experience, the
learning and my friends; I'm loving to be here. This exchange program is
much better than I thought it would be. I'm pretty sure that all of this
will be, already is, unforgettable for me. It's an experience for all your
life.
At the Brazilian party |
Lucile, Nathalia, Edgar, Elena, and me |
My first host father
and me |
Universal Studios |
Astronaut |
Daytona USA: all together |
Ripley's museum |
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March 28 Journal
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Now it’s been six months that I’ve been here in Florida, USA, and
it’s been the best time I’ve ever had. I really enjoy being here; I made
friends that I won’t forget, things that I saw and learned, places that I went;
I will never forget that.
I’ve been to Disney, a place that I always wanted to go
but I never believed that I would be there one day. I’m really happy that
I’ve been there, and even happier to be there for four days and went to the
four parks, EPCOT, Magic Kingdom, MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom. I’m not a
big fan of roller coaster, but even without going to the big roller coaster
I had a wonderful time, in all the parks they had a parade and a fireworks
show at night, on Magic Kingdom they had a fireworks show that it was very
awesome.
After Disney I stayed in the house of Fitz Opie for the
last two weeks of the year, and I celebrated Christmas in the house of my
second host family, Irene and Ken Salerno and their son Michael and their
daughters Elizabeth and Abigail, and Abigail’s husband Eric, all of them
live out in college or working; this was the first Christmas party I’ve ever
had without my parents and relatives, but I enjoyed a lot, they gave me an
American comic book, a collector edition of comic book, a mini computer that
translates from Portuguese to English and vice-versa. Mr. and Mrs. Opie are
Russian Orthodox, and their calendars are thirteen days of difference with
the other calendars, so they don’t celebrate Christmas in December 25, they
celebrate in January 7, and they called me to see their Christmas party, and
it’s very different than the Christmas parties I’m used to have, the main
reason may be that they all spoke in Russian, and I didn’t understand one
word they said. They did a beautiful ceremony, even I didn’t understand what
they said, I liked, like Fitz said “you are doing exchange program in a
piece of Russia in the United States”. On the last day of the year almost
all the exchange students got together to participate in the New Year parade
in Jacksonville, and after that to go to a new year party. That party was
really cool.
On January 27, I went to the Seacamp in the Keys with the
exchange students from my district and the other districts from Florida, and
there we met with students from Michigan, and I made new friends there, I
learned to snorkel (I’m not sure if this is the name), and I learned about
the problems in the nature in the world. On the last night there we had a
dance, when I first danced in my life (I think).
There is lot of other places I’ve been, like: Happily Red
with Jim and Chris Goddell, Extravaganza with Will Montoya, dinner with
Clare Berry, and dinner with Bill Hill, Nease football game with Derek
Prince, church, lunch and museum with Rob Sturberg. I enjoyed all of these
places I’ve been with the Rotarians.
I’m grateful to all of you and to all of the Rotarians
that help me, people like Ron Kessner, Fred Page, and Ed Waller; they and
the Rotarians make my exchange program be better than already is. I’m
grateful to all of you.
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