Kevyn Mélon

2007-08 Inbound from Belgium

Hometown: Embourg, Liège, Belgium

Sponsor: Liege-Cite Ardente Rotary Club, District 1630, Belgium

Host: Fernandina Beach Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida, USA

School: Fernandina Beach High School

Kevyn's Bio

Hi everyone,

My name is Kevyn and I'm an exchange student from Belgium. I'm 18 years old and I live in Embourg, close to Liege. I'm graduated in Belgium and before going to University, I wanted to discovered other things, new landscape, new language, new culture, new people, ...

Today, I live in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island (close to Jacksonville) and I start a dream that Rotary permitted me to accomplish.

In Belgium, I played a lot of guitar. The music is something which is very important for me. I can't stay one day without playing guitar or listening to music. I didn't practice a lot of sport. But here, it's different because I'm on the Golf Team and I like it.

Here, all is different. All is big. The car are big, the houses are big, not mine but I know the schools are big, the stores are very big, ... People are very friendly. The weather when I arrived here was so hot! In Belgium, it's raining all the time and there it is very often cloudy.

I think this experience is something which is very unique and good for growing, learn to do the things by myself. Per example, at home (In Belgium), it was my mother who washed my clothes. Here I have to wash my clothes, my towels, ...

I think when I'll go back to Belgium, I have learned a lot of new things which will permitt me to maybe see things differently.

September 11 Journal

Arrival

I have slept 3 hours the days before come here and take my first plane in Brussels. This flight was about 10 hours. I arrived in Atlanta and passed the immigration. I arrived in my gate 20 minutes before take my second plane. But there were no one in front of the gate. I asked one person from Delta and this person said to me that the gate changed. But the problem was that the gate was in the opposite in the airport! Finally, I ran and take my second plane 5 minutes before the plane go to Jacksonville. Unfortunately, it wasn’t too late for me. I arrived in Jacksonville and meet my host family. Big surprise was that my luggage wasn’t there… I have to wait until tomorrow that someone brings it.

My Host Family

My host family is very nice with me and I’m lucky that they welcome me. My host father called Doug and he’s retired. My host mother works for a scholarships program. I have one host sister and one host brother but they don’t live at home because they are adult.

My host sister, Phoebe is very nice and she helps me when I’m not very good. My host brother called Doug. I met him and learn to know him recently because he lives in Gainesville. He is so nice with me too. I love them.

School

The school here is very different from Belgium. Here all is on one level. In Belgium, the school was 5 levels. When I started, like all exchange students, it was hard. You feel alone because people don’t know you and they speak one different language like yours. But with the time, it’s better and now I have American friends who are very friendly.

I have to wake up at 6:30 AM because I take the school bus at 7:24 AM and I started school at 8:00 AM. I finish school at 2:40 PM. My classes are English, French, Computer, AP Calculus, American History and Drafting. I like Computer and drafting because I learn news things. After that, I come back at home. I play golf from 4:00PM to 7:00PM 4 or 5 days per week.

Orientation Weekend

This weekend was awesome. I have met 30 people from 19 different countries, meet my counselors (who are very friendly) and students from ROTEX. During this weekend, we have learned to know the others by activities or during the night.

Now I can say I have friends everywhere in the world. When I arrived in the meeting, I didn’t know anyone and I have to go for meet them. It’s one of the things I have learned here -> go to others.

January 8 Journal

Hi everyone!

First thing is I’m moving to my second and last host family, the Cottles. I moved 2 month ago. It is nice because it is more like my family in Belgium. Deb and Stan Cottle have a 14 year old son – I have a sixteen year old sister back home. And they have dogs, like I have at home too. One is a Chihuahua and the other is a black Labrador! They are fun to watch together!

Four days a week I play tennis with my host brother, Connor, on a tennis team with guidance from a professional tennis pro. It is fun, but sometimes frustrating when I am not hitting as well as I’d like!

For Thanksgiving, the Cottles took me to Orlando. I visited MGM Studios, Universal and Epcot. I had dinner in the French restaurant in Epcot, and I was able to order the meals for my host family in French, my native language. I went 2 weeks later to Orlando with Rotary. I visit MGM Studio, Epcot, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. I met the exchange students of the other district in Florida. It was a really good meeting. These two travels were really awesome!

In December, I went to Marco Island to visit my host family’s parents. It was a good trip and I received many presents! I went to the Marriott Hotel and I saw Santa Claus on the beach the day of Christmas. It was very cool!

My host family has a drum so I decided to learn to play that other instrument. And it’s pretty good. I like it a lot.

I presented a speech about my life here in front of the new Amelia Island Sunrise Rotary Club and they liked it. Now I know I can present a speech of 30 minutes in English without problems. I find that really interesting and helpful.

I enjoy watching movies on the big screen here at home, and I play my guitar most evenings too.

May 5 Journal

Hi Everyone,

After a long time without news, I finally decide to write a little bit more about my experience.

My life is still exciting even if I’m leaving in a couple of months. A lot of stuff happened since my last journal.

I went to South Beach with my host parents and that was so awesome! Beach, bars & Nightclub (of course it’s Miami), pretty girls, big villa, yacht, sun … What else do you want?

I have been to Key West with other exchange students. We went snorkeling and it was really exciting. There were jellyfish everywhere so I was kind of scared. I was swimming and looking to the ground of the sea. And I saw a big fish very close to me, probably a few feet. So I asked the guide because I wasn’t sure about this fish. And she told me: “Ho that’s awesome, it’s a shark. I never saw one as big as this one for this kind of shark”. I was like… Yeah that’s very cool! I never see one that close in natural environment but still… It’s a shark! So this experience was very cool.

I had my prom in March. We went in a restaurant in downtown Jacksonville with the limo. After that, I went to prom and finally went to a party. That was pretty cool. I was disappointed by prom… But the limo was so sweet!

During March, I had one of my friends from Belgium (he is exchange student in New-Mexico) who came to visit me during 2 weeks. It was really awesome because there were 7 months I haven’t seen him and he was in my house here in Florida! I didn’t know it would be that weird to see someone from my country. I can’t imagine how weird it’s going to be when I’ll go back in Belgium…

Last year I had an exchange student from Texas in my classroom. So I just took a plane beginning of April and I went to Houston to visit her. That was really weird too… But I was really glad to see her! I saw Houston downtown, the Hard Rock cafe, vintage clothe stores, university of Houston, a super mall (that was really huge!) and met her family.

After this trip in Texas, I took another plane and went to Chicago to meet my host mom (Thanks so much Deb!!!). This city was just amazing! My place to sleep was a condo on the 37th floor… with a panoramic view on Lake Michigan. This condo was just next the big tower “John Hancock”. I visited so many places in Chicago. I went on the top of “John Hancock”. There were 97 floors… The view was just beautiful. It’s as big as the “Eiffel Tower”. I went in the mall called “Water Tower”. There was an “Abercrombie & Fitch” store. I became a big fan of the brand. Hahaha I went on Michigan Avenue, saw the Apple store, Nike house, Adidas store … I ate one of the famous stuffed pizza. That was just awesome. I went to Navy Piers. I took so many cabs!

A couple of weeks ago was the “District Conference”. We had to walk in front of so many people with our flag and our national anthem. When I was walking I was very proud of my “small” country. It was really great.

Some more news in the next journal… One more time, I have to thank so much Rotary. Just thanks to offer us this really “unique” opportunity. See ya